Editorial Notes

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 5, 12 August 1932, Page 4

Editorial Notes

Wellington, Friday, August 12, 1932.

AS we expected, the general response to the report of. the Coverage Commission has been on a high level of appreciation. The Press has appreciated the broad national basis on which the members of the Commission reported, and supports the conception outlined of ore comprehensive scheme destined to give the most effective coverage to both city and: country interests. s 2 CJ THE "Radio Record" from_ its inception has insisted that, in view of the extensive area of the Dominion on the one hand, and the relatively small population on the other, there was room in the Dominion for only one main scheme, deriving support from the funds of listeners. | While that policy has always had our support, we have appreciated the supplementary service réndered by the minor stations, and have been content to leave the question of supplementary aid to those stations in the hands of the financial authority as and when, from their analysis of the revenues, they felt able to distribute financial aid. It is gratifying to know that the revenue is expanding at a rate possible to permit of a little being done in the direction of rounding out the major stations by assistance to what are known in New Zealand as "B"’ stations and the establishment of relay stations. That is highly satisfactory, but it must be borne in mind that this supplementary service must always be subsidiary to the main scheme. The major interest requires the establishment at the earliest possible moment of the big stations in the most favourable situation for giving maximum coverage. sy . ". 7

WHILE the broad scope of the report has met with approbation, it is to be noted that already in some quarters sectional interests are at work with a view to nibbling at the comprehensiveness of the scheme, in order to secure specialised sectional support. In _Palmerston North we notice a public meeting. was. convened to urge: the ptesentation of a petition to the Broadcasting Board in favour of that local station which is not being subsidised by the Board. It is likely, we understand, that similar movements will be instituted in other provincial towns in the hope of breaking the Board from its considered national policy as laid down in the official report, and by popular clamour jockeying it into piecemeal assistance to the stations instituting the claim. This policy, we venture to predict, is foredoomed to failure, and rightly so. This is essentially a matter on which the general interests of the country must rise paramount to sectional desires. Listeners in general, we believe, will support the Board in the view that in the Coverage Commission they have secured the best expert and considered opinion of the country. Therein has been laid down a plan calculated to give the maximum benefit to all interests. If that plan is to be subject to the bombardment of special pleas from one point and another in the hope of securing localised support, then the outcome can only be disastrous. The Board’s revenues must be concentrated to give the maximum efficiency. If they are to be dissipated in dribs and drabs and in duplicate gubsidies to small stations in provincial areas, then the general body of listeners will not de-

rive that benefit from the Board’s adsinistration, that they had hoped or. la * "° u WE feel certain from our knowledge of the Board that movements of the character indicated will not succeed, and that in point of fact effort in that direction will only be wasted by the parties concerned. . That outcome possibly will not prevent the effort being made, for those most intimately concerned will necessarily seek to create organisation and propaganda to back up their objective. New Zealand in

general seems particularly. susceptible to organised popular clamour of this type. This is doubtless the price we pay for our democratic institutions and multiplicity of local . bodies. In the Broadcasting Board, fortunately for listeners, there is an organisation based upon a different system of control. The Board is protected from invidious pressure by the nature of its appointment, and in that fact we see the best hope © for.a business-like and efficient administration of listeners’ funds in order to give the public the best service possible. »