Our Mail Bag

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 31, 13 February 1931, Page 12

Our Mail Bag

While we welcome the expressed views of listeners on topics pertaining to radio, we ask that these communications be kept to minimum length, as heavy demands ure made upon space. Mere reiteration of arguments cannot be accepted for publication, and we cannot take responsibility for views expressed. Address communications to the Editor, and sign all correspondence, though a nom-de-plume -might be used for publication.

"Live and Let Live," T LISTHNED to the special programme on a recent Monday night and en~« joyed every section of it. Now I know it is impossible to. please the individual tastes of all listeners; but I think I ean safely say that the prtogtamme would not suit about 50 per cent, of the listeners. -But what about the other half? Why cannot those who so. dislike the. "canned American twang" get their Wednesday night’s programme from the same source as they did before the new idea was conceived? If the proverb "Live and let live" were adopted by all New Zealand radio liszeuiers, I am sute the greatest satisfac

tion possible will be .attained-

D. W.

Harris

(Masterton).

An Eixcellont Suggestion. SoMa months ago lectures on the language Hsperanto wet'e given over the alr by, I think, station SYA, I am wondering whether, during the coming winter, lessons: on French or Spanish eould be fitted in on the programmes from one station or another, I feel sure if a census of opinion could be taken it would be found that such an item on the programmes would meet with much ‘approval.

I suggest-and this is merely my personal opinion only-two evenings per week of, Say, half an hour each. I have named French or Spanish, but I have no doubt French would be the more popular choice. I£ this language could be explained and taught "over the air"

by an expert French linguist, it would assist many who are studying it at present, and possibly interest many who have never bothered to learn it, and arovues them to a desire to attempt the

study of the langusfe-

J.E.

A.

tNew Ply-

mouth).

la ie i i Di i i i i ii Cini id On the International Recordings. I ‘NOTICH on the "Mailbag" page of , & recent issue some protests about 2YA’s silent ‘night being. eliminated and special recordings of overseas programmes presented. I refer to "Hnglish Mother." L, J, Retallick, and H. B. Clapham. Personally I was a vety interested listener to 2YA on the Monday night when the first of these programmes was presented, and I considered it well worth listening to. Yes, L.J., I certainly agree with you when you say the boy and girl dance party number was "trash," but remember we must take the bad with the good. What better could one wish for than "Dr. Wugene Orthandy’s Salon Orchestra, ‘or "Handsome" singing’ in Mexican? | "Wnglish. Mother’ must have forgotten. that there is a little switcb on the set. Why not give the crystal get owners of New Zenland a chance to hear what American programmes are ‘like? Everything the R.B.C. does to uy and entertain ts is picked to pieces by dissatisfied people who can find fault with anything. I much prefer the so-called American twang to some of these so-called cultured English voices that.we find on _records. I have been oa listener to 2YA for three yenrs now and whatever the > directors see fit to do suits me splendidly. ‘orrvy on with the good werk, Z2YA, and

the Broadeasting Company

New

Zealand Father

of Hastings) .

Criticising the Critics. T was with amusement tinged with regret that I read the criticisms of the American programme broadeast from 2YA on a recent Monday night. To L. J. Retallick, "English Mother," and H. B. Clapham, one feels like saying, for guidance for future Wednesdays: "Do as you did other Wednesdays-don’t discourage the fellows that try to help you." T vealise, however, that such sweeping eviticisms deserve a more lengthy retort. Now, I am going to suppose that my three friends are musical, and I ask them can they, as musical critics, tell me of a New Zesland musical combination as good as the Ormandy Orchestra? Personally, I believe that Signor Truda and Mr, Dixon would award the palm to this fine combination. To the musically inclined the tone, quality, rhythm, balance, etc., is really exceptional. Certainly they may not play our old favourites, as our local combinations do, but being far from the musical centres of the world we have naturally 4 poorer idea of the many clasgical works than the people of . some American cities and Europe generally. I look forward to hearing Strauss’s "Waltz Dream" and the "Song of India." Hy-

Wide and Handsome, if you listened carefully, brought in quite a lot of information disguised as dialogue-remember the interesting fact that bats eat mosquitoes? As a country yokel I often. hear stupid and. uninformed criticism of our birds and minor reptiles. Why cannot some of our radio uncles make up little sketches on Hy-Wide’s lines, and educate our children on anitals, ‘trees, wild life, protection, ete. In the form of a ‘dialogue, they would be very popular. Down south here we often did hot bother about the agricultural lectures, but since "Harmer Brown" started to feed us facts stripped of the usual lecture clothing and padded with a chatty dialogue, we are keen listeners, tr ‘ _ AS a vocalist Hy-Wide in my opinion is 2 plane above anything we hear locally. The childven at the party took me back a number of years, and listening to them made mé think of my schooldays. Didn’t. it you? It’s terrible to see someone writr and say he noticed several errors in, vrammar, I'll present my lucky halfs pénny to the child, male or female, who can converse for, say, twenty minutes, without a grammatical error. I nearly said: ’ll double the stake-to Mr. Retallick, but as a farmer. I cannot be rash these hard times. On the jazz side I'll have many supporters, and the way the production was staged might set some of our local combinations thinking. Now the terrible question of accent. It’s really momentous when you éonsider it, Our claims to be judges of what spoken Hnglish is are mostly based:on.the idea that anyone whose vocal chords tive. off a.different tone to our own is wrong--in fact, an outenst. We laugh .at, the alleged Oxford accent-we laugh at cockney. In some parts of Hngland: we would hardly understand the natives. "If the cockney is wrong, and the aristocrat as personified in the Oxfordonian, is absurd, I suppose we must fall back on thé "middle. class." Most English noyélists say, ‘There ain’t no. such animal,’ es Again we often consider our local elocutionists as affected in speech, | Can "Hnglish Mother" tell me what good Hnglish is? Summing it all up, do not let us show a petty spirit in this matter. Personally, I thank the Radio Broadcasting Oompany for their efforts. Our DX. friends seem to thrive on Americans, and IL think thanks are due to Mr. Harris and his associates for letting us_ hear what others are doing on the air. I will’ not repeat the hackneyed paraphrase on "You can fool some of the beople, ete." But let things rest with .a wish ‘to all critics to remember that individually they represent one sixthy-thousandth of the listeners; and it is not sportsmanlike to spoil another’s fun. . Criticise, by all means. but please eriticise éonstruc-

tively

Cromdale