CONTROL OF WIRELESS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 257, 29 October 1937, Page 6

CONTROL OF WIRELESS

W/HATEVER may have led up to the separation of the commercial broadcasting stations from the control of the Director of Broadcasting, the step taken is a logical one. The YA stations are supported by the licences and those stations should aim at giving a service to the public who pay the licence fees. On the other hand the ZB stations are selling a product, namely publicity over the air, and their chief concern is to attract enough listeners-in to make it a profitable medium for advertising commercial products. The objectives of the two classes of stations are so dissimilar that the division of control is called for. It naturally follows that the two phases of broadcasting activity should be kept separate in so far as the accounting is concerned. The YA stations should be subjected to an accounting which reveals the amount of money received by the service from the payers of licence fees, and also how that money has been spent. The ZB stations’ accounts should reveal the amount of money received from whatever sources their income is derived, and this revenue should be split up to show the amount derived from each source if more than one. On the other hand, a full detailed statement of the expenses incurred should be presented to the public in order to reveal whether the commercial stations are being run on commercial lines, and with success.