The Eyes Have It

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 458, 2 April 1948, Page 8

The Eyes Have It

NOTICED that in the printed programmes 4YA and 4YZ both advertised the Brains Trust on the same night. The difference was that one station printed only the names of those taking part, while the other printed a couple of the questions to be discussed, leaving names out of it altogether. It would be interesting to know which method of advertising attracted most listeners. I think oneeof the main appeals of the Brains Trust is in the personalities of its members; I personally would tune to the Brains Trust no matter what the discussion, safe in the assumption that the combined effort would result in a half-hour of stimulating entertainment; From the point of view of a radio commentator I was vitally interested in one subject under discussion on the night in questionnamely, the chances of a speaker being misreported in the Press. One Brains Truster suggested that a way of getting absolutely accurate reporting was to put the whole speech over the radio, but this was immediately qualified by the query as’ to which reports best, the ear or the eye. The commentator wholeheartedly concurs with the suggestion that the ear is not to be relied upon. You can go back over a printed speech (99 per cent. accuyate if »well reported) and check on anything you have missed or forgotten while reading it, But the listener cannot turn back the radio; a name, place, or statistical data once lost is gone forever on the air. So I suppose the best advertising of .such a session as the Brains Trust, as far as the commentator is concérned, is for the stations to print all the speakers’ names and all the questions as well!