ABC TO THE BBC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 71, 1 November 1940, Page 17

ABC TO THE BBC

Australian To Advise On Oceanic Programmes In Empire Service

N his way to England, where he will advise the BBC about programmes for Oceania in the Overseas Service, Robert C. McCall stopped last week in New Zealand to consult with NBS officials. He came from a position as manager in Victoria for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, which is releasing him for this special work at the request of the BBC. The plan is that he should take to Britain his special knowledge of programme requirements in Australia and New Zealand, and British dependencies in Oceania. He told The Listener that opinion in Australia more or less marvelled that the BBC could do such a very good job of work as it is now doing with its Overseas Service; in very difficult conditions. He said he had not yet any precise idea of what would be required from him; but, generally, the idea was that the radio services to the Empire should be directed by men who could represent an Empire point of view. In New Zealand he spent four or five days in constant consultation with the Director of Broadcasting, programme experts, and engineers. From Australia he will take with him a long experience of local broadcasting conditions.

Began as a Journalist He is a Scot, but came south when he was six years old and was educated in Australia. He began his career as a journalist, with the Sydney " Daily Telegraph," graduated to musical criticism, and developed from that an interest in gramophone records and in gramophone companies. He worked as_ publicity manager, and later as record sales manager, for the Associated Gramophone Companies. While this was going on he

started broadcasting, giving talks on music weekly almost from the time when radio in Australia began to matter. In 1935 he was invited to join its staff by the ABC, specialised for a while in the management of concerts, a feature of ABC programmes then just developing, and from that was appointed ABC manager in Victoria. Lately, while carrying on with that job, he has also acted as liaison officer between the Commission and_ the Ministry of Information in Australia. He would not commit himself about his ideas on the subject of programme preferences in the Pacific Area. He pointed out that the BBC had been specialising for some time in broadcasts for Canada prepared. by a staff of Canadians. In the same way they were specialising in broadcasts directed to Australia and New Zealand. It was this section which he would be controlling. In general terms, he said he could say that he thought programmes for this part of the world should cover matters of special interest here, such as events in the Far East, and the military situation wherever Anzac troops were stationed. Mr. McCall was going to fly across the Pacific, and across the American Continent to New York. From there he would be in the hands of the BBC’s American representative, and how he would cross the Atlantic remained to be seen..