RADIO THRILLS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 70, 24 March 1937, Page 26

RADIO THRILLS

THE MISSISSIPPI FLOODS.

New Zealanders sometimes complain of their radio programmes. There is too much jazz, they say, or too much classical music. Whole families abhor chamber music, while others detest massive orchestrations. There are some who positively hate' the violin, yet pine for the piano-accordion. It sends some into ecstasies to listen to a Maori choir, but. there are.others who would rather hear English" humour, with a hearty chorus of cachinnation overlapping each point made. To each his likes and dislikes, and unless the fare presented is as varied as that of a first-rank restaurant, there'is not the element of choice which gives scope for criticism, without which art and music would become stereotyped sciences'or fungoid enormities. In radio there is always, however, the dial, with the world on the latch, as it were, and New Zealand is free of interwoven advertising. • The wider the scope of the listener's set, in some countries, the more 'it becomes a rubbish bin for the owner, as far as theenetrtalnment is concerned, because of its possibilities for advertising. Nobody would dare to put over all-advertising programmes, but the practice in America is to spoil fine musical and other items by interpellating jarring references with a dislocating frequency. The ■ sister of a lady living in. Canada has given two sides to the radio picture, one dealing with the obtrusive advertiser, and the other with the incalculable benefit which radio brings during great national calamities such .'as the- Mississippi floods. Then it has a tremendous appeal. ..'■'.

It is not a famous tenor who sings, she writes of the commercialised aspect of music, but somebody's tyres which breathe "Kathleen Mavourneen." Nearly every programme is sponsored by some firm or other. "The American metropolitan or>era this season," she says, "is merely, a medium for tooth paste. We have had to get used to it, but it used to make us impatient to have some man or woman butting in to the programme every little while to do the barking of someone's corn-starch, tobacco, or syrup, some wonder bread, universal medicines, ice-creams, face cream, and what not.- It is the deadly nasal monotony of the same statement impinging on the elevating effect of really wonderful musical programmes that annoys. We have had to get used to it, but it is terribly exasperating. The Canadian programmes are not free from it either..

"The chief radio topic of the last few weeks has been the unprecedented floods -of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys," she . writes, "and the radio news from the flooded areas has been' so thrilling as;'to be almost harrowing. The bulletins were kept up to date, and one could almost see what was happening. For two weeks all programmes were stopped to allow the radio stations to do their marvellous organising and relief work in conjunction with police, Red Cross, and other activities, to save lives, anticipate, .danger, give, warnings, and call for help. The locating of available boats, nurses, trucks, barges,, and the services of doctors and hospitals were all the work of radio. Tired, husky voices sending out repeat mes-

sages were inspiring. For 56 hours in tine beginning all operators,' telephone and telegraph, stayed at their posts, this while oil and petrol tanks collapsed round them in the surging rising waters. "Calling all boats, 1500 people marooned,' 'Elderly man and boy with both legs amputated; send boat to —th street.' 'Number of people drowning: send boats at once,' were typical messages, and they went on day and night." The Mississippi rose over 59ft. says the writer, and it was then feared that it would break out over the lower country. Never before had she so throughly realised the tremendous appeal and thrill of radio on such occasions, or its value. .