BROADCAST SPEECHES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 160, 8 June 1937, Page 12

BROADCAST SPEECHES

MINISTER AVANTS DETAILS,

B STATIONS’ MEETING

Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, June 7.

By requesting the promoters of a meeting at which the future of B radio stations will be discussed to submit to him particulars of the proposed speeches before he will sanction the broadcast of the meeting from Station IZM, the acting-Minis-ter of Broadcasting (Hon. F. Jones) has invoked for the first time Regulation 15 of the Broadcasting Act, 1936, which gives him power' to supervise programmes of B stations. The meeting has been called by the B Stations’ Protection Committee, a body representing the New Zealand Association of Radio Listeners and the United Listeners’ Club, and is to take place at the Town Hall on Thursday night. It is proposed to ask those present to pass a motion calling upon the Government to carry out its pledges concerning .B stations in their entirety.

Last week the committee wrote to Mr Jones asking permission to broadcast the meeting from IZM, and a representative also saw Mr Jones on the matter in Wellington. The Minister told the committee’s representative that before granting permission he wished to have particulars of the speeches to be given, pointing out that that was provided for under Regulation 15 of the Broadcasting Act, 1936, which gave him power to supervise programmes of B stations. On being informed of the Minister’s reply, the committee dispatched a letter to him last night pointing out that it was impossible to give actual details of the addresses which would be given by a number of speakers, but stating that an endeavour would be made to provide him with the gist of the speeches. The Minister was also informed that tlie meeting was to be strictly nonpolitical and that vested interests were in no way concerned.

Mr R. W. Mander, secretary of the United Listeners’ Club, and Mr Harper White, secretary of the New Zealand Association of Radio Listeners, who are acting as joint secretaries of the B Stations’ Protection Committee, said that the meeting was being arranged by listeners in the interests of listeners. Their purpose was definitely non-political, and was not to be regarded as an attack on the Government. Their only concern was to keep the B stations on the air. Mr White also stated that whether or not permission to broadcast was obtained the meeting would definitely be held.