Of Human Interest

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 407, 11 April 1947, Page 16

Of Human Interest

7B GAZETTE which, for some montis, has been heard from 2ZB every Sunday evening, has ceased publication for the time being. With all its faults-and it had plenty-it was a breezy session in which one never knew what was going to turn up next. If 2YA’s Variety Magazine sounds sometimes like the vicar’s Parish Newsletter, ZB Gazette had something of the more exciting quality of the tabloid. Not that there was any tinge of yellow, but there was the same gusto, the same preoccupation with "human interest"’-no fault, thatthe same creak of splitting -infinitives. But, speaking as one who has at least a nodding acquaintance with journalism, it seems to me that it is a mistake to try to make a radio news-session sound like a newspaper-the mediums are too unlike. Nor does the newspaper technique suit radio work. The conversation in which a reporter interviews a celebrity would look funny if recorded verbatim -but a reporter doesn’t write it up that

way. It seemed to me that a lot of ZB Gazette interviews’ showed too little of the preparation that is essential to a good radio conversation. Unless interviewer and interviewee are first-class conversationalists (and who can make that claim to-day?), an extempore ques-tion-and-answer talk will lose more in clarity and content than it gains in "actuality."