F.—3

music and information. There were various children's efforts, including choirs, play-acting groups, " musical armies," and other talented combinations. The prominence of competitions, quizzes, and spelling-bees in our programmes served to maintain public interest and introduce an element of audience-participation which, while held strictly under control from a censorship point of view, has nevertheless proved a valued adjunct to commercial radio. Utility Sessions. All stations report on the increased usefulness of the Service in projecting sessions of informative value to the public. These have included sporting broadcasts ; home-services sessions ; children's sessions ; film excerpts ; gardening ; child psychology ; health lectures ; returned soldiers' sessions ; book reviews ; cultural, travel, and topical talks ; historical commemorations and anniversaries ; London news relays. The sessions for women as broadcast from the various stations—including Aunt Daisy, Young Marrieds' Circle, Home Service, Bachelor Girl, Shopping Reporter —have commanded good listening and increased business for the advertisers. Technical Operations. Plans for the extension of the network were initiated during the year, but deferred owing to war conditions. Substantial progress was made in the installation of the new station in premises which are being provided in Auckland. The stations were maintained with technical efficiency ; out of a total transmission period of approximately 6,600 hours at each main station, only one station reported an aggregate loss of time, due to technical failures, of more than one hour over the whole period. Staff. At the end of the period under review thirty-seven members of the staff were absent on active service. The Progress of the Service. The progress made by the Service in its commercial aspect is indicated in the. following table which gives the comparison between the advertising revenue of the two previous years and that gained during the year under review. In making any comparison between the stations it should be noted that rates charged for advertising are progressively lower reading from IZB to 4ZB, as the rates are based on the difference in population

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Year Ended Year Ended Year Ended 3] at March, 31st March, 31st March, 1939. 1940. 1941. £ £ £ Station 1ZB .. .. .. .. 51,816 52,767 65,953 Station 2ZB .. .. .. .. 45,291 44,141 51,691 Station 3ZB .. .. ., .. 36,287 36,809 44,650 Station 4ZB .. .. .. .. 25,287 27,739 34,742 Station 2ZA .. .. .. .. 2,624 7,229 8,917 161,305 168,685 205,953 C. G. Scbimgeour, Controller.