BROADCASTING BILL

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 104, 29 October 1931, Page 23

BROADCASTING BILL

NEARLY IN THE HOUSE

GROWING SUPPORT

Unless something wholly unforeseen happens, the Broadcasting Bill will be dealt with by tho House of Representatives within tlia next few days. Tho Bill has been so long expected and so often deferred that it is satisfactory to have the assurance that the Government intends to proceed with it. It baa been held up at this stage for tlio purpose of having some minor alterations made in it, without, as Mr. Forbes said, affecting the principle iv any way.

The Bill, in its original form, was read the first time several weeks' ago, before the Dominion's economic diffieultie,' made it necessary for the Government to drop its ordinary business and enter into a coalition. With tho departure of Mr. J. B. Donald from the office of Postmaster-General, in which ho had emphatically endorsed tho Bill, no little anxiety arose as to what attitude his successor, tho Hon. A. Hamilton, would adopt. Mr. Hamilton kept his own counsel, but it is an open secret that he had no difficulty in coming to tho conclusion that the broadcasting service in New Zealand should be transferred to a form of control more appropriate to a public service.

In the meantime there has boon a steady growth of public opinion in tho sauio direction, and tho public have been thoroughly prepared to sco the Broadcasting Bill passed into law. This has become evident in the active interest displayed on the possibility (amounting in some minds to something like fear) that the board will in somo mysterious way be dominated by too intellectual influences, and that it will set about "educating" the public to a distasteful extent. There is no need to fear anything of the sort. It is alleged by some of the alarmists that tho 8.8.C., which is the mode! that New Zealand may hope, in_ sucli a modest way as may be within its power, to follow, forces upon the British public programmes that aro objectionably "highbrow." The absurdity of this is evideut from the simple fact that tho number of licences issued in Britain, where tho intellectual averago is not notably higher than it is in New Zealand, has shown a steady and phenomenal growth ever, since broadcasting began, and is still climbing rapidly. Germany is easily in the lead of European nations in respect to the number of licences in force, and there has been some rivalry as to whether Britain or Germany will first reach a total of 4,000,000 licences. Britain is now well in the lead, and is closo to the goal. It is obvious thai, a service that can claim the adherents in. roughly one-third of tlte homes that can be reached cannot bo considered unpopular. The 8.8.C. is, of course, freely criticised by listeners. It might well begin to despair if it was not: nothing would more certainly indicate a lack of appreciation of its efforts aud of interest in broadcast matter. As long as interest is maintained in any kind of public performance, criticism is inevitable. But it is very evideut, from the published criticisms, that no serious fault is found by any eloquent group of listeners with the general programme policy of tho 8.8.C. In any case, tho matter of control system is entirely distinct from that of programme policy. If a system is operated by a company, the controllers will settle their programme policy either in accordance with its own ideas of what programmes should be, or iv accordance with the demands of the public, or in accordance with compromise. It will trim its sails to tho winds of public opinion to the exact extent that it finds itself forced to do by the dictates of business commonsense. Notwithstanding what opponents may say, this is in fact what tho 8.8.C. has done, and tho simplo and unescapeablo proof is the steady increase in public patronage of broadcasting in Britain. Admittedly the largo amount of Continental broadcasting available has .jlayed a part in enlarging tho numbers'of listeners, but it is only a part, and tho great majority of British listeners are not equipped to enjoy foreign broadcasts. There is a section of the public that objects to the playing of "classical" music in broadcast programmes. It seems as if in many cases tho objection is not so much to tho music as to the titles—or lack of them—that describes it. Every piece of music can be described by a musician as a "movement" in some key, but that doea not/ make it "classical." The mainstay ofl programme-builders is not, as a mattes of fact, classical music. But a conf scien'tious programme-builder does try to make his list of items not only interesting but free from rubbish.