GENEROUS GIFT BY ZB STATIONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 71, 1 November 1940, Page 12

GENEROUS GIFT BY ZB STATIONS

A Thousand Pounds’ Worth of Time

used in the recently-launched £1,000,000 drive for patriotic funds, and again the ZB stations are giving whole-hearted backing. The Commercial Broadcasting Service’s contribution to the appeal will be £1,000 worth of time on the air, the Minister of Broadcasting, the Hon. Peter Fraser, announced last week. The object of the drive is to raise money: first, for the entertainment of New Zealand troops overseas and in the Dominion; second, to care for victims of air-raids in Britain; and third, to provide for the work of rehabilitation when the war is over. The board directing the drive had made an allocation of £500 for advertising and publicity over the ZB stations, and the Dominion organiser of the drive, J. Abel, was pleasantly surprised when the allocation was handed back, with an additional £500 of time on the air added as well. This contribution is in line with the standard of service which the ZB stations avenue of publicity is being

have set during previous appeals on behalf of charity. Most spectacular, perhaps, have been the radio telephone appeals, which brought a surprising and immediate response. Telephone appeals raised for the Sick and Wounded Fund the total sum of £41,000, 4ZB Dunedin raising £4,000, 2ZB Wellington £5,000, and 1ZB Auckland £32,000. In addition, 3ZB Christchurch raised £3,500 with a novel "Barrow Day" appeal which brought the people of Christchurch out into the streets in thousands. The Dunedin station also conducted a "Mystery Bag Day" and three community sings which netted £2,040. It has to be remembered that time on the air is a commodity just as valuable to the Commercial Service as tomatoes are to a greengrocer. Time on the air is what the Service lives by; and the greater the value of its time the greater the value of a gift such as this latest contribution to the patriotic funds.