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Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 16, 4 November 1927, Page 4

Simultaneously with Carnival Week in Christchurch, and the specially full descriptive news service that will be given by 3YA in connection with the races, and an accompanying supplement of night features, the Radio Broadcasting Company is undertaking a brief and intense publicity campaign throughout Canterbury to popularise radio, and enlarge the number of licensed listeners. This enterprise is very commendable, and we trust will reap its due reward. Listeners will already have noted the fact that the service given them can be increased in merit and quality only as the resources of the company are enlarged by extra revenue. It is primarily also to the interests of listeners themselves to increase their own numbers by securing as many recruits as possible, and ensuring that all are duly licensed. Not only in connection with this campaign, but with the approach of the Christmas season, an opportunity is presented for popularising radio by the giving of radio presents or equipment. We should not be surprised to find at a later stage a definite effort being made, in which we will be glad to co-operate, to make the Christmas of 1927 memorable as a radio Christmas. That will be a matter for development. In the meantime, it may be timely to briefly review the efforts made by the Broadcasting Company to fully meet the needs of the public, and the response thereto by listeners. In Christchurch recently, as the outcome of a small agitation, the Christchurch Listeners’ League convened a public meeting, which was attended by some 50 or 60 persons out of, as the president remarked, a total of 6000 licensed listeners in the district. The meeting, too, was open to the general public, and the fact that only 1 in 100 of the licensed listeners attended may be taken as a definite indication of their general satisfaction with the existing service. Some few months back the complaints of critics were as to the lack of quality in the programmes. With the steady improvement in its financial position, the company has progressively rectified that, and now the complaint that is being voiced is that there is too much quality and not enough "light" entertainment. It must be taken for granted that to perfectly please a cosmopolitan audience at all times is impossible. Jiuman tastes and degree of culture are so varied that one man’s musical meat is another’s poison, and there must inevitably be a degree of conflict between the two main sections which, for the sake of convenience, may be described as the highbrow audience and the "others." A judicious mixture in the class of programme is desirable, and is being given, but obviously the company, seeking to fulfil the general demand for entertainment, must set a reasonably high standard in the items selected. The difficulty of pleasing all was well illustrated at the meeting in question, as three distinct classes of complaints were voiced:-(1) not enough quality; (2) too much quality; and (3) the desire for a vaudeville programme every night. The point of chief interest in connection with the mecting was that it was attended by the general manager of the company, Mr. A. R. Harris, who gave an indication of his policy that is of definite interest. ‘The company would be prepared and glad, he said, to have available for consultative purposes an accredited representative of listeners; but it was fair, he indicated, that the listeners on their part should be sufficiently organised to ensure that the representative chosen did represent a majority of the listeners, and their views. As the president of the league indicated, that was essentially a fair requirement, and it is sincerely to be hoped that, instead of minority movements making claims for mecting this taste and that demand, the listeners will be sufficiently concerned with the general good of radio to be able to combine and co-operate with the company along lines that will be workable and effective. Obviously the company, with its very considerable investment in the business, is concerned to meet the requirements of its clientele and give the best possible public service. The views of listeners that reach us indicate a very high appreciation of the standard set. It is in reality very much easier to do a job well and satisfactorily than unsatisfactorily, and it is only common sense to assume that the company’s policy is conceived upon a basis of satisfying the majority. There will always be minorities who want more of this or more of that, and they are quite entitled to express their views-although they will always command more respect when given openly than anonymously-but the danger in the situation is that the interests of the majority might at any time be sacrificed by un- due attention being paid to a manufactured and interested propaganda. Anonymous letters are very easily written, and when put into print may attract a notice far beyond their merits, The fact that the number of licensed listeners now totals 35,000, showing more than a 50 per cent, expansion in the past four months, would suggest that the service being given is meeting with a very large measure of public support. Such an increase would not be recorded if it were not for public endorsement and approval of the fare supplied, and recognition that the company is honestly striving to meet all legitimate demands for both instruction and entertainment. The same initiative that has brought about existing ‘results and success may be relied upon fo meet all further demands as the means for doing so become avail¢