ON THE BROADCAST BAND

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20782, 17 July 1937, Page 10 (Supplement)

ON THE BROADCAST BAND

"Too much education" is the charge levelled against the French radio service. Overmuch doubling up of relays Is another complaint.

As individuals, 80 per cent, of listeners appear to be dissatisfied with the composition or the arrangement of YA programmes; collectively they display apathetic indifference to any efforts to bring about improvement.

In discussing the question whether broadcasting stations should give listeners what they want, Sir John Reith, autocrat of the 8.8. C. once rather arrogantly said: "Give them something better than they think they want.” It would help things along if programme organisers even gave us something a little better than we have come to expect.

Before signing any petition or supporting any movement for a local station, licensees should look deeper into the question than merely “getting something for Timaru." Every new station, that goes on. the -air creates a heterodyne for listeners elsewhere, and if Timaru' is entitled to one there are plenty of other places In greater need. Owners of older types of sets, some of which were expensive and most of which still give excellent service, would find that the spread of a local was very broad. Still worse, the provision of a local station would be followed by the home-building of one and two-valve sets which would create a nuisance. At present Timaru Is comparatively free from howlers, but it is easy to imagine the pestiferous condition of the atmosphere when the operators of one-valvers commenced to overload their machines in an endeavour to tune in a wrestling bout or a race meeting. Then a local station which obviously would have to be a Government station, would be largely a rebroadcasting unit. Rebroadcasting is a wretched makeshift, and if ever a station comes to Timaru an urgent necessity would be landlines from Christchurch and Dunedin.

A Sydney paper, referring to A.B.C. announcers, says there has been so much "lovely” English on the air in the last few years, and so much encouragement of it, that it is a relief and a novelty to hear an Australian voice entirely devoid, not of charm, but of the affectation of charm. "It makes one feel, after listening to a shortwave relay from London that he has got one of the local stations. Most listeners would gladly say good-bye to the charm school; and the Commission might do well to realise that the best Australian speech is not a gentleman’s gentlemen's imitation of the best English speech.”

"The announcer's task is a difficult one,” says Professor Lloyd Jones, an English authority on language. "He must walk the narrow path between pedantry and ignorance and be prepared to be sniped at by zealots on either side; and most of this shooting comes from one side. He knows from long experience that the less fuss he makes over it the better it will be for him in the end. "If he interlards his English with foreign speech sounds, there are volleys from the left; If he slips up a false quantity or wrong accent, there is sharpshooting from the right. If he gets his accent in the right place and makes the whole thing sound utterly English in every detail, he will probably be allowed to pass over unscathed. Even then there is the sniper to contend with.”

The Government is entitled to be credited with an earnest desire to give listeners the best possible radio service, which it admits they are not at pre-

sent receiving. Finance will not present any difficulties; Indeed there is just a danger that the huge sum of money at its disposal may tempt it to treat the disease on the surface without going to the root of the trouble. There seems to be evidence of this in the promise to install a 5-kilowatt station in Southland. That that province is entitled to better service than it now receives is beyond argument, but the proposal to erect a special station to till the want seems to be a confession that the new YA's have failed in their mission. These “super-powered” stations have cost considerably over £lso,ooo—the expenditure on 2YA is alleged to have been £BB.OO0 —yet they are incapable of giving the expected coverage. The poor performance of the 60-kilowatts transmitter is not easy to understand, and

it seems to be a case for a specialist from overseas. If the Government’s technical advisers persuade it to embark on the installation of local statlops to fill in the gaps, they will be flying directly in the face of the experience of older countries. In America, England, and Europe the trend is towards fewer and more powerful stations, and about the only country that has not profited by the experience of others is Australia, which has allowed profiteers to honeycomb the continent with small stations in order that the Government might put a big portion of license fees into its general fund.

The 9,000,000 th Philco radio rolled off the conveyors of the Philco Radio and Television Corp., a few days ago and subsequently was presented to the Penn Athletic Club, outstanding social and athletic club of Philadelphia, by Sayre M. Ramsdell, vice-president of the Philco company Mr Ramsdell tn his presentation address outlined the steps which in less than a decade have made the Philco organization the largest industry in Philadelphia. “Last year,” he

said, "almost two million Philco radio sets were made here in Philadelphia and sold. This year there has been added an additional plant of 115,000 square feet of space, bringing the total of our factory buildings up in Northeast Philadelphia to more than one million feet.” (6>

Essie Ackland is to commence her YA tour at Auckland about the middle of August.

From 2BL: "It is now six minutes to five. At five o'clock we will hear Sonata in G major, Opus 3, No 3. In the meantime we will have some music.”

When Howard Jacobs, the English dance band leader, returned home after his engagement with the Australian Broadcasting Commission, he said: “There was one problem we never solved—we couldn’t find a decent crooner in the whole of Australia."

Mr H. M. Watts, who in less than a couple of years had gained the title of Australia’s most popular announcer, died suddenly in Sydney the other day. He was scarcely known to New Zealanders, as soon after joining the Commission’s staff in 1935 he was assigned to the early morning sessions at the Sydney National stations.