RADIO REVIEW Entrust yourself to a soothing voice

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 7

RADIO REVIEW Entrust yourself to a soothing voice

(By

M.L.)

A belated word for all the people who have been writing to the newspapers wringing their hands about the “new” National Programme, and yearning for the days of the old Y.A. Give up; I reckon we are lucky to have the programme that we have. The National Programme and the Concert Programme have withstood a lot of pressure to become more commercial. The resultant compromise is, to me, better than it might have been. I agree .hat “Morning Report’’ is completely indigestible; it does little but throw one’s brain into disarray at that hour. I, too, am increasingly irritated by the urgent reports from peripatetic Americans and Australians. These people are uncomfortably close to the nasal Aussie drawls so characteristic now of the commercial stations.

The only thing to do at that hour is to entrust yourself to the soothing voice of Marama Martin on the Concert Programme. Leave “Morning Report” to those

with the digestion for it. We get more than enough news during the rest of the day as it is. The old YA days are gone though: Now, instead of great slabs of “Music While You Work,” we have good announcers — Philip Sherry, Peter Latham, Philip Liner, etc. — giving us their own mixture (of music, and much more), and doing it pretty well. An awful lot of new music has come out in the last 20 years. Bear with it; it is not all bad. The National Programme presentation is at least thoughtful. The clock is not going to turn back, so give yourself time to listen to the new programmes. Gary Chapman’s “Saturday Night at Home,” a show that started in the Fifties, was something which I am sure none of the complainants would find unpleasant. Yet it was broadcasting Beatles records long before they got on the hit parades. There is good music of all sorts.

The complainants on the radio question could take a note from some of the wise old Maoris who made the recent “Spectrum” trip up the Wanganui River something rather special:

“There is nothing you can do anything about; just fit into the way things are. But we have something to give the young. Get around to see both sides and you can enjoy them both.” They had some tough words about Maori youth though: “Too much drinking among the young people; they will learn some day." “Spectrum” gets better and better. Alwyn Owen did well in capturing something that is intangible. Ss #

Older people, younger people, expatriate Britons, and almost anyone, should take heart from Jack Dobson’s “Square Deal” on Monday evenings. “Square Deal” is a programme of requests, with reminiscences, from listeners. The format is not new but Mr Dobson gives the show a gentle sincerity that must have won it a lot of friends. Christchurch is now in the final six in “Inter-City Quiz.” as I suppose befits the city’s population. It is a good programme. The questions — presumably compiled by Bob Monteith — were tough and are wellbalanced, when for example each team has to answer questions from the same category.

Pat Macaskell, who runs the show, is a character in broadcasting. I wish I had had him as a high school English teacher. He would have lacerated my tender teen-age ego, but I would have learned something. He is a wizard with words. He was brilliant with some brilliant panelists in the Auckland-Hawke’s Bay contest. Auckland was pipped at the post by “three middleaged women jumping up and down for joy.” I will back Hawke’s Bay into the final. * * I happened to be in Timaru last week during the gas-leak emergency. As I drove into Timaru, the first indication of the goings-on was the sight of shop and office girls scurrying gleefully home in the middle of the day, like truant school girls. But in the centre of the town it was something out of “On the Beach” — very quiet, with knots of people on street corners waiting for something to happen, intermingled with them policemen, traffic officers and Civil Defence wardens. There was somehow a sense of easygoing efficiency about the place. 3ZC, the local radio station, did itself, proud in the broadcasts that I heard. It had to deal with a situation that seemed to be changing all the time. One odd thing though: 3ZC jumped straight from emergency announcements into advertisements cajoling us to shop at this or that place. The shops were all solidly shut.