For Whom the Bell Tolls

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 341, 4 January 1946, Page 11

For Whom the Bell Tolls

OR some time I have thought that Auckland’s telephone system would crack under the strain of 1ZB’s District Quiz. A telephonic artery is surely liable to burst when several hundred people are trying simultaneously to connect with the same number and some of them, moreover, are trying out little stunts with their dials that rumour has told them will be effective in putting them through ahead of others. The District Quiz was too good a thing to abandon, 4 though, and 1ZB hit on the idea of ringing ‘through from the studio to numbers sent in by listeners. I tuned in on December 17 to the first Quiz of the new order, thinking it might be rather dull, but not a bit of it. Though it was late in the evening, several of the people called up wete amazingly prompt and accurate with their answers, and others ready with a bit of back-chat when they didn’t know the answer. Another innova-

tion is the variation in the amount of the prize money for various questions. Knowledge of the official position held by Samuel Pepys was worth £2, but only 2/- was offered for the more unlikely knowledge of the real names of the Fuller comedians Stiffy and Mo. Two or three people were roused up from their armchairs before either of these could be answered. The Quiz in its new form has something of the excitement of a fishing expedition, though I think that much of its success is due to the way it is handled by the two gentlemen in the studio, whose competence is friendly and informal and who have a pretty _ of sprightly patter.