FAREWELL TO FOUR VOICES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 286, 15 December 1944, Page 16

FAREWELL TO FOUR VOICES

Station IZM Will Change Hands Again

ster of Broadcasting makes it quite clear that in a few days the familiar voices of Sgts. Larty Dysart, Frank Gaunt, Gene Twombly and Karl Jean, announcers at the American Expeditionary Station 1ZM Auckland; will no longer be heard in this area. The Station will be handed back to the NBS to be an auxiliarty to 1YA. A STATEMENT by the Mini-

Aucklanders reacted variously to the new noises that filled their homes when the team wert on the air in April last; some applauded, some raised their eyebrows and turned the volume down, some were dazzled, some were staticstruck, and some rushed to pen and paper to express their delight-I saw the first day’s batch of praise by mail. After a few weeks, after a few months, even last week, the station was still a subject for argument in some households; a tribute to the hourly liveliness of the announcing and to the weekly newness of the recordings. "People call us up and ask us ‘What’s funny about that new comedy you put on last night?’ and we have to say that we can’t figure it out ourselves, we've

been so long away from home we've lost touch with the new angles and set-ups. They think that’s crazy; we’re Americans and we ought to understand our own humour." Larry Dysart told me this yesterday when I went to say goodbye. As I walked in the telephone buzzed (buzz for less noise in that noiseful place). "A P-38? It’s a Lockheed Interceptor. And a Warhawk? No, that’s a P-40. You’re welcome." He shrugged. "See how it is? We have that all day long. What’s the time, who’s the President of America, who’s the President of America now, how do you spell Guadalcanal, how many stars and stripes in the Stars and Stripes, where was Joe Stalin born, what does ‘hep’ mean? .. ." "Yes, what does ‘hep’ mean?" I asked him. "H’m. ‘Hep.’ Well, I'll put it this way: You can say a person is ‘hep’ to the jive. You know, jive or jitterbug." "Yes," I said, "but what way ‘hep’ to it?" "Well, he’s kinda on familiar terms with it." "Au fait?" "Oh what?" "Oh nothing. A-u f-a-i-t. French, Awake up. At home." "Yuh. That’s right. Awake up. At home. Hep." We left it at that. * * % WE went next door to watch Gene Twombly running his Turn-Tune-Time. "This is Station 1ZM and the time is 1 p.m., yes, 1 o’clock, and you are going to have an hour of musical variety.

Accent on the variety, not on the music; here we go-musical variety." "Gene’s got that cheeky way with him, but #t seems to go all right," said Larry. He’s got a cheeky way, I agreed. The first day I met him he wanted to know "Had you folks heard of Saroyan before we came to this country?" We had quite a conference over that. x % * HEN they arrived and I interviewed them for The Listener I asked them all what their hobbies were, thinking a hint might bring them some invitations. Yesterday I asked them how things had gone. Had Larry gone swimming? "Yes, once," he said. But it wasn’t the right season. He has been around, met people, made friefids, married an Auckland girl. He’ll be mighty sorry to be leaving. Karl Jean with his interest in classical and church music has fared well among the music people. Frank Gaunt has been so busy with his one-act plays he hasn’t had time to accept an invitation to spend a holiday on a southern sheep run. He’s had to satisfy his love of horses watching their noses at Ellers-. lie. He recently married an Auckland girl. Gene Twombly had one invitation to go yachting. "Of course it wasn’t the yachting season. But the man said he’d like to take me on his yacht and he’d like to get a singing friend of his on the air over 1ZM. The friend hasn’t got on the air and I haven’t got on the yacht." bo * E Station was opened in April under the organisation of Major Purnell H. Gould, Chief of Armed Forces Radio Services in the Pacific Ocean Area. When the Station was established Major Gould went overseas and the four announcers have since carried on, Larry Dysart being in charge. "This is a very informal station," he said yesterday. "Often the boys have to extemporise and we have all had a chance to put our own ideas over. Actually the experience here should be of terrific value to us in radio back home in the future." Among their "own ideas" are the four favourite sessions: ‘Turn- Tune -Time (Gene Twombly); Classical Corner (Karl Jean); American College Songs (Larry Dysart); and Thirty-minute Dramas (Frank Gaunt). Such small sidelines (designed, as all the programmes

have been primarily, for the entertainment of American forces in the area) as Larry Dysart’s early morning exercises for lazy people (The Little Finger Lim-ber-upper, The Little Toe Rotary Stretch, The Ear Wriggler,-and others) often came to spontaneous and mirthmaking life. R One of the eyebrow-raisers of the year was Karl Jean’s playing in his Classical Corner on a recent Sunday of a recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, at a time when several listeners had been clamouring to the NBS for a recording of this Mass. Gene Twombly disclaimed all knowledge of classical music in announcing that the work would be played. "This afternoon Karl Jean will play you Bach’s Mass in B Minor. I don’t know anything about these things, but this is very beautiful music. I’ve got that straight from the horse’s mouth." Ed we Es For eight months Aucklanders have had the opportunity to hear the latest recordings direct from America. The programmes have not been specially planned for them; on the contrary, the civilian listeners have been casual or accidental listeners, not catered for by design. But in many cases what pleased the forces pleased the Aucklanders. Some listeners will tell you they don’t miss them at all; others will tell you they just can’t be bothered listening to the radio any longer; others will say it makes no difference-in fact, it will be much the same as usual when@a change occurs. "A happy family-we’ll be sorry to see them go," said a member of the staff of 1YA. And all the people who worked with them will agree. But I must pay my tribute to the four’ men who know how to tell me the time, not the approximate time, or about the time, or nearly the time, or just after the time, but THE TIME (pause) SEVEN-TWENTY-FIVE A:M. (pause) TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES PAST

VEN.

J.