From 2ZB to BBC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 389, 6 December 1946, Page 19

From 2ZB to BBC

WHEN Singapore was about to fall into the hands of the Japanese a London newspaper reported that an English announcer whose name sounded like Michael Miles had been heard reading a news bulletin. The name was Michael Miles. He was not speaking from Singapore, but from Batavia, where an emergency station had been set up. Since fhen Miles has travelled far, and the latest news, of him comes from London, Bain pis. 2 tama for the BBC, a quiz" devised by him-self-a programme that made him famous in South Africa and the United States. Writing in the Sunday News Chronicle, Jonah Barrington says: "Last week I had the pleasure of telling a New Zealander, 27-year-old Michael Miles, of the new Radio Forfeits programme, that he had become, within six weeks of his BBC debut, the second most popular tadio star in Great Britain. ... He wakes up to find himself with a British audience of 10,000,000 per broadcast as against ITMA’s 10,500,000, and Music Hall’s 9,900,000. Whereas ITMA took two years to climb to fame, Miles has arrived overnight. Can he stay the pace?" Seven years ago Miles joined Station 2ZB as a junior announcer and for a while he was at 2ZA. Then he worked for commercial radio in Australia, and later for the Malayan Broadcasting Corporation. He returned to New Zealand after the fall of Singapore, worked as a free-lance, and then went to the South African Broadcasting Corporation. A visit to America saw him in business as a feature-broker, after which he toured Army camps and European occupied areas, and worked with ENSA. He is a son of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Miles, of Wellington.