Listeners’ League

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 39, 10 April 1931, Page 12

Listeners’ League

Work Behind the Scenes PoE organising of Listeners’ Leagues is always an onerous and generally a very thankless task. It requires work at.all hours of the day and night. At a late hour the other evening a listener-in ‘on a shortwave set heard a Wellington speaker carrying on a eonversation with one in Dunedin. The listener took notes of the con--versation and to show the people interested in the formation of the league that the organisers are busy, we reprint the notes, for what they are worth. It was ascertained that the gentleman using the Wellington station .(ZL2B1, Mr. ©. G.. Liddell) was Mr.-R. ‘Leslie Jones, and he was speaking to Mr, L. C. Bates (Station ZL4BH, Dunedin). "Mr. .R. Leslie Jones asked for Mr. Booth... (secretary of the Listeners’ League), but Mr. Bates replied that. Mr. Booth was at home. He could give Mr. Jones’s message by telephone to Mr. Boeth. "Mr..Jones asked Mr. Bates to tell Mr. Booth that they had held their preliminary meeting in Wellington on the previous night and a resolution had: been carried that the secretary be asked to come to Wellington to addiress a public meeting.. A suitable hall, to seat 200, was available free, and the suggested dates of the meeting were either Monday, April 20, or Wednesday, April 22. It was no use holding. the meeting sooner, as many people would be away for Easter, "Mr, Jones requested Mr. Bates to phone Mr. Booth to tell him the foregoing, and to ask him whether he could: be up at Wellington for the meeting on April 20 or 22. They must have Mr. Booth at the meeting. Also, they wanted a formal guarantee of £5 from Myr. Booth to cover the expenditure in advertising the public meeting. That money would be refunded to the committee out of the Wellington branch’s. subscriptions when it was formed. They would get a suitabla public.man as chairman for the public meeting. Without Mr. Booth there would be no ‘kick’ in the meeting. If he could not come to Wellington, Mr. Bates was to ask him to send up a lot of suitable stuff to be put across at the meeting. Mr. Booth could forward the formal guarantee of £5 for the advertising to Mr. Charlesworth, the Wellington secretary. "Mr. L. CO. Bates (4BE, Dunedin) replied that he had. phoned to Mr. Booth, as requested, and the latter said that he could not give a decision about that £5 guarantee until he had seen hig committee on the morrow. He would then communicate with Mr. Charlesworth. Mr. Booth was afraid that he could not come to Wellington on the dates suggested. "Mr, Jones said that it was no use holding the meeting earlier. The meeting would be pretty snappy. There would be only one other speaker, besides Mr. Booth, who must speak for an hour. A musical programme would be provided from 7.30 p.m, till 8 p.m. He would advise Mr. Booth to tele graph to Mr. Charlesworth, and also te send, as soon as possible, receipt books for members’ subscriptions. He

hoped that Mr. Booth would be able to come up. "There was nothing further = said about the meeting or the league. Mr. Liddell (2B1) said that occasionally they put over some very fair records from 2YA. ‘Anyhow,’ he said, ‘they are better than a lot of the secondrate artists they have. I wonder whether some of those artists are listening now. I don’t care, but anyhow, it’s too late for any of them to be listening,’ *