TRAINING THE LISTENERS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22142, 12 July 1937, Page 10

TRAINING THE LISTENERS

BROADCASTING POLICY DIRECTOR CLAIMS AN EARLY SUCCESS

"Without people knowing it, their standard of listening has been raised out of all knowledge," said Professor James Shelley, Director of Broadcasting, who passed through Christchurch during the week-end. "We have to train listeners," he said, "and we are certainly doing it."

To illustrate this claim, Professor Shelley spoke of an elderly listener who told him he preferred "bright stuff." Later the same man had come to him to express his pleasure at listening to "this fellow Mozart."

"You have only to call it something other than Opus No. 14 in B minor' and people will listen," Professor Shelley said. "We have to train listeners. , By that I do not mean that we should give them allclassical music, but whatever it is we give them it is the standard that must be good. It is the standard that matters." The quality of New Zealand talent would have to be high also, he said He was in lnvercargill last week and told people awaiting a Government station there that local talent would simply have to be good to retain its place on Government programmes. Listeners were the most critical audience in the world and would compare local talent with the best in the world which they heard through the medium of records. Broadcasting demanded a high standard of talent if listeners were to be satisfied.