OVER the AERIAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 228, 26 September 1930, Page 16

OVER the AERIAL

A further relay of items by the Auckland Orphans' Club orchestra will be heard on Tuesday evening. Miss Patricia McLeod, who was hoard from IYA on Tuesday evening, is a vocalist whose reappearance was decidedly welcome. On Wednesday evening, from the Auckland Town Hall, there will be an hour's relay of a sing-song organised by the Community Singing Conn ittee. This will be followed by a debate upon the desirability of the abolition of capital punishment. Thursday evening will mark the first appearance of two vocalists at IYA —Miss Jenny Marsden, soprano, and Mr. Peter Black, baritone. During the evening, portion of the Amateur Operatic Society's production of "Tutankhamen" will be relayed. During Mr. Rex Harrison's excellent song recital last Sunday listeners were informed that quite a considerable audience had assembled in the studio. Naturally, applause was anticipated, and its absencc is explained by the request of the soloist that it "should not be given. Had the studio audience applauded it would have created line atmosphere for a series of songs which were so much ahead of the usual Sunday offering from the studio as to be quite outstanding. Attention is drawn to a novelty item mentioned in the weekly summary of forthcoming items from Australia. The idea of going back over 30 years, taking a vaudeville programmo of those days, and reproducing it through a thenunknown medium is one that will undoubtedly attract the older generation, especially when it is noted that a number of the old favourites of bygone times arc still in the land of the living and capable of contributing items which made their names household words more than a quarter of a century ago.

WIRELESS NEWS FROM FAR AND NEAR. (By "PHONOS.")

RECORDED MUSIC.

RESTRICTIONS ON BROADCASTING. A ''war" between the radio stations in Australia and New Zealand and the manufacturers of gramophone records is about to start, according to Mr. S. Holden Howie, who returned this week from Sydney. Three leading manufacturers of records, the Brunswick, Parlophone, and Columbia companies, have drawn up an agreement which will prevent radio broadcasting stations from putting on the air at will records which hold the public fancy. The His Master's Voice Company ivill also be in the agreement, subject to the confirmation of its London office. "The agreement arrived at," said Mr. Howie, "provides that new numbers shall be performed once a day by each station for the first fortnight immediately following release, and after that once a week only. It was also agr<»ed to cut down the number of record hours from stations as much as possible. "Before we lent records to for broadcasting we would order 15,000 copies of a popular record. As things now stand we would be dubious about ordering 2000," said Mr. Howie. "The radio stations have been able to play records any number of times, and I have heard oiie popular record from six different stations in one night. Some records are flogged to death by the radio stations. Of course, there is one big argument i'n favour of the broadcasting of records, and that is that the music reaches a big number of people who have no gramophones, particularly people in the country. But nobody wants to hear a record over and over again. Besides, if they can hear a record on the air as often 'as they want to, they will not buy the number."

and more particularly to the "B» class stations, which depend almost entirely upon records'for their" prbgrammes m New Zealand. If Mr. Howie s statement that IYI programmes contain 70 per cent of recorded musio is correct, then our local Station is departing from theterms of the original agreement with the Government. Th.s : trramophoiie records were not to exceea a much lower percentage of the broadcast h °With conditions as they-were a year aero the restrictions upon the use of records would press hard upon the "YA" stations, but the lieralde a of special broadcast pr,Dgrammes on film nr disc would seem to suggest that the new medium for radio entertainment will supplant the much-used ohlerone Tn some of the Australian studios it L the custom to use a record not more than twice, so that the listeners will be assured of its best and purest quality. Sin" by what we hear of dinner •1 n ml- other gramophone entertainIrS'imr^r^^^ ttat well chosen by a capable and interesting lecturer, they can provide the highest form of radio entertainment our stations are capable of giving. CONDITIONS IN CANADA. It is agreed by everyone that the ESBSSfe Commons, wu . th cver m IrSIg'SSS m"Sy iu immense amount of space in So carried into Canadian homes in the hundreds of thousands the massages or Mr King and Mr. Bennett and their C ™ a most a 'Sent compilation showed a total of 423,557 radio receiver, licensed in Canada, at an annual fee of one dollar each, and no doubt the number increased sharply during the cam raiorn. Thus there is, roughlj, one receiver to each five Canadian homes Or to each 23 persons. Automobiles still are in the lead with one to each eigh«. persons in the Dominion, but radio receivers are gaining rapidly. The Liberal and Conservative leaders each spoke to the whole _ nation on several occasions over a national hookup of broadcasting stations, and every nbdit for weeks there were regional or provincial broadcasts. On the last night of the campaign, which was a Saturday, Mr. Bennett had the air from eight until ten o'clock, and Mr. King from ten until midnight, both speaking from Ottawa. Naturally, the Conservatives had the oreater reason for satisfaction with the results, but Liberals as well declare radio was a great, if incalculable, factor in the contest, and will play an increasingly important part in future campaigns. . The future of tlie radio industry 111 Canada continues in doubt. Before diesolution of the late Parliament, Mr. Iviii", the ex-Premier, had in hand a report of a Royal Commission recommending nationalisation of broadcasting stations, the provinces to have a hand in the management and with provision made for a limited degree of commercial broadcasting. But no action was taken, and Mr. Bennett's views on the question are not known. It is probable that the next regular session of Parliament will see the position of the industry, made clear so that, if it is to be left to private initiative and capital, necessary improvements and extensions may be made.

The distant listener to IYA must havu one'fixed impression of Auckland- —that it is a city with a lamentable dearth of public speakers willing to face the microphone. Any citizen who attends the many civic and social functions knows that-therc is .no.lack, of convincing and interesting speakers in our midst but the listener who, week in and week out, hears the same; gentlemen chosen to reiterate the same ideas or sentiments, or to deal with subjects, become wearisome through the frequency with which they are thrust upon us, must have reached the stage where he tunes off in disgust. Regularly, at meetings such as those of Rotary, Savage and Orphans' Clubs there are delivered speeches worthy of the widest publicity. Cannot IYA bestir itself to secure such items? Surely it must recognise tliat any single speaker must have certain limitations of style if not of matter, and that his continued service must from this fact.alone become monotonous. FROM SYDNEY NEXT WEEK. Sunday.—2FC: 10, concert arranged by Albert Cazabon. 2BL: 10, relay from Melbourne, directed by Profesfeor Bernard Heinze; 11, "Gulliver's Travels," adapted for broadcasting. Monday—2FC: 9.30, relay of the Wagga Wagga Eisteddfod. 2BL: 9.30, University Extension Lecture; 9.50, Rae Foster and Clias. Sadler; 10, wrestling relay. Tuesday.—2FC: Dance night, with Reg. Hawthorne, Tom Williams and Robert Gilbert, assisting artists. 2BL: 9.30, the Sydney Madrigal Society from the Conservatorium. Wednesday.—2FC: 9.30, classical programme. 2BL: 9.30, "A Revival of the Good Old-time Days," a broadcast reproduction of a Tivoli Theatre programme of 1899, in which Harry Riekards, Fanny Powers, Wallace King, Pope and Sayles and other old-timers will be heard. Thursday.—2FC: 9.30 "David Garrick," from the Little Theatre. 2BL: 9.30, Ashfiekl again, with Charles Lawrence in charge. Friday.—2FC: 9.30, Studio variety programme. 2BL: 9.35, Amy Ostinga; 9.45, Fred Bluett; 10.35, "And There Was Light," a comedy-drama. Saturday.—2FC: 9.30, "The Drums of Oude," a one-act drama; 10.15, the 2FC Follies. 2BL: 10, boxing, from the Stadium. The community singing interlude provided by the Broadcasting Choir on Wednesday evening, • and the impromptu cross-talk interpolated, added cheer and gaiety to the evening's programme, ihe shrieks of feminine laughter from choir members showed that the humour was heartily appreciated ill the one direction in which the unseen audience could be aware of the fact.

Mr. Howie said that the broadcasting companies in New Zealand did not pay for the records they broadcast at present. That was why there was so much gramophone music broadcast. Last year 70 per cent of lYA's programmes were records. The new arrangement would force stations to employ their own artists. A Probable Way Out. In this interview Mr. Howie has elaborated on a point of special concern at the moment to broadcasting stations,