CORRESPONDENCE DIGEST

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 2, 29 July 1927, Page 10

CORRESPONDENCE DIGEST

a BROADCASTERS’ MAIL BAG

VIEWS OF LISTHNERS-IN. In a future issue we will quote from some of the correspondence which pours into the Broadcasting Company from New Zealand listeners and from overseas. ‘The extracts will make interest- | ing reading, and will afford some indication of the many diverse suggestions which come from well-meaning listeners. Then there are the critics, some of whom have never admitted that there has been anything right with broadcasting. But these critics are not as numerous as one might suppose. Every letter that is received at the headquarters of the company in. Christchurch is carefully noted and filed, and it has been found that somewhat less than 2 per cent. are hostile. The criticism which has of late heen heard, mainly formented by a few, reminds one of a famous quotation: **Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their unfortunate chink, while numbers of preat cattle reposing in the shadow of the British oak quietly chew the cud, prav do not imagine that those who gmake the most noise are the only inhabitants of the field." = It has been surprising with what celerity people write to express their opinions on the various programmes. A «lew atmouncer, for instance, who may be put ‘fon the air’? some evening for a "try ont"? can expect a verdict from the public next day.. If the announcer has pleased them they say so. If he has displeased anyone, the writer is usually candid, brutally so, sometimes. One such correspondent said: ‘‘What sort of a Dismal Jimmy have you got for aniouncer? Did you get him ont of the morgue?" But the same man pleased others. Following is an extract from a letter such as the company likes to receive :- "Allow me to tender my appreciation of the past week’s transmissions from the New Zealand stations. I wish to mention that my home is situated under half-a-mile from 3YA, and I have a receiver that enables me to listen to your other stations, also the Australian stations, while 8YA is operating, and I am certain that if the majority of listen. ers were able to do this very few com. plaints would be heard. With regard to the quality and nature of the Australian programmes which are so highly praised by a section of listeners in New Zealand, I think that it is a case where ‘distance lends enchantment."" Personally I do not think that the Australian,

programmes, on the average, are so very superior to those transmitted from the New Zealand stations, and my listening-in experience extends over a ecutinuous period of four years. Certainly they put over many "stunts" which listeners appreciate, but it must not be forgotten that the Australian stations have had several years’ start of New Zealand in broadcasting matters. I may here point out that Mr. Prentice, shortly after arriving in New Zealand, stressed the point that station 2BL was continually receiving letters of complaint, and being criticised in Australia for poor programmes." The following is a sampfe of many letters received from Australia:-Just a line of appreciation and thanks for the excellent programmes you transmit which we hear very clearly indeed, nearly every night. We have often preferred to dance to your broadcast music in place of that from this or our other States. Every Sunday evening we listen to the church service which we appreciate very much. We can almost hear the coins dropped into the collection plate. ;

But whether correspondents write to express approval or the reverse, , the secretary ‘welcomes all letters. Everyone is replied to and suggestions, if practicable, are adopted. A letter recently forwarded to the company read as follows :- Apropos of the recent criticism levelled at the Radio Broadcasting Company, I send you a copy of a cutting from "The Times," London. It will show that. even the B.B.C., under Government control, is not giving’ wniversal satisfaction. If, in the letter quot--ed below, the word ‘‘German’* be replaced by the word ‘"‘Australian,’’ ‘the | sentiments apply exactly to New Zea-. and.

The letter, which is signed "Jj, stu livan, Rosshurst, Hampstead," is as follows :--~ "Sir,--Your correspondent Mr. Ernest T. Goldsmith suggests that it is necessary for broadcast listeners to receive German stations in order to get good musical programmes. Mr. Goldsmith must be a very occasional listener, or he would realise {for it is common knowledge among all who listen regularly) that the B.B.C. musical programmes are far and away ahead of any others that are broadcast. ‘Take . last Thursday night, for instance. I. challenge Mr. Goldsmith to refer to atty broadcast music equal to the B.B.C. programme on that evening. ~ "T think it is about time that some effort was made by listeners to put a stop to the baiting of the B.B.C. that has now become so popular in a section of the Press. The fact is that we have a first-rate broadcasting service. It 1s defective in so far .as it lacks facilities for providing alternative progtammes, but the B.B.C. themselves are fully alive to this and are doing what they cat, to remedy it. Such expressions as "mandarins" and "bureaucrats" are not deserved: by the B.B.C. people, who are in fact a most zealous, self-sacrific-ing, and able body of public servants." So humat nature is the same‘on bot sides of the world!-Yours etc, --,