When Do We Have Fun?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 24, Issue 623, 8 June 1951, Page 13

When Do We Have Fun?

N a letter in the press recently a listener argued that a good way of suiting all tastes was to have each station devoted to one kind of progtamme only, and then suggested that one station might give "high-class vaudeville." I can imagine the programme organisers sadly shaking their heads and saying, "If only we could get it." Firstclass humour is the most difficult thing to get, great comedians are rate on the stage and rarer still on the air. When one makes his appearance the eager listeners who never miss one of their favourite broadcasts give some indication of the demand, for whether you like Spike Jones or Palestrina, Bach or boogie-woogie, you probably gave an anticipatory smile at the words "Good morning, sir, was there something?" I see that I used the past tense unconsciously there, for I have sadly watched the decline of Much-Binding, of which I was very fond. I would be equally fond of Take It From Here if it were not for the, to me, quite inexplicable NZBS habit of giving Much-Binding from a number of different stations at varying days in the week, and of restricting Take It From Here (apart

from one or two X stations) to Sunday evenings only. This means that if, like me, you are not able to listen on Sunday evening, you miss the broadcast completely.. Why so lavish with one programme and so niggardly with the other? It cannot be that the Service assumes that you can’t hear a funny broadcast twice, for this is belied by the use over and over again of records by comedians. Nor can it be that the broadcast is tied in with advertising, for it is not. I cannot explain, I can

only deplore,

D.

M.