Not So Idiotic

Conductors Leopold Stokowski and Arthur Fiedler, who have already tried being radio disc jockeys, were joined this week by Britain's loquacious Sir Thomas Beecham. New York City's WQXR began a series of recorded Beecham chats (Wed. 8:05-9 p.m.). Vacationing in Paris, Sir Thomas told a TIME correspondent how he happened to do the transcriptions:

"Ah ha, now I remember. I made them a year ago ... When [they] suggested 26 talks on music I wasn't enthralled. I said it was impossible to talk for 26 hours on music. It would bore everybody to death. However, I tried a few, and you know they were not quite so completely idiotic as I had thought.

"So I went ahead, lucubrating for 50 minutes and relieving myself copiously with musical recordings. Of course, the recordings were virtually all mine. It was an excellent opportunity for introducing the public to them.

"I've been listening painfully and critically to my own voice for the past 45 years. I don't like my own voice a bit, but I have to put up with it. It's the only one I have . . ."

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