BROADCAST

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20937, 18 August 1933, Page 8

BROADCAST

MUSIC Strong Criticism Expressed CHOICE OF PERFORMERS AND PROGRAMMES '..pr.iii issoaj-uo-s ulss-kaj: ) WELLINGTON, August 17. Pointed comments on the art of radio listening and the general policy of broadcasting stations were made by Dr. Cyril Jenkins, one of the judges at the forthcoming Wellington competitions festival, who arrived to-day from England. In his opinion, broadcasting in general was not educating people musically, but was presenting listeners with too much of what could be classed as bad art.

"Unfortunately during my travels." said Dr. Jenkins, "I found the standard of singing deplorably low. I have heard some excellent voices; but the performers lacked style. Style is a matter of perfection of detail. The best-dressed woman, like the best singer, is not the loudest. If bad soloists arft allowed to broadcast, they are more than a mere nuisance—they constitute a menace to art, because they have the approval of the executives of the broadcasting stations, the public accepts them as models, and as a result the general taste of listeners falls. "It is difficult to conceive that an administration of experienced musicians could perpetrate some of the anomalies that seem to be well established in some young countries. The majority of programmes in these days seem to be made up ox jazz guying of the classics, detestable croonings, and other vulgari--1 ties, therefore it is impossible to conceive, that much progress will be I made educationally with this won- ! derful new and sensitive medium of giving music to the public."

RADIO LICENSES MOKE THAN 100,000 IN NEW ZEALAND (PRESS • JSJOCIAI'IOk' TEUSGSAJI.) WELLINGTON, August 17. The number of radio licenses taken out in New Zealand has passed the 100,000 mark, the total announced to-day being 100,103.