OVER THE AERIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1936, Page 16

OVER THE AERIAL.

RADIO NOTES. FROM PAR AND NEAR. (By TUNE-IN.) An example of remote relationship between cause and effect is the reported decline here and overseas in the sale of striped neckties, attributed to a recording often heard over the air, making jest of "the old school tie." One of the newest fading theories— for wireless is such a new science that many things accepted as fact are no more than theory—as that the tides exercise an influence on the strength of signals. At the end of 1935 there were just rin 7,500,000 licensed receivers in Great Britain, and over 7,000,000 in Germany. France had 1.750.000 licensed and a huge number of pirates. No returns, are available from "Russia which lias much the highest aggregate transmitting power, but the number of sets may not be proportionately great, as much listening is done on tlie community system.

On Tuesday, June 23, which is the birthday of King Edward V 111., the concert session at IYA will be opened with a special recording made by His Majesty, who will broadcast a message to the* Empire. . This recording was made in the 8.8.C. studios in London on March 1. The duration of the talk by the King will be ten minutes.

When Mr. Justice Blair recently delivered three on motoring under the title of "Gentlemen of the Road" from 2YA, the Broadcasting Board had electrical transcriptions made of each talk. The first of the series of three recorded talks will be heard from IYA on Thursday, June 25. The board is rapidly building up a big library of recorded talks by prominent New Zealanders and visitors to this country.

The proposed use by the Government of the new Wellington station will probably mean a reallocation of frequencies in New Zealand. Obviously it will not be possible to operate 5 kilowatt and 00 kilowatt stations in the one city unless their operating frequencies are fairly widely apart. The owners of unselective sets in Wellington will doubtless find great difficulty in separating the two stations, even if their wave-lengths are w<Jl separated.

Last Saturday's new departure by IZM, when Mr., Bill Hindman started his broadcast of sports results, was greatly appreciaed by listeners, particularly those living in the country. Every Saturday night at 7 o'clock Mr. Hindman will acquaint listeners with the results of all important sports and games played during the day. It is his intention to utilise this Saturday night session to introduce any sporting identities who are available at 7.30 p.m.

Mr. I. K. Mackay, who closed his own station, 2ZR, Nelson, and joined tlu; staff of the Friendly Road station, IZB, when the copyright difficulties became too burdensome, returned to Nelson last week again to open the small Nelson station. Mr. Mackay is well known as the secretary of the New Zealand Federation of B Stations. His first session was broadcast last Sunday night with a recorded Friendly Road feature. 2ZR may now be heard on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings and alio at mid-day on Sundays.

For the fifth week on end, last night Mr. . Bill Hindman, IZM's sports announcer, spent almost the whole of his time jjn the air in answering correspondence from his many sporting listeners. He spoke for 50 minutes answering written questions on sporting matter and then had to later preside at the microphone for 15 minutes to finish them off. During the la?t five weeks he has received over seven hundred letters from all over,the Dominion, all. on sporting matters. All were answered over the air. The membership of the Bill Hindman Radio Sports Club now totals 21,834.

Referring to the criticism made recently by Mr. Farquhar Young, a wellknown Christchurch elocutionist, regarding the voices of members of Parliament heard lately over the air, the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. M. J. Savage, admitted to the editor of the "Radio Record" that there was a great deal in what Mr. Farquhar had to say. "With broadcasting, members have "coine to realise that they have to be doubly careful of their speech," said Mr. Savage. "Myself, I often find myself raising my voice unnecessarily—the knowledge that I am on the air is curing me of that fault. Of course, there are some voices that will never be pleasant to hear, no matter how much training they have, but, nevertheless, it is all to the good if broadcasting prompts everyone to attempt an improvement in their speech." No doubt many listeners have been shocked when hearing at least one or two members over the air.