The Official Organ of the B:B.C
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Radio Times, November 21st, 1924.,. a _ THE BROADCASTING PHILOSOPHER. By LORD RIDDELL. pac x obae AEA TE ECVLari Pas] Ld AeAlSTE LEELS =ane Le Se SF fr waeh Pace, eaNCHES rea oeayPoaff4 ist ADIOTIMEee i CAP COMOy sovrtoT cs THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE B:B.C. ee Vol. 5. No. 61, fa free EVERY}FRIDAY. Two amioe! — — OFFICIAL ~What Do We Want? PROGRAMMES By HORACE ANNESLEY VACHELL, OF The Famous Novelist and Playwright. THE BRITISH HAT do listeners want } upon this subject have expressed the wish thal I am interested in the answer to there might be alternative “themes,” on. dif- BROADCASTING this question because IT have been asked to ferent wave-lengths, Then the highbrow who deliver a senes of talks, and of IT eonsent to do eraved for Bach might listen to fogues at the so, T am wondering what I shall talk abont, same moment as the lowhrow was wallowing in _ COMPANY. fe bearing in mind that I shall be addressing in- jazz. Probably, we shall come to this, ——— = — tuimerble mentalities, each, in degree, slightly F + + + "For the phe commencing differing from the other. So far as ] am oon- eerned [ have gathered this from half-a-dozen November 23rd. There are great possibilities in duolagnes, sUNDAYY, different persone, All and sundry demand We have had funny duologues, the cut. and from me talke about books or plays, just as thrust of, two comedians. ‘That “pets across" LONDON CARDIFF they demand from Professor Bragg a talk, let up to a point, but it grows boresome. Really, us aay, on “Sound.” Digging a litth deeper, we English are a serious people; we take even we ABERDEEN GLASGOW [| excavated another nugget. The average our jokes seriously. A debate between a dyed-in- BIRMINGHAM MANCHESTER listener prefers personalities. If I am to talk the-wool die-hard and a rabid Comminniet, A ahout books and plays, he would like to know strictly limited to ten minutes, would challenge bl FOURNEMOUTH NEWCASTLE how IT write my books and plays, ittention. This raises fhe current queation : BELFAST * * * * about plays as “ themes” for wireless, A ploy, I suppose the listencr wants to learn some- however well read aloud, is rather & dismal! thing, We might infer from this that eduea- and monotonons entertainment. Once a famous SHEFFIELD (Relay) PLYMOUTH(Relay) tional talks are preferred, vob ao; unless an actor-mannager read aloud to me a play of oy EDINBURGH(Relay) LIVERPOOL (Relay) expert is ‘speaking. Long ago, I heard Sir own, I fell fast asieep. 7 fobert Ball speak upon his own subject— LEEDS—BRADFORD (Relay) astronomy. Well, 1 admit. frankly that the *@ = = HULL (Relay) NOTTINGHAM (Relay) stare are too distant for me, bot Sir Robert So far as educebions!l talks are concerned, the supply will ‘create the demand. Listeners STOKE-ON-TRENT (Relay) stuck them under my nore. Sirius became & friend, instead of a twinkling acquaintance; of youthful age begin, naturally enough, with and the spectroscope (which I had confounded what is noteducational, They like jazz because with a stethoscope) llvminated with. colours it has a “kick” to it, And then, insensibly, my dun and drab envisagement of the Moon. they demand something more tuneful, When SPECIAL CONTENTS : In fine, a great astronomer made dead worlds the tance grow hackneyed, they, without THE BROADCASTING PHILOSOPHER, live for: ime, being aware of rt, ask for clageical momo, And By Lord Riddell. * *** so, day by day, they stroll leiaurely from. what iv essentially bad to what in essentially good. ge ch ee. Anml so. we come to the inevitable oonela- gion that personelify counts tremendously They are ‘being cclfoducaied, pressing on LINKING UP BRITAIN AND AMERICA, in wireless, whether we are listening to a cham- and upward all the time. By PF. P, Eckersley. pion who tells ua how he won the championship * *- » of the world at tennis, or to Professor. Brags, HYMNS FOR THE TWILIGHT HOUR, who, ke Cinquevalli, ia conjuring with tumng Interest in any theme depends-upon whether Stories of Family Favourites, forks and blocks of wood which emit flute- or not the reteption ia perfeet. That again hike sounds, A leetor on’ Sound” from oo dependa upon the “sella,” and open atmoe- OFFICIAL NEWS AND VIEWS, would be recerred in silence and snooze ! pheric conditions, JKeception is not a matter cy ' i ES of cast, I have listened with a cheap act, and LISTENERS’ LETTERS. Many persons with whom 1 have talked (Continued overleaf an colwmnn 3.) 1 aaa — RADIO HIMES —— {Haysnees 2ler, 1924. = eee Hymns for the ‘Twilight Hour. - What Do We Want ? (Cnitineed from Hie sorsiota jpnge.) felt that the speaker was in the same room with Stories of Family Favourites. me, talking to ma, quict ly and articulately, This question of articulation is vital. The illus- HERE can be little doubt that “ Abide Perhaps, if a test of popularity is the fre- sion—for it ia nothing else—fades like any with Me" ia one of the favourite evening queney with which itm sung in the evening, hymns in all the chorehes in Britain and the for the benefit of listeners, Keble's “Sun mirage, if articulation be faulty. Immecliately, Empire, as well, prohably, as in the U.S.A. of My Soul’ would take first place, The hymn, we are conscionsa—and dieagreeably 6o—that the It has a touch of sadness about it, associated, as we know it in our hymnals, consiete of a upeaker is far away. The delightful sense of however, with a note of triumph, which makes selection of six or sewen stanzas from the poem, intimacy goes, and with it vanishea—per- | aonmity. entitle! “Eventide.” in Keble's “ Christian pal it. very true to humanlife, and it thus appeals ** Ps tt to all classes. It waa written on September 4th, Year,” beginning: “Tia gone, that bright and orbéd blaze,” and consisting of fourteen verses, Perhaps the greatest enemy of wireleas is 1847, and ite author dicd on November 20th See the loud speaker. Most loud spoakera remind of the same year, eo thal the words :-— seven of which are seklom, if ever, included me of the gramophone, | have got the best Swift to ite close. ebha out life's Tittle cay, in the hymn. resulta with the car clipa, and very acon one were perfectly true in his case, aa he well knew Composed in Half-an-Hour, beoomen accustomed to them, although at first when the hymn was penned, Some hymnala include a Verse which the they are a source of mild irritation, Still—the A Poatic Prophesy. Aonoent and Modern omits:— loud speaker may be improved, Hgis dinner The Rev. Henry Francia Lyte was the rector Thou Framer of light and dark, by the adjective. ff he 1 fal ae at Lonely of the fishing port of Brixham. on Tor Bay, Bieer through the tempest Thine own ark ; ? The persussiveness of a soft, clfar voice Arnid the howling wintry se when he wrote the hymn, and it waa actually is irresistible, If | were the general manager We are in. port i we have Thee, written down on paper at Berry Head House, of a wireless company, [ should serap suto- Keble, of course, i4 one of the great names matically all spenkers with loud, rancoua votes ; half a-mile from the town, where the sea laps the foot of the garden. Although he had not of the English Church, andl it is said that the I should “ sperialive “* in clear, diapason tones, fine church at Hursley was built out of the pro- preached in hia church for some time, owing to % Ld * & tite of “* The Christian Year,” which went through his if health, on this particular Sunday he Bat, let ua retorn to our original question. eclition after edition, amd ja now an English expressed, his intention of preaching “for the Whal do jistenera, want? Can't they tell ua? classic, His grave ia at Hursley, where. he last time before he went to Nice, where his The few can conéolo” themeclres with this lived and ministered, mach beloved, for thirty physician had ordered him to winter, happy reflection, In the cinema, with ite ever It proved indeed the lost time, and when he years. The tune “ Abends " was written, If is eaid, by Sir Herbert, Oakeley, in half-an-hour, increasing public, in the lecture-room, in novels returned home he walked down the garden path and plave, there is a steady demand for “ good to the seashore, and strolled about in the dusk A Festival Hyman. stuff,” There is, admitteally, a big public for of a beautiful September evening. Who will Another hymn which ranks very high among bad stuff, but that public is diminishing. That any what passed there } He had had bitter dis- evening hymns is “ Skviour Avain to Thy Dear public jets “fed up" with quantity as opposed appointments at Brixham, much ill health, Name We Raise,” by Canon Eilerton, who to cumlity. But the publio that exacts quatity and now the end was coming fast, and he knew wrote it to an existing tune called “ ot. Agnes,” 1d inorenaing. What the few demand from it, When he cried out to the open sea those alt hough it ia now invariably sung to “* Pax wireless to-day, the many will insist upon words with whith his great hymn opens: Dei,” by Dr, Dykes, who wrote‘the tune specially To-morrow, ip © * he “Abide with ome; fost falls the eventile,” he for Sir Henry Baker when be was compiling was not thimking altogether, or even chiefly, ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern.” The hymn In conclusion, I hark back to that magic of the day's close, but.of life's.