Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 934, 5 July 1957, Page 18

Open Microphone

-_ NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

JAZZ WITH BAS

"I’M not trying to educate anybodyI just play the music I like," says Basel Tubert. And by playing the music he likes Basel has made his 2ZB Friday night _programme a_ favourite with jazz-lovers and late night listeners

in general. In its present form the nrocramme hecan

in October last year. "Basel chooses the records himself and admits he is rather partial to "Fats" Waller and Louis Armstrong. He hopes later to devote a

whole programme to: each of the masters in jazz, probably beginning with "Fats" and Woody Herman. A family man-two girls and a boyBasel Tubert has been in broadcasting for nine years. Two of these were spent at 2YA, and he seemed surprised that many people don’t realise that the YA stations play far more jazz than the ZBs. In fact, he said, the amount of jazz from the ZBs is almost negligible. But don’t think Basel’s taste in music is restricted to jazz, for

he’s equally interested in classical and light orchestral arrangements --4in fact, anything that’s good, Basel’s early life was -Tather varied. From school he went straight into the Army, and from _ the Army to an announcing audition. After the audition he was politely told he would not make an announcer, and so he worked in a large city store, on the wharves, and even tried farming. None ‘of these satisfied him, and when he saw an advertisement asking for radio announcers he thought he would have another crack at it. This time he was successful. "But," he added, "at first I found that four hours on the air was harder than eight hours of manual labour, and until I could forget about all the people listening it was* quite a nervous strain."

At home Basel likes to listen to Australian and American radio stations since from them he gains new ideas for his own programmes. He reads a great deal but remarked that when you work in shifts you can’t belong to clubs or go out regularly with your friends. When we asked what made him want

to become an announcer, he grinned and replied: "IT didn’t like hard work!" *

RULING PASSION

RECENTLY appointed Shopping Reporter at 2ZA--where she takes the place of Jocelyn Cooper — Margaret Orsbourn describes radio as her "ruling passion." "I love the work, especially the opportunity to meet people and to bring them the news," says Margaret, who has also done a stint as a general announcer at 2XP. "Last year at the time of the tornado we were able to broadcast information and __interviews with the people chiefly concerned several hours before the newspapers were out. The only catch in my life as. an announcer was that I had to give up for a while my other

big interest, drama. My | working shifts varied so much that I couldn’t regularly attend any outside meetings. In Auckland I belonged to several

drama groups. One of the parts I had was Doto, in Chris-

topher Fry’s A Phoenix Too Frequent, which came third in a drama festival at Auckland. It’s a lovely part and great fun to do." Then she was an _ (continued on next page)

Aucklander? "Oh, no, I was born in Reefton, on the West Coast," Margaret said. "But I went to school in Auckland, and was a librarian there for several years before doing some office work." Broadcasting, how. ever, she made it clear, was what she had always most wanted to do. +

UNCONVENTIONAL

[POX-HUNTING in inland Australia, sealhunting off Newfound. land, and the Hale-End hold-up are not. subjects you generally expect to hear a minister of religion talking about on the air, so there’s a geod reason for the subtitle-"The Unusual Experiences of an Unconventional Parson"’which 3YZ has given a series of talks by the Rev. D. B. Ashford, who

discusses these topics and a few others besides, It’s hardly surprising that Dudley Bright Ashford, as he prefers to be called, has not always been a parson, even an unconventional one. London-born, he has been in his time a dentist’s apprentice, @ bank clerk

and. a teacher in London; a professor of psychology in Memphis, Tennessee;

an inspector of schools in Newfoundland; and a

parson in Great Britain, the United States, Newfoundland, Australia and New Zealand. As if that were not variety enough, he retired from the ministry to four years as a factory manager at Rakaia. A visitor to New Zealand as far back as 1908, Mr Ashford has been here continuously since 1931. In retirement he still keeps busy with relieving work as a Presbyterian minister, and when he -isn’t preaching he ~ lives with his daughter and ‘son-in-law on a farm near Ashburton, where he "keeps an eye on the ewes and weeds out the thistles." A Man in ,His Time, as his series of talks is called, was recorded in Greymouth, but by the time it takes the air Mr Ashford will have taken up his next appointment, at Kaitangata. There he -will stay till the end of the year, when. he expects to return to Britain. Mr Ashford’s other topics in his broadcast talks are silk hats, violins ‘and

violinists, and the discovery of the Golden Mile in Western Australia, and listeners will find he discusses them in a racy and down to earth way. * ALYPSO, as you'd expect, is a big thing for the record companieseven those below the shareholder level are getting a little something out of it. Under the heading "Crowded Caribbean," Variety reported recently: "Everybody at the disc companies is angling for all-expense paid trips to the Caribe ree these days. Pitch to the boss is at it’s necessary to find calypso talent and/or tunes."