what the listener wants: ii

Irish Jesuit Province

What the Listener Wants: IIAuthor(s): Victor CurranSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 83, No. 972 (Aug., 1954), pp. 313-317Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20516786 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 23:44

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Irish Jesuit Province is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Irish Monthly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 23:44:44 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ijp

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20516786?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Radio

WHAT THE LISTENER WANTS?II By VICTOR CURRAN

In 1953, there were two surveys made of the public opinion of the Radio ?ireann programmes. The first one was on March, and it was under the direction of Maurice Gorham himself. The results

were expected to be ready by the middle of July, or even June: in the middle of June, however, we were told that

" it is too early vet

to give any indication of the nature of the replies." When the

questionnaire was sent out in the first instance, the Irish Press

rightly commented that the plan "

offers possibilities to the listener to say what he really thinks and gives the normally quiet man?

who would never think of writing a letter to the papers?an honourable opportunity of coming out of his box and giving his

considered opinion." There were three forms used. Form A, which was

" to be com

pleted by the interviewer for each household visited", asked for

information on: (1) the RE station usually listened to; (2) the quality of the reception from RE stations; (3) the times at which the radio

in the house was tuned in to ANY station on the previous day; and

(4) the age-group of each member of the household?less than five,

from five to fourteen, from fourteen to twenty-four, and twenty-five and over. The householder was also asked to give his or her name,

address and occupation. Form B,

" to be completed by the interviewer for each available

member of the household who is fourteen or more years old ", asked

six main questions: (1), sex and age-group; (2) what programmes did he listen to on the previous day?RE, any of the three BBC

ones, Radio Luxemburg, AFN, or any other station, which were to

be specified; (3) the extra times at which the interviewee would like

to have RE broadcast; (4) a listening diary of ALL the RE

programmes listened to the previous day; (5) the name of any RE

programme he liked particularly; and (6) the names of any RE

programmes he did NOT like particularly. Form C, the postal one, asked questions (2), (3), and (4) from

form B, and questions (1) and (2) from form A.

There was considerable public interest in the returns from this

survey, and it was thought, at least among some sections in Dublin,

that the results would be more than interesting. Considerable

313



IRISH MONTHLY

annoyance was therefore felt when the Minister for Posts and Tele

graphs, Mr. Childers, announced that the results "will not be

published for reasons that are obvious." The comment of the Irish

Times fairly represented the reaction to this, I think. If, it said, the

Minister had said that the results were private, nothing very much

could have been said.

As it is, everybody is free to speculate on these "

obvious "

reasons for the Department's silence, and inevitably the worst

possible construction will be put on it. Already the rumour goes

round that the findings have been so sweepingly condemnatory of

Radio ?ireann's programmes that the authorities simply dare not

publish them. That we cannot believe . . . wholesale condemna

tion could be due to nothing more than blind bigotry. It is a pity, then, that the Minister has seen fit, or has been inadvertent

enough, to furnish ground for even a suspicion that publication

depended upon the nature of the verdict.

In January of this year, 1954, the Irish Times again came up with now information which was of interest, namely, the result of a survey

made on behalf of Radio Luxemburg by Social Surveys, Ltd., a

British organization. Taking a week in mid-December, 1953, and

covering Dublin and five or six other places, the firm's team found

that, related to "

an average winter evening ", the percentages that

listened to Radio ?ireann, the BBC and Radio Luxemburg were

respectively, 27%, 27% and 33%: that is, Radio Luxemburg had

six per cent, more listeners in Ireland than RE or the BBC had.

However, one important factor was that one person in three

questioned had not listened to anything at all. Besides these facts, it is interesting to note what Mr. Childers him

self told D?il ?ireann in November, 1953. With the results of the

RE survey before him, the Minister said that the absolutely over

whelming majority of people listened to RE every day of the year. The percentage enjoying the more serious cultural and educational

programmes was not unsatisfactory. At the same time the enquiry showed a tremendous interest in light music of American origin

coming from abroad. "A great number of the young people in the

country have adopted light variety, operatic and Anglo-American dance music as their folk music along with our own melodies," he

told the T.D.s, "

in the same way as other European countries, even

those whose predominating language is not English," On the

314



RADIO

contrary, the ex-Minister, Mr. Everett, said that "

English bands are

not such a great attraction in Ireland."

On the whole, therefore, the Minister thought that

If the results of Listener Research of Great Britain or, say,

Belgium, were to be compared with a similar investigation if

made here, the preferences in regard to the content of the

programmes would be found, I believe, to be somewhat similar.

In order to satisfy everyone, a very considerable part of the

programme would have to be in relation to universal themes,

sometimes in an Irish setting and frequently not so. "

The moral of the report," Mr. Childers said, "

is that RE will

have to make a supreme effort to popularize and modernize what

is Irish if national distinctions are to be preserved." What are the general preferences, then? RE will not say,

and what the Minister has said is little enough. However, Mr.

Childers' remark about the level of interest being the same in most

countries lends some interest to fourJ tables given by Roger Manvell

in his book, On the Air. Manvell divides the listening public

according to educational backgrounds, this giving him listeners with

PRIMARY, SECONDARY, and UNIVERSITY education. Asked

to place broadcasting matter according to the interest they had for

them, they placed them in this order :

Primary.

1. Variety. 2. Plays. 3. Light Music.

4. Musical Comedy. 5. Military Bands.

6. Cinema Organs. 7. Brass Bands

8. Religious Services.

9. Dance Bands,

10. Discussions.

11. Talks.

12. Short Story Readings. 13. Features.

14. Grand Opera. 15. Symphony Concerts,

16. Poetry Readings. 17. Chamber Music.

Secondary.

1. Plays. 2. Light Music. 3. Variety. 4. Musical Comedy. 5. Discussions.

6. Military Bands. 7. Grand Opera. 8. Features.

9. Talks.

10. Symphony Concerts. 11. Short Story Readings. 12. Cinema Organs. 13. Religious Services. 14. Dance Bands. 15. Brass Bands, 16. Chamber Music. 17. Poetry Readings,

315



IRISH MONTHLY

Those with University education placed them in this order :

1. Plays. 2. Symphony Concerts. 3. Light Music.

4. Discussions.

5. Talks.

6. Grand Opera. 7. Features.

8. Short Story Readings. 9. Variety.

10. Musical Comedy. 11. Chamber Music.


13. Military Bands.

14. Poetry Readings. 15. Dance Bands.

16. Brass Bands.

17. Cinema Organs.

From all these and other figures Manvell has drawn up a table which

gives the over-all preferences of the British people :

1. Variety. 2. Plays. 3. Light Music.

4. Military Bands.

5. Musical Comedy. 6. Cinema Organs. 7. Brass Bands.


9. Discussions.

10. Dance Bands.

11. Talks.

12. Short Stories.

13. Features.

14. Grand Opera. 15. Symphony Concerts.

16. Poetry Readings. 17. Chamber Music.

316



RADIO

As Manvell himself says, comment on these four tables could be end

less; but it is important to keep in mind that the fact that the great

proportion of the people have only elementary education makes the

table of GENERAL preferences closely patterned on the same lines

?which is, as a glance at the first and the last tables will show, the

case. In this country, the proportion between those who have

elementary, secondary, and university education is, roughly, 93:6:1.

On the whole, though there may be some changes brought about by the two languages on RE, and though there may be some differences

between what we want here in Ireland and what they want in Britain,

the tables given are the best that can be got at the moment. Radio

?ireann cannot hope to give the cultural minority a sizeable pro gramme until there are more studios, more air-lanes?which means, in effect, a Second Programme?and, of course, more money to pay for these innovations.

I may seem to have dodged the question of what good radio is, but

there is one thing, at least, certain, that even if the public wants a

certain kind of programme, it need not necessarily get it, or even

need it. "

The fact is," writes Roger Manvell, in as good a remark

as I have seen, "

that the public only knows what it wants when some

artist or showman provides it with art or entertainment which in

itself forms the public taste."

Summing up my impressions after speaking to many people, both

inside and outside RE and radio work generally, I would say that

while it would probably have given the general public an interesting

insight into the RE set-up if the Minister had thought fit to reveal

the results of the surveys made last year, RE is sailing into the

future under a good captain, with sails trimmed nicely, and with a

good crew and a favourable wind.

317



what the listener wants: ii

Documents