NATIONAL STATIONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 287, 22 December 1944, Page 9

NATIONAL STATIONS

LTHOUGH some kinds of Christmas fare may be in short supply again this year-particularly on the dinner table -- radio programmes from the National stations will be well provided. Since Christmas Day itself falls on a Monday and Christmas Eve is a Sunday, certain secular aspects of the festive season will "probably be attended to on the Saturday. Accordingly, the radio programmes, too, indicate that the Christmas spirit may be demonstrated any time from Saturday on. There are certain staple ingredients of Christmas radio that you are as sure to find in the programmes as you are to see cotton wool greetings in shop windows. For instance, Corelli’s "Christmas Concerto," excerpts from Handel’s Messizh, and the recording (with Ronald Colman as Scrooge) of Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol." We leave you to find these for yourself on your own stations, but we draw your attention here to some of the other special features of the programmes on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, December 23-25. On Saturday evening, for instance, 1YA will broadcast the Christmas play "A Reputation for Benevolence,’ by Oliver and Matthews, at 9.33 p.m., and 3YL, Christchurch, will present a selection of Christmas pieces from Bach’s "Little Organ Book," played by the organist, E. Power Biggs (startine at

8.34 p.m.). Gisborne listeners will hear a Christmas programme from 2ZJ at 8.0 p.m, and at 3YA that well-known comedian, George Titchener, proposes to confess*to his listeners "I’m learning a new song for Christmas." Religious Observance On Sunday, the ordinary broadcast church services will probably include some carols, and Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch will each broadcast a Midnight Mass, Station 1YA will relay the Mass from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, starting at midnight. The Mass from St. Gerard’s Church, Wellington, will be heard from 2YA, starting at 11.55 p.m. In Christchurch the Anglican service will be heard from St. Michael’s at 12.5 a.m, : Some musical programmes of special interest will be heard on Sunday evening. At 10.25 p.m., 3YA will relay from

i i i i i i he he ed the Durham Street Methodist Church a carol programme called "Music forChristmas," and between 11.0 p.m. and midnight a group called "The Coventry Carollers," conducted by George E. Wilkinson will sing Christmas carols from various nations, From St. John’s Church, Invercargill, 4YZ will relay a recital by Charles Martin (organist) and Alfred Walmsley (tenor). Station 3ZR, Greymouth, will broadcast a carol service at §.30 p.m, Other special features of the Sunday programmes will be the play "The Shadow," from 3YA (3.58 p.m.), Dorothy Sayers’ play "He That Should Come" from 4YA (10.11 p.m.), and various recorded programmes of carols and Christmas music from 1ZM (7.0 p-m.), 2YC (9.0 p.m.), 2YH (10.0 p.m.), 4YZ (9.20 p.m.) and others. ,

Greetings from Overseas The main item of the Christmas Day programmes for many listeners will be the Christmas greetings from New Zealand forces overseas, to be heard at 9.0 a.m. General Freyberg will speak, and representatives of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Nursing Service and Maori Forces overseas will all send Christmas greetings home. Carols will be sung from 1YA by the Yugoslav Young People’s Choir at 3.30 p.m., and 3YA will relay a carol service from the Christchurch Cathedral at 7.30 p.m. Carols by Joye Taylor will be featured in 2YA’s Children’s Hour at 5.0 p.m. As was promised some months ago, when the time of broadcast for the Dorothy Sayers plays The Man Born to be King was criticised by some listeners, this series will once again be heard from 2YA, starting on Christmas Day, and thereafter on Sundays at 2.0 p.m.