What Does the Great Dumb Public Think?

Radio Record, 11 March 1938, Page 6

What Does the Great Dumb Public Think?

F the introduction of commercial broadcasting into New Zealand has done nothing else, it has stimulated public interest in the technique of radio presentation. The controversy, political and otherwise, that has raged about the persons of radio executives during the last year or so has made the public almost painfully radio minded. Here .is an article by "Sari" in which he discusses the psychology of the two services frankly-and comes to a reasonable conclusion,

Fone is to judge by newspaper correspond~ ence, listeners in New Zealand are divided into two classes-two classes between which there can be no merging. The class which laps up the "commercial method." And the class to which it is.a violent emetic. But mewspaper cortrespondence is about the most unreliable of all bases to make any judgment on-

for the reason that 99.9 per cent. of the public is constitutionally mute. It would probably be far more accurate to say that an overwhelming proportion of listeners neither Jap nor retch. They merely do a little dial twisting until something catches their ear and leave the set tuned in until something comes along to irritate or bore them. To a large extent the claims of partisans for ""blocks’’ of listeners can be discounted. John Citizen, as I know him, markets very freely and fairly for his entertainment and changes from feature to feature, day to day, or week to week. A dispassionate indifference to the battle thundering so loudly upon the ears of Dominion radio folk to-day, does not, however, alter the fact that a tremendous gulf exists between the psychology of the two services.

In this New Zealand is not alone. The same gulf exists between nationally subsidised and commercially supported services the world over. The nationally subsidised service, following largely a tradition established by the conservative British Broadcasting Corporation, regards itself chiefly as a medium for the transmission of information and entertainment-an organi-

sation for the reception and co-ordination of news, comment, musical and dramatic talent; and an organisation for the efficient dissemination of these things. An approach to radio of this nature means that the personality of the medium is, as far as possible, eliminated. Emphasis is laid solely on the intrinsic nature of the programme-whether news, a play, a concert, a talk, or a time-signal. ‘The announcer is regarded (in the words of one NBS official) as ‘‘a necessary evil.’’ The service stands or falls by the nature of the goods it slips unobtrusively but efficiently on to the ether. This is why the public never hears about the doughty past of an NBS announcer, why his utterances are never chatty, why he never claims a "‘record"’ in this or that, why his picture is seldom in the radio magazines, why he never wisecracks lightheartedly on the title of a gramophone recording, why no national feature is ever brought to you at "‘tremendous expense or by medium of amazing technical ingenuity.’"’ The tremendous expense and the amazing technical in- _ genuity may be there, but it is foreign to the tradition of a nationally subsidised (Continued on page 39.) -2

oo: Great Dumb Public (Continued from page 6.) service to draw attention to its own accomplishments-presumably on the assumption that a good book. needs no gilded. dust-cover. On the other hand an advertising radio. service seeks to establish friendly, intimate relations between its stations and their listeners-to make the listenerg feel that they share,.to some extent, the excitement and labour of putting a programme on the air. It seeks to enter, as it were,into the life of the average home, as a party of amusing visitors with whom the family can spend a happy evening-even if the tenor is no Caruso and the pianist no Paderewski! That is why the radio magazines are full of pictures of commercial announ_cers, why the colours of their ties are ~ solemnly recorded, and the world knows about the nifty things they did before they became radio announcers. As much and sometimes more -emphasis is laid on the organisation that transmits the entertainment than: on the entertainment itself. Why? The commercial alnouncer handles the bulk of advertising announcements and the station itself is associated with advertised products, Therefore, the greater the mana of the announcer and the greater the mana of the station, the less likelihood there is of a listener turning off before Binks Beans have had their little say at the-end of the episode. A nationally subsidised service can afford to be a sexless mouthpiece. A commercial service must, to éxist, be the merry drummer with his bag of tricks-and samples,

Personally I find hours of enjoyment listening to both YA and ZB stations. I think most people feel the same way. I am interested in Aunt Daisy's amazing culinary experiences, and I don’t give two hoots about Mr. Drummond’s old school tie. I think most people feel the same way. I don’t think the commercial service is outraging the memories of dear departed BBC announcers.. Nor do I think 5YA needs pepping up with a spot of hot rhythm to break down the chamber music hour. Which station I listen to depends entirely on my mood-or what I think will interest and divert me at the moment,