WELL RECEIVED

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 488, 29 October 1948, Page 12

WELL RECEIVED

Fan Mail Arrives for Radio New Zealand

Shortwave Division of the NZBS, which went on the air officially on September 27, received one back-handed compliment in its already substantial overseas mail the other day. It was a complaint from a farmer in South Australia, who lamented that his son found the programmes too interesting. They kept him away from milking the cows in the evenings. But that type of complaint doesn’t perturb the station staff. R stor New Zealand, the new

Once the technical details concerning wavelength, and _ reception conditions in the areas it is intended to reach haye been completed, and test hroadcasts made, the staff of a radio station has only one way of learning a

whether its work is successful. And that is by letters from listeners-a mail which increases as the station becomes better known. Radio New Zealand’s files now contain correspondence from Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, the United Kingdom, America, Sweden, No*way, Holland, Germany and Spain. The majority of the writers say that they are hearing the station a good deal better now than they did in November last when. the first tests were made. Listeners round about the Pacific Coast of America report reception as "fairly good," but one listener in Boston calls it "perfett." A good many of the letters received lately discuss the balance of the programmes, and comment favourably on the use of more musical entertainment than news and the fact that the sessions are not weighed down too much with spoken material. Another Pennsylvanian, whose knowledge of New Zealand birds seems to be a bit bleak, wrote that he was "puzzled by the tuning-signal of Radio New Zealand, but a bit of research indicated that it was the note of a kea, an Australian "magpie, or a morepork-owl." The correspondent from Pa, will hear, in the -station’s mailbox section, some information about the’ tui whose notes provide the tuning-signal. Several New Zealanders living overseas have written to say how pleased they are to hear their own country on

the air. On the other hand, New Zealanders at home have complained of poor reception, not realising that Radio New Zealand broadcasts are not intended for this country. The station’s beam "skips" New Zealand and goes on to the areas at which it is aimed. Officers on ships at sea have ‘taken the trouble to listen regularly and record their impressions. A report from the radio officer of the ship Ivybank, which was then leaving Suva Harbour, said: ‘We are proceeding from Suva to Tarawa, then to Panama and possibly Curacao and finally Liverpool.. We shall be glad to make our daily reports of reception during the voyage. As we draw farther away from New Zealand we may find ‘skip distances,’ information about which may be of use to you. We are very interested in your programmes and they are more than welcome here, where we look for musical entertainment rather than talk which some stations seem over-. fond of just now. The variety of music from ZL3 and ZL4 pleases everybody." Although the writers stress, with apparent appreciation, the preponderance of music in the programmes, the station also gives bulletins of New Zealand news, sessions of travel information and talks on farm topics, arts, hobbies and sports. Radio New Zealand is, of course, always pleased to receive letters from listeners overseas offering programme suggestions.