Listen In!

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 109, 11 May 1933, Page 10

Listen In!

1? NOTES AND PROGRAMMES V

(By

“Detector.")

Political Advantage. The Prime Minister of Britain has at times broadcast on political matters to United States, though he has not been on the air simultaneously in England. The reas for this, according to : American papers, is that Britain is chary of according the microphone to | anyone who might reap political advantage from it. Revenue for First Season. Judging from the final notification of licenses for 1932, the Broadcasting Board must have had a revenue of over £lOO,OOO for its first complete season of control. The next thing is awaited is the board’s report, with indications of what has been done, or is about to be done, with this handsome revenue. Actual listening licenses in March were over 93,000. The hundred thousand mark should be reached this year—and then what? lYA’s New Site? Mr. Gibbs, formerly chief engineer to the Post and Telegraph Department, and now acting as consulting technician for the Broadcasting Board, and Mr. Smith, chief engineer to the board, were in Auckland recently—presumably on preliminary business in connection with the site for the new IYA. Are We Getting the Best? In New Zealand, 93,000 listeners pay the sum of 30s each year, and the multiplied total is an immense sum. Large enough, one should think, to secure the 1 services of an expert to act as chairman of the board. Large enough, also, to be able to secure adequate talent as regards the organisation of programmes. And definitely large enough to enable the programmes to be assembled from the best material available; whether the material be humour, children’s stories, music light or serious, plays grave or gay, talks educative or purely entertaining. After all, this is the criterion of whether the board has fulfilled *its functions. Has it made the best possible use of our license money in selecting the best entertainment from the wealth of material to be found in the books, plays, records of the rest of the world; has it selected the best of tho talent to be found in New Zealand? In the matter of talks we are not doing at all badly. Efforts are being made in music and in plays to give us a few high spots. But so long as the main part of the programmes is composed of a definitely low standard hotch-potch, the New Zealand Broadcasting Board will inevitably lay itself open to justifiable criticism. Service! Make use of our Radio Repair Service. Radio is our speciality, therefore bring your repairs to the firm who specialise in this work. All and any classes of sets repaired. Valves may be the cause of poor reception, so bring them in, and we will test them, free. — D. A. Morrison and Co., Avenue.* Outstanding Features. Outstanding features in the Australian and 8.8. C. programmes are the superlative debates which are regularly broadcast. All manners of topical subjects, from political economy to birth control, are thrashed out, and the enthusiastic interest taken in these debates by listeners prove them to be among the most popular items in the programmes. There are many members of debating societies who could worthily show their qualities if given the chance. Many listeners are of the opinion that the only voice allowed to express an opinion on topical questions from the YA stations is that of the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates. As a matter of fact, Mr. Coates is one of the poorest speakers in our Parliament.

Some Good Nights. Some of the evenings of late have been excellent for reception, and even low-powered sets have been able to bring in, under enjoyable conditions, tho big variety of entertainment that is now coming across the Tasman. Faults in a Set. A loudspeaker (or a pair of phones) makes a sensitive testing appliance, but the first thing to be sure of is that the testing instrument itself is in order. This can be ascertained by disconnecting it from the set and joining its terminals momentarily to a battery —the grid bias battery will do nicely. A loud double click on making and breaking the connection shows‘that the instrument is sensitive. Tho idea is to work back with the loudspeaker from its normal connections to the other lowfrequency points in the circuit, to discover where the broadcasting seems to vanish. This will show whereabouts tho fault lies. First, if long loudspeaker leads are used, cut them out by joining the loudspeaker direct to the speaker terminals on the set. If good reception results then it is obvious that there must have been a break or fault in the leads from set to speaker. If reception is still faulty, however, we must go back a little further. And, incidentally, it is assumed that the reader knows of the usual rule for interfering with wiring—all batteries to be switched off or disconnected whilst 'leads are changed, no bare wires touching, etc. Otherwise damage to the valves or batteries may easily result. The output from an l.f. transformer can be checked by disconnecting its present leads and joining the loudspeaker across its secondary terminals. No results when the set is switched on again show that the fault lies still further back towards the detector. In this way a stage-by-stage check can be made until the appearance of the programme shows the whereabout of the fault. But remember that as one works back from output valve to detector, reception gets weaker and weaker. A Great Treat. Listeners who tuned-in to the Australian Commission stations on Anzac Day received a great treat. Special programmes were broadcast from 2FC and 2BL which were outstanding in their dignity and solemnity. It was noted by listeners that not one single German song or record was broadcast from these stations throughout the programmes, which excellent example might well bo followed by tho programme organisers at the YA stations. Some day listeners will wake up and then there will be a tangle of explanations and recriminations. TO-DAY’S PROGRAMMES Following are the programmes of Australian and New Zealand stations scheduled for to-day. In the case of Australian stations Australian time is given in each instance, which is I*4 hours behind that of New Zealand IYA, AUCKLAND. (820 Kilocycles). 6.0 p.m.: Dinner Music. 7.0: News and reports. 8.0: Recording, Orchestra Syinphonique. 8.9: Recording (soprano) Marie Bremner. 8.15: Recording, Cherniavsky Trio. 8.18: Relay, vocal and instrumental recital bv Denis Sheard, tenor, Lilian Quinn, pianiste, and Vincent Aspey, violinist. 8.30: Recording Peter Dawson. 8.43: Contralto, Phyllis Gribbin. 8.40: Recording, Kiriloft’s Balalaika Orchestra. 8.55: Recording (baritone). Paul Robeson. 8.58: Marek Weber’s Orchestra. 9.0: Weather forecast and notices. 9.2: Talk, Eliza Campbell. 9.20: Relay, vocal and instrumental recital. 9.40: Recording, soprano. Conchita Supervia. 9.43: Recording, Billy Bennet. 9.47, Contralto, Phyllis Gribbin. 9.54, Recording, Paul Godwin Orchestra. 10.0, Close down. 2YA, WELLINGTON. (720 Kilocycles). 10.0 a.m.: Selected recordings. 10.30, Devotional service. 12.0, Lunch music. 2.0,

•Selected recordings. 3.0. Talk, prepared by the Home Science Extension Service of Otago University. 3.30 and 4.30, Sports results. 5.0, Children’s hour, conducted by Big Brother Jack. 6.0, Dinner music. 7.0, News and reports. 7.30, W.E.A. Session: F. L. Combs, M.A., “Glimpses of the Eighteen-Forties in New Zealand; Early Nelson at Sixes and Sevens.” 8.0, Relay from St. James’ Hall, Liedertafel. Conductor* Harry E. Brusey. Lower Hutt, of concert by the Hutt Valley Accompanist, Ron Horman.. 10.15 (approx.). Close down. 3YA CHRISTCHURCH. (980 Kilocycleh). 6.0 p.m.: Dinner music. 7.0, News and reports. 8.0, Berlin State Opera House Orchestra. 8.18, Soprano, Lotte Lehmann with orchestra. 8.22, Piano, Alfred Horn. 8.30, Tenor, Richard Tauber. 8.34, Violin and orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin and London Symphony Orchestra. 8.42. Baritone, Lawrence Tibbett. 8.46, Cembalo solo, Anna Linde. 8.50. Tenor with organ, violin and ’cello, Andre D’Arkor. 8.57, Orchestra of the Grossen Schauspielhauses. 9.1, Weather forecast and notices. 9.3, Talk, H. C. D. Somerset, M.A., “Poetry and the Modern World.” 9.18, Viennese Light Orchestra. 9.21, Vocal, with instrumental accompaniment. Sidney Burchell. 9.24, Organ, Sidney Torch. 9.27, Vocal quartet. The Harmony Ensemble. 9.30, Edith Lorand and her Orchestra. 9.36, Tenor, Charles Kullman. 9.39, Piano, Herschel Henlere. 9.45, Leslie Holmes and Chorus. 9.48, Eleven of Columbia’s Famous Pantomime Cast. 9.56. Ilja Livschakoff Orchestra. 10.12, Close down. 4YA, DUNEDIN. (650 Kilocycles). 6.0 p.m.. Dinner music. 7.0. News and reports. 8.0, Overture, The Bohemians Orchestra. 8.11, Part song for ladies’ voices and soprano, The Dulcians and Anne White. 8.19, Valse, The Orchestra. 8.24, Vocal Trio and Duet. <8.31, Suite, The Orchestra.- 8.38, Contralto, Ruth D. Sell. 8.42, Recording (’cello) Palo Casals. 8.45, Part song for ladies’ voices. The Dulcians. 8.49, Selection, The Orchestra. 5.55, Recording (baritone), Harry Dearth. 9.0, Weather report and notices. 9.2, Talk, Miss M. E. Joachim. 9.17, Vocal Trio, Helen Roy, Anne White, Ruth Sell. 9.20, March, The Orchestra. 9.24, Dv.r-t, Maude Kenward and Helen Roy. 9.27, Recording. Walter Rogers and His Concert Band. 9.30, Dance music. 11.0, Close down. 4QG. BRISBANE. (760 Kilocycles). 6 p.m.: Music; shipping news, etc. 6.15: Children’s session. 6.45; Music and weather reports. 7.0: Studio music. 7.23: News service. 7.45: General sporting information. 8.0: Studio programme. 10.30: Dance music. 11.0: Close down. 281. .'YDNFY. (353 Metres), 6.15: Dance music. 7.": Country session. 7.20: Recorded music. 8.0: Studio concert programme. 2 FC, SYDNEY. (451 Metres.) 5.45 p.m.: Children’s session. 6.15: Recorded music session. 7.20: Spoiling and news. 8.0; Studio concert programme.