B CLASS RADIO STATIONS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22108, 2 June 1937, Page 10

B CLASS RADIO STATIONS

Services To Be Subsidised GOVERNMENT'S OFFER TO DUNEDIN OWNERS IPBES3 ASSOCIATION TELECJHAJt.) DUNEDIN, June 1. , A lively and frequently amusing meeting of radio listeners was held in the concert chamber of the Town Hall this evening, when representatives of B stations and local organisations that have used or benefited by the stations presented the case for private enterprise in broadcasting, and endeavoured to show cause why the Government should be urged to redeem its pre-election promises, and either buy out or subsidise local broadcasting units. The Mayor (the Rev. E. T. Cox), yrtia convened the meeting, was in the chair, and surprised those present by opening proceedings with a recital of the Government's intentions, received by him that afternoon from the ActingPrime Minister (the Hon. P. Fraser). He said that the Government was prepared to allow station 4ZB to remain on the air, to buy out those who ■wished to sell, and to subsidise such stations as might be considered essential. The case for B stations was put in the first instance by Mr Harold Booth, of the Radio Listeners' League, who ■was followed by the Rev. L. B. Neale, the Rev. A. C. Standage (representing the broadcasting committee of the Presbyterian Church), Mr J. Roberts (Mayor of Cromwell), and Mr W. J. Bard3ley, but the issue did not go unchallenged. Several more or less incoherent speakers, and a host of interjectors were Inclined to, suggest that the meeting had been convened in the interests of the proprietors of B stations, and the Hon. M. Connelly, M.L.C., and Dr. D. G. McMillan, M.P., took up the cudgels very determinedly on the part of the Government. The result was a hectic round of heckling and interjection, with several sharp reprimands from the chair before the meeting carried, by no means unanimously, the following resolution: "That this meeting of citizens of Dunedin views with the gravest concern the suggestion that local B stations may be forced to clcse down through the Government's policy, and calls on the Government to carry out its pledges to these stations in their entirety; and that, Jfurther, the Government be requested to take a plebiscite of listeners on the retention or otherwise of B stations, and that in the event of the vote going for retention, the Government be • asked whether such stations are to be maintained by revenue from advertising or by means of an adequate subsidy," It was stated by Mr Booth that an application had been made for permission to broadcast the meeting, but it was refused by the Minister,