"A Healthy Animation of the Air"...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 549, 30 December 1949, Page 5

"A Healthy Animation of the Air"...

The Hon.

F. W.

DOIDGE

Minister in Charge of

Broadcasting, discusses the objectives of Radio in a New Year Message to Listeners. ----s —

MONGST the tasks allotted me as a Cabinet Minister is one which will permit me to have a voice in shaping the character of broadcasting in New Zealand. Of all the assignments the Prime Minister has made in the new administration I feel that there is nofme more attractive than this. But its responsibilities are manifest. Consider how Broadcasting has grown in a period of little more than twenty years. It seems only yesterday that we marvelled at the miracle of the cfystal set. In 1926 there were 4,000 receiving sets in New Zealand. Today there are 433,965. The world over the stoty of progress is the sare. Great Britain has teri million tegistefed listeners. In the United States there afte 59 millions. Actually, in America, six million more homes have radios than have bath tubs! In that period of little more than a generation, it is true that Broadcasting has not followed any immediately definable gtoup of objectives. It has, in this and every other country, simply felt its way forward, year by year. We afe still in the process of doing that. Afid, in the process, Broadcasting is a natufal tafget for criticism. The lis- teher pays his fee and thinks he has the tight to demand the sort of service he wants. But there are 433,965 registered listeners in New Zealand. Tastes differ. What some people like others abhor. Classical music bores one section of the community; jazz exasperates another. Obviously it is impossible to devise a programme that appeals to all the péedple all the time. It is not easy to balance conflicting tastes. Wé can bit strive to attain’ a standard of perfection, HE problenis which beset us are comton to other countries. A prominent American monthly describes broadcasting in the United States as "in a condition of intellectual purgatory,’ and an article in a recent Readers’ Digest on "Radio’s Plug-tiglies" was endorsed by letters from 80,000 angry subscribers. It is trite but true to describe the radio as one of the world’s mighty forces. How define its purpose? Editorial? Educational? Entertainment? If its function is to raise the standard of public en_lightenment and tasté, how delicate the task! How éat one give the listener what he wants and at the sameé time give him what he ought to Have? The aim must be the gfadual infusion of improved standards. We mist seek to popularise good music; good drama, good educational features. It is the view of Sir William Haley, Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation, that the secret of leadership in broadcasting is that of being always ahead of the public and yet not so far ahead as to be out of touch. "A broadcast has no purpose," he says, "if it is not listened to. Our task is to draw more and more listeners to all that is worth while." SO there must continue to be a grad‘ual approach to the desired standard

of perfection. If popularity were the accepted guide to programmes, imitation would become the accepted rule, and new idéas would die at birth. My hope is that the New Zealand Broadcasting Service will adventuré and experiment, freely and boldly. We shall make mistakes, and arouse controversy. But we ate well-equipped, and we have a splendid staff under a practical Director, in Mr. William Yates. The listener is, and always must be, the final judge. The intelligent and co-operative criticism of thé listener will always be wel¢ortie. Biit if this invitation is accepted, I wotild beg of

the critic to aim at constrictive cfiticism, and to remember that a radio item which may annoy ome hundred people, and move them to angry dentificiation, possibly pleases ten thousand, who are satisfied but silent. It was in Rome, just before the war ended, that the Prime Minister and I had revealed to us the extent to which New Zealanders appreciate opera. Night after night hundreds of New Zealand ‘troops on. leave thronged the Opera House, demonstrating the desire for good music. I feel that in the days ahead-par-ticulafly in the winter months — we slHteuld seek to encourage the development of "listening parties." These have become popular in other parts of the world. It is a new social habit, developed particularly amongst lovers of opera and of drama. INE matter of common complaint I have asked Mr. Yates to examine immediately; it is in relation to what might be termed the "universality" of : New Zealand programmes. There are times when all stations seem to be given over simultaneously to the same type of programme. And it should be possible to find a niche for the critic who declares: "We want a blessed hour of sanctuary where dance bands and unfunny comedians cannot penetrate." That is.not to say that the dance band has not its place; in popularity it must nearly reach top flight: And when the winter months approach we may be able to arfange a special "dance night" each week, so that young people in their own homes, and in small halls in remote country districts, can plan parties with a certainty of a full programme of dance music from one or two spécific stations. Looking into the immediate future, there is another direction in which I hope to sée gteater developments in the

uisé of radio. Duififig the month of January I shall be in Colombo, attending a Corfetetite of Commoftiwealth Ministefs. The purpose of that Conferefice is to discuss Empire problems. There, if the opportunity presents itself, I hope to introduce the question of broadcasting.

The Empire Broadcasting Service grew enofmously during the war. Night after night the actual chimes of Big Ben rang out throughout the homes and cities of the Empire. Each Christmas the voice of His Majesty the King reaches us ut our own hearths. These intimate things -how much they mean to every loyal Britisher. At Colotnbo we shall seek Ways and means of a closer understanding of our Commonwealth problems. As an instrument, the Broadcasting service opens up vast possibilities. In the past the BBC has carried most of the burden. But the organisation should be Empire wide, with the BBC as a partner in a scheme in which we should all share. I believe there is an urgent need for such a service. In conclusion I would say that the New Zealand Broadcasting Service will seek to broaden its association with all those sections of the community it setves -in education; in religious service; in music, drama and entertainment; in the wide sphere of sport; in the hundred and one different directions in which it now operates. It will seek to attain what has been described as "a healthy animation of the air." The helpful, and intelligent co-operation of listeners will always be welcomed. But I would ask our criticsard it will be a dull service if there are no critics-to remember that, in the words of an English writer, there is no royal road or easily defined way for broadcasting. It must stand on good principles, and must create and seek to interpret thosé prificiples in fresh creative ways every day.