Items From The ZB's

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 117, 19 September 1941, Page 25

Items From The ZB's

F volume of mail is any indication Whose is the Voice? is one of the best received programmes ever broadcast by 2ZA Palmerston North. Since it has beén on the air, 2ZA has received an average of 650 entries a week from all parts of New Zealand. The idea behind the session is a simple one. Two recordings of a well-known singer (Gracie Fields, to take an example), are placed among four recordings by other artists whose voices resemble hers in greater or lesser degree, and listeners are asked to select Gracie’s numbers. This sort of problem is not as easy as it seems; and the number of correct solutions is surprisingly small. + eo SPY EXCHANGE, the ZB spy drama dealing with the activities of Germany’s secret service in America during the last war, moves on to its third adventure, which is entitled The Girl From Soho. This new story is laid in the year 1917, toward the time when America was considering a declaration of war on Germany. Bradley Drake, an important member of the American secret. service (and the hero of Spy Exchange), is faced with the task of outwitting an agent who has built up a dangerous organisation of saboteurs, and who has even laid plans for refuelling German U-boats in American waters. Plot and counter-plot follow in rapid succession, with the girl from Soho, a beautiful substitute spy employed by Bradley Drake, encountering many desperate adventures. Bradley Drake is played by the American radio star Jack Arthur, while Ronald Morse plays the part of the German agent Alexander Durbenoff. The Girl From Soho sequence starts from 1ZB on Thursday, September 25, and from the other ZB stations on successive Thursdays. * * * HE What’s That Noise? programme is sailing along merrily at Station 1ZB, with the noises which listeners are asked to identify growing ever more puzzling and amusing. In a recent session, they were a lion roaring, the pouring of water into a bucket, striking a match and lighting.a cigarette, peeling an apple and then biting and eating it, and shuffling a pack of cards. The week following, the noises were even more intriguing. They were breaking an egg into a bowl, drilling holes in metal, the ringing of a typewriter bell, tearing a piece of cloth, drawing:a nail out of a wall, flipping the pages of a book, snapping an electric light switch, and blowing a nose. Phil. Shone, who conducts the session, gives several clues to each noise. Those given for the breaking of an egg into a basin, for instance, were "First, you're liable to hear it in your home any hour of the day or night, second, every housewife knows it, and third, if she makes it thtee weeks later than she should, the effect on those nearby is likely to be distressing." b