Broadcasting Service and Imported Artists

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 254, 23 July 1936, Page 11

Broadcasting Service and Imported Artists

Sir. —For some time past the National Broadcasting Service has been spending lavishly on the importation of singers and instrumentalists for the entertainment ot YA radio audiences. As one of those who foot the bill for these importations I am wondering—and I dare say many other licensees are also wondering—what limits are being placed on this policy. It has been announced that a young Australian pianist is to make a “YA tour.” Listeners are perfectly _ familiar with her records, and the organisation of an elaborate tour, merely for the satisfaction of bein' 1 able to say that the lady herself is in the studio, seems—to say the least of it —to be an open-handed way of allocating the money listeners provide. This annlies to practically every “star importation. As for the importation whose work has not been made familiar by recordings—the least said about the entertainment value of many of these the better. While the license fee remains as high as it is listeners are justified in asking where the YA authorities are heading, and whether, at the expense of their public, they plan completely to usurp the the legitimate functions of the concert promoter, theatre manager, impresario and booking agent I am etc. M.A.J. Wellington. July 22.