LOCAL RADIO

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 10 June 1939, Page 13

LOCAL RADIO

BETTER SERVICE ASKED FOR (To The Eilitorl Sir, —In common with many other listeners I have been very much interested in the correspondence regarding the local station. The Minister in Charge of Radio is no doubt quite correct in saying that there have been few or no complaints regarding the service; but he knows perfectly well that the only form of complaint recognised by the Department is a written one. He might reply, "Well, why have there been no written ones?” But what is the use of writing to the local station? The staff there, while probably quite sympathetic to the listener, has no power to make any changes, anyw’ay. The local operators have probably no power to deviate in the slightest from their instructions without indudlging in interminable correspondence with head office. Added to that is the average man’s reluctance to indulge (if indulge =; is the right word) in correspondence = with a Government Department. The | stereotyped Government reply to a | complains is: “We have to acknowledge | your communication of inst. and | beg to inform you that the matter will | be kept steadily in. view.” Most men | are painfully aware of that form of | reply, and would hesitate considerably | before making complaints to deaf ears. | That, I feel sure, is why the Minis- I ter has received no official complaints. | On the other hand, we must not over- | lock the fact that we are getting just 1 what we asked for. It will be remem- | bered that the Government had de- | finitely decided to close the station | down. The executive of Advance Nel- 1 son at the request of the 2ZR execu- § tive got into touch with Wellington | end succeeded in a stay of proceed- | mgs pending further negotiations. It 1 was pointed out to the Department 1 that while they had little complaint | about daylight reception we had a very ‘ definite grievance about the night reception from outside stations. Mr Reed spent a great deal of time in preparing a scheme for the Government. whereby the station could be carried on uith the minimum of expense. The upshot of it was that the Minister said in effect. “Well, if I give you a three-hours’ nightly service, instead of closing down, will this fill the gap?” This was agreed to and was what we eventualy received. But that was going on for two years ago, and I don’t suppose anyone thought that conditions would never be improved. We see new stations and improvements made to existing stations and we listeners are, I think, entitled to expect improvements here. One thing, of course, that is greatly missed by listeners is the personal touch that was pi’esent with the old station. I am very much afraid that will always be missing with a Y class station, which is necessarily (I sup- ! pose) largely directed from Wellington The nearest approach to personal interest in our local doings and with the greatest elasticity in programme arrangement is undoubtedly obtained from the B class stations. It seems reasonable to expect that the Government will soon V ave to build a new plant here —instead of the out-of-date * plant we have at present. 2YN is the lowest powered station in New Zealand, I believe, being rated as 30 watts ! There is undoubted room for a B class - station here, particularly when it is 5 remembered that outside B stations . cannot be easily heard in Nelson after [ 8 p.m. in the winter on account of in- . with Australian stations. If a | B station were installed in the place of the present Y station it could hardly | fail to be more than self-supporting—-particularly when it is realised that 1 the channel of 920 used by 2YN is the * only band that is not shared by an > Austijalian station—the Fiji station on > 920 closes down at about 8 p.m. There is no disputing the fact that we are still ill-served with radio programmes. There is no denying the fact that there is a great deal of dissatis- * faction, notwithstanding the fact that ■ we are better off than if we had no ; station at all. A great many more . licenses are in existence to-day than > even a year or two back. Surely we ; are as much entitled as other districts j to a general improvement in conditions’* t On the other hand we must remember j that the Government is not over | anxious to spent additional money just I ’ at present. If, however, the Govern- j : ment can give us a definitely better j service at no cost of running expense , * —such as has been recently installed ; ‘ i at Palmerston North—then I feel we 5 i have every reason to expect it. Then J l; we would no longer need to suffer from j t 1 the first episodes of a “Japanese House- 1 j boy”—a series, by the way, which has i j | been definitely scrapped by the main 1 3 1 stations even before the episodes reach- , . ed the inglorious finale. ! But don’t let the Minister think, be- , s 1 cause he has received no official com- I plaints, that we are satisfied. Going " on for two years ago we preferred a ‘ crust to starvation- but that period is | * past and now in this period of Prosi | perity and Plenty we expect to re- ) j ceive our share of improvements. It ! i rests with ourselves whether we get j i better treatment. If we say nothing i we will be told that we are satisfied. I would also remind listeners that 1 every letter appearing in this paper , on this question is duly clipped out by I a local official and sent on to the Department. So, if any listener feels like backing this and other letters up and , then thinks “What’s the use?" let him remember that his letter will be read 1 not only by the local suffering listen- i ; ers but also by the "heads” Jn Weli lington—l am, etc., I J. E. ALLAN Nelson. Bth June.