Beating Air?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 501, 28 January 1949, Page 9

Beating Air?

‘THE NZBS Christmas programmes looked very good indeed on paper, and I’m sure they sounded very good indeed over the air. The snag is that the air was clear and sunny, the maximum temperatures were at their maximum all over the country, and even the mean temperatures were a good deal more generous than usual. In other words, the 64-dollar question of Christmas broadcasting is, how many listen? A lot of people must have been outside in the sun, or in the warm evening air. Some would have had portable radios, probably there would ‘have been a good deal more of them than there were last year, but the vast majority, amongst whom must be numbered myself, didn’t have a radio, didn’t want gone, and probably didn’t even think of what was being broadcast. I’m not sure that this is altogether a bad thing, and even if it were wholly bad I don’t think anything could be done about it. We have Christmas in summer in this part of the world, and if we are wrenched from the atmosphere and traditions of the Northern Hemisphere, what, of it? Christ-mass is within us, and each individual makes of it what. seems fit to him-sun or snow, beach or fireside, radio or no radio. And because the individual is important, the people in NZBS who put together these admirable Christmas programmes weren’t just beating the air so long as there was one person who listened with enjoyment. And I’m sure there were many more than one.