ZB Station Programmes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 547, 16 December 1949, Page 6

ZB Station Programmes

HIS Christmas at the Commercials the emphasis will be on.pure, joyful entertainment. Mothers who all the year have to answer children’s questions raised by what they’ve heard on the radio, fathers who work in worrying, mind-stretching jobs during the year, can be sure they will find nothing to batter their brains in the ZB programmes on Christmas Day. There is something for everybody, in any New Zealand Christmas surrounding, whether you carry your radio with you in fine weather, or stay: at home to listen to it in wet. The first link of the Commercials on Christmas Day will be at 2.30 p.m, when Marina of 1ZB, Elsie Lloyd of 2ZB, Mollie McNab of 3ZB, and Marjorie Green of 42ZB, will talk about some feature of past Christmases which stamped itself on their memories. They will be introduced by Athol Coates. When they have finished their reminiscing, a short dramatic sketch will be presented, called "Wishing on a Christmas Tree." This has . been written by Margaret Pearson, London correspondent for the ZB Women’s Hour, and tells of a family reunion in Christmas-time London. It will be produced in the studios of the NZBS. Between 6.0 and 7.0 p.m. 2ZA will link with the other Commercial stations for a special broadcast from Scandinavia. The Danish State Broadcasting Service Children’s Choir has made a special recording of a performance for the ZBs, and listeners who heard a somewhat similar feature last year will not be slow in tuning in again. _ Following in this hour-long _ link, ‘childven from the Polish Hostel in Wellington will sing the Christmas songs of their country. Next will come The Fourth Wise Man, a dramatic adaptation by Bryan O’Brien of an old legend, The lead will be taken by Kenneth Firth, and suitable background music has been recorded by Charles Martin, the erganist of St. Paul’s ProCathedral, Wellington. The last portion of the hour, for all stations with the exception of 1ZB, will be suitably filled by Anita Oliver conducting the 4ZB Choristers, in a specially-prepared programme of Christmas music. At 8.0 p.m. stars from the British film studios of J, Arthur Rank will be heard in a dramatic presentation, Five Wishes For Christmas. No description of this show is necessary tq entice ‘movie fans to their radio sets when it is revealed that fabulous people like Stewart Granger, John Mills, and Googie Withers are included. Station

2ZB will broadcast this shdw at 7.30 p.m. At 9.0 p.m., in the last link for the day, a variety show originating in Auckland, and presenting Auckland artists, will be heard. Among those lined up before the mike will be two vocal groups who have toured the ZBs during the last year: The Knaves and The Duplicats. Listeners to this show will also be able to hear the ex-Christchurch pianist Nancy Harrie, John Mackenzie in mnovachord items, and Maurice Tansley, a light baritone and member of the original 2nd NZEF Kiwi Concert Party. Two other Christmas programmes can be heard from all the Commercial stations; Carols and Folksongs of Yugoslavia, and Is There a Santa Claus? by Kenneth Melvin, the Radio Editor. These programmes are being presented at different times from different stations, and details of times can be found in the programme section of this issue. The "Voice of America" has also made available a record of Christmas greetings from New Zealanders in Washington, D.C. Among those who can be heard are the New Zealand Trade Commissioner and Commercial Attache, Robert W. Marshall, who has been eleven years in the United States, but has never quite got over his original arrival in Los Angeles in the middle of a Shriners’ Convention, and Mrs. Philip Maddock, of Wellington, who has only been in America a few weeks. At the request of the Commercial Division, the BBC invited a team of Australian and New Zealand artists in London to put on a show for the folks back home. Ted Kavanagh, one of the sanest madmen at large, will be the compére for Joy Nicholls, Dick Bentley, Colin Horsley, and Inia Te Wiata. Broadcasting times for both the American and BBC programmes will be announced later by individual stations. Special programmes from individual Commercial stations include the following: AUCKLAND TATION 1ZB will be awake bright and early with Santa Claus Reports at 7.0 .a.m., when that harassed old gentleman wil! relate some of his adventures and misadventures on Christmas Eve. Thea and Gil will be in the Children’s Hospital Wards at 8.0 a.m. describing the youngsters’ reactions as they receive their gifts, and interviewing some of the children at the microphone; and at 10.30 am. Elsie K.

Morton, a travel writer of distinction, will talk on A Visit to Bethlehem. WELLINGTON T 9.20 am. .from 2ZB_ Wallie Ingram will take a look at the year’s sport in retrospect, no doubt handing. delicate commiseration to the footballers with one hand, and massed bouquets to the cricket tourists with the other. At 4.0 p.m., as we start to regain consciousness after our own Christmas dinner, we are invited to another, chez Sherlock Holmes, at Baker Street. This show is scripted and produced by the NZBS. At 8.0 p.m. there will be a special half-hour Christmas Day Supplement, a_ topical, extended version of the quarter-hour Sunday Supplement. PALMERSTON NORTH TATION 2ZA is spending a lot of time in the hospitals on Christmas Day. At 9.30 am. the children get their Christmas presents, between noon and 2.0 p.m. hospital patients can listen to their requests and following this session, the old people are visited in the Awapuni Hospital. At 11.0 a.m., a farmer’s wife dusts the flour off her hands, calls her husband, and they both tell listeners about a working farmer’s Christmas. The Farmer is not Forgotten should be required listening for townspeople, because all too often he feels he is forgotten. CHRISTCHURCH ASSED Christchurch Brass Bands have recorded a special Christmas programme which 3ZB will broadcast at 9.30. a.m. At 10.30 am. Christchurch people who have given flowers will be able to hear an account of 3ZB’s staff presenting them to the old people in the city’s homes and hospitals. At 2 o’clock Airini Grennell will send Christmas greetings to the Maori people, and at 3.0 p.m. there will be a tribute to Christmas workers-milkmen, policemen, mailroom sorters, and hydroelectric operators. (We Can’t Hold Christmas Successfully Without Them.) DUNEDIN EADING Dunedin artists are this "~ year co-operating to bring Christmas entertainment to the old people of the town. The concert will be recorded and broadcast from 4ZB at 10,30 on Christmas morning. Starting: at 4.30 p.m., Peter Dawson -of .the 4ZB Children’s Session wifl do a round of the Children’s Wards of the Dunedin Hospital-with loaded Christmas tree and a portable microphone.