LAUGHTER ON THE AIR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 41, 27 November 1937, Page 6

LAUGHTER ON THE AIR.

The conditions in which radio-humour has to make good are indeed stringent, says “The Listener” in recording the fact that close upon 50,000 British listeners have come forward to accept the Invitation originally extended .to 1000 to offer themselves for the purpose of listening to light entertainment broadcasts and recording their reactions for the benefit of the 8.8. C. The audience to be amused is not a mass, hut a number of more or less isolated units. The number of jokes and humorous situations in the world is, alas, sadly limited; even on the stage and in music halls they are apt to he overworked. When it is recollected that' broadcast variety has to he drawn mainly from professional sources; that something like half the “turns’’ offered are hv their very nature unsuitable for the medium; that only too often “what the eye does not see the ear cannot appreciate,” and that even a good “turn” cannot he repeated on the wireless programme within a period of several months—full allowance will he made for the difficulties which confront those who are trying to meet the needs of the public in providing the nightly stimulus of laughter.