RADIO STATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23275, 18 February 1939, Page 10

RADIO STATIONS

iLISTENERS' INTERESTS BROADCAST PROGRAMMES AUSTRALIAN DEPARTMENT [from oub own correspondent] SYDNEY. Feb. 10 A new Public Relations Department has been established by the Australian Broadcasting Commission to "tune-in" to the habits, tastes, needs and interests of wireless listeners. The commission is even interested in the time listeners rise from bed. "The new department has two distinct sides," stated the general manager of the commission, Mr. C. J. A. /Bloses. "There will be an information section to keep the programme staff informed of popular reaction, and a publicity section to convey the ideas and deliberations of the programme officers to the public.

"The information particularly sought at first is not so much the direct reaction to a given programme," said Mr. Moses, "but an explanation of the "reaction which may be found in certain sections of the listening public. OL'he department will study listeners' meal hours; when they are able first to switch on the wireless in the evening; what time they switch off and go to bed; whether the housewife shops in the morning or in the afternoon, and so on.

"The department is in its experimental stage, ,and naturally is hardly in a position to give much detailed information about its future plans. But," said Mr. Moses, "in this department is* the commission's answer to any suggestion that it ignores or is impervious to suggestions or criticisms from listeners. Constructive criticism is genuinely welcome, more especially when backed by a knowledge of the subject under discussion, and a desire to offer something for the general improvement of programmes."