KING'S JUBILEE BROADCAST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22566, 9 May 1935, Page 12

KING'S JUBILEE BROADCAST

to THE EDITOR Sib, —With many others, I listened-in in vain to hear the' direct broadcast of the King's jubilee celebrations in London during the past two or three days. One would have thought that those in control of broadcasting in New Zealand would have arranged for direct relays from London and so enabled people here to participate in them to some extent at least. It is a very poor substitute for the direct relay to hear the proceedings broadcast some 48 hours later from a gramophone record. In your paper of the 7th inst. relating to the pageantry in Australia, you mentioned that the national stations throughout the Commonwealth were relaying a

broadcast of the celebrations in London, whilst your issue to-day states that, through the medium of the wireless millions of loyal subjects throughout the world joined in the service in St. Paul's Cathedral, and that it was followed also in many foreign countries. Surely New Zealand must be unique in not being in the relay, and it would appear that either neglect, apathy, or niggardliness on the part of the " powers that be " is the cause.

After a recent visit to Australia, I have been much struck with the general inferiority of the programmes presented by the national stations here compared with those in Australia. Here there are too few "flesh and blood" items and too many—far too many—" selected recordings." Surely it is time for a marked improvement in programmes generally. The aggregate license fees are considerable in the Dominion, and a better return for them is long overdue. Are the programmes so poor because of the fact that the B class stations cannot compete through lack of revenue? In Australia the B class (advertising) stations submit excellent programmes, with the result that the national stations have to "keep their end up" with excellent programmes also, and it would apparently be to the great benefit of listeners if the Legislature allowed the B class stations here to advertise similarly. Listeners would not tune into a B class station unless the quality of the programme outweighed the disadvantage of the advertisements, and even the latter are put over so as to be often interesting, apart from being of service.—l am, etc., Dunedin, May 8. Disappointed.