EDITORIAL NOTES.

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 8, 7 September 1928, Page 6

EDITORIAL NOTES.

JFINE weather only is awaited for the launching of the attempt to fly the Tasman. Based on performance the public expects the flight to be successful. Captain Kingsford Smith, with the ultimate interests of aviation at heart, has rightly declined the publicitymongering challenge issued him to fly without radio or navigational aid. No suggestion could have been more stupid. As a feat the successful crossing of these troubled waters will be outstanding. The pioneer achievement of the feat may in the long run herald a regular service for mail-carrying purposes. That is a distant possibility. A DEVELOPMENT of American broadcasting that cannot be ignored and may contain a lesson for New Zealand is the growth of advertising over the air. As is well known American broadcasting stations are privately owned and rely for their support upon the sale of time and sponsored programmes. Large-scale national adver~tisers, seeking the public good will, court same by providing "feature programmes" under their name. Newspapers, on the occasion of national events, hire stations for the broadcasting of accounts by their own special writers. For instance, the Heeney-Tunney fight was described on the air by a leading paper by its own writers as an advertisement for itself. Another paper arranged a special broadcast on short wave for New Zealand. Again, political parties in the Presidential campaign now in progress hire "time" as part of their publicity. It is computed that sixty large-scale national advertisers spent last year between £2,000,000 and £2,250,000 in broadcast advertising. This method of advertising has, of course, been linked in with national newspaper and magazine advertising, and has met with the hearty co-operation of skilled advertising agencies. An address before an advertising convention admitted that two’ years ago advertising experts were sceptical of the value of radio. To-day they are fully won and enthusiastic. The attitude of the public to the sponsored programme is, of course, the crux of the matter. Whereas a year ago there was still doubt as to how the public viewed receipt of programmes at the favour of a national advertiser, to-day it is held that if these were withdrawn for any reason, there would be a demand for their restoration. That is one view. On the other hand, it is stated that the public does not express appreciation of programmes sponsored by advertisers. This statement comes from Post Office officials, who state that "applause cards" drop to vanishing point when a radio band or orchestra is sponsored by a commercial firm. That fact may not, of course, affect that appreciation of the programme, but simply the expression of it. New Zealand has relied so far on listeners’ fees for broadcasting development. Would an adaptation of the American system of "selling time’ be an advantage under New Zealand conditions?