Time Off

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 465, 21 May 1948, Page 14

Time Off

| SOMETIMES wonder just how many . radio programmes I would listen to if I weren't a commentator. I have na doubt that many to which I now listen with pleasure would still figure on my list; that some to which I now listen in their entirety would be switched off half. way through, that others which now would be best described as "forced listening," and which I hear only for the sake of comparison, would figure on that other "little list" of things better omitted. I wouldn't listen to the news, for one thing-I can grasp from newspaper headlines as much in five minutes as the nine o’clock reader could tell me in twenty; nevertheless, the news is one thing I don’t begrudge other people who aren’t as near to a newspaper as I am. Talks? Well, about one a week would be the limit, but each and every discussion group would find me listening, as it does now. Since the output of the best radio dramatists is necessarily limited, I wouldn’t even’ expect to get (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) one good play per three-monthly period, but then, how many flesh-and-blood theatrical shows would I be likely to see in that time, hdd I no radio to bring plays to my fireside? A couple of evenings of really good music would suffice -but by really good I mean symphonic concerts, chamber music, and so on; call it highbrow, if you like. This may sound a thin list to those who are accustomed to using their radios all the time during broadcasting hours, but I maintain that discriminate selection, even though it may cut listening time in half, actually provides the owner of the radiv with better value for the licence fee.

F Loar notes are not written by the staff of "The Listener" or by any member of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service. They are indecomments for which "The pays outside contributors.