THE RADIO “NEW DEAL”

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 356, 10 February 1937, Page 2

THE RADIO “NEW DEAL”

PRAISE AND CRITICISM BY SOUTHERN WRITER. “CONSERVATORIUM OF SPOKEN ARTS A GRAND SCHEME. SILENCE AS TO IMMEDIATE POLICY DISAPPOINTS.

“The opening—one might almost say the dedication—of the new 2YA transmitter last Monday evening was performed with picturesque solemnity. I liked specially that touch when the Prime Minister called on the national stations in turn, and the announcers, like faithful A.B.’s answering the bos’un, responded with ‘Aye, aye, Sir,’ or eomething like that,” states a writer in the Christchurch “Press.” “The whole affair was extremely well stage-managed, and fittingly so, for this was the great night for letting the radio mystery cat out o' the bag. Listeners were to be told what they had to exp ct in the future. I am only a humble listener; I am just recording my reactions to the statements of the Minister for Broadcasting and the Director of Broadcasting. I had anticipated that this occasion would be us?d for letting the public into the confidence of the broadcasting authorities., and I must say that I was disappointed by much of what was. said lam reminded of the generous ton who wrote to his mother: ‘Dear mum, I am'.sending you' £lo—but not this yeaY.’ That is What Mr Savage and Professor Shelley did to the listeners of New Zealand on Monday evening. Great Bounty, is to be showered, But not for a long time Grand Scheme.

“Nothing .but praise reed be given to the grand scheme for the establishment of a conservatorium for music and the spoken arts ?n Wellington, and for the foundation of a national symphony orchestra This superb cultural centre would be at?a to do incalculable good, but I for one would have been better pleased if either Mr Savage or Professor Shelley had been a little- more informative. Where is the money for the conservatorium coming from? Are the license fees of honest folk who want nothing more than simple “music, mirth and melody” to be used for the training of home-grown Carusos, Melbas, Krieslers and Cortots? Probably it is time that New Zealand d’d do something of a national scale for its musicians and for its prospective Henry Irvings and Marie Tempests, but it is questionable whether this cultural philanthropy should be at the exclusive expense of people who own radio sets It may be that the Government intends to support the scheme, but if it does, why the coy reticence about its plans on Monday evening? An inevitable first thought is that such a. charge is, far top heavy to impose directly ar.d solely upon the National Broadcasting Service. If this is what If intended, many listeners 'will roar loud enough to send mastodons scuttling for shelter. No Immediate Improvements. “Where I am disappointed.' and where others mutt be disappointed, too, is that the broadcasting authordties have off .-red nothing that promises immediate improvement of programmes. It is pleasant enough to hear thht v.*e are going- to have a broadcasting centre and conservations/ bu: on Professor Shelley’s own testimony the building of this centre will probably take two years, and unless the Government is going to provide some of the money, a good slab of the license fees for the next year or so will be going into bricks and mortar. When the bui-ld-ing is up two or three more years at least will have to pas.s before the institution unleashes its products for the pleasure of listeners/. This longterm view of broadcasting is right enough, but average listener in these days is but tepidly interested in what is going to happen five years hence. He is not going to submerge his present discontents because he is told that Willie Brighteyes, who now plays ‘Nellie Bly’ so beautifully, will be given the chance a decade hence to beef out a Beethoven sonata. No The average listener wants to know how Protestor Shelley and his aides intend to improve programmes next week, or the week after. There has to be some adroit harmonising of the short-term view and the long-term view. Listening Group Scheme. * So much for that. I must confits that I can’t quite follow what the Minister for Broadcasting has in mind when he thinks that the formation of listeners’ groups will help the broadcasting authorities. He appears to believe that the organisation of listening groups will enable the National Broadcasting Service to learn

what listeners want. Professor Shelley said that the Minister for Education has expressed active sympathy with this proposal for group listening and is, apparently, prepared to allow school buildings to be developed as radio group centres. My feeling is that the family is the inevitable radio unit, and I don’t think there is much chance of more than a few people being persuaded to leave their firesides on a winter evening to trundle off to school to listen to something that they could lisen to quite well at home. From what Professor Shelley' said, flic schools of New Zealand are to be

made a bewildering cross between a concert hall, a Workers’ Educational Association lecture room, and a jazz palace. ‘Group listening,’ said Professor Shelley, ‘is necessary if broai.” casting is to reflect the spirit of the community. Broadcasting must become a stimulus to the activity 01 mind, heart and body for the people of the Dominion, so that we may bocome a nation not only of good listeners, but of good doers and good friends.’ Just how listening soberly to radio in a schoolroom is l going to bring about these desirable mass reformations in imperfect human nature has me wondering. Radio is an invention which may be med for th entertainment or instruction of mankind. It is not a mystical device, or a new religion.

“Perhaps I may have to eat my words in five years’ time —and I hope I’m here to do it if necessary—but at present I declare before the world my belief that the group listening scheme will flop harder than an egg tossed from the Cathedral spire. It is with genuine sorrow in my heart that I have had to write as I have written about these things. Like everybody else, I have been waiting ith glowing anticipation for the new broadcasting policy statement, and now that it has come, it seems to me that obvious needs have been sacrlyficed on the altar of enchantfng visions. A Listenelr’s Complaint. “A correspondent signing himself ‘The Man in th© Street’ has written to me suggesting that I should lay off Eb and Zeb for a while, and exercise my talents in .pleading for improvement in the evening programm s. My correspondent had a good many unflattering things to say about a number of recent performers from 3YA, and although I cannot etgree with him entirely in his mor-3 personal condemnations, I am compelled to pay respectful attention to his statement that his friends do not bother to listen at all because they afe so depressed by the programmes. Of course. I must say that I would not be greatly impressed by the criticism of those who do not listen at all. However, there are vaiil cans , s for discontent, and in considering them I am taken back to the earlier point that the broadcasting authorities are out of touch with public sentiment when they think criticism may be silenced by the promise of a nice big conservatorium. An Evening’s Analysis., Lei us go back no further than last Tuesday evening and give cursory scrutiny to the national programmes. IYA. had nothing but, gramophone records- and a ‘world affairs talk. IYX had mediocre recordings (and forgive me for mentioning it—both Eb and Zeb and the Japanese houseboy). 2YA had recordings and one good interlude— Miss Bessie Pollard, formerly of Christchurch, playing a Bach concerto with an orchestra conducted by Mr Leon de Mauny. 2YC had two hours of bright entertainment 3YA had three hours of records that would have been amusing < nough for -'0 minutes. 3YL had a good programme of recorded music: Arnold Bax’s ‘Sonata for Two Pianos,’ Elgar’s ‘Sonata in E Minor,’ and Haydn’s ‘Quartet in G Major.’ Down at 4YA they had recordings’ (medium), a ‘world affairs’ talk: Miss Jean McFarlane (an excellent contralto), and a concert by the Dunedin Highland Pipe Band (good for those who like it —but count me out). The records from 4YO were satisfactory. “Group listening? I wouldn’t have’ taken a wall-eyed cat I wanted to lose out to hear programmes offering so little. In the whole of New Zealand that night the only thing worth turning the switch for was a bit of recorded music—if you happened" to be interested in it. “And just to show there’s- sweetness as well as vinegar in my he'SiT, I want to congratulate Mr Will Yates

who arranged and produced Tn Such Short Time,’ the cavalcade of New Zealand broadcasting, and which wasthe highlight on the programme Trom the new 2YA station last Monday evening. The narrators, Professor Shelley, Mr Alan McElwain, and Mr Karl Atkinson, were first-rate, and the whole broadcast was admirably devised.”