RADIO ANNOUNCERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 September 1941, Page 6

RADIO ANNOUNCERS

+ AUSTRALIANS DEFENDED RETORT TO MR CLEARY. RECENT EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMISSION. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY, September 12. “Some of the best radio announcers come from Australians employed on commercial stations,” declared the secretary of the Actors’ Equity Association, Mr Mai Alexander, today when replying to the evidence of the chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Mr W. J. Cleary. Mr Alexander quoted the names of 12 well-known Australian announcers on Sydney and Melbourne commercial broadcasting station, and said that these were either Australian or New Zealand men whose reputation was well above those of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, with one exception.' Mr Alexander asked why Australia should want other than Australian voices on the air, any more than the Canadian broadcasting stations wanted other than Canadian voices. The same, he said, applied to American stations.

Radio announcers were chosen by the commercial stations here because they were good examples of the type of speech employed by Australians and not because of their allegiance to the old school tie, as Mr Cleary would have it.

Australians generally are unsuitable as radio announcers, declared the chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Mr W. J. Cleary, when giving evidence before tire Government commission on broadcasting. He pointed out that from 450 .applicants given auditions three months ago only two could be selected as possible announcers.

Australian speech was slightly objectionable because of its monotony and vowel distortion, due to a tendency to speak with the lips and teeth closed, which radio experts called lip laziness. This made first-class ventriloouists, but that was all.

Mr Cleary added that every quest for announcers had revealed that the men most suitable were Englishmen.