STRIDE FORWARD in SOUTH CANTERBURY
HIS is the first of seven articles in which a representative of "The Listener" makes a tour of the X Stations and the'districts they are serving. The articles will be published once a fortnight.
rs; HERE is a great tract of sheep country lying to the South," a whaling steersman told George Rhodes in Akaroa in the late 1840s. Rhodes thought it over and decided to make an experiment. You can see the developed centre of that experiment now-Timaru. Twenty-two thousand people in familiar houses on the not-quite-level foreshore of Caroline Bay. Excellent facilities for alf sports. A wellequipped hospital. The A. and P. Show in October has a high reputation and attracts many visitors. So do the bathing beauty competitions in the summer holidays. There are at least twentythree noteworthy types of industry, including the manufacture of gloves, concrete power poles, furniture, and the only macaroni factory in New Zealand. The surrounding farms keep the port busy with their export produce. There is prosperity, although the man cannot be found who admits he himself is prosperous; it is always the other fellow. How is prosperity measured?. It is no matter for rulers or measuring tapes. It is seen in faces and clothes, in full shopping baskets, or even in the complete absence of hitch-hikers or tramps along the 100 miles to Christchurch. The day.The Listener correspondent travelled south the only tramp, near the Rakaia, turned out to be a fisherman, walking along the road in tattered clothes with his fiendishly expensive split cane rod, Serving the South Canterbury district, and the prosperity, is a daily newspaper, and a radio station, 3XC. The radio station is a new development, one of a series of seven experiments called X stations which have been established since 1949 in a pro-
gramme of provincial expansion, stretching from Timaru to Whangarei. NZBS officers,,and some of their listeners, are inclined to take a slightly pallid view of the word experiment when it is applied to their activities. It calls to mind uneasily the vivisectionist and the guinea pig. The dictionary definition unemotionally removes the curse from the word: "A procedure adopted on the chance of its succeeding," says the Concise Oxford. That is exactly the
" procedure adopted by the Rhodes brothers when they thought over the steersman’s words and then took up 150,000 acres of South Canterbury lend in the eighteen-fifties. The success of
their experiment has made possible a century of others. Experiments in the arts, in entertainment, or in business are by no means clinical. Too many human feelings are involved for that, too many complicated emotional _ relationships kept .bubbling warmly by the unpredictable and explosive creative force. For these reasons it is exciting to be a member of a community experiment, and reassuring to visit one and have the conviction reinforced that the experimenter is the creator, and therefore a_ lively, worthy, and absolutely necessary member of any community. Looking back at the development of a district, it is possible to see when a stride forward was made. In South Canterbury, two of these points of progress were the building of refrigerated ships and stores, and the construction of a good harbour
at Timaru. Since World War II, production in the area has increased in an astonishing manner. Local residents seem to agree on three points of progress in this short time. First, the readiness of practical farmers to
adopt scientific methods has been intensified by the practical, working advice given by local officers of the Department of Agriculture. Secondly, the community made up its mind to destroy rabbits. And thirdly, aerial topdressing was introduced. This latest surge forward in production covers the lifetime of 3XC and provides the basis for its early and continued flourishing. Two men who fore‘saw the opportunity and spoke many times in public of the need for a Timaru radio station were Messrs. Clyde Carr and S. Hanan. And when these two gained their point, the NZBS provided staff who were able to take advantage of the favourable conditions. Of the twelve people who staffed the station when it opened on January 18, 1949, three are still on the strength: G. C. Wastney is Station Manager; S. R. Williamson, Programme Organiser; and H. A. Craig, Senior Technician. The complete staff now numbers twenty-six. Although Mr. Wastney mentioned it first in conversation with The Listener, there was hardly a staff member who didn’t have something to say about the success of the policy which directed that NZBS officers who knew South Canterbury well should as far as possible staff 3XC when it opened, and that they in turn should train other South Canterbury people to take up the jobs expansion made available. So much of both the programme and advertising staff's work depends on perBe contacts in the community, Mr, Wastney explained. It is a process of infiltration rather than mass attack. A staff of strangers, coming to a region which is strange to close contact with radio, have first to introduce themselves as people, and then introduce the medium, to prospective advertisers and "prospective artists. But if they already have familiar faces, they can immediately start infiltrating as radio men. Doris Kay, of 3XC’s Women’s Session, came to radio via home science, and a demonstrating job with the gas company in Timaru. She remarked reflectively that she didn’t know how she would have tackled the radio job if she hadn’t already known ‘Timaru business people and the housewives who came to her cooking demonstrations. Staff members infiltrate entertainment groups because they themselves like to sing or act. And the choir or repertory company to which they be-
long is sure to visit near-by towns. That provides a chance to form groups of potential radio talent who may be called upon to broadcast when they visit Timaru. In South Canterbury such groups are flourishing at Oamaru (a town lend-leased) by North Otago), Waimate, Temuka, Fairlie and Ashburton, Some of the small choirs (the Clarion Octette and the Mixed Choral Group were mentioned particularly) have developed along with the station, and have become known in South Canterbury primarily through their radio work. This special attention is partly due to the emphasis and talent South Canterbury people have shown in repertory work. One or other of the Timaru drama groups is always well up in drama competitions, which, together with the highly-praised broadcasts recorded by Technical College pupils at a verse-speaking festival, seems to show that the spoken word is of so high a quality there that musicians need every opportunity of practice and’ performance to keep level. The Girls’ and Boys’ High Schools are also training grounds for choral singers and band players, many of the best of the latter going into the Timaru Municipal Band later. The Listener correspondent was amiably received during visits to the various departments of 3XC. Programmes successfully cleared a search for an urgently wanted, missing theme record, and then produced daily schedule sheets and scripts of some pet shows. Two things make the programme people happy: good presentation of a script by the announcer, and evidence, in the way of phone calls and letters, that listeners are interested in what's going on. As the script indicated of a highly successful hill billy show called Ranch House Refrains: "Once Chester and the boys get a-playin’ there’s nothin’ you nor me nor anybody can do to stop ’em." Therefore, Programmes ‘like to have their production problems worked out before a broadcast, their record library in good order, their scrap books close at hand, their announcers alert, their performers well rehearsed and relaxed, and all their typists in good health, Very occasionally, human nature being what it is, none of these conditions is fulfilled. Then those involved improvise, usually with such success that listeners are un-
aware of the expressions of intense concentration worn by the busy survivors on the other side of the microphone. Improvisation is also a necessary skill for technicians. H. A. Craig, Senior Technician at 3XC, gesturing towards the present equipment and spares with the air of a man who knows the tools ate sufficient for the job, recalled the first year of opetation, when they had a tfansmitter but much of the studio equipment was improvised, when they sluftig wire between two seventy-five-foot wooden poles and called it a transmitting mast, and when they did a good twelve months’ broadcasting without breakdown on only one power supply. "When the spares afrived we stafted to have the usual gmount of trouble," Mr. Craig remarked. Talking of coverage, Mr. Craig, who was brotight up at Makikihi, spoke of the days when the Californian stations KFI and KNX wefe received during dlaylight hours in his area. "That doesn’t happen now," he said, "because modern transmitting knowledge enables us to coficentrate ¢overage on the areas to which we owe loyalty as a local station. It wouldn't do us mtich good if 3XC was received in California but not in Fairlie." The country listener, and from further back than Faitlie, seemed to be a favourite at 3XC. Mr. Craig talked of them, Doris Kay, of the Women’s Hour, said that Timaru was a country town in the true sense of the word, being dependent on fatm produce, and that
isolated families could feel their part in things if they were catered for properly by a radio station, and Pat O’Dwyer, 3XC’s advertising salesman, said he’d noticed not only advertisers but also rural schools take a great interest in the station. Mr. O’Dwyer, who came to 3XC from Wellington, found that in Timaru he was dealing directly with business men, rather than through advertising agencies. "They know their backgtound," he said. "Timaru is solid, in a financial way. No high-pressure sales wanted. A quiet approach and the assutance of quality is needed. If they’re satisfied, they'll come back and stay loyal." Yet Mr. O’Dwyer has found that his dealings with advertising agencies are increasing. "Companies who advertise nationally are realising that they must use the local station to complete their coverage," he said. "Their representatives, when they visit us, ¢se the sott of two-way loyalty the station arid the district share. They taf see how we support local organisations like the Red Cross, the women’s organisations, the A. and P. Shows, and the sports ¢lubs of all kinds. Then they talk with local business people and find the support is returned, People keep us tuned." Mr, O’Dwyer smiled, looked out of the window at the town, and summed up in a senténce 3XC’s worthy paft in the local community. "People say ‘our station,’" he said. (An article on Station 2XN Nelson tn appeat in "The Listenér’ of May
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 874, 4 May 1956, Page 9
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1,786STRIDE FORWARD in SOUTH CANTERBURY New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 874, 4 May 1956, Page 9
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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