BROADCASTING STANDARDS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 303, 13 April 1945, Page 7

BROADCASTING STANDARDS

»sir,- There are many people in New Zealand who have hitherto kept silence céncerning "Commercial Broadcasting (being content in -tolerance of the taste

of others to accept the programmes, or selected parts of them from the National Stations). However, the steady deterioration both of the quality of the material broadcast and of its manner of presentation seems to call for protest. While one is all too thoroughly aware that the cheapened attitude has popular approval, the radio to be of fullest service to any .community should be used primarily as a means of education. This implies having the majority of the programmes at a slightly higher level than folk would choose for purely recreative purposes; just as a child’s reading matter must be kept a little difficult while education is in progress. But the stream of flashy announcements from all stations lately makes it difficult to tell to which branch of the service one is listening. The repeated cajoling and politely coercive announcements of governmental policy sent out in the style of sales talks are no more than a form of mental bludgeoning; but when a whole nation is repeatedly called to listen in to a cheaply exaggerated spy story as though its telling were a matter of world importance, it is time for protest. One wonders whether the general public appreciates the fact that under favourable conditions the National Stations are heard right round the Pacific circle in Australia, China, Japan and North America, besides throughout Oceania; and that New Zealand’s national character is often assessed by other peoples on the basis of her broadcasts. The comments of educated visitors from overseas on some of our programmes are enough to make one hang one’s head in shame. Even in Europe our taste is known and we are judged accordingly. Would we not as a nation do well to give consideration to the splendid achievement (in companion with the efforts of other countries) of the BBC

in the field of . broadcasting.-

PHILIP

A. de G.

HOWELL

(Paraparaumu).