NEXT WEEK’S RADIO

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 8

NEXT WEEK’S RADIO

HOOPERN.Z. RATING

Was it that the subject was so interesting, that the speakers were experienced, and that they were interested in their subject? Or was it merely the weather that made the 2YA discussion on what a radio service should provide lively and very encouraging? Monday in Wellington showed a shining sunny face, matched in brightness by this broadcast in the evening. For the first time I found it possil ’.e to be sure which speaker was speaking at any given time. Of the four voices, one was a woman’s and the other three were as easily distinguished as the notes of a piano, a violin, and a trumpet. But it must be said, too, that the general feeling of brisk clarity, the complete lack of confusion, was as much the result of Mr Yates’s able chairmanship as of the careful choice of the panel. Some interesting and highly encouraging remarks were made by the various speakers on subjects ranging from the broadcasting of Parliament to the Sossible usefulness of listener research. Irs Waite approved of the broadcasts of Parliament because they gave her, an American resident in this country, an idea of how our system of government works. Mr Wilson wanted reorganisation of programmes so that a particular station would broadcast a particular type of programme throughout an evening—the discussion, for instance, should fall within a serious programme of talks and other discussions—so that a listener need not keep turning the knob in search of a programme to suit him. No, said Mr Gundry, the listener should arrange his own programme, selecting the things that interest him from the details printed in the daily newspapers and in the “Listener.” No again, said Mrs Waite, no housewife had time to be making out a schedule of things to hear; and besides, she complained, the programmes of interest to women'were mistakenly put on in the mornings when women had no time to listen; they should be put on in the afternoon. (And she meant instead of the classical music, I gathered disagreeing.) It was the subject of listener research that particularly interested me, although the subject of studio audiences seemed to interest the panel more. If the New Zealand Broadcasting Service were to undertake any effective listener research I can imagine that an almost equal number of headaches and helpful hints would be received; but it just might happen that Mr Wilson’s six eager listeners—for whom he contends it is worth supplying an otherwise unpopular programme —prove unexpectedly to be 60 or even 160. And for anyone who wants to undertake any form of inquiry into listening tastes I can recommend a device invented by an American radio critic, Saul Carson. He calls his invention the IH-Factor or InverseHooperating and arrives at it by subtracting the Hooperating on any pro- : gramme from the possible 100 per cent, of potential listeners; and then he gets busy finding out why and what, why the full percentage of potential listeners do not listen at a particular hour to a particular programme, and what they would listen to at that hour if they had the chance. But yo-yo, what pitfalls are dug for everyone concerned in listener research! Beware, listeners, the Irish question. (“Do you listen to ZB as often as you did?”) Beware, researchers, the false percentage reached by the examinees who answer only some of the questions! Beware, everyone, the non-writing public, the middle-of-the-road men who “don’t mind” this, “can put up with” that, the background noise-all-aay women who add up to the weighty roaring forties of the false percentages and condemn us to music while we work in perpetuity. In the meantime, don’t miss 2YA’S discussion on Monday—on reinstituting household deliveries. PERHAPS AUSTRALIA CAN Tenders have been called for television in Australia, perhaps two plants (Sydney and Melbourne), perhaps six for the main cities; depends on the expense. I asked a friend, “If they can, why can’t we?” “Too expensive,” he '

said. “But surely we could have just a little one?” I persisted. “If we did have one,” he said, “you may be sute they’d keep it for Parliament.” That i stopped me. ITALIAN OPERA A brief cable reports that 30 Italian opera artists have left Rome for n f tour of Australia and New Zealand. By the time they arrive here, of course $ “Carmen” will be a mere memory, 3 Wellington it is still nearly a week away. THE WEEK A dull grey week it looks, frojn thil distance, with just one heart-rousing > call coming from far south on J day evening: the recording I’ve been I watching for—lsobel Baillie singing Purcell’s most wonderful “The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation,” in a programme called “Classical Cameo.” 4YO can be' heard it should be heard that night. The second talk on salvaging the Niagara’s gold is scheduled for Friday evening, July 23; for cock-eyed timing, I should think late Thursday afternoon, at the farmer’s busiest hour, f has it with a 8.8. C. programme on “Devastation: Man’s Misuse of Natural Resources.” MAKING AMENDS— Normally I’d* only dream of bring-, ing Maria into this column: but wh«iU there’s something that directly her all over. I think it is fair to let i her speak. When I went to the pad-- ? dock yesterday she was showing than the usual amount of white in hw g near eye. “What’s eating you?” I asked; “or : have you been eating Ming’s oats’” d She blew her nose three times very i i loudly. ‘ “You and your cricket jargon,’ she I * snorted. I put on Ming’s halter gain time. “That screwball business > w ;j| he mumbled into my pocket. I gave 1 him the carrot and offered Maria her& wondering who had been reading Press” to her. “It wasn’t screwball, it was ball, and I don’t write it,” I sai& Maria , looked at the mud with, a cions squint, a sign that she didn’t believe a word of it. “Look here,” I said, “the word Oc - curred three times; once it was wron& twice iit was right; and I typsfr SKEWBALD each time. I’ve got W carbon copy to prove it.” She stopgra squinting; and between extremely full mouthfuls of bright green road grass asked in a slightly mollified tone, “Why didn’t you tell them the derivation, same as usual? About skew as in skew-whiff and bald meaning white”? Little wonder that she had it off by heart after all the times must have heard me expounding. “All right, sweet skew, I’ll maM amends,” I promised “Well, make it handsome,” she demanded out of her full mouth.