MANY A TRUE WORD...

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 43, 3 May 1935, Page 5

MANY A TRUE WORD...

A SIGNIFICANT remark cropped up during the private screening in Wellington the other evening of the British film, "Radio Parade of 1935." One of the characters was made to remark to the Director-General of a mythical broadcasting station, ‘""The trouble is that you're organising all the entertainment out of radio." There seems more than a grain of truth in this, applied to-day to broadcasting the whole world over. Ten years ago it was a new toy-it was fun discover‘ing that this combination of instruments sounded better over the air than that; that the singer who lacked a concert-hall face was "pretty hot" in front of the microphone; that this song and that song tickled the fancies of a growing listening public. To-day, broadcasting is a stern business with various departments dealing efficiently and granite-eyed with their. many tasks. Someone has said that passing a flippant remark in Broadcasting House would be like introducing Can-Can dancers into Westminster Abbey. Which would suggest that there’s something wrong at the microphone end of this broadcasting business. : The broadcasting authorities are in just such a position of responsibility toward the entertainment-loving public as are C, B, Cochran and Samuel Goldwyn andto come nearer home-J, C. Williamson. These people have taken risks to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Sometimes, as in the case of Cochran's production of ‘‘Mayfair and Montmarte" some years ago, the money has been lost, but. most: of the ,xisks have been justified and, year after year, the public has been given something a little different. | Broadcasting, too, must be willing to take risks if it is to keep its public.