RADIO NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 21650, 11 March 1932, Page 12

RADIO NOTES

SERVICE FOR SOUTHLAND AGITATION FOR STATION. (By “Dot-Dash.”) At the first meeting of the Advisory Council of the New Zealand Broadcasting Board which was to be held yesterday, Mr A. W. Jones proposed to make strong representations for the provision of a service for Southland by means of a local station to be acquired and operated by the board. The proposal, which was endorsed by the executive of the Southland Radio Club, is that the new 4ZP transmitter should be purchased by the board, it being considered unnecessary to establish any other station in Southland for local purposes. It is not likely that the board will take any action until the findings of the special coverage commission are made available and until arbitration proceedings in connection With the purchase from the Radio Broadcasting Company are concluded. The Broadcasting Board has been criticized—and by members of the local Radio Club, among others —for its slowness in announcing its policy and effecting improvements in the service by establishing new stations. Although it is quite unnecessary to defend the board for any of its actions so far, it should be remembered that the personnel of the board was appointed only a few days before taking control, and until full investigation has been made into all the problems confronting the board in improving the technical side of broadcasting in New Zealand, it cannot announce its policy- , , j • It is an open secret that the board is desirous of obtaining full information on the question whether the establishment of central high-powered stations or the provision of a chain of district stations would be more satisfactory. Until all the details on this technical point are known, the board cannot be expected to make any decision on future activity. Whatever is the final, decision of the board, the Southland representative on the Advisory Council must insist on a service being provided for this part of the country equal to that enjoyed by listeners in other parts, or the license-holders will be entitled to expect that they will not be required to pay as large a fee as those in more favoured localities. The time has now arrived when all parts of the Dominion can expect a satisfactory service throughout the day as well as at night, and this is the first way in which the board should move Bv providing a satisfactory service to all parts, the board will encourage more listeners and the revenue will increase by leaps and bounds —not as at present in favoured districts, but ail over the Dominion. Although the depression has the Dominon in its grip, there is no real depression in the radio trade wherever listeners receive a good sen-ice. Therefore, it can be expected reasonably that the establishment of new stations or the improvement of the existing ones would give a great fillip to radio throughout the Dominion and thus add substantially to the board's revenue.

SERIAL STORIES BY RADIO

A NEW VENTURE. THE FILMS IMITATED. (By “Dot-Dash.”) The entry of station 2YA into the serial story field does not appear to be a success and on the presentations io date there has been little justification for the interruption of Saturday night’s programme to hear episodes, from the adventurous career Oi a Russian gentleman with’an important military rank. There has been a tendency since the Broadcasting Board assumed control to include talks in the evenings programmes in addition to those given during the news and lecturette sessions, but the. board has not been particularly fortunate in its selection of lecturers. Major-General Merlin (significantly styled “Mr B. S. Merlin” in the published programmes) is the lecturer to whom this writer takes particular exception. His first series of talks, “My Adventures with the Bolsheviks” dealt, with some hair-raising escapes from the revolutionaries and when Mr Merlin ended each talk with himself in an extremely grave situation, just as a conventional movie serial does, one could only regret that the Bolsheviks had been cheated of a victim. Listeners were able to congratulate themselves when eventually the. series of talks came to an end, but. alas, the general has bobbed up again to harass them with accounts of his adventures in the secret service during the war and last Saturday night we were told, after some really interesting introductory matter, of an incident in which the general was attacked in his office. True :o style, he managed to reach the most thrilling portion of his narrative when his time expired and for a whole fortnight one must wait to learn how he escaped from a situation in which he is temporarily blinded, while two powerful hands are clawing at his throat.

If listeners must endure serial stories, surely a more lilting time than the middle of Saturday evening’s musical programme could be selected, for such a form of entertainment is far too strenuous to be. enjoyable at such a late hour of the evening. At any rate, fiction could provide much better material for serial stories than any one man’s personal adventures, no matter how exciting or cleverly and dramatically presented. It appears that we are committed to two further talks in the present series from 2YA after which let us hope that Mr Merlin will fade out of the picture.