TO CONTROL SOME B STATIONS

Northern Advocate, 8 June 1936, Page 6

TO CONTROL SOME B STATIONS

GOVERNMENT’S BROADCASTING PLAN C From Our Parliamentary Special.] WELLINGTON, This Day. Far-reaching provisions are contained in the Broadcasting Bill to be introduced in the House of Representatives. “Our promise to the B stations was to make it possible for them to carry on,” said the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage this morning. “The B stations are to live. That is what I have said. In carrying out that undertaking it becomse a matter of how they are to live. Either they have to be subsidised, allowed to advertise or be purchase by the Government. “Our job is to make the best arrangements possible with them at the present. I do not know what stations are to be taken over, but the Bill will give the Government power to make arrangements wtith the B stations. The Government will be master of the situation.”

There would be a Minister in charge of broadcasting, Mr Savage continued, just as there was a Minister of Transport. “And it is such a big thing,” he added, “that the probability is the Minister who is placed in charge will find that his hands are very full.” Publicity Scheme, The Prime Minister indicated that broadcasting would be one of the features of the Government’s publicity policy, a publicity scheme having been decided upon as one of the activities of the Government. “Boiling it all down it just comes to this,” said Mr Savage. “The people must be kept in touch with the best and the worst of what we can do. We will be much more on the air than ever before. We aim at giving the public music and information at the same time. It seems to me that the people cannot get too much information on what is happening in Parliament.

“They are entitled to know what we are going to do about certain things, or why we are not doing certain things. We will talk to the public. The man who broadcasts for the Government will say, for instance: ‘There seems to be a feeling that so-and-so is being neglected.’ Foundation First. “The real position is so-and-so. One gets an odd letter occasionally, which indicates that the writer does not j know what the Government is doing. Although in practically every case the letters I have had have been complimentary, yet there is a stray ■ correspondent here and there who obviously does not know why we are no doting certain things. Everybody wants his own case considered, but, as I have said again and again, before anyone can be helped we must lay the foundation.”

Mr Savage said the Government would take over some of the E stations. Asked if it was intended to go to Australia or elsewhere for a director of broadcasting, Mr Savage said the Government would get the best men available for the operation of the service, and they would pi’obably be found in New Zealand. He said that under the Bill, the Government would take power to advertise, but that would be permitted only with Government stations. In conclusion, the Prime Minister said that the Government was tak-