Not Enough Cream

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 667, 18 April 1952, Page 10

Not Enough Cream

TATION 1YD seems to me to have dwindled to poor relation status in Auckland radio. The original "New Deal" intention was, I recall, that it should be a "light" station, by contrast with the "semi-light" 1YA ‘and the "serious" 1YC. But up to the present its potentialities are largely unexplored, while 1YA scrapes off the cream of the fun’ and games, Although some of its continuous music sessions are pleasant enough, the vague omnium gatherum titles-Light and Bright, Music. for Moderns, Orchestral Music (sic)-which recall an earlier dispensation, make 1YD’s programmes look especially drab and uninteresting. On the non-musical side, it seems to have become a dump-ing-ground for obsolescent ZB serialsOfficer Crosby pounding his well-worn béat and History unveiling its jazzedup unsolved mysteries. My recent listening convinces me that 1YD will die of galloping mediocrity unless it receives urgent attention. One field in which it could serve a valuable purpose is that of genuine jazz, even though 1YA now has the plum with Jazz Club, U.S.A. As it is, I find 1YD’s brightest spots in such rare items as the recent Groove-Juice Symphony from Opera in Vout, which fascinated me, although my smattering of jive-talk doesn’t run to a translation of the titles.