NEW DEAL FOR WOMEN LISTENERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 470, 25 June 1948, Page 10

NEW DEAL FOR WOMEN LISTENERS

Reorganisation of ZB Service Sessions

| COMPLETE reorganisation of women’s sessions has been arranged by the Commercial | Division of the NZBS, to come into operation on Monday, June 28. Hitherto there have been two | women’s sessions-Women’s World and Home Service-broadcast daily at 2.30 p.m. as half-hour programmes in_alternate weeks. Now there will be, each day from Moanday to Friday, a 60minutes programme called The Women’s Hour, between 2.30 and 3.30 p.m. This will include all the features of the former sessions in a revised form, with the addition of a number of new items of special interest to women. On Mondays and Wednesdays listeners will hear homemakers’ programmes, containing talks on nutrition written for the session by a qualified dietitian, and other information such as household hints, recipes for the week, local marketing news, current’ prices, and notes about foods in season. On Wednesdays there will

be a homemakers’ quiz and a recorded musical programme will also be a part of Monday and Thursday broadcasts. News from local and national. women’s organisations for women in town and country will be presented on Mondays. Tuesdays broadcasts will feature radio biographies of leading personalities of the day, both men and women. Specially prepared scripts will discuss fashion trends and _ there will be local guest speakers from time to time. Where local experts are available a _ radio dressmaking lesson will be included in this session. News of films and plays, with recorded interviews with stars, will be heard in the Tuesday programmes of 12ZB, 2ZB, and 4ZB (Station 3ZB broadcasts a film news programme on other days).

On Wednesdays the women’s session will extend its scope, giving news of women’s effairs overseas from scripts prepared by the Head Office of the Commercial Division, and from radio releases from the information offices of legations in Wellington. There will be interviews with male guest speakers on a variety of topics, serious and otherwise, in a feature entitled "That’s the Way a Man Sees It." The Literary Side Thursday’s programmes will carry a short talk on children and infant welfare prepared by the Plunket Society. There will be one brief review of a currently popular book, news of writers

and forthcoming publications, and interesting articles in magazines. A guest interview with a local librarian or a visiting writer will be part of this programme. Anne Stewart (home decoration), whose five-minute sessions were previously included in the Shopping Reporter sessions on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12.30 p.m., will now be heard in the Women’s Hour on Thursdays at 3.0 p.m. in a 15-minutes’ recorded session. ‘An interview with a notable visitor will round off the day’s programme, especially interesting interviews being sent round all the stations. Sports news from women’s local organisations, teams and groups, with a guest speaker when available, will

open Friday’s session, to be followed by news about hobbies, and crafts and hints on health and beauty. Under the heading "Notable Quotables" there will be notes on popular quotations and their authors. Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday listeners will hear a dramatic narrative, Ever Yours, at 3.0 pm. The Shopping Reporter sessions will be continued from Monday to Friday at 12.30 p.m. Jessie McLennan, one of the most experienced women broadcasters in New Zealand, will supervise all women’s sessions. She has been with the NZBS for eight years, has done commercial radio work in Australia and recently visited the U.S. to study American methods of commercial broadcasting. For some time she was with 3ZB and later with 4ZB, where she conducted the Home Service session. A large part of her time will be taken up travelling round the commercial stations.

Here is some information about the four women at present conducting women’s "sessions: Marina Parr (1ZB) has been in the Service for nine years conducting broadcasts of special interest to women. Elsie Lloyd (2ZB) conducted a housewives’ session some years ago, but has latterly been with the production studios of the NZBS,. She is well known in repertory work as a producer and judge of drama festivals. Molly McNab (3ZB) has been on the staff of the Christchurch station for some time, appearing in various sessions. Maureen McCormick (4ZB), a newcomer to radio, has been a schoolteacher and a tours hostess for a New Zealand passenger-transport company. From Monday, July 5, there will be a change in the name of the A.C.E. (Association for Country Education talks), heard twice a week from the main National Stations. They will be known in future as Home Science talks.