WHAT R.B.C. DOES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 27

WHAT R.B.C. DOES

INFORMATION FOR NELSON

Mr. J. Ball, editor-announcer of the Broadcasting C 0.,,, recently visited the West Coast and Nelson, and while in Nelson gave a-suryey-of the work of the company,-indicating the scope of its operations. ./' ■ Mr. Ball: said that despite the difficulties that'tad had to be overcome in establishing an efficient Dominion-wide service, it could truthfully be said that the service available to the people of New Zealand to-day was in every way creditable to all concerned. It had, hap pily,. been founded on tho sound principle of private management under Government regulations, .which latter provided that the dividend earnable by the responsible company must bo limited to 7$ per cent., and that all profits In excess \of. that must be used for the improvement of the service. Under this system -not only was the maximum of offieieney assured, but the danger either of monopolistic profiteering or political exploitation was averted. The company had not hesitated to extend its enterprise far beyond the limits of its obligations, with the result that it was giving listeners more than three times the hours of service called for under its agreement with the Government. Its four powerful stations were on the air from 3 o'clock in the afternoon until 10 and 11 o'clock, at night for sis and occasionally seven days a week. During that time listeners had the afternoon's music session, the children's hour, the dinner music hour, the news and reports session, and the evening concert programme, followed at each station for two nights a week by an hour's dance music. And these were tho regular daily programmes, and did not take account of the many important sporting broadcasts and relays of public functions, .. nor of the widely-appreciated broadcasts of church services, to say nothing of the many notabilities which radio introduced to listeners. . _ As illustrating the range and magnitude of the broadcast service some figures jnst taken.out- might be of interest to listeners"in.;this; district. The total number of ■;items: broadcast from the company'«,stations;in-their evening sessions'- during-Hfie: year; ended 31st March last was. ;37,000. Of this number onVquarter : were recorded items, ofl;3r-Mch: :75 ' per cent, wero used during dance'"./,; sessions. The proportion;-,of records;, to the total number of itetns presented in con-, cert sessions was»7:per-cent. Ed in length of.':time devoted; to evening entertainment sessions,one-fifth- was occupied with recorded items, ■ including those used for '-dftnee sessions. Contributing to tho [evening entertainment sessions during,;the:tyelve months there were 1500 vocal -solo artists, 58 vocal trios and quartets},6o' bands and orchestral combinations, and 32 miscellaneous organisations. During the same period, 143 broadcasts were carried but by the use of land lines supplied by the Post and Telegraph Department, involving an aggregate mileage of 30,500 miles. 'j)hc number of letters handled by the company's officers during the year, totalled 73,000, while the radio "uncles" and " aunts 'M broadcast tO,OOO birthday greetings during the children's sessions. Touching on the problems of broadcast programmes, Mr. Ball said that obviously and inevitably broadcasting was an extraordinarily comprehensive and many-sided service, and: therein it; differed from all other forms of public entertainment, each of which enjoyed the appreciative patronage of its own particular votaries. For example, musical comedy attracted those, who liked that form of entertainmr «it. The same thing applied to drama, grand opera, vaudeville, and so on;,but ralio went on the air to cater at one and the same time for all these diversified tastes. It was humanly impossible to please the whole of such a vast and cosmopolitan audience at- the one time. 'To meet this problem as far as, was possible, the broadcasting company had instituted what might be termed classified .programmes, and alternated those programmes between the four stations. These classified programmes were; arranged under the headings of classical, operatic, band, popular, vaudeville, and church, and were so presented that owners of selective sets operating under favourabJe conditions had the choice of four distinct types-of programmes on any one night. In concluding, Mr. Ball said he know of no other public service in which the spirit of unselfish community service was so strongly.manifested as it was in the daily routine of radio broadcasting. This manifestation was, in his opinion, the .natural consequence of the unique character of the service, wjhieh, with wonderful intimacy, penetrated not only into the home but into the very hearts of the people. .