Editorial Notes.

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 6, 18 August 1933, Page 4

Editorial Notes.

_ Wellington, Friday, August 18, 1933.

SINCE we published a letter some weeks ago from a correspondent who suggested that the radio talks should be cut out we have received numerous letters from listeners who emphatically disagree with this sentiment. It would seem to be the old, old story of the radio being a shop at which one can only buy one thing at a time-Dutch cheeses for one quarter of an hour, red, white and blue ties for another quarter, aud so on. Annoying, of course, if. you happen to be wanting red, white and blue ties during the Dutch cheese period, but, on the whole, the scheme works successfully for the majority. Talks form a definite portion of the broadcast mosaic, and have a value which is not perhaps realised by the person who would have the radio flood the country day in, day out, with the sugary crooning of American jazz kings. New Zealand lies far from the world’s cultural centres, but each boat brings to our shores some person who has an interesting story to tell and does so by the obvious means-the radio. Mr: Jones, who sells bootlaces in Taihape, may not be interested in to-day’s talk on the Nazis, but Mr. Smith, who keeps a grocer’s shop in Invercargill, may listen to it with eagerness. The cutting out of the talks from the chief stations of New Zealand would mean depriving thousands of listeners of their one chance of learning of life and work in countries which they can never 1ope to see. It is frequently said that the newspapers mould public -opinion-the radio can now share a place with the papers. Radio talks, too, may be classed as sugar-coated pills of education. Although it would not willingly admit it, the public detest anything which attempts to educate it. Any theatre manager who wantecl to fill his theatre would not dream of billing a film as "educational." Let him call it entertaining, novel, mysterious, glamorous-the people will flock along. It’s just the same with talks. Probably 75 per cent. of them are of definite educational value, but the sauce of novelty, of mystery, of adventure makes them appear as a piquant dish to be talked about afterwards. Look through the list of next week’s speakers-Captain TalbotLehmann, Margaret Macpherson, Marjorie Bassett, Dr. Guy Schole-field-all people who have travelled

the world, studied its people, seen the thousand and one little things © that make one country different from another. And these world travellers are to be right there next week

at the country’s microphones, bringing a whiff of the outside world into every suburban sitting-room, making the ‘wife forget her darn-

ing, the husband his daily toil. Radio talks are a vital necessity to New Zealand in its isolation--we must keep them at any cost. "THE newspapers, since the day when the broadcasting of news was first started, have looked askance at the B.B.C. English newspapers were the first to show concern-now the overseas papers are growing equally apprehensive. In his presidential address to the Empire Press Union, Major Astor voiced the general feeling when he said that Press agencies in London were dismayed to see "news which they collected at their own expense, and distributed through an elaborate and costly system, flashed free of charge to their readers. But they see, too, that this news service may be of ‘undeniable benefit to the Empire. The B.B.C., for its part, recognises and agrees that the proper function for this service is not to supplant the newspapers, but rather to whet the appetite. of the public for the fully-considered and balanced reports of contemporary events, which only newspapers can give." THE British Drama League in its short life in the Dominion has spread its net wide, and there is every reason to believe that in five years, or even less, the league may produce, from its ever-growing New Zealand ranks, a star worthy to take a place among the shining lights on the London stage. New Zealand _is all too poorly served with plays by professional companies---Auck-land with a population appreaching the quarter-million mark has not had a really important company playing there since Sybil Thorndike visited the Dominion in the first month of this year-and it would appear that our salvation lies in the fostering of local talent. By this means every town of importance should be able to witness at least half a dozen major productions a year.