OVER THE AERIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 22, 26 January 1934, Page 9

OVER THE AERIAL.

RADIO NOTES. FROM FAR AND NEAR. (By PHONOS.) v The method of announcing at IYX, whereby performer and type of item are given first, and the name of the item after the rendition, has much to commend it. More musical comedy on Saturday evening, -when "The Arcadians, as peiformed' by the J. C. Williamson Company at the Wellington Opera House, will be relayed through 2YA. Extract from the log book of a 8.8.C. engineer on duty: "October 2, 19.13, hour 21.40. —Provincial stations complain of 'dirty background' to weather and second news. This was due to the announcer's shirt front."

On Sunday next 2FC will broadcast a complete presentation of "I Pagliacci," commencing at 9.45, and on Tuesday the National Military Band, under Captain Adkins, will be heard by those who can eliminate IYA, from 10 p.m. onwards. A visitor to Auckland at present is Mr. M. B. Duffy, a director of the Commonwealth Bank. Mr. Duffy is a prominent figure in broadcasting circles across the Tasman, for ho is president of the Australian Federation of Broadcasting Stations, and secretary of 3KZ. Major Douglas, exponent of the muchdiscussed credit system, arrived in Sydney yesterday, and his speech at the Town Hall welcome to him was broadcast by 2UW, as was also his address at the Stadium during the evening. It will bo interesting to sec if arrangements are made for putting Major Douglas on the air in New Zealand. A southern paper challenges Uncle Scrim's claim that the new IZB transmitter, twice the power of the late IZR, will be the most powerful B voice in New Zealand. He almost implies that Aucklanders, accused in the south of being one-eved, are also one-eared, and I points out that 3ZR Greymouth claims 1 400 watts, and 4ZP Invercargill GOO.

In the opinion of many with whom the writer has discussed programmes, an improvement could be made in the Saturday evening presentations from IYA and IYX if the former supplied from 8 till 11 a concert programme such as it has scheduled for this week, and if IYX during the same three hours devoted itself entirely to dance music. If a genuine dance programme of this duration, or even longer, were provided, it would be hailed with joy in many of the surrounding country districts, where the difficulty of securing good orchestras is often a very real one. New Zealand listeners keenly appreciate band music, if the statistics from the questionnaire issued last year are to be believed. A good opportunity to secure band music will occur during the forthcoming contest at Wellington, and it is to be hoped that the board will make adequate arrangements for relaying items from it. Here, of couise, as with theatrical productions, the question of cost comes in. The Bands Association depends upon its "gate" for revenue, and, fearing that broadcasts may considerably reduce this, it is likely to ask a good figure for the transmitting rights. Providers of various types of entertainment are too apt to look upon the board as a very wealthy body, and to make demands accordingly.

In an interview at Dunedin Mr. L. Godfrey Smith, a visiting pianist, who has been giving recitals at the four stations, expressed the opinion that "the board's first responsibility was to educate as well as entertain; in fact, he would go so far as to say that the programmes should educate rather than entertain." Throughout the world today the three greatest media for mental relaxation are books, films and broadcasting service. If the visitor would study the general public attitude towards the first and second of these he would realise what the great mass of the public desires, and would recognise that broadcasting, to keep its comparative position, must follow in the same path as its companions. In both literature and film work big sales or big box office receipts follow from what is first and foremost entertainment into which, incidentally, education may be skilfully yet unobtrusively woven. Broadcasting will find no surer way of losing its great grip on the populace than by deliberately foisting itself as a community educator.

IYX is to be complimented upon its 7 to 8 music session, which caters specially for listeners who have already read the "Star," and find lYA's news session merely repetitive. The selection of records for the after-dinner music of IYX seems a very judicious one, and on Wednesday night in particular there was an excellent blending of entertainment. What is now needed is some improvement upon the 8 to 10 session that will giv.e this useful little station the consideration of being something more than a mere one-man show—the announcer and his pile of records. Such becomes the mental impression upon the listener, and such a mental impresj sion becomes a powerful factor in affecting judgment of programmes. IYX misht well be used as a trying-out ground for local artists and societies, who might thus be encouraged to aspire to the hall-mark now given for regular performers at IYA. If our national service fails to foster and develop local broadcasting talent, it will fall down badly in a most important phase of its work, and now, with the preponderance of records, and the almost total exclusion of individuals and societies—except the hall-marked few —from the microphone, there seems quite a prospect of this occurring.