Broadcasts From B Class Stations

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7270, 25 September 1933, Page 6

Broadcasts From B Class Stations

LISTENERS TAKING ACTION A fully representative meeting of the executive council of the Manawatu and Districts Listeners’ Association was held on Friday. The main topic of discussion centred round the purchasing by the Government of 2ZW and IZR, two of the leading B class stations, and the recent refusal of the Post and Telegraph Department in relation to the dance programme broadcast by station 2ZO.

The chairman (Mr. G. Houston) remarked that the listeners should do made conversant with what action the association had taken to get the extension of time, and members present were unanimous that the Press should receive a report of the proceedings. The chairman stated that upon receipt of the message from the station owner that 2ZO’s broadcast must not exceed 10 p.m., immediate steps were taken to find out the reason. The local radio inspector was approached but lie could do nothing. The Chief of the P. and T. Department was next wired, with the same result. Mr. J. A. Nash, M.P., Mas then waited upon. He wired the Broadcasting Board, and received a reply that the board had nothing to do with the extension of time, and that the P. and T. Department was responsible. Mr. Nash then wired the Minister, and received a reply to the cllect that nothing further could be done us no extension of time was being given to private B class stations. Members present expressed in no uncertain strain that it was time that the listeners in New Zealand woke up to the fact that unless something was done, they were going to lose in the near future the service that was being given by the B class stations. It was then moved: “That the 1 dictation of Listeners be written to, that immediate aetioa on their part be taken, and that a petition signed by all listeners throughout New Zealand be presented to the House of Representatives in an emphatic protest against the unfair and unjust actions that were being perpetrated by tho department. As listeners were paying a license fee of 30s annually, they had a just right to say what was going to be done.” The secretary was instructed to forward the necessary correspondence to the New Zealand Federation of Listen-

The secretary stated that numerous protests had boen received from listeners and he had already advised them of the association’s action. He ha even received telegrams from listeners who had wired the Minister, and had received the same result.