...and for the NZBS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 888, 10 August 1956, Page 8

...and for the NZBS

DR. CROWLEY’S main concern is with the BBC; his references to broadcasting in New Zealand are few and brief. In noticing, however, that his recollections of NZBS methods are seven years old, we saw an opportunity -a welcome one-to bring the picture up to date, and at the same time to provide a fuller background for comparisons between BBC and NZBS standards. With this in mind, we asked the Supervisor of Talks, Mr. J. H. Hall, to tell us about the present situation. "THERE have been changes in New Zealand broadcasting since Dr. Crowley left seven years ago," said Mr. Hall. "The YC programme is new. Special sessions on YA and YZ stations have been improved and greatly ex-tended-notably those for women, for farmers, and for followers of sport-and very substantial technical advances have been made, both in equipment and in operators’ skill. Stations from Invercargill and Greymouth to Auckland have been linked by programme line. "Simultaneously, some progress has been made in improving scripts and ensuring that they are more easily and more naturally spoken -- quite striking progress in some cases; but in general working through people is a much slower business than working through machines, Apart from the fixed handicaps that Dr. Crowley acknowledges

(the impossibility, for example, of maintaining from 2,000,000 people a flow of programme quality that will compare with the flow from 50,000,000), other factors make fair comparison difficult. For one thing, the BBC is much better served with buildings and studio facilities than the NZBS is, A BBC talks producer may be able to interview prospective speakers in a separate room undisturbed by telephone or typewriter or other worker; few NZBS talks officers enjoy such quietude. A BBC producer has studios available for rehearsal; his opposite number here usually has not. "Moreover," Mr. Hall explained, "the talks staff would need to be three or four times its present size to allow each job to be given anything approaching the time and attention it can be given by ‘the BBC. The proportion of staff to volume of product was lower in all the Dominion’s broadcasting systems than in the BBC, and much lower in the smaller Dominions. A much larger output was required of the New Zealand talks officer than of his British counterpart, the. BBC talks producer. "Some of these physical obstacles," he went on, "are being overcome as new premises are remodelled. But it would be uneconomic, in New Zealand conditions, to expect to be allowed the time and money spent in preparing BBC programmes. The best-of our technicians, (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) for example, are every bit’ as good as Dr. Crowley’s needle-lifting specialist (though they work their miracles nowadays with tape), but things must be done on a more modest scale here; and every pound spent, whether in salaries, equipment or fees, has to be spread over a greater volume of programme than the BBC pound normally is. "The saddest aspect of comparison is that good natural speakers seem to be much scarcer here than in the United Kingdom: this after full ‘allowance has been made for the disparity in population. Many of the better broadcasters here-far too many for our peace of mind as New Zealanders- have come from the United Kingdom. This is so at all levels of education. New Zealanders as a whole are either naturally less articulate than Englishmen, Scotsmen and Welshmen-or Irishmen, or else the New Zealanders are more scared of their own voices and of trying to use their voices well. The exceptions are a joy to work with: New Zealanders from factory, field or study who have a sense of the beauty and power of words, and

of the rich resources of the human voice properly trained. The pity is, the exceptions are relatively few." Quality of programme, of course, was primarily a product of talent and painstaking care on the part of artist and producer; and the search for new talent, as well as effort to make the utmost possible use of it, was continuous. Yet the extent to which talent could be developed, in talks, by wiser selection of speakers, better briefing, more sympathetic and more intelligent editing, and protracted rehearsal before broad-cast-the extent to which these aids could be practised did depend in some degree upon plant and money. "We have been trying this year to be much more selective in choosing speakers, and somewhat more generous in recognising the quality of the better ones. We shall be yet more selective next year, and-as more studios become available for rehearsal-much more demanding of the talkers whom we commission. I hope we can continue, and perhaps extend, our present system of incentive payments. We’d even put Dr. Crowley through the hoops if he should return!"