Our Mail Bag

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 34, 6 March 1931, Page 9

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 are 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.

U { ‘ Modern Neros, R2 an article in a recent issue of the "Radio Record" entitled "Where’s Our Dance Music?" It is with feelings of uttermost disgust and indignation that I read of persons who have rung up the YA studios and interrupted a list of earthquake inquiries with demands for dance music. Hvidently these frivolousminded people have not yet heard that we have had a disaster which has spread death and desolation over a large tract of country, and sorrow from one end of the Dominion to the other. It seems incredible that at a time like this there are people in our land who have no time for serious thoughts/ or feelings of sympathy, and whose sole aim seems to be the satisfying of their own desires for pleasure. AS r as I know I have not a single lative in the earthquake area, and yet I am prepared to go without whole evenings of entertainment if necessary in order that the anxieties and fears of these unfortunate people. may be relieved. I have no doubt that the great majority of my fellow listeners are prepared to do the same. ‘To the YA stations I would say, "Go ahead with the good work," for by so doing you are earning the thanks and appreciation of thousands, even though they may never be put in writing.-‘"Nine-Valve" (North Auckland). {All correspondence must be signed, though a nom-de-plume may be employed for publication purposes.-Hd.] Radio Demonstrations. INCH the class "B" stations ceased to operate, radio dealers have been seriously inconvenienced. "If the restriction is not removed then some arrangement should be made so that ‘there should always be one station on the air all day. Is there any movement on foot to improve the service?’" Yours ete. EH. Dixon and Coy. Ltd. (Hawera). 2YA Fading. I HAVHE followed with interest the broadcast by station 4YA of. the Sanders Cup boat races. I congratulate the announcer on his description of the event; it was a pleasure to listen to his clear and pleasant voice. I should like to know if 2YA has been fading bady the last two or three weeks with other listeners, as it is an unusual thing for 2YA. I have alwayshad it in without a sign of fading.7.V. (Invercargill).

Wednesday Programme, VPHE programme put on the air on , Wednesday evenings for the past three weeks will do me, In the first trial night a month ago several items Were not up to what we Have been accustomed to from our own artists,

but if anyone is not pleased with last night’s programme they are indeed hard to please. The twang, or accent, to which some people take exception, is mostly imaginary, as, if we stop to think, we will find greater differences in different counties in Britain, or even in New Zealand. Make no mistake, the English spoken in Bos-

ton will compare favourably with that spoken in Dublin, Inverness or Hdinburgh, and, after all, variety is God’s pleasure, and much of the American accent is pleasing and not at all ‘ob-jectionable.-I am, Sir, Yan Kee (Wanganui). International Programmes. HD old English conservatism shows itself again with the coming of the International Programmes. Some people cannot bear to have any form of enterprise introduced into the quiet running (or perhaps otherwise) of their affairs. Our friends who have so loudly condemned the American programmes take far too serious a view of these broadcasts. What are the odds if the Americans do not use the same accent as we do? Why get exasperated about it if the New Zealand stations choose to introduce a novelty programme once a week? The objectors should remember that there are other people in the Dominion with radio sets who no doubt en-

joy hearing the type of programmes which are given to the people of the States. If we do not wish to listen to them, then there’s a very simple way of picking up a more suitable programme. If the angel. Gabriel were to organise a programme it would not please everybody, for there is:no accounting for tastes. How-

ever, the world is made up of all classes of people and there is no doubt that those who fiy to their pens immediately any alteration is made in the ordinary run of things afford the more balanced-minded people no little amusement.-Te Koutu (Cambridge). ON page 6 of the last issue of the "Record" there is a resume of the fallacious opinions expressed by three Wellington amateur transmitters ~- regarding the work of the amateurs during the quake. Now, Sir, no amount of talk can controvert the fact that the amateur transmitting brotherhood rendered a service of incalculable value to the community, and the omission of the authorities and the Press to re cognise this great service is more than passing strange. With the collapse of. the telegraph wires and the destruction of the post offices, the authorities were, naturally, helpless for a while, and all the P, and T. Department could do was-to lend the amateur stations some operators.

This. they did, but it was the "Iam" who kept the stations going. Any interference could have been obviated by authorising the amateurs working earthquake traffic to work slightly outside their bands. ° i. The lesson to the learned is, not that more stringent regulations are needed, but that the amateur experimenter be given more encouragement. all he asks for is a reasonable share of the available transmitting channels. For instance, there is a big space from 50 to 75 metres practically empty, most of it "reserved" for the United States, but seldom used, and our Government could, as a mark of appreciation, allot portion of this space to the New Zealand amateurs, For years the amateur has been working under severe restrictions, but nevertheless he was ready when the call came, and will be again; there-. fore it behoves the New Zealand pub-. lic to see that the Government se cures to the amateur adequate facili-: ties for carrying on. ! In‘ passing, it is: worthy of mention ' that the daily. papers generally omitted to inform their readers that practically all the quake news passed’ over the amateur radio network. ‘The. P. and T. Department may possibly have "evolved order out of chaos" on the Wednesday at Napier, but the fact remains that for the previous 24 hours the amateur stations at Hastings, Napier, Gisborne and Wairoa had been doing invaluable work at top speed without any "chaos." The amateut is given more to work than talk and even those men who stuck to their gets in the devastated area with the ground heaving under them have been heard to say "It was all in the day’s work"; but, nonetheless, a fair thing is a fair thing, and those who decry this great work must not be surprised if their motives are ascribed to the

"little green god’’.-

J. S.

Lynch

("ZD

IBL).