ho were travelling on board. Wireless was not only used for the transmission of commercial traffic. Some early broadcasts of entertainment were made, with the Marconi station in Chelmsford making the first regular broadcasts in the UK. This station opened on 23 February 1920, making a daily broadcast of half an hour of speech, music and news. About four months later on 20 June history was made when the Australian singer Dame Nellie Melba made the first broadcast by a professional artist. The transmission made the front pages of the newspapers. However, interference caused by the transmissions forced the closure of the station. Public opinion soon meant that the decision had to be reversed. On 14 February 1922 the Marconi station licensed as 2MT was allowed to broadcast a 15 minute programme. This proved to be very successful and on 11 May a station commenced broadcasting from Marconi's head- quarters in the centre of London. This was the famous station 2LO, which was taken over by the British Broadcasting Company (later to become the British Broadcasting Corporation or BBC) in November of that year. With broadcasting now established more stations were set up. Before long most areas of the British Isles had their own station. Broadcasting increased in other countries as well. In the USA the rise in the number of stations was far greater, placing far greater requirements on receiving equipment, and encouraging the use of Armstrong's superhet receiver. The short wavebands also started to be used for international broadcasting. An American station owned by the Westinghouse Com- pany undertook early experiments. Transmitting from Pittsburg on a wavelength of 62.5 metres, the station (KDKA) was successfully received in Britain and actually rebroadcast. In 1927 an experimental short wave broadcasting service was set up in Britain. The first station was located in Chelmsford and this service continued until 1932 when the BBC Empire Service transmitting from a site in Daventry was opened. Its aim was to keep all parts of 