Ignorance

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 534, 16 September 1949, Page 11

Ignorance

[_ISTENING in awe a little after 6.0 am. the other morning to a Commercial announcer selling things and playing bright music, I started to wonder if we know at all what we are doing with radio. The Commercial stations run from 6.0 am. till midnight, the

Nationals from 6.0 a.m. till 11.20 p.m. I don’t think anyone has the faintest idea how many people are listening at what hours, or, more important, for how long in how many households the radio is used as a background. The NZBS are evidently of the opinion that the majority of radio owners want 18 hours’ programmes each day, and if they don’t want to listen they can always switch off. I don’t think the NZBS or anybody else would say it is possible "to fill those 18 hours with material of a uniformly high quality, nor does the Service want listeners to ‘try and listen all day in a concentrated manner, Listen when you want to, and -when you don’t, either switch off, or use the radio as a background. Do we know what background listening does to us? I don’t say it is either bad or good for us. All I can say is that I don’t know. There are a lot of things competing for our attention in. the world to-day; we are pulled in many directions at once. This is bound to have some effect, and it seéms time that the effect was investigated. If the NZBS wants to know what it is doing to its listeners, it should start being scientifically curious. There is a big’ field for curiosity, and in this country it is prac-

tically untouched,

G. leF.

Y.