RADIO BROADCASTING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 10, 3 September 1931, Page 6

RADIO BROADCASTING

PROGRAMME QUALITY TOO MANY ARTISTS AT EXPENSE OF QUALITY. REPRESENTATIVE OPINIONA representative opinion on the subject of ' radio broadcasting, as gained through dairy corrtact wit.h iisteners, was given to a Christchurch Sun reporter by a radio salesman. who declared that one fault of the present broadcasting service was that far too many artists were engaged, at the expense of quality. Among other points, he said that the broadcasting of large combinations, such aS bands, was often spoiled by the use of inadequate equipment at the studio. ' "Those who have voiced opinions on the subject of radio broadcasting control seem to be under the impression that the only alternative to the present system is for the Government to talce over broadcasting and run it as a separate department," he said. There was, however, another alternative: the Government could grant control to one or more syndicates or oompanies in each centre, introducing the element of .competition, whieh was always productive of the best service. It was to be hoped that if the Government considered the latter scheme the claims of the local B ctass •stafcions would not be neglected. The present service, as far as the day sessions, cbildren's sessions, news sessions, sports sessions, and dinner •music sessions were concerned, was excellent, and that was the opinion of everyone. But -the same could not be said for 'Some of the evening concert sessions. Not the Rlght Artists. Objection was taken to items, not as a rule because these were unsuitable in themselves, but because the right artists were not chosen "The policy of the programme organisers seems to .be to give the public as great a variety -of artists as they can, and it is not possible to do this and maintain quality," he said. According to a report, the present Broadcasting Company had 40,000 different artists in New 'Zealand. To employ that number in a country lilce New Zealand and expect each one to give items of entertaining value was absolutely ridiculous, for the simple reason that there was not that numr ber of artists in the Dominion wortliy to appear before the miorophone. "That is one of the reasons why the average programme is not good, simp'y because in broadcasting such a variety of artists the standard is fretjuently very low as far as entertaining value is concerned. A suggested policy would be to engage as station artists — instrumentalists, vocalists, comedians, e_nsemble combinations — only the best talent in each centre, even at the expense of broadcasting one artist as often as once a weelc. As far as Christchurch is concerned this is possible. "There is a number of good artists and combinations perforniing at 3YA who undoubtedly present to the public numbers which have a musiGal • value but which are of very little value in entertaining Iisteners. They are undoubtedly artists in their own particular sphere, h'ut their object s&ems to be to uplift the public taste, which is a very questionable mcthod of pleasing the majority of Iisteners. Performances Spoiled. "Another point is that in the broadcasting of large combinations, such as bands, orchestras and choirs, good performances are often absolutely spoiled by the inadequate equipment used in the studio. To say that it is impossible to broadcast satisfactorily these large combinations is ridiculous ' This can be proved by comparing the results achieved by the Radio Broadcasting Company and by some of the leading nmkers of gramophone records. With gramophone records, electrically reproduced, it is possible to obtain results very faithful to the original performers. This is accomplislied, in the making of the records, by the use of three or more microphones, each with a separate volume control, which make it possible to re-

cord the largest combinations without dislortion and with the correct baiance. As the equipment used in making gramophone records is in principle the same as that used for broadcasting purposes, there is no reason why we should not get results which are as faithful as those of the records." The prchestral octet at 3YA was regarded by many Iisteners as being unsuitable for the type of music it played, and came in for good deal of criticism. This was because it was cofnposed entirely of string instruments, which, after all, could only produce one tone colour, and therefore could only be adaptnd to a certain class of music. This point coul 1 he upheld by the fact that it was impossihle to proeure orchestrations for this instrumenlation. This shortcoming was particularly emphasised in accompanying work. The function of an accompaniment was to create an aimosphere for the soloist, and this could not be aecomplished with only one tone colour. % "As far as humour is concerned," he concluded, "there is very little indtvidual talent of this nature in New Zealand or Christchurch, and it would probably be better if records were partly used for this tfpe of entertainment. These records could be supplemented by huinorous sketches, however, for there is talent availahle io this direction."