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The IZB Happiness Club has been a valued auxiliary in connection with charitable objects in the northern centre, and a similar organization has been commenced in Wellington. Eight hundred members of the Auckland Happiness Club visited Wellington during the Exhibition. In all main centres there have been concerts or community sings sponsored by the Service for charitable objects, and radio equipments have been installed and maintained in the Christchurch and Dunedin Hospitals. In Dunedin the sum of £1,500 was raised by voluntary effort through 4ZB for the purpose of completing the radio installation in the Dunedin Hospital which had been initiated by the Service in the previous year. In Auckland the efforts of the Sunbeams and Happiness Clubs yielded approximately £2,600 for charitable objects. Apart from regular weather and road reports, special services have been rendered in emergencies, the outstanding instance in this respect being at the time of the violent snowstorms which occurred throughout Otago in. August. On that occasion Station 47AS broadcast hundreds of messages in tlio interests of the community and was responsible for the relieving of many distant homes which were without provision and fuel. The organization of the Easter dawn service on Mount Victoria attracting thousands of people to the service, and, broadcast over the entire network, served to remind listeners of certain higher functions performed by the National Commercial Broadcasting Service, as did also the sessions of " Reflection " conducted every morning throughout the year and the " Good Cheer " sessions conducted for patients in hospitals. New Zealand Centennial Exhibition. The Service was well represented at the Centennial Exhibition and co-operated with the Exhibition authorities and the various exhibitors. A ZB lounge in the main industries court was used as a medium of relaxation for the public as well as affording the Service an opportunity of publicising certain of the more important features and people employed at the various stations. The mobile unit, Station SZB, was operated from the Exhibition grounds and provided listeners with Exhibition information as well as bright entertainment during the period of the Exhibition. The provision of a specially designed motor relay van attracted public attention, and enabled contact to be made between all sections of the Exhibition and relays to be taken of interesting features from the various stands and Exhibition functions. Children's Sessions. One of the most noticeable developments of the year was the improvement in the children's session by the introduction, of a policy of education by entertainment. During these sessions, by means of novel presentations, the interest of children was stimulated and they were encouraged to appreciate a better class of music. The co-operation of advertisers was obtained on the basis of our policy, and features on stamp-collecting and other general-knowledge subjects with an educational bias were sponsored. Children's plays were written and produced by local children, and in all stations children are encouraged to take part in the actual programmes. Railway Studio. The use of the specially equipped railway coach, mobile station SZB, was the means of bringing people from out-back districts, many of whom had never seen a radio broadcasting-studio, into contact with the working side of the microphone. This novel studio made a comprehensive tour of the North Island, a trip which lasted for seventynine days and covered 1,650 miles. The coach was hauled from town to town by the various expresses on normal time-tables, and. created public interest wherever it stopped. The costs of the project, some £1,000, were offset by advertising revenue of over £2,000. Revenue was not, however, the main consideration in the undertaking of this tour, which was conceived for the purposes of gathering data relating to coverage and general programme acceptability and still further increase the good will between the Service and the public. Special Broadcasts. Foremost among the special descriptive broadcasts during the year were the following : The arrival of the " Aotearoa " and the American Clipper, return of H.M.S. " Achilles," departure of Admiral Byrd for the Antarctic, the Akaroa and Mount Egmont Centennial celebrations (the lastnamed event was relayed from the summit of Mount Egmont), and the Waitangi celebrations. The relaying of the Waitangi event covered the entire ceremony from the landing of the Maoris to the signing of the Treaty. Many overseas artists and notabilities performed from the Commercial stations or were interviewed over the air. In. addition, studio cameos were broadcast by leading theatrical companies visiting the main centres. The tout of the Australian radio personalities Fred and Maggie Everybody, familiarly known to New Zealand listeners because of their prominence in the human-interest feature by that name and regularly broadcast over the Commercial network, was a revelation of the power of radio. At all centres thousands of people flocked to see these people in person, and broadcasts were made of the proceedings in the various cities.

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