RADIO OYSTER COMES OUT OF HIS SHELL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 26, 22 December 1939, Page 15

RADIO OYSTER COMES OUT OF HIS SHELL

Percy Edgar Tells About The "! Remember" Programmes

N the BBC, as in the New Zealand Broadcasting Services, station directors are rather mysterious persons, who seldom even tell their friends when their voice is engaged, as it sometimes has to be, to take a part in some production. Occasionally, one voice becomes familiar enough. for listeners to be able to place it; but these mystery men of broadcasting never allow themselves to appear in the programmes or have themselves announced over the air. A notable exception is Percy Edgar, Midland Regional Director for the BBC. Some of his work is to be broadcast by the NBS next week. The programme "I Remember" will be heard from 1YA at 9.25 p.m. on Christmas Day. Here is what Mr. Edgar has to say about it: It was an argument that was the cause of it-all-quite a friendly onebut still an argument! With some friends, all rather younger than myself, I was discussing the relative merits of the old and modern tunes. By modern we meant, I think, post-war, or at any rate post-syncopation. Anyhow, I contended that the old tunes had it every time for melody, for appeal, and for the fact that they would be remembered with affection long after some of the presentday popular melodies were forgotten. My friends backed up the latter with equal fervour, so I said." Ill do a programme of the sort of tunes to which I am pinning my’ faith-if my Programme Director will let me-and prove to you that I am right." Embarrassment of Riches An opportunity came on Christmas Eve, 1935, and I admit that in choosing such a time for proving my point I was rather loading the scales in my favour, because at this festive season of the year people are more kindly disposed to memories of the "Good Old Days" than at: any other time. Selecting .the items presented no difficulty, except from an embarrassment of riches. The memories of the old family musical’ evenings. at my Staffordshire home are Still as vivid as they are precious, and all’ I had to do was to choose some of those songs and tunes we used to sing and play grouped round the "upright grand" piano in the drawing room, give them a setting of reminiscence, reproduce the atmosphere as faithfully-..as.-:possible; and get our artists to share in my aim and in the l spirit of those days of high endeavour.

Suggestions Poured In The first programme was so popular that it brought in more letters of appreciation from listeners than any broadcast we had done from the Midland Region over a period of more than four years. My opponents in the original argument surrendered gracefully and were among the first to congratulate me, and that (so I thought) was that! But it wasn’t, for in reading through the hundreds of letters, I found that almost all of them not only demanded more programmes of the kind, but made most valuable suggestions of songs and other items that should be in them, and so I found myself committed to another "TI Remember." Again suggestions poured in from listeners. Artists waylaid me with the titles of heart-throbbing ballads of the late ’nineties. My own staff saved up "real good ’uns" for moments of reminiscent mood at Board-Room tea. So "I Remember" programmes became a quarterly event, and now a year later they are nearly monthly-and saturation points seems as far off as when we started. One suggestion delayed in the Christmas rush was that I should go out to the Black Country and hear a pair of octogenarians in "The Larboard Watch." We accepted the grand old duet, if not the veterans! As Sincere as Possible I want to make it quite clear that we have never tried to "guy" the period chosen. That would have been the wrong kind of approach. Where the sentiment is treacly-and sometimes it is-overacting would be as foolish as to try and caricature a Victorian family album: both speak for themselves, Our soloists and singers and orchestra have been as sincere as possible throughout. We have aimed always at faithful reflection. If it was difficult sometimes to keep a straight face while doing the "running commentary" on "The Battle March of Delhi,’ that was my own concern, and I am prepared to admit that if my smile in the studio was betrayed by my voice over the microphone, then it was a lapse into bad art. The Right Atmosphere That fine tenor, Webster Booth, has been in most of the programmes in this series, and his singing of "Come Into the Garden, Maud" was one of many triumphs. Then there was Marjorie Westbury’s "Daddy" and Harold Casey’s "Star of Bethlehem," and many another first-rate response to the idea. The enthusiastic co-operation of our own orchestra has been a tremendous help, and Reginald Burston, who has conducted’ it throughout, has been not only fruitful of valuable suggestions, but a highly contagious "carrier" of the spirit I have tried to convey. ;