RADIO'S GREATEST ENEMY

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 34, 1 March 1935, Page 5

RADIO'S GREATEST ENEMY

S we have remarked in this column before (and will ' probably keep on remarking, remembering the old adage about the stone and ‘the little drops’ of water), the quantity of music~braadcast daily. is radio’s own greatest enemy. In the days when listeners wore headphones and tinkered with crystal sets the pioneer announcer would say: "That is all for this afternoon. We are now closing down and will reopen at half-past seven to-morrow evening." But nowadays the loud-speaker is on the job almost before the lark, and it is possible for the housewife to perform the whole of her daily duties.to the sound of music. And very nice too, you say? We disagreevery heartily-for it is a human impossibility to fill every moment of the day with worth-while radio entertainment. Mr. Owen Davis, veteran playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner, says: Radio has exactly the same problem as Hollywood. The movies want 400 fine stories a year, and they haven’t been written since the creation of the worild. Hollywood realises that, and radio is beginning to feel the same limitations.. The broadcasters run out of material. No’matter how badly they want it, they cannot create it fast enough to supply the demand. on’t blame the broadcasting authorities for this state of music day in and day out. They are there to please the listeners and, if the listeners demand more and more music-well, it must be supplied. But the man at the receiving end can help himself by turning his wireless on when he really wants to listen to it and by careful "‘shopping’"’ for his radio entertainment.