FIVE YEARS OF "RADIO NEWSREEL"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 330, 19 October 1945, Page 10

FIVE YEARS OF "RADIO NEWSREEL"

‘J T was announced on Friday, October 5, that the BBC's Radio Newsreel had reached its 1826th edition in the Pacific Service, which means to say that it had been running continuously for five years. We knew that Ormond Wilson, the former Labour Member of Parliament for Rangitikei, had been a talks producer on Radio Newsreel while he was on the staff of the BBC, so we called on him in Wellington and asked him to tell us about the origin of the programme, and how it is prepared. Originally, he told us, news bulletins were half-hour periods in which the news ran till it stopped and then the rest of the time was taken up by short commentaries. In the early days of the war these were given by Captain Cyril

Falls, Oliver Stewart, and H. C. Ferraby, among others. They gave their talks "live" in the first place, and recordings were made while they gave them, for use in later transmissions. Gradually the time given to

these commentaries after the news grew, and then Michael .Barkway (Empire News Editor) had the idea of making an independent broadcast of the recorded talks and other recorded material that had a bearing on the news, and so Radio Newsreel was conceived. Radio Newsreel first went on the air in the North American Service in the

summer of 1940-Mr. Wilson couldn’t remember the exact date. This programme for North America was the first overseas "service" as such (until then there had been different shortwave "transmissions" not designated by geographical zones). And two of the main features of the North American Service were Britain Speaks and Radio Newsreel. The editor of Radio Newsreel then was (and still is) Peter Pooley. How It Was Prepared Later in the year the Pacific Service came into being and Radio Newsreel took its place in this service too as one, of the main regular features. This meant that it had to be revised for broadcast a few hours after the North American broadcast every night. The procedure for preparing each day’s edition was something like this: in the morning, Peter Pooley held a conference with the Newsreel staff and decided what topics seemed likely at that time to be the leading questions to be dealt with. Reporters might be assigned to reporting any particular event in England, and they would come in and record their pieces late in the afternoon. Mr. Wilson used to come on duty himself late in the afternoon to take over from Mr. Pooley, and by about 10 p.m. there might be anything between five and ten recordings to choose from. Script-writers. would then be assigned to write the narrative and work in the material and the talks producer in charge of the edition would stay on duty with him until it went on the air. . J. B. McGeachy was one of the original scriptwriters, and Mr. Wilson was one of the talks producers who took it in turns to be in charge, editing and shaping the edition. There might be two or three times as much material offering as would eventually be used. Actuality Broadcasts A further development that came in due course was the use of war reports

from BBC correspondents who sent their despatches by radio to the BBC. These were transcribed on receipt by telediphone (a kind of dictaphone) so that typists could put them on paper for the newsroom to edit, but ordinary recordings were made at the same time and these were available for Radio Newsreel; with the result, for instance, that the voice of Richard Dimbleby or Robin Duff giv-ing-an eye-witness account could be rebroadcast as the BBC heard it. In this way some of the actuality broadcasts that made Radio Newsreel so vivid were preserved. ! In time, the programme was much more than a collection of commentaries on the news. In fact, as Mr. Wilson said, these short talks which were at first given just as part of the news, themselves into the War Reviews (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) and News Commentaries’ which were regularly rebroadcast here. "Hot" News As Radio Newsreel found its feet it concentrated mainly on presenting the raw material on which the news itself and the commentaries on the news were based. After all, every-item in the news must be seen and reported by someone. In the ordinary way, his report goes in to the news agency, the news agency edits it and passes it on to the press and radio, and the sub-editors in. the newsroom edit it afresh: But Radio Newsreel brought the ‘listener the firsthand story, the eye-witness account, the original report itself. Some of the classics of the early days were Robin Duff’s running commentary on a dog-fight over Dover, the first-hand: stories of the airmen themselves, and the daily-or rather nightly-accounts of the blitz on London. E. A. Montague, London Correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, after he had sent his: last message to ‘his paper about midnight or 1 a.m., would walk up through the blitz, night after night, the mile or two from Fleet Street to Broadcasting House, to speak directly to North America and describe that night’s raid. °

Harry Burgess, newly appointed Assistant Conductor of the BBC Midland Light Orchestra, is an exceptionally versatile musician, says the BBC London letter. He has been a conductor of the orchestras of a number of England’s fashionable seaside resorts and spas. As violinist and pianist (accompanist), he has taken part in numerous operatic performances, including four seasons with the celebrated Carl Rosa Opera Company. He also played aboard the famous’ Cunard liners "Aquitania," "Mauretania," and "Berengaria." He was once, as bandmaster of the Durham Light Infantry in Batoum, required to rehearse and play, at short notice, the Persian National Anthem for the Shah, who complimented him on the result,