Topical Notes

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 11, 27 September 1929, Page 27

Topical Notes

(Rv

Switch

A LISTENER acquaintance of the older vintage, who dates back to six or seven years’ association with broadeast listening, recently asked "Switch" how it was that such a wonderful array of talent was put on the air in Australia. First of all, Sydney and Melbourne possess superb conservatoriums of music, with highly specjalised teachers, who include men such as Mr. Spencer Thomas, who arrived in Australia as first tenor in the Quinland Operatic Company. ‘Then there is a steady influx to Australia of gifted English and Continental vocalists and instrumentalists, who never get as far as New Zealand. The fame of Australians as a music-loving people has drawn these artists to the Commonwealth, where they are engaged in coneert work and teaching. WITH the huge sum of money at their disposal the new Australian Broadcasting Company is able to embark on a new and interesting scheme. The plan constitutes the holding of a class every Saturday morning for aspiring performers, who will be instructed in performing before’ the microphone, and how to overcome what is known as "mike fright." Experience everywhere shows that many good singers and even instrumentalists suffer from microphone fright, and their efforts are somewhat marred by this.

The Australian Broadcasting Company are not going to charge the students any fee. ANY people in comfortable circumstances in our midst still hold aloof from radio under the misapprehension that it requires a certain amount of technical knowledge. They have not been sufficiently interested. to visit radio exhibitions, where they would perceive that the modern A.C. set is easier to manipulate than a gramophone. It is thirty-three years since Marconi demonstrated in England the first practical system of wireless telegraph communication, and broadcast receiving sets have now reached a parallel stage of perfection to that of the motor-car. Traders should concentrate on the manifest simplicity of the A.C, set, more than ever.