Doctor Drops His Bedside Manner— and Looks at Radio

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 36, 15 March 1935, Page 7

Doctor Drops His Bedside Manner— and Looks at Radio

AM not a radio fan,.""fan" being the abbreviated form in the American language of fanatic, as "doc" is of doctor and "bish" is of bishop. I am glad, too, that you use the word "broadcasting" in your paper, and not "radio" or "wireless," but the descriptive word has not vet been "fF nalised."

"Finalised" would easily be ‘the worst word in the English language, but fortunately, it has not yet crept into any language but only into journalese. I am pleased to say that my vocation prevents me from being a frequent listenet to ‘broadcasting, and so have preserved my sanity, and I trust, discrimination. Imagine having to listen to a piano or any .other sound producer all day and every day! Yet there are many women

who leave the wireless on all day at full blast so that they can hear it when they are in the kitchen, making the beds, or hanging out the washing on the line. They do their work to an accompaniment of shouting. roaring and blaring, and it will be interesting to observe if in time they develop _ boilermakers’ deafness, or if perchance they are the pioneers of a race with noise-proof nervous systems. It is a misuse’ of the wireless to turn the speaking voice into a strident shout,:and the sweet notes of music into'a trombonic blare. Another form of persecution is to switch rapidly from the middle of one item to the hindquarters of others on various stations, jazz now, economics next, the tenth part of

a bedtime story, a tune from a fiddle-all in crazy incokerence, and syncopation syncopated. But one must not blame broadcasting for the faults of listeners.. Broadcasting will help in time to educate the listeners’ taste and discrimination. The ideal listener should select items from the pro-

gramme tor his amusement and 1mprovement, and programmes are so varied that there is no difficulty in making a wise choice. You.can get too much of a good thing and it is better to nibble than to choke outright on too large and too tough a mouthful. Beware of the children’s hour, which, if not in charge of a superwoman, may show the twilight of the human reason. Broadcasting is the most wonderful thing in the world to-day and

the greatest triumph of the human race. Ihe vibrations were there when the earth was without form and void, but the waves of energy everywhere were unknown for long ages. It is the power of the Unseen and the Eternal. There are other miracles of this kind awaiting man with his limited faculties. We get only an extremely partial view of the material world If beings had eyes with the power of X-rays,.and brain-cells like a receiving set, ears like a microphone, the knowledge we should acquire would not be flattering to-our present self-complacency, Broadcasting and’ other wonders suggest that man with his five Jimited senses is now greatly inferior to what he shall be; and fuller consciousness after death-that should be the most amazing adventure.

To-day’s contribution to ' this series of articles is by a doctor well known in Wellington-and, in fact, New Zealand-for his interest in art. He didn’t ask us to preserve: his anonymity — we chose to do so ourselves.