TWENTY YEARS IN BROADCASTING

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25913, 20 September 1949, Page 2

TWENTY YEARS IN BROADCASTING

TALK BY MISS G. GREEN

Not to have missed one broadcast in | 20 years is the achievement of Miss Grace Green, who was the speaker yesterday at a luncheon meeting of the Canterbury Chapter of the Nev/ Zealand Institute of Secretaries. Her subject was “Twenty Years in Broad' casting.”

Miss Green gave an amusing account of the creating of sound effects in the days before specially prepared discs were used for this. On one occasion several sound effects, including the screeching of seagulls, the creaking of oars, the firing of a gun, and the lapping of water, were required simultaneously in a play. “I had one foot in a bucket of water, a gun with a blank cartridge on my hip, and I was pushing a chair backwards and forwards and screeching like a seagull all at the same time,” said Miss Green. “Unfortunately, one of the players turned round, saw me, and then the whole cast collapsed. There was dead silence on the air for several minutes.” Some of the plays which were broadcast from the station in which Miss Green then worked have never been broadcast at any other time as far as is known. One of these plays was "Love on the Dole.” This station was also the first to broadcast sponsored programmes. After 12 months the right to broadcast sponsored programmes was withdrawn. The station then got its revenue from persons all over Christchurch who each paid 2s 6d to belong to the “Radio Club.” Tn this way the station was kept on the air. In 1937 it was closed down when the commercial division came into being. Nothing from the radio licence fees went to the commercial stations. Miss Green said. When the station opened in Christchurch it had 13 announcers. now there were only three. Miss Green also told of the way improvised programmes had been presented on the dav the station was burned down in 1938. "The records for Aunt Daisy’s session had been destroyed. so I had to be Aunt Daisy, and several of the announcers sang the theme song, ‘Daisy Bell,’ ” she said.