The Radio Show

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 49, 19 June 1931, Page 11

The Radio Show

S a good radio enthusiast I listened eagerly to the opening of the Radio Exhibition, hoping for something in conformity with the importance of radio and the place it plays now in our homes. Will I be excessively unpopular if I say that, with the exception of Mr. Ball’s effort from the studio, I was dis-appointed-i.e., with the speeches.. Of the programmes, with their wealth of Maori melody. I need not speak. But perhaps I expected too much. Mr. Dawson, I understand, is a very clever technician, and to him as such I lift my hat. When we transport the laboratory man to the platform we must not demand impossibilities. Nevertheless, Mr. Dawson did fairly well-in fact too well, for in effecting introduction of the Postmaster-General he proceeded at such length that I was reminded of the story of the prosy chairman introducing a well known literary lecturer upon Dick-. ens. The chairman was himself a devotee of the novelist, and, proceeded to expatiate at such length that, when he at fast turned to the speaker and asked him to deliver his address, the speaker rose and, with superb diction and dignity, said: "Ladies and gentlemen, the address for which your worthy chairman has asked me is, I am happy to say, the Grand Hotel, to which, owing to the lateness of the hour, I am now returning." However, Mr. Donald was eventually called upon. In the House of Commons I once heard: Mr. Asquith * speak for an hour; I heard Lloyd George at the Albert Hall and elsewhere; Ramsay MacDonald on a number of occasions; Dr. Campbell Morgan; R. J.

Campbell; T. P. O’Connor, and dozens of other leading speakers. The qualities which have always commanded my admiration in respect of cultivated English speakers have been their perfect presence, their clarity of utterance, and their finished sentences. Given those qualities, it is a pleasure to listen to a good speech. I particularly remember Mr. Asquith. His rate of utterance was slow, not exceeding, I should say, 120 words a minute at his most impassioned. But how concise and clear-cut his thought; how rounded his phrase; how complete his command of language. No tripping of words, no switching from a half-uttered thought to another in inconsequential relation. Smoothly and lucidly he developed his theme, marshalled his facts, and drove home his conclusions: In the mystery of the voice, too, Home speakers show to great advantage over Colonial speakers. I put this down primarily to the necessity imposed on them of allowing their voices to travel out over large audiences. Our Parliamentarians rise generally from the humble local body, where they require to address their fellows in but a small room. There is thus developed undue rapidity of utterance and that tendency to gabble which impairs most of our men. Compared with many of our politicians, Mr. Donald was free of many faults, but he did not seem to me to be at ease. He spoke as though under restraint and without special interest, as if unable to express himself freely. I am sure he is capable of making better speeches. Mr. Ball is so much of a piece with the radio service that he will, I trust, excuse me passing him casually by. Except that I might, later, offer a prize bouquet of cabbage leaves and onions for an address from him which does not contain any references to "the wonders of radio." His outline of the service given by radia, however, was timely and practical.