Editorial Notes.

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 5, 11 August 1933, Page 4

Editorial Notes.

Wellington, Friday. August 11, 1933.

-t y f ALTHOUGH listeners in New Zealand can scarcely be expected to grow wildly enthusiastic about the Empire broadcasts fron: Daventry it is at least pleasant to learn that other parts of the Empire-parts that, in the matter of miles, are in closer touch with the Motherland--are receiving entertaining provrammes with gratifying clarity I‘or the past few months thousands of letters and cablegrams have arrived at the B.B.C. headquarters in London, expressing satisfaction or the reverse with. the programmes. The authorities have welcomed them for they are the only means of feeling the Empire’s pulse on radio matters. a oo, The programme-builders of the Empire service have no guide to the likes and dislikes of listeners except in the correspondence they receive. In England, as in other countries, where a licensing system is in force, the popularity of broadcasting can be judged to a considerable extent by the number of licenseholders. In Empire broadcasting, however, it is obviously impossible even to estimate the number of listeners or their requirements, and the. only guide to the success of the service, therefore, lies in the direct communication of the listener with the B.B.C. While .one person’s preferences make far too slender a foundation on which to build a world-wide service, when looked at in relation to the preferences, tastes, powers of understanding and enjoyments of the other persons who make up the ‘radio audience, they must inevitably be reflected in the future broadcasting policy. Listeners in India, Ceylon, Burma and Malaya-known as Zone 2-have been consistently gen- . erous in their praise of this short_wave broadcasting and their repeated requests for its extension have resulted in the hours of transmission for their zone being doubled. But the authorities in London complain _ that there must be thousands of listeners who have not yet written to.the B.B.C. or obtained a copy of its questionnaire. Their co-opera-tion is sought, and an appeal is issued to every part of the Empire to write the headquarters. It is hoped that criticisim of the programmes and details concerning their reception will be’ forwarded by all those who have not ‘yet written, so that their tastes can be dssessed and the experience of their reception can be.

used to the best advantage in this new medium of broadcasting. Eastern Canada and the West Indies have

appealed for earlier transmissions, and steps have been taken to please these listeners, ,

The general shade of opinion) in New Zealand. appears to | be that the less said of the Empire programmes the better. Reception has been poor in most cases and, among those listeners who have received the programmes clearly, the opinion seems to be that our much-maligned local stations are not so very terrible after all. But the B.B.C., as was pointed out above, is anxious to provide for all reasonable tastes and shades of opinion. A new listener may easily switch on to an Empire transmission for the first time and find that a talk is being given on a subject in which he has no interest. (Exactly the same thing happens every day with listeners to our New Zealand stations, as the "Radio Record" knows from the cor4¥spondence it receivers.) And sohe condemns the Empire systern-or sends a letter to the B.B.C. complaining of the whole service. This is where the corporation has to use its discretion in considering the mail it receives. The necessity arises to sort the grain from the chaff-the letters of those persons who are genuinely anxious to help the Empire services from those sent by people who have heard something that didn’t interest them and are squealing loudly. WE publish to-day an article bv Bertram Potts, a well-known returned soldier and writer, on the Wellington Carillon. For the past week or two there has been considerable controversy in the Press of the Capital City about the monumentshould funds be raised to keep its notes floating across the city or should it be allowed to stand silent? Mr. Potts say it should stay silent — better by far that money be spent on keeping the bodies and souls of returned men together than that they should starve while a set of bells proclaims their deeds ofywar. Fifteen years can change thefface of a whole world. In 1918 flags were waved, crowds cheered, soldiers were feted, money was spent with cheerful abandon. To-day the world is plunged into an abyss--au abyss partly created by the load of debt brought about by giving these very men weapons with which to kill each other. To-day we are very sober and disillusioned-and_ the most disillusioned of all are the men who went away to waviig flags, and came back-some of them -to more waving flags. But they know now that the path between that time and to-day has been a hard and friendless one and that flagwaving and brass bands cannot feed eand-clothe wives and children.