GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF BROADCASTING.

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 51, 3 July 1931, Page 4

GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF BROADCASTING.

' AT its annual meeting the Taranaki Radio Society wisely devoted some time to a discussion of the future of broadcasting. Taking the announcement of the Postmaster-General that the Government intended to make itself responsible for the broadcasting service, one speaker tabled a resolution to the effect that the meeting record its emphatic disagreement with the proposal for Government control, and urge tha! the present company, which had pioneered the service up to date, shoul _ be given an extension of its license for a further period, after which the _ position, if necessary, could be reviewed. The discussion which followed promulgation of this motion showed that the meeting was seized no! only with the stringency of the present economic position, but with the undesirability in general of the Government making itself responsible for such a delicate and intricate thing .as a broadcasting service. The president of the society, Mr. F. T. Davis, said that, after mature consideration, he felt that the proposal was not in the best interests of listeners, as broadcasting was not the kind of thing in which Government control was likely to be successful. Its activities would tend to become stereotyped and out of touch with public needs. These views were elldorsed by Mr. E. J. L. Payne, vice-president of the society, and by a number of other speakers. "PHE tribute to the pioneering activities of the Radio Broadcasting ; Company, and the service it has built up, comes with appropriateness from Taranaki. It will be remembered that, owing to geographical! _ and physical factors, reception in Taranaki of 2YA never has been of the best, and after a period of agitation the local radio enthusiasts were successful in forming a local society to establish and control 2YB, with co-

--- operation and assistance from the Broadcasting Company. This was, > an effort to give service in the Taranaki area and conquer the disability} © referred to. That development has achieved a degree of efficiency which is commendable, and 2YB has established for itself a praiseworthy reputation in the Taranaki area and even further afield. WE believe that the views so strongly expressed at the annual meeting of the Taranaki Society are generally held by the majority of listeners. Government control is, in our opinion, definitely not wanted, either by the radio trade or by listeners. This is not to say that the existing service gives 100 per cent. satisfaction to everyone affected. That is not so, and never will be so. Owing to its very nature, broadcasting _ is peculiarly subject to criticism. Tastes differ. Requirements vary, and moods change. Matter which would please one listener one night will not interest him another. Apart, therefore, from the variability of human nature as between individuals, there is the variability of the individual himself. All those factors mean that he who runs a_broadcasting service must recognise the impossibility of satisfying all the people all the time. All that can be striven for is the obj ective of supplying a broad, comprehensive service on definite lines, calculated to a& major degree of satisfaction. That, we believe it is recognised, the company has aimed to do, and in that recognition, and with the ¢ompany’s greater responsiveness to the needs of the service, we think listeners in general would: prefer to see arrangements made for the continuance of the service under private control, than for the Government itself to intrude into what is to it a largely unexplored and unknown field. Certain conditions calculated to effect steady improvement may rightly be emphasised by the Government, but in our present circumstances more beneficial results are likely to accrue for listeners by private control than by Government control.