The Southland Times SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1945. Radio Programmes for Everybody

Southland Times, Issue 25564, 6 January 1945, Page 4

The Southland Times SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1945. Radio Programmes for Everybody

THE Southland Progress League recently wrote to the Director of the National Broadcasting Service and suggested, among other things, that programmes from Station 4YZ might be improved. Professor Shelley’s reply, printed in our news columns on Thursday, was a model of discretion- —though not entirely without guile. “A material improvement in the programme position should be possible as soon as the situation improves,” he said. “In the meantime, it would be a help to our programme officers if you would forward some specific indications of the direction in which your league requests that improvements of programmes should follow.” This was a sound tactical-manoeuvre. Professor Shelley may now wait, without much uneasiness, for concrete proposals. When he receives them he will be able to explain why some may be worthy of consideration, and why others are quite impracticable. For in an exchange of opinions on radio services he has the supreme advantage of knowing all the facts. He can also rely comfortably on the knowledge that the N.B.S. is concerned, not with the likes and dislikes of individuals, but with the conflicting tastes of the public as a whole. “The department,” he pointed out, “is desirous of striking a balance between the various interests of its numerous listeners in the Southland district.” Many persons will feel that it is the simplest thing’ in the world to make suggestions for the improvement of radio programmes. They are inclined to forget, however, that in most cases they are thinking exclusively of what they themselves believe to be desirable. And their own tastes are frequently anathema to those of their neighbours. There are some, for instance, who utter cries of anguish when the jigging bars of “The Road to Gundagai” announce another episode in the adventures of the Snake Gully community. They ask hopelessly if there is any reason why Dave and Mabel could not be safely married before the generation which heard the beginnings of their courtship becomes extinct. Others, of course, want the business to go on forever. Similarly, there are times when a frustrated listener wonders why Saturday should be made dreary for him by the recital of race results. If he has philosophical inclinations, he can find at least a partial compensation by listening to the names of racehorses —a pastime which can be both instructive and entertaining. He is more likely to switch off the radio, and may not realize that his next-door neighbour is at that very moment hanging upon the announcer’s words with an interest so intense that an interruption could send up his blood pressure at an alarming rate. Variations of Taste

It is in music, however, that the variations of taste become most noticeable. At frequent intervals we receive letters from persons who believe that Station 4YZ should give them a more liberal allowance of jazz. They are immediately attacked by other correspondents who claim that the preference should be given to swing. Both sides are careful to insist that jazz and swing are entirely different things, though their efforts to explain the distinction must be confusing to plain readers. It appears, indeed, that the supporters of jazz are divided among themselves. To the true novitiate, who finds his own peculiar ecstasy in the wail of a trumpet or a nervous manipulation of bass strings, it is a kind of sacrilege to mention honest-to-goodness “jive” (whatever that may be) in the same breath as something that is labelled contemptuously as “commercial” jazz. But these are austere regions of art, into which we venture with diffidence. It is safer, perhaps, to pass quickly to the question of classical music. Yet in this field, also, there are pressures from outside. For it appears that the devotees of all forms of dance music are united in their opposition to the classics. Unfortunately, they do not not always know what is meant by classical music. It becomes easy to suspect that they place “The Poet and the Peasant” overture or “Spring in the Vienna Woods” (neither of which is classical in any meaning of the word) on exactly the same level as Cesar Franck’s symphony in D minor or the later works of Sibelius. They imagine that the listener who sits back to enjoy a Beethoven quartette is equally pleased by that Hollywood Special, the Warsaw Concerto. Any orchestral music outside jazz or swing is therefore supposed to be classical; and on this assumption it is easy to prove that the followers of “jive” are shamefully neglected. Professor Shelley and his assistants know something of these matters. In the divergences of taste and the confusions of opinion they hold a secure position. Their job is not to provide full satisfaction to any single group of listeners, but to cater to some extent for everybody. On the whole, in spite of the Snake Gully folktales and other aberrations, they obtain satisfactory results. Experts in any particular field can always hold their own against the amateur critic. This does not mean, of course, that the critic should remain silent. It is better for him to speak? his mind than to nurse a grievance, and there are constructive values in discussion. In writing about radio programmes, however, it is useful to remember that intelligent listening is always selective. The man who knows what he wants,, and who does not imagine that a radio set is intended to operate through most of his waking hours, will find that his tastes have not been overlooked. The rest, as Shakespeare would have phrased it, should be silence.