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Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 45, 20 May 1932, Page 7

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SPARK

OME of the letters received in connection with my query: "Are B Stations Necessary?" shows that few ‘have considered broadcasting as a great public service that should be viewed from a national outlook only. Expressions are given that B stations cost the listener nothing, that, B stations are the only ones favourably received in some districts anq that an alternative programme for erystal-set owners (in the towns only, mark you) is a boon. It must be remembered that in Britain, whose service is the example for the world, there are no B stations, and nothing has been done for broadeasting nationally in New Zealand, until the institution of the Coverage Commission, since the foundation of the Broadcasting Company. I was pleased to see that a number almost agreed with my opinions and would believe that did these particular contributors give the question deeper thought, they would reach complete agreement with me, x ¥ * "THE restraint exercised by 2YA in refraining from mentioning until a late hour, the rioting that disgraced Wellington, would arouse the admiration of all who recognise that the broadcasting authorities have great responsibilities. Early intimation of the trouble would be an invitation to the larrikin and inquisitive element alike, to proceed to town. It is questionable which of the two are the worst when the police are busy effectively guarding the city against a recurrence of mob-gathering. Further, the law resulting from the Auckland riots in cablegrams being censored, should without doubt be applicable to broadcasting. When 1YA informed listeners of the disorders in Auckland the preface that the station had been requested by the Mayor to broadcast particulars absolved the station from any undue haste, although I can imagine that the request was considered and cogitated upon before listeners were informed. Even mayors may be too precipitate! ® * * DON’T think 2ZW was wise in broadcasting information in connection with the riots, at 7 o’clock on Tuesday, even if the authorities had made a request for this to be done. The function of a broadcast station is to keep people at home and in blissful ignorance if necessary. If the riot were viewed from the angle of being a stunt the announcer might have gone on the air earlier and described the scenes that took place beneath his window. None but the

hooligans and the spage-occupiers would desire this! * me * "THE lecturer on health from 2YA who extolled the benefits of an open-air life and commended tramping clubs, might have selected a better day for his advocacy than Thursday, May 12. That night I asked the milkman about it when I found him floundering about in a near pea-souper looking for the bottle box. He said the lecturer could have it on his own-he would rather be canned up like a sardine.

‘ ALQuot STRING" commiserating me upon not being present at Mr. de Mauny’s concert writes as follows: "The burden of the song ‘Never Swat a Fly’ does not always signify. The most enthusiastic classical music-lovers and lowbrows alike, amongst wireless lecturers (through the non-existence of television) missed an amusing but entirely unrehearsed piece of ‘business’ during the concert. The Russian pianist, M. Vinogradoff, was hard at it in the throes of the lovely Rachmaninoff concerto when a fly with the audacity of the insect tribe, set about making itself a nuisance to the soloist. As all respectable flies were parked on their domestic walls and ceilings, this one that took advantage of the performer’s busy hands, could not be accounted a decent member of fly society. Perhaps though, he might have been bent on fitting in his obbligato and thus making a name for himself as a minstrel of the tribe. M. Vinogradoff dexterously kept the pest at bay and kept pace with Mr. de Mauny’s orchestra, and insects were forgotten until we heard ‘The Song of the Flea’ from the portly Italian basso, Cesaroni." 2 + * FuEsS and fleas bring to mind the musical literature of insects made familiar through broadcasting. Everyone has heard "The Bee’s Wedding,"

"The Fly’s Courtship," "The Ant’s Anties," "The Flight of the Bumble. Bee," "The Butterfly Study," "The Grasshopper’s Dance" and "The Wedding of the Garden Insects." There are other "insect"? pieces, of course, such as "The Spider and the Fly," and that thing about wasps, therefore they have their claim to fame and provide composers with an occasional theme. * % * FLEAS should be musical, as they attend every concert, but they are not always starred in the pro-

gramme as in Moussorgsky’s satirical ballad. ® " r HE chess match played between listeners and 2ZW during their evening concert was a pleasurable innovation. It is to be hoped that a return match results, with the difficulties obviated, and that the station meets still more formidable opponents with better luck. I. thoroughly enjoyed it, and did not switch off until the household was to be inflicted with a gathering of the clans with the pibroch’s alleged music. = ea + "THE talented singer Keith Grant, who has often delighted listeners to YA stations with his rich voice and sympathetic interpretation, is singing as well as ever, and I was constrained to murmur "Bravo" after hearing him from 2BL on Thursday night. * * * HE problem of unified control of radio in Canada has exercised the thoughts of the Dominion Government for a considerable time, and now that its powers have been confirmed by a privy council judgment a nation-wide constructional programme is to be undertaken. This has previously been prevented by provincial rivalry which existed to the disadvantage of a national outlook, An early commission had re-

ported that complete coverage of the Dominion necessitated the erection of seven 50 k.w. stations and it would appear that this advice is to be acted upon. * ed * BROADCASTING in Canada today is largely commercialised, and as a sop to prevailing interests, it is proposed that in the new scheme to be adopted five per cent. of the programme space shall be allotted to approved advertising, although the commission reported that with cex tain modifications necessary to domestic needs, the establishment in Britain was the ideal to aim fon * * * N enterprising dealer in Wellington had his dust-bin lid thrown through his plate-glass window during the riots. This lodged on a receiving set, and here it remained the following day, with a notice to the effect that’ the perpetrator could have the set "buckshee" if he would call and claim it. s mt * N making inquiries as to the kind of papers returned in the last examination of radio servicemen, I gather that the institution of the regulations may be said to have been proved absolutely necessary. Some candidates went to great lengths to show their inefficiency. Apparently many did not adequately read the questions, and certainly could not have thoroughly grasped the meanings set forth in the papers which every candnidate received before the examination. There could have been nothing ambiguous about any of the questions. They were submitted toa totally unpractical person for perusal, in order to eliminate any phras« ing that might suggest opacity. Complete ignorance of first principles can be read in numerous answers and aithough a number of candidates recurned papers worthy of the trouble that the examiner had undertake there appears to be an almost to disregard for the significance govern~ ing the formulation of the regula tions. ms Bd * BELIEVE the radio section was very poorly handled, many candi- . 4...

Weekly Prize of 5/- fora Good Par. I would like the assistance of readers in conducting this page. Each week a five-shilling note will be awarded the contributor of the best paragraph connected with radio in any way, but preferably with a humorous bias. Contributions must not be long. Brevity is necessary. Pars must reach me not later than Saturday morning, addressed "Spark," c/o "Radio Record," P.O. Box 1032, Wellington.

dates exhibiting a total disregard of radio principles. "Some candidates wrote long screeds just to show how little they knew about the science; possibly in an endeavour to cover up their ignorance. A rigid standard must be set in examinations of this nature if radio servicing is to get the consideration it should. About 250 sat; I shall be interested to see the pass list. x * IRD lovers living beyond the Auckland province would have easily recognised a point raised by Mr. R. A. Falla in his talk from 1YA on "The Ways of Wild Birds." Mention was made that the Grey Warbler and Tui songs differed slightly in different districts. Mr. Falla’s imitations of the calls of these two could not be mistaken, although Wellingtonians could fairly claim that the slight variation of the denizens of their bush are the more pleasing. Auckland has no need to be jealous of Wellington because of this, as their own birds’ calls are quite beautiful and probably much sweeter than that of the birds of the Arctic South. I hope conditions are kind when Mr. Falla returns to the microphone, as his material has a very wide appeal, and the more intimate our knowledge is of our feathered friends, the more will they be cared for. m * & WELLINGTON’S fresh breezes recently blew 2ZW’s aerial down. That’s nothing! I had just erected a wire-netting fence and the same zephyr blew the holes clean out of it! bd am BY A LISTENER complains in a Wellington newspaper of 2YA’s relay of the Sunday night,band concerts. On the particular night that the complaint was evoked, I listened to 2ZW, which gave us Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony. I was perfectly satisfied. ® ¢ 2 EVERAL persons who had had in their possession unlicensed radio receivers were arraigned before the Wellington magistrate on Friday and fined. If this is the start of a drive to gather into the fold those who cannot, like the Village Blacksmith," look the whole world in the face, then every licensee will be glad. In Rumania, when caught, these people are treated to a dose of broadeast publicity during the con- « tt session, and it is given with full name and address of the defaulter. I wonder how many it would bring along if this were started in New Zealand. = " * AY HEN our learned Permanent Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dr. E. Marsden, was unable to appear for his scheduled talk on "Primary Industries," 2ZW did the next best thing, and we had quite a long recorded version of a disquisition on the "Tilements of Physics," by Sir Oliver Lodge. This was worth hearing, and I hope it will be repeated. . It was quite pleasing to hear so eminent a man, human enough to stumble in his delivery. . k * RECENT ‘newspaper files from the U.S.A. reveal a thrilling story of the arrival of the newest type of.

"mike,’’? which marks a big advance in radio studio possibilities. It is called .the electro-dynamic microphone, and whilst it is as sensitive as the condenser type, it is smaller and more convenient to mount in any desired location, at any distance from the orchestra! The singer who formerly stood squarely in front of the microphone may now stand seven feet away and, in the welcome words of A.D.H. in the "Christian Science Monitor," crooners will now have to learn to sing or quit! An orchestra whose nearest instrument will «he thirty feet away will probably be heard under better conditions than heretofore, and the announcer may PST STITT STITT ITTITIN STITT ISTH en ieeiiiie! 4

in future deliver his message ‘our feet away in the manner of a platform lecturer. bd m bd With the new electro-dynamic microphone the occupation of that ezar of:radio, the controller of sound volume, bids fair to become like that of the old broadcaster, the Town Crier, non est. Tone values should improve beyond those recognised to-day in the receiver and the performer who could never sing naturally but had to rest his nose on the "mike will have to take lessons in the art of singing. A big thrill awaits the listeners, and a new vista of usefulness opens out for wideawake conductors and musicians generally. For relay work the new "mike? should resemble a heavensent boon and practically everything short of actual sight of the performances will come through to the listener. Verily the curtain ascends upon a further act in the tense drama of radio, which year by year enrich¢s the life of the average listener more than he suspects. No listener who heard the relay of the Symphony Orchestra,which ‘was extremely well done by 2YA, would regard the reception per the receiver worse than an indication to the character of the performance in the hall. Receivers to-day are capable of faithful reproduction, and it temains for something now to be done at the origin. If all that is claimed for the new "mike" is true and if it can be applied to recording we are on the threshold of a new era in musical reproduction. e * ¥ ADIO is entering every field. Mustapha Kemal has established broadeasting from ancient St. Sophia in Constantinople and the Koran in

New Zealand Stations. Supplementary List Ww. would remind early purchasers * of this year’s "Radio Guide" that a supplementary slip, embodying! extra New Zealand radio stations. to be added to those on Page 182 of the "Guide," is now available free on application to us. With this list, the 1932 Guide will then give a complete tally of New Zealand stations. he May issue of the "N.Z. Radio Times," available from booksellers, also embodies a complete schedule of New Zealand stations. All copies of the "Guide" now issued by us are equipped with this extra list, PTT TT TTiiiitt, , SITLL TE

Turkish is to be heard from this originally Christian church, St. Sophia has withstood a thousand severe earthquake shocks since its erection in Byzantium days, but Turkish conservatism has never experienced so great a shock as the installation of the microphone in the gigantic edifice. I always esteemed "Jacko" as one of the world’s finest types, but my regard was severely strained when he ejected the scavenger dog from his streets. I was in Constantinople at the time, and it was pitiful to hear the poor brutes, marooned upon a desolate islet in the Sea of Marmora, killing each other off for food. Radio takes one beyond the confines of one country and the "unspeakable" should improve in tolerance and humanity through listening. ? ca ¥ E all want variety, and 2YA has ’ supplied it recently in the evenjing programmes. Symphony orchestra concert, carillon relays, band concert relay and "Fragments from France," all within a week. The latter was a jolly good show, given by a jolly good erowd, who do not wait until they broadcast, to spread cheer, but are doing their good deeds all day: and every day. Theve was just a touch of unreality in the concert behind the lines though, which gave it the flavour of home-brew. There was almost a total absence of chatter between turns. Neither the boys nor the girls were all "goodygoodies." 2 & be) "PHE opinion that privately-owned broadcasting stations should he under stricter control was expressed by Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., Auckland, in the Police Court lately. A man and a woman were charged with theft, and Detective-Sergeant T. Kelly stated that the two accused had been associating for some while. Recently the man caused a message to be broadcast from a suburban "B"’ station arranging for an appointment with the woman. "If wireless stations do that sort of thing it shows the need for some new regulation," commented Mr. McKean. * * Ps BSCONDING debtors will welcome the magistrate’s remarks. Just fancy, in these hard days, a message being broadcast, which, on its face value appeared to be an innocuous inquiry for a lost friend, leading to a creditor locating his quarry. The A stations are most patticular about their "agony sessions," but some of the "B’s" with no defined policy cherish a belief that they are supplying a service that the more sedate stations feel too big to touch.