World Film and Television Progress (1938)

If Sir Stephen Tallents cannot send more producers outside the B.B.C., he can at least bring the opinions of ordinary people back to the B.B.C. This he is trying to do consistently and methodically through the Listener Research Department. It is only about a year since the B.B.C. came to the belated but sensible conclusion that they must find some reliable substitute for the box-office verdict on the popularity of any particular item. Until then they had worked partly by group guesswork, the group being the dozen or so people who are in charge of programme planning at Broadcasting House, and partly in line with the suggestions and criticisms seeping through from their Correspondence Department. But this method had certain blind spots. For it was assumed that programmes were popular so long as no excessive complaints rolled in. But it did not occur to them that a man will only complain when he is dissatisfied, and has no alternative course. It is simple enough when considered in practice. The religious and subdued tone of Sunday programmes were and are distasteful to millions. But instead of writing shoals of letters, listeners, as subsequent research has shown, simply switched over to Radio Normandy or Luxembourg. To take another example, unnecessary time and money were lavished on productions after ten o'clock on weekday evenings and no great volume of written complaints arrived to indicate dissatisfaction. A false assumption was made that such items were generally well received. Actually they were not being received at all as a recent questionnaire has shown that "a mass switching-off of radio sets takes place between 10.0 and 10.30 p.m. on weekdays." So Listener Research began to distribute questionnaires, set up critical listening panels, and collect information. When criticisms of radio plays and features were collected it was found that many broadcasts are difficult to follow. It is often hard to distinguish between one character and another and a large cast causes confusion. Listeners want more comedy and are pleased with Classical plays and Victorian melodrama. There was an outcry against background music in plays and features. This complaint against incidental music still mystifies many producers. But it has been so insistent that one must accept it as a fact and try to find some explanation. In a stage performance the attention is held by the appearance and movement of the characters and if your neighbour asks you for a match, GROWN-UPS often PREFER the CHILDREN'S HOUR Some listeners' opinions discussed by GEORGE AUDIT which causes you to miss some of the words, you are not cut off from the performance. In a radio performance you not only lose the appearance, but your distractions are multiplied a thousandfold. While you are listening to a play you may be munching your supper or the baby may start crying. Unless the words are simple and very clear you can easily lose the thread of the story. And then background music only gets in the way. The Listener Research idea has spread to publications and the Radio Times has just called in 8,182 letters of criticism. Many of them show uncommon sense especially when dealing with the manner of radio productions. Witness : — ■ 1st listener. Mr. Middleton talks, and the others read — and usually read very badly. There is no point in bringing a famous man to the microphone to read his paper. It would be better to give the job to an announcer. b.b.c. But where can you find speakers like Mr. Middleton? And working people are no better than the famous, witness In Town To-night. 2nd listener. The dullness of In Town To-night could be avoided by choosing people who do or have done things that are by nature interesting. 3rd listener. One would suppose (from the caricatures you put over on the air) thai the working class Londoner is an utter nitwit, unable to appreciate anything but beer and tobacco and entirely unable to enunciate a single sentence except in an idiotic and degraded tone of voice. 4th listener. Why must all plays portraying characters of girls in business make them appear so illiterate and ungrammatical or alternatively so ultra-refeened? B.B.C. There are other points of view. Such as — ■ 5th listener. T do not like to hear the too frequent use of the word 'blimey\ I believe it to be a shortening of the low-down vulgarism used by gutter-merchants. 6 1 ii listener. I blame the B.B.C. because they evince a growing pre-occupation with 'the man in the street' whose empty head and expressionless face already loom too large on our horizon. Now hear what they have to say about microphone technique:— 7th listener. Those who seem to me best at producing a friendly atmosphere are those who seem to be enjoying themselves, i.e., A. J. Alan telling a story as if he had just dropped in for a smoke and a yarn. 8th listener. And anything that destroys one's illusion as to the spontaneous performance should be cut out. audit. They want to hear their own language— 9th listener. Let there be announcers who will convey in their speech something of the native culture of the Regions. audit. What they think of jazz— 10th listener. And as to jazz — it gives the average manual labourer the pip! audit. A confession! — ■ 1 1th listener. I usually go to church but I leave my mind behind me at the fireside. audit. Another, from a young girl— 12th listener. Sundays have their trials: clean clothes, religious duties, father's rest, visitors and best manners, but all would be forgotten if we could have a Children's Hour on Sunday. audit. Grown-ups often prefer the Children's Hour — 13th listener. The Children's Hour plays are good, and it would be very nice to hear some of them later in the eveninus. audit. And they don't like crooners— 14th listener. Here is a verse, taken fresh from the mouth of a crooner : Lick a cow aline a let OOO ten how a Rine a low. Say high cow adown a let Ah! How a cow has so. w E do not make extravagant claims for our Service. HAT we offer is good sound, efficiently and economically recorded ALL-IN SERVICE NO ROYALTIES BRITISH ACOUSTIC STUDIOS Phone: SHE 2050 93