RADIO BROADCASTING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20372, 28 September 1929, Page 14

RADIO BROADCASTING.

Sir,—Those correspondents who complain of the Radio Broadcasting Company bocause of an expenditure on the programme broadcast from Waitomo have allowed their zeal for listeners' pockets to outrun discretion. They claim that tho £SO spent by the company on this programme would have bridged tho financial gap between the company and the City Council in completing arrangements for tho Municipal Band to be again "on the air." What are the facts ? I hold no brief for tho company, and think public comment on its activities is quite in order; but I happen t<> knevw that the cost of tho Waitomo broadcast was much less than £SO, that it was borne by the Tourist Department, and that listeners' fees wore consequently not exploited at all, in spite of what has been carelessly assumed. Tho Tourist Department's idea was to let folk know in a novel way the attractions of tho caves. Further, tho difference between the company and the City Council about- the band's services is not now one of money, but of services. This phase is under discussion, with a view to arranging an adequate number of band programmes. Whatever is the outcome of the present negotiations, it. will not be dependent on tho company's finding of the £SO, which some correspondents mistakenly think was wasted on a jaunt of IYA artists. Con, SnsiTO.