Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 885, 20 July 1956, Page 18

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

COMPERE

HE cheerful voice of Donald McCree (above) has been heard quite a lot on the air in the last few years, compering light entertainment shows such as

Three’s Company, Stewart Gordon Presents, It’s in the Air, The New Zealand Hit

Parade and International Showtime. Away from the microphone, Don is a more serious character than you’d expect, even to the extent of being an account-

ant by profession, However, ever since his younger days at home in Christchurch, radio and entainment generally have had a pretty strong attraction for him. He did some radio acting in Christchurch and then joined the Auckland Community Arts Service production of Tweltth Night, playing Sir Andrew Aguecheek, for a tour of. the North Island. An Auckland provincial tour with the CAS production of An Inspector Calls followed. Don settled in Wellington in 1951, worked away at his accountancy and did radio compering in his spare time. Often he records Showtime and Hit Parade in a rushed lunch-hour the day the shows go on the air. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to write his own scripts as well. Lately he has been working temporarily as accountant for the New Zealand Players, a job carrying its share of worries with The Players about to turn themselves into a limited liability company. As well as keeping up with ‘the world of show business, Don is a longtime and active Film Society supporter and a keen collector of classical longplaying records.

ON LEAVE

AFTER five years as Talks Officer at |" 9YA, Kenneth Funnell is taking a year’s leave of absence in which to visit England and Europe with his wife. In a way it will be a return home, because Ken’s life has been fairly evenly divided between England and New Zealand. This began at the beginning, for his mother was English and his father a New Zea-

lander. Ken was born in. Sze Chwan Province, China, where ‘his- parents were

. missionaries, and at 13 he went to England to school and then on to Cambridge. During the war he was in the Indian’ | Army, in both India and Burma. | When he came to New Zealand in 1949, Ken joined the NZBS straight_way, working first at Head Office Talks | Section. In 1951 he moved up the hill _to 2YA. At home in England, he says, | he just wants to look at the old familiar places and faces again, but like most |NZBS people visiting Britain he will be

interested also to see what broadcasting there has to offer. At the same time he has a personal interest in the BBC through a younger brother who works for the Corporation as a studio manager.

DISC JOCKEY

[- LEVEN o'clock on Friday night is ~ jazz, rhythm and blues time at 2ZB with Glenn Menzies as disc jockey. For an hour Glenn spins new discs which lately have had high ratings overseas or repeats those which have caught local modern music fanciers by the ears. "A few years ago, when I was in Auckland,

I used to be strictly traditional and anti-pro-gressive jazz," Glenn told

us. "Now I like just plenty of good jazz of all kinds, from New Orleans to progressive." The title Jazz, Rhythm and Blues on Parade actually covers two half-hour

sessions, the second more particularly designed for dancing-‘with less talking from me," Glenn said. His scope is wide. He likes to include some of the latest "pop" numbers, especially if they’re put over by Nat "King" Cole or Frank Sinatra; and next week-on July 27he'll be building a show around Duke Ellington, whom he regards as having made one of the most significant contributions to American music in the past three decades. Glenn admits to a natural bias toward American-styled music, with a particularly soft spot for real old Dixieland, as this was his own introduction to jazz. Inevitably we had to ask what he thought of Kenton. "I think he’s great in ‘standards’ like ‘Pennies from Heaven, and his arrangements are wonderful," Glenn said. "I’m doubtful about some of his other stuff, though. It seems to me a bit pretentious." Auckland listeners will remember Glenn’s radio style from his days as a contract announcer at 1ZB: Later he went to Australia for a year, looking at Australian radio techniques and especially at their disc jockey shows. Back at 1ZB he joined the regular staff and later

transferred south to 2ZB. Jazz, Rhythn and Blues on Parade has been running for about six months now. *Each week’s broadcast entails considerable preparation, with both ears cocked to the latest on record and both eyes scanning the overseas jazz journals for the latest in information.

PIANIST

{ANY years ago when the great * pianist Paderewski toured New Zealand he had to journey over the rugged country between Napier and Gisborne on horseback-he had sent his piano by sea. Recently the visiting English pianist, Lance Dossor, heard about his famous predecessor as he made the same journey

by car. He was plaving as soloist with the National Orchestra which was in this

area on tour. Both he and the Orchestra found a warm welcome-excellent houses and warm, sympathetic audiences-wait-ing for them in every town: Palmerston North, Hastings, Napier and Gisborne. Mr. Dossor told us that he had enjoyed his tour a great deal and found that the visit of the Orchestra was looked forward to. He thought the time would soon come when these towns would "demand a greater number of visits." Of the Orchestra he said that he considered it compared with the two main orchestras in Australia, at Sydney and Melbourne. After his New Zealand tour Mr. Dossor left for Australia on his way to England where he will be playing with many of the leading English orchestras during the coming concert season. Besides being a concert pianist he is the chief pianoforte teacher at the Conservatorium in Adelaide. His lessons there must be enter-

taining for he has none of the gravity usually associated with professors.

"HE Canadian Bernard Braden, whom listeners will remember from the BBC series First Rehearsal, is one of the few comic actors who have specialised in pure radio comedy. Another sample will be heard in BBC Variety Parade from a number of stations on July 28. Listeners

who wonder about the title of this pro-gramme-Between Times With Braden -need to go back to the time when Braden. was first given a show of. his own, broadcast early in the morning as Breaktast With Braden. Highly popular, the series was later heard in the evening as Bedtime With Braden-the programme heard here as First Rehearsal. The latest title is the compromise that evolved as the Braden show settled down.