THE YEAR IN REVIEW

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 11, 8 September 1939, Page 19

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Broadcasts In New Zealand We give extracts from the annual report of the National and Commercial Broadcasting Services, presented last month in the House of Representatives:

National Service Licences at March 31, 1939, totalled 318,613, an increase for the year of 32,556. New Zealand is third, after Denmark and Sweden, in licences per cent. of population, in the world. Oamaru heads the list of percentages of licence holders to population, with 33.49. Broadcasting hours totalled 48,139, an increase for the year of 793. Eighty-four concerts by local musical societies were brogdcast, and approximately four thousand performances given by local artists. School broadcasts reached 68,394 pupils. Plays presented totalled 1157. The greatest amount of programme time was used for light music, 53.72 per cent., with serious music 14.28 per cent. No other classification of programme material exceeded 7 per cent. Sports items took 2.18 per cent. of programme time. They included 132 Rugby matches, 75 wrestling, and 35 boxing matches. In the more specialised field the Service relayed overseas news during September, 1938, covered sessions of Parliament, and arranged a full and speedy coverage of election results.

Commercial Service The year ended March 31, 1939, was the Commercial Service’s first complete year of operation. A policy of 18 hours per day continuous service was followed, including Sune days and public holidays when no adver= tising matter was broadcast. A total of 31,100 hours of entertainment were broadcast. Following listener tests made by adevertisers, sponsored programmes improved in quality. It is estimated that advertisers spent £40,000 on the best productions selected from overseas and local studios, The Service spent approximately £7,000 for programmes featuring local artists. The statement of accounts shows an excess of revenue over expenditure of £10,000, compared with a deficit of £7000 last year. Maori sessions were extended. They were arranged and broadcast by the Maori announcers retained on the staff. Advertising copy was subjected to a rigorous censorship, and publicity for a number of products and services was not accepted. Station 2ZA was opened at Palmerston North with equipment entirely constructed by the Service staff. Station 5ZB was constructed as a mobile unit for rail travel. Among the relays from overseas one of the most interesting was the Richard Crooks programme relayed to New Zealand from New York on _ the occasion of the opening of the transPacific radio-telephone service.