PIRACY, PHOTOGRAPHY, ASTRONOMY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 727, 19 June 1953, Page 25

PIRACY, PHOTOGRAPHY, ASTRONOMY

OHN PIKE was once a pirate bold; ~’ on another occasion he became Neptune, God of the Sea; eventually he floated to the surface to transform himself into a humble duckling. This was all in the line of duty and necessary for the purposes of a serial called "Tiki and the Twins, broadcast for child listeners to Station 3ZR, Greymouth (now 3YZ). In fact, John took part in several such adventures and enjoyed every minute of them. For some time he also had ideas about being on the writing end of a serial for children, and he produced Jimmy Winkle in Storybook Land, consisting of only four 20-minute episodes. _ Jimmy went on the air with one of the Station’s typists playing the title role. "It wasn’t a very good show," John told me, "but oddly enough no bricks came our way." In 1949 John was asked to conduct the Children’s Session "just for a couple of weeks" filling in until the young woman in charge-who was about to leave the district-was replaced. He's still at it. "There’s something really satisfying in working with and for children," said John. "If they like a thing they let you know about it; if they don’t they still let you know." Later John Pike wrote another serial, Jimmy Winkle’s Second Visit to Story-

book Land. "This didn’t seem to me to be any better than the earlier effort," he said, "but it started something we haven't been able to stamp out. In this tale there was a minor character called Simple Simon. Young people took to Simon and asked if he would make any more appearances. As the young customers seemed to want him, Simon _ began to pay weekly visits to the studio and soon had his own little spot in the programme. Then he started bringing his friends along, so now we are likely to be invaded not only by Simon but by all the rest of the gang, including Mr. Tonsil, Major Tadpole-

Tonsil, Mary Quite Contrary, the Professor and Rumpy the Witch." I asked John about hobbies. He has two-photography in the summer and astronomy all the year round. When he was about 10 years old he was given a copy of Maxwell Reed’s The Stars for Sam as a Christmas present. "That was the start of it all," he said. "I still have this book, and what’s more I find myself browsing through it with interest from time to time. I suppose a hobby shouldn't be allowed to influence one’s work, but astronomy has poked its nose into the Children’s Session, although it wasn’t really my fault. For two or three years now we have been’ broadcasting a programme called Let’s Talk About Things. Young listeners send in questions on any general subject and we try to give the answer. A few months back we made an analysis of the subjects covered and were rather surprised to find that about a sixth of them dealt with astronomy. So, on these grounds we began a series of short talks on astronomy under the title of Seeing Stars." John Pike is now Senior Announcer at 3YZ and Children’s Sessions organiser. Here be is at the microphone. eae