RADIO DEVELOPMENTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 487, 17 October 1928, Page 18

RADIO DEVELOPMENTS

ARRAY OF POSSIBILITIES EXPERT BEWILDERED “Development of radio programmes has been so great during the year past that -one’s mind begins to grope blindly and he hesitates even to venture a guess as to what will happen within the next 12 months.” This is the statement of Mr. D. E. Gilman, manager of the Pacific division of the National Broadcasting Company, who more than many others, is in a position to realise imaginative creations likely to develop. “We have broadcast grand opera; we are broadcasting light opera, in tabloid form, of course. I wouldn’t be surprised if, within the next few months, we will be broadcasting a whole circus—animals, music, clowns, chariot races with the side shows, the fat lady, the lean man, Tom Thumb, and the rest of them—everything but the tent.” On the Right Track “We have only begun our radio programme development,’* says Mr. Gilman, who has pioneered some novel variations for radio audiences within a comparatively recent period. “The undertone of music which accompanies our announcements and the careful planning of programmes on a continuity basis were only feelers in the wide realm of radio broadcasting. But they have proved that we are on the right track. “We have been attempting to develop a new type of programme, keeping, of course, the basis of the older ones, for we have convinced ourselves that we have the proper foundation upon which to work. We have been labouring to work in touches of humour and something of the old travelogue idea with drama, human interest —in fact, we’ve been trying to get our characters into the family, making them a part of it. We’d like to develop a plan by which our artists will be as much a part of the family as the kodak or the grocery boy, and that means that we will have to get pretty close to the family life of those who comprise our audiences. Applause Cards Guide “We are much in the same position as producers of legitimate drama. We don’t know what is going to ‘click* and what is not going to ‘get over. The only way we have of deciding is by means of letters written to our studios or by applause cards sent co us. When an ‘act’ wins the approval of our audiences we only know that it does through these mediums. This then, has become a great throbbing part of our life, for, as you know, the artists cannot hear the listeners’ applause. “Developments must come slowly. That is the experience of stage and movie drama and more and more radio is going in for drama. It was a far cry from Lincoln J. Carter’s ‘Heart of Chicago.’ a melodrama of the old type, to ‘Madame X,' and from that to ‘The Trial of Mary Dugan.’ # Radio’s development, therefore, must # necessarily be slow and in keeping with the traditions of American entertainment. It took a long time for burlesque to become musical comedy and for the melodrama to reach the finesse of plays of to-day. like, we’ll say. ‘The Racket.’ Must Give it Chance “You’ve got to give radio a chance. It’s the newest, type of modern entertainment and don’t forget that you

dont’ have to get into a dinner jacket and call a taxicab to hear and er ft it. The little magic box is there in your home or in the home of your friend where you are visiting. With the development of radio entertainment one can’t escape it—it’s in your home, your club, on the street, everywhere. It has simply become a fact that you can’t duck or dodge radio entertainment. And that’s another reason we’ve got to make good or the American public will become as accustomed to it as oatmeal for breakfast and will simply take it for granted, paying no attention whatever. That would be fatal and would soon spell the doom of aerial entertainment. Travelogue Popular “The travelogue, written as a continued story, has proved popular and is sure to experience further development. This continued story might be likened to the motion picture serial, although no such sense of drama is required. Unlike the motion picture serial, we find that in radio we cannot use to any great extent the suspended climax-—leaving the hero and heroine dangling in the air with the idea that our audiences be left so fired with suspense or curiosity that they will eagerly await the happenings of the next week’s episode. We find that we have to depend more upon human appeal than intricacy of plot. That’s what we are up against in radio, you see—constant experimentation. Old Types Popular “Despite our sophisticated age, we find that people like the simple, homely, sincere, old-fashioned types

with their human appeal, their flashes of humour and their quaint, memories. ‘Memory Lane’ proved tnis to us, and now we have another soon to go on the air. ‘Plantation Echoes, which is, as the title indicates, a ston of the old South with its lovable char" acters and their always appealing songs and ballads. “Then among other of the newer development! is a programme we arranged for a banking concern, wmc by a dramatised story hopes to trate the need of systematic savingOur plans for the coming most comprehensive, but to talk atK> them in advance would not. be P a ' ticularly interesting to the P®®** 1 The public wants the finished ente ' tainment product and doesn t see concerned with details of how comes about. Music Popular “Music will, of course, continue to be one of the biggest and most important features of radio. That sw / we seek the best and carefully its course and presentation. “It’s easy, we find, to overstresthe importance of any entertainmenteven the music. A few y ea the audiences would tune out a star as soon as anyone began to talk, • we have discovered that one or most popular features was a talk astronomy. “So. when we begin to predict ‘ the next twelve months will forth, we hardly know what to -• Visions of countless probable deve iiv ments float before our minds, lea * us almost bewildered with the array possibilities.”