RADIO

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21280, 25 February 1939, Page 10

RADIO

ON THE BROADCAST BAND

bttl» A woman listener: "In the radio can be the medium for bringing peace and rest; especially during bad seasons. Experience teaches one the difference in the effect on mind and nerves of the melocfies of the masters compared with the"teeth-on-edge turmoil and the sickening sentimentality of the swingers and the crooners.”

Community singing appears to be as popular as ever in Australia, and there are' violent protests whenever a station cuts'ft oft its schedule. Its fascinatiori for listeners appears to be out of all proportion to its real merit, even though Australian "communities” sing mor®’heartily and consequently better thSii’ours. One well-known Sydney musician may have found the explanation: There is something very appealing in singing care-free songs with one's fellows. It makes for geniality and fellowship. Song is as natural to man as speech. In fact, song provides man with opportunity to express things which would be awkwardly and self-consciously expressed in speech. The, popularity of community singing is unbounded wherever it is introduced. People do not go so much to hear and perform music as to gain a fellowship difficult to obtain by any other method.

Many people who have devoted a goad deal of time to listening to Australian stations are of opinion that results are inferior to those obtained years ago—“in the days of the old 4QG.” Transmitters have been modernised and stepped up in power, and receivers have improved in sensitivity if not in tone, and it is incred’ble that distant stations are giving poorer results. The trouble is probably due to unconscious comparison. Six or seven years ago, 4QG and 2FC, with 3000 watts, made a creditable showing alcngsitk- the 500 watts YA's; now with 10,000 watts 3YA and 4YA come in with very little interference, and even though the

main Australians have this same output their distance makes them compare less favourably with New Zealand stations. Recep.ton from Australia that once was accepted as normal is now regarded as rough and noisy.

“The time is now 57 minutes to two.” Not three minutes past one?

From 2GB: “The first time I heard ’Sylvia,’ it was beautifully sung. Of course it was not Nelson Eddy.” Hear, heart

Sweden’s roll of radio licensees has passed the 1,200,000 mark, and this country now claims the second highest percentage of licenses to population, Denmark still ranking first.

“ . . . . times were pretty good at the time, though the time was . . . .” This is not an announcer’s crudity, but occurred in a recorded talk by a University professor.

On Thursday night, the Australian National programme included a section entitled “Queen of Song,” commemorating the death of Dame Nellie Melba. There might be an idea in this for YA programme arrangers if they were not so obsessed with serials.

A Sydney film commentator’s slip: “It is the greatest American picture ever produced in Australia." It will be that way in New Zealand soon, with the radio services helping the movies to educate us in the language of Harleywood.

The Hollywood station KNX (50,000 watts, 1050 kilocycles) is about the best in U.S.A. just now, and in volume equals the big Mexicans. KFI, at one time our most popular “Yank,” has been of little value since IYA has stepped up to 10,000 watts.

Remote tuning control has been a common enough gadget for years, the idea being to select stations on a panel connected to the receiver by a flexible cable. An American factory has now turned out a machine with "wireless” remote control, the principle being the same as is used to direct aeroplanes and airships from the ground. The control box has a dial resembling that of an automatictelephone, and enables the listener to select up to eight stations, with buttons for high or low volume. The novelty is not likely to be uni-

versally exploited. The gadget is an expensive affair, and tremendously complicated, the wiring for the station selector on the receiver alone looking like that of a twenty-valve job. Still, it works, and in U.S.A. there is always a market for novelties.

Mr C. G. Scrimgeour, Controller of the N.8.C.5., has booked his passage for U.S.A, early next month. There is a lot he can learn there concerning the management of commercial radio, and the trip may be quite justified, but some matters which have been mentioned as important reasons for it could easily have been dealt with by correspondence. Such as the proportion of advertising to entertainment, and the variation between day and night advertising rates.