Here is the News... Six New Bulletins a Day, Forty-two a Week By RUTH BELKINE, Chief News Editor, P.B.S. Since the first News Bulletin was broadcast from the Jerusalem studios on March 30, 1936, the news service of the P.B.S. has grown to a position where it can justly claim to compete with any broadcast news service in the Near East and can bear comparison with that of many European stations. On that opening day, and for many months afterwards, the news service consisted in effect of one bulletin a day broadcast in the three official languages. But the developments and extensions since that time have brought us to a stage here we are sending out no less than six bulletins a day, or forty-two a week. The difference between that one bulletin in the three official languages and the present six bulletins is the measure of the progress that has been made in our news service in the past three years. In the early days. as many of you will remember, a ten-minute bulletin was broadcast consecutively in English, Arabic and Hebrew within a thirty-mlnute period which had no relation to the other programmes of the three sections. For this purpose, the same news was available for each of the bulletins and their preparation was therefore a comparatively simple matter, for the main bulletin in English had merely to be translated into Arabic and Hebrew. From the listener's point of view, however, it was a great disadvantage to have the news bulletin divorced from the rest of the programme and when at a later stage it was found practicable to have three distinct programmes it became possible to broadcast each bulletin as part of a complete English, Arabic or Hebrew programme, a change which was generally welcomed. But from the point of view of the people responsible for compiling the news things became much more difficult. We have always made it an axiom that every news bulletin broadcast by the P.B.S. must be as complete and up-to-date in relation to the time it is broadcast as is possible. And as news is being received from various sources almost all the time, there must necessarily be a difference between an Arabic bulletin broadcast, as it is now, at 7.15 p.m., a Hebrew bulletin at 7.45 p.m and an English one at 9.15 p.m. The truth of this has been illustrated more clearly than ever during the last few months, when historic events have followed each other with such lightning speed that news items are out of date almost before they are written, much less translated and read. It often happens that an item written for the Arabic bulletin has to be amended for the Hebrew one and perhaps re-written before it is broadcast in English. Another development that has improved our news service, while at the same -nrne adding to the complication of our work, is the increase in the number of sources from which we obtain the news. A regular cable news service has been instituted from a number of Near Eastern countries - including Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Cyprus and Saudi Arabia - which enables us to give our Arab listeners news of particular interest to them, although much is of such general interest that it is used for all the bulletins. This service has its counterpart in the bulletin received daily from Palcor, which contains news of Jewish interest from all over the world, and is used mainly for the Hebrew bulletins. But the more sources of news there are, the more exacting becomes the work of selection, of gauging the comparative value of various items, of discarding one and substituting another so that each bulletin gives a balanced picture of the happenings throughout the world. The two latest developments in the P.B.S. news service - both of them, in their way, perhaps the most important that we have made - are the midday news bulletin and the new Reuter service.The former has almost doubled the time devoted to the broadcasting of news: the latter has more than doubled the amount of news from which ourbulletins are compiled. We sometimes wonder whether our listeners have any conception of the amount of work that goes into the making of the news bulletins. Not only has the news to be selected, edited and translated. Broadcasts from London have to be listened to (by special permission we are allowed to make use of the B.B.C.'s Empire News Bulletins, so that our listeners have the advantage of the unrivalled resources at the disposal of that organisation); reference books have to be consulted - atlases, Who's Whos, political handbooks and so on; telephoned items of local news have to be received from the Public Information Office at all hours of the day; statistical reports have to be reduced into broadcasting form. These and a hundred and one other details have to be attended to. All the people working on the news bulletins (and they include at one time or another four editors, three translators in each section; as well as the translating staff of the Public Information Office, stenographers, and last. but by no means least, announcers) have to work with unimpeachable accuracy under enormous pressure in order that our listeners may hear six times a day, forty-two times a week, day in and day out, month after month and now, we can proudly say, year after year, the words "Here is the News." Jerusalem Radio, Volume 2, No. 14, March 31, 1939, page 8

Ruth Belkine

Let's Talk About the Weather

Weather has formed the main topic of conversation from time immemorial and in this article, broadcast on the P.B.S. by Major Gumbley on Friday, October 21, some of the inside technical infcmnation, which makes up weather forecasts and reports is given.

(By courtesy of the P.B.S. Copyright by the Postmaster-General)

METEOROLOGY as we understand It made a tentative start in Palestine in 1845, when an English physician, McGowan by name, living in Jerusalem carried out regular rainfall observatlons. Though the data which he collected was afterwards found to be unreliable it was a beginning, and from 1860 the work was continued at the English Hospital establlshed by the Palestine Exploration Fund, which also established similar stations in several other places in the country. Besides this work many important contributions to our knowledge of the climate of Palestine were made by other European societies.

The work of meteorology was also carried out by the early Jewish settlers, who, as agriculturalists, were keenly interested in the weather. A station has been in existence in Mikve Israel since 1897, and later stations were established in Rishon-le-Zion, Beer Tuviya, Daganya, Tel Aviv and many other places. The Great War, of course, interrupted the taking of observations at most of these stations, but since then they have been resumed and many stations have been added to the old network. This is due largely to the initiative of Dr. Ashbel, the Meteorologist of the Hebrew University.

During the course of years much valuable data had been collected by both official and private organizations, but with the expansion of Civil Aviation the establishment of a more comprehensive service became imperative. Accordingly, following on the formation of the Department of Civil Aviation, a meteorological Section was set up within this department in 1936 and a number of experts were appointed and the section organized on up to date lines.

The Meteorological network controlled by the Department consists, at the moment, of a large number of rainfallstations as well as 12 stations ot a higher standard. We hope to mak.e a large increase in the number of stations of this latter type during this year.

The most simple equipment Is that of a rainfall station. In Palestine, as In most European countries, raingauges of 200 qcm. with a diameter of 16 cm. are used. The raingauges are Installed In such a way that the upper rim Is one metre above the ground. Ralngauges should not be placed closer to obstructing objects such as houses, fences, trees, etc. - than the height of such objects; that is no raingauge should be less than three metres from a house which ls three metres in height or less than one metre from a fence which is one metre high. The reason for these precautions Is to secure the free discharge of rainfall, unaffected by obstructions, which could have the effect of throwing a shadow In the stream of rain. Uniformity in the height of the rim of the raingauge above the ground is essential because two raingauges installed in one locality at differ ent heights, show considerable difference in the results obtained.

Many other rules must be observed in order to bring all rainfall measurements in the country of a reliable and uniform standard, especially the unification of the time or observations, which is standardized for the whole rainfall net in Palestine at 8 a.m.

Not less important is the standardization of the instruments and their installation at stations of a higher standard. Since the first of January this year [1938] all these stations have made 3 observations daily at 8 o'clock in the morning, 2 o'clock in the afternoon and 8 in the evening. Besides rainfall measurements these stations take readings of temperature - including Maximum and Minimum temperature - humidity, evaporation, wind direction and force and amount of clouds. A few stations are also equipped with sunshine recorders, and others with sensitive mercury barometers for the measurement of air pressure; in regard to this last instrument it will probably come as a surprise to the layman to learn that since the acceptance of the theory of air mass analysis the barometer is no longer of the same importance to the meteorologist as it formerly was.

Of these measurements the recording of temperature appears to the outsiders to be the simplest one, but it is not as easy as it looks. Measurements of temperature are of value only if the instrument is carefully protected against sun and has at the same time sufficient ventilation. For this purpose special thermometer screens have been constructed of which the English type, known as Stephenson screen, has proved to be the best and is in use with more or less modification In almost all parts of the world.

As In the case of the ralngauge a standard height Is essential for thermo meters. The mercury bulb of the thermometers In their screen has to be fixed at a height of 2 metres above ground. The same refers to thermographs, the self-recording thermometers which have been installed In almost all Government stations.

The forecasts which you hear broadcast from Jerusalem are based on deductions made from many hundreds of observations taken at stations extending from ships in the Atlantic to Siberia and from Iceland to the Persian Gulf, - These observations are received several times daily, by wireless telegraphy at the Lydda airport.