BROADCAST ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 50, 22 November 1928, Page 11

BROADCAST ANNOUNCEMENTS

Sir,—ln connection with the prize competition for estimating the popularity of radio items being conducted by station 2YA to-night, I desire to draw attention to a glaring inaccuracy on the part ot the announcer, who several times announced that the marks to be allotted the various pieces were to range from oo to 99,” whereas the “Radio Record of November 16, and also the loose coupons, state that the marks are to range from “50 to 99.” ~ ( Although this obvious error was pointed out to 2YA studio at least twice by telephone message, no attempt was made to correct it. When such scant courtesy is shown in a case where amends could be made so easily, it is little wom>« that listeners become dissatisfied with the present administration of broadcasting in New Zealand. What with reversing he results of an important Test football match in South Africa, announcing wrong scores of the cricket games now being played in Australia, supplying election results.to the world last Wednesday night, giving incorrect time to farmers and backblock settlers, and now tonight’s episode, information being broadcast nowadays by the Radio Broadcasting Company’s station 2YA is.so unreliable that the newspapers are again coming into their own. _ , ~ What is the use of. printing the conditions of a competition and announcing something different from the st . aL “’“- Will the station manager kindly intorm listeners through your columns which conditions they are to abide by. It is no use saying that o() means 0. because one or two items on to-night s programme can be marked anywhere between o 0 and 55, and this, it must be admitted, would have a bearing in a competition such as is being conducted this , ~ Considering the power of 25 A. and the wide range the station must cover every effort should be made to ensure that all announcements are accurate in every de-tail.-I am, etc., ACCURAC Y.

Wellington, November 20. [On inquiries being made it was suggested that as competitors in the competition mentioned must, under the conditions, use an official coupon on which the figures were set out quite clearly, it was difficult to see that. any would be misled by any verbal slip, if such occurred, as between 50 and 55. It was further urged that while human nature is what it is some errors were bound to occur, particularly when reliance was necessarily'placed upon telephone messages in which the frequencies of various sounds varied sometimes to the point of creating confusion.]