News from the Commercial Stations

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 521, 17 June 1949, Page 21

News from the Commercial

Stations

J; VERY Thursday, from 7.0 p.m. to 7.30 pam. dor, the next few months, the ZB stations will present an amateur talent programme from, recordings made in the four main centres. To secure these programmes Jimmy MacFarlane, of the staff of 4ZB Dunedin, was assigned to visit each city and give auditions to the possibles and probables who thought they had something novel to offer in the way of entertainment. Halls were engaged and the public were invited to hear the whistlers, hill-billy imitators, crooners, harmonica-blowers and _ vocalists. The public were the judges, and the most popular performérs received prizes of £5, a number of other prizes also going to contestants, along with gifts from the sponsor. * * * ANOTHER audience-patticipation programme from 1ZB-a_ Telephone » Quiz-is now being conducted at 10.0 p.m. on Mondays. Listeners are supplied vith a special telephone number to ring and when each question is asked, the compére (Hilton Porter) specifies the district from which replies must come. By this system of grouping, competition between districts is fostered. % * * STATION 3ZB is at present conducting a Rugby Quiz, On the Ball, every Monday at 6.30 p.m. and Tuesdav at 7.45 p.m. The quizmaster is J-

K. Moloney, who is a well-known Rugby administrator in Canterbury. Five clubs are represented in the studio each night and at the end of the season the sponsors of the session will donate £50 to the funds of the club with most points, £20 to the club in second position, and £10 to the club coming third, ; * % * aaa MORRIS will shortly be heard ~ over the Commercial stations in a novelty programme called Sound Business, with the emphasis on the sound. Listeners who have heard this series of humorous talks, Random Theughts of an Expectant Father, A Dog’s Best Friend is his Man, and Sponsorsare My Favourite People, should find this new show interesting, as it purports to reveal for the first time the inside story of radio production. In the course of Sound Business, listeners will be told how to simulate the sound of a forest fire, a rapid rally in table tennis, the buzz of a vacuum cleaner and sundry other noises from ‘the effects department. This feature will start at 1ZB on Monday, June 27, 2ZB on July 11, 3ZB on July 25, and 4ZB on August 8, in each case at 7.0 p.m. * * * [-OLLOWING Voyage From Bombay Station 3ZB is now presenting the famous old thriller The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, by Fergus Hume, at 8.45 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On a cold night in July, 1888, the stillness of the Grey Street Police Station, Melbourne, was disturbed, according to the author, by the arrival of a startled cabdriver named Malcolm Royston. He told the sergeant on duty that there was a dead man in the cab. He must have been murdered, for a handkerchief was tied tightly across his nose and mouth. Royston described how he was hailed by a man who was supporting a thoroughly intoxicated friend. The stranger asked him to drive the semi-conscious reveller home, handed him half-a-sover-eign, helped to lift the fare into the cab and hurried away. Twenty minutes later, being uncertain about the address of his fare, Royston called to him through the trap-door ‘in the roof and got a strong whiff of chloroform.. His passenger was dead. But who killed him, and who was the friend? Those were two of the problems for the police to unravel in The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, which is said to be just as entertaining a radio feature as it is a book -for those who like thrillers,