From The Commercial Stations

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 391, 20 December 1946, Page 9

From The Commercial Stations

T first glance the ZB Christmas programmes appear to contain no elaborate plans. But here and there will be found seasonal sessions, coupled with occasional outdoor and special studio arrangements to entertain in the traditional way. We have not yet gained the confidence of the Weather Presentation Personality sufficiently to be able to say whether it will be fine or wet in Hokianga or MHarihari, but we can assume that a radio set will not be far away, whether the family is sunbathing or huddling round the fireside. Auckland’s commercial station, 1ZB, has arranged a choral programme for nine o’clock on Christmas morning, featuring the Green Lane Congregational Sunday School Choir, whose main works will be descant arrangements of Noel and Adeste Fideles. Then at 4.0 p.m. there will be half an hour of old and new carols by the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle Choir, conducted by R. R. Wilson. This choir (of 50 voices) will present compositions by Vaughan Williams, Martin Shaw, Gustav Holst and Cc. H, Parry. On Wednesday, December 18, there will be a pre-Christmas feature. Members of the Old People’s Association will be entertained by the 1ZB Orchestra and other artists in the Auckland Town Hall from 1.0 to 3.30, as a Christmas goodwill greeting to the aged. Maori Programme from 3ZB Station 2ZB Wellington will mark the start of Christmas Day broadcasting with 15 minutes of Christmas hymns recorded by the Victor Chapel Choir at 9 a.m., and at 11.30 am. the Petone Ladies’ Choir will give a special presentation. At 5.0 p.m. listeners will hear a repetition of Norman Corwin’s One World broadcast made on his arrival in New Zealand a few weeks ago. At nine o'clock on Christmas morning the Wellington Watersiders’ Junior

Band, now touring the South Island, will give from 3ZB a half-hour presentation of excerpts from Messiah. A special feature, Te Reo o te Waipounamu, a session of greeting to Maori listeners, will be conducted by Irene Grennell at 6.15 p.m., and at 6.45 p.m. the Australian baritone, Allan Eddy, will sing a bracket of festive season songs. The programme will also include a halfhour session entitled Pages From Our 1946 Scrapbook, featuring outstanding items handled by 3ZB during the year. For some days before Christmas Santa Claus will take up his stance in the studio, and ice-cream and soft drinks will be an accompaniment to items. Verse-Speaking in Dunedin A choir -of nurses from the Dunedin Hospital will ‘open Station 4ZB’s Christmas Day at 9.30 a.m. with a recorded selection of its regular Christmas Eve hospital entertainment, Carols by Candlelight. At 1.0 p.m. a half-hour programme of carols linked with verses, will be given by the 4ZB Choristers conducted by Anita Oliver. Peter Dawson, compére of the Children’s Session, will conduct an hour of Christmas items beginning at 5.0 p.m., and at 6.45 p.m. a new poem by Kathleen Healey, /t Came to Pass, will be heard. This will be a half-hour programme with the lines spoken by Jessie McLennan, assisted by a verse-speaking choir. Palmerston North’s commercial station 2ZA will herald Christmas Day at 8.15 a.m. with Radio Santa Claus, a commentary on Christmas in various lands with imaginary presents in the form of recordings from an imaginary Christmas tree. The regular Christmas morning relay from the Palmerston North Hospital will come from the children’s ward at 10.0 a.m., where the nurses will sing carols. Santa Claus will make a gift to each child, the Mayor will have something to say and there will be a broadcast of the voices of the children talking to the announcer.