Selective Listeners

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 492, 26 November 1948, Page 9

Selective Listeners

"SOME listen to Dad and Dave, or to the wrestling; classical music and light opera both have their following; on the whole, I think the programmes cater pretty well." These words might be taken to represent the taste of a cross-section of listeners anywhere in New Zealand. It may}surprise some to learn that they were the words of a country schoolteacher, in a 4YA discussion panel who was attempting to give listeners an indication of the sort of programmes his school children habitually listened to. When it came the turn of the other adult speakers I was not surprised to find their tastes differing little from the above. The storekeeper suggested "light music, market (continued on next page)

| RADIO VIEWSREEL (Cont’d) ©

(continued from previous page) Teports, racing"; the farmer’s wife had too much work to do to regard her Tadio except as a pleasant background noise; the farmer listened to talks for the man on the land, to Dad and Dave, light music, radio plays, sports broad-casts-but added as an afterthought that he would make an exception of the weather forecast, as the weather promised didn’t always eventuate on the day specified! The four speakers were in agreement that the programmes met their tastes pretty well, and I wondered whether it would be possible to get such amicable agreement among the members of a random-selection of city dwellers. Nothing was said as to whether the scheduled times of these programmes are suitable for country listeners; nobody mentioned a liking for either oldfashioned jazz or modern swing and its off-shoots; and I did not hear anyone complain of children with their ears glued to unsuitable thrillers. Are these omissions significant? Have country people too much good taste to bother with Tin-Pan Alley, and too much control of both radios and children to let either get the better of them?