PROGRAMME OF PROTEST

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 340, 22 January 1937, Page 8

PROGRAMME OF PROTEST

CURING INCONSIDERATE. LISTENERS. The playing of two gramophone records at the same time began a short programme recently broadcast by the 8.8. C. Devised as a protest against the loudspeaker nuisance, the programme eloquently illustrated how completely the peace of a neighbourhood can be shattered by indiscriminate use of a loudspeaker. The listener whose idea of listening is to keep his set switched on at maximum volume throughout the broadcasting day; those who set their volume controls at maximum whenever dance music, or 3 talk, or ‘Music Hall’ is being broadcast; and—worst of all—inconsiderate listeners who tune from station to sta tion at lOsec intervals, heard vivid examples of the chaos that their selfishness creates. This “straight talk" to the inconsiderate was not broadcast to the Empire—but that was not because every overseas listener is guiltless of disturbing his neighbour’s peac€ There are, it is feared, quite a number who assume the right to choose » neighbour’s listening for him, forget ting that excessive volume is unman nerly. Oscillation is a similar breacn of the listener’s good manners Fortunately for British listeners, the majority of the medium-wave sets thal they use do not oscillate, and so the listener at Home has left behind that evil at least. But some short wave sets, in careless hands, can radiate piercing howls over a surprisingly wide area, completely ruining reception by any other set within range. In the famous words of the first chief engineer of the B.B.C.—"Please don’t de —consideration of the fellow on 'the other side of the garden fence i. not only neighbourly decency, buf helps one’s own enjoyment.