Items From The ZBs

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 74, 22 November 1940, Page 29

Items From The ZBs

VEN if Scots people are slow to see a joke (which has been hotly disputed) they are not slow to solve a crime, judging by the response which -4ZB has had to the feature "We the Jury," which is heard at 9.30 p.m. on Wednesdays. "We the Jury" is intriguing but straightforward, and listeners are not confused, as they so often are in elaborate detection novels, by suspicion being thrown in every direction but the right one. * * "TN Your Garden," a new session which is broadcast from 2ZB every Monday afternoon at 3.15, is not, as might be thought, a horticultural session in the manner of the BBC’s Mr. Middleton, and if you want to know the right fertiliser for a vegetable marrow you'll have to search elsewhere. "In Your Garden" is a programme of songs, ballads and verses which have been inspired by gardens. Of these there are a multitude"Roses of Picardy," "Love’s Garden of Roses," and "I Know a Lovely Garden," to mention but three, * * * [MPORTANT news from the ventriloquial front is that the ubiquitous Jerry has published a book, It is called "Chuckles with Jerry," and presents several hundred of Jerry’s most amusing gags. It should be an invaluable aid to chairmen and after dinner speakers, for, as someone or other has said, every good joke has been told at least once. %* * * ROADCASTING people always take a special interest in listeners’ request sessions, for it provides them with a valuable means of keeping in touch with public taste. Station 4ZB’s_ session "Especially For You," for instance, has demonstrated that Nelson Eddy and Jeanette Macdonald are the most popular artists recording to-day-in Dunedin at any rate. The station has been receiving over 100 letters a week requesting items by these duettists. Flannagan and Allen are also greatly in demand, * * = STATION 2ZB’s broadcasts of the news from London are preceded and followed by a recording of which there are probably few in New Zealand. It is a recording of the famous Bow Bells, which are a part of the life of London as familiar and treasured as Big Ben itself. The title of the record is " Whittington Chimes," for it is these chimes which, according to legend, rang out the message to the young Dick Whttington to "turn again." * * * APPARENTLY there are few factories in Wellington which do not have a radio to lighten working hours for employees; for it is widely held that broadcast music, far from interfering with production, is a definite stimulus. Station 2ZB’s session " Music While You Work " has been an instant success, and "Tiny" Martin, who conducts it, has had so many. requests for favourite numbers that he has had to apologise publicly for disappointing so many people.