ADVICE FROM LISTENERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 555, 10 February 1950, Page 5

ADVICE FROM LISTENERS

Sir-The New Year message to listeners by the new Minister of Broadcasting, the Hon. F. W. Doidge, makes interesting reading. ‘There are many in this country, of whom I am one, who in the past would have liked to make suggestions and recommendations, but felt that they were not welcomed. Now the new policy enunciated by Mr. Doidge is to encourage the listener to make constructive suggestions, It is here that, I think, we should pause to think what this may mean to the Director and his staff. If everyone is invited, and such invitations are accepted, what a flood of correspondence there will be! In addition, will it be physically possible for each suggestion to receive the ‘consideration it may be entitled to? The Minister has suggested that there be formed "Listening" Parties." That is an excellent idea, but it is only the first stage; the second is the formation of Listeners’ Associations, and, when these are formed all over the Dominion a Federation of Listeners’ Associations should be the logical sequence. All ideas, suggestions and recommendations would then be discussed by each association and, when accepted, passed on to the Federation, with whom the Director and staff of the Broadcasting Service would deal. Some. such organisation is an absolute. necessity, in reply to the Ministéer’s request, and we are morally bound to do all that lies in our power to make constructive recommendations for the benefit of the Service as a whole. It is true in broadcasting, as in every other walk of life, that the "onlooker

sees most of the game," and if that is true we should be willing to offer advice in the best» possible manner to those whose duty it will be to ¢onsider it.

H. GLADSTONE

HILL

(Plimmerton).