Radio Taste

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 9, 25 August 1939, Page 12

Radio Taste

readers who like seeing themselves as mathematicians see them. If we could know ourselves as we are, it would not be necessary to know ourselves diagrammatically, but no one accepts the testimony of his own inclinations. Far less can we accept what seem to be the inclinations of others. OT res chart on this page will interest those But although figures and graphs give us confidence they do not give us taste. However we turn out statistically we remain where we were esthetically before the browmeasuring began. We may, of course, following our mathematical exposure, consent to a change of diet, and in a few cases even demand it. Some such high hope as that lies behind the BBC inquiry. But we are far more likely to be given the same diet minus the few improving ingredients. For the customer is nearly always right. If he pays he gets what he wants; and we can no longer say, when his wish-graph has been drawn, that we don’t know what he wants. It is the old story of the accommodating politician: "Them’s my sentiments, ladies and gentlemen, and if they don’t suit they can be changed." It is easier, too, to change down than to change up. Even the BBC the other day found it expedient, after dropping swing, to listen to the shouts for its reinstatement. But when the worst has been said, facts are the beginning of wisdom. Radio is after all a very recent experience, and it is perhaps necessary that we should do our worst with it before we begin to do our best. When one of our first settlers built cottages for his Maori labourers the result was a glorious bonfire. At present we may be having the radio bonfire.