Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

Average Man Key to Education Program By LEVERING TYSON Director, National Advisory Council on Radio in Education Recognizing Unavoidable Limitations of Radio, Educator Sees Need of Rational Approach to its Problems ^^■H@9| IF THE destiny r;^^W:' which rules us all had decreed ^5' tfWi that there should be no limit to the broadcast band; Bl^BmB if there were in ft| 1 existence a given |fj^^U^.HH number of broadLevering Tyson casting stations owned and operated by educational institutions under adequate financial auspices; if it could be determined what the American public would listen to of an educational character; if it were known what type of educator could attract and hold a listening audience; if individuals capable of attracting and holding a listening public were available in appreciable numbers for broadcasting educational programs; if the subjects that would periodically and regularly intrigue a section of the listening public sufficiently large to guarantee a qualified speaker an audience could be discovered; if a definition of "educational broadcasting" could be agreed upon, particularly among educators, in short, if the millenium were here, there would be no "problem" of educational broadcasting. But the air is limited. It is almost impossible to chase a satisfactory definition of "education" into a corner, let alone a satisfactory definition of "educational broadcasting." There are very few educational stations adequately financed — and broadcasting is, if anything, expensive. No scientific method of measuring listener reaction to radio programs has as yet been devised, so that no one can state with any degree of confidence just what the American people will listen to. It is true we are bebeginning to know what they will not listen to, but negative information in this connection does not carry with it enough weight of authority to argue one way or the other in so far as educational programs as a class are concerned. NEEDS BEST MINDS Furthermore, educators as a class have not yet fallen for radio. Plenty of them have gone on the air. But what is needed more than anything else is for the Hutchinses and the Lowells and the Deweys and the Butlers and the Sprouls and the McVeys and the Chases to give some of their time and thought to this radio problem. Because every man who has reached the prominence in the educational field enjoyed by those mentioned above is so busy with the conduct of the educational business ordinarily at his hand, it is hardly likely that he will turn aside from what he is doing and willingly break into the complicated radio problem. Furthermore, the educational world itself is in a state of change. Practices which have survived for many generations are being questioned. Theories that have withstood the onslaughts of reformers for decades are no longer tenable. In the elementary as well as in the college field administrators are growing introspective and examining and re-examining their procedure in order to discover what demands the civilization of the twentieth century is making upon the youth of the land who are going to school, college and university. Is it any wonder the "best minds" in the educational world are busy with their "own affairs"? But isn't it a great pity, nay almost a calamity, that at the very Organized ONE OF THE most favorable reception periods in network broadcasting has been allotted by the NBC to the National Advisory Council on Radio in Education for a series of 30 weekly addresses by authorities in the fields of present day economics and psychology. This is the first organized attempt to bring radio and education together, and it is a partial answer of the broadcasters to the plea of education for more time on the air. The programs are to begin Saturday evening, October 17, from 8:15 to 9 o'clock, EST, with President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University introducing President James R. Angel of Yale as the first speaker on psychology and Dr. Ernest L. Bogart, president of the American Economic Association, as the first speaker on economics. Thereafter, the lectures will be on the air every Saturday evening from 8:30 to 9 o'clock, 15 minutes time when the services of such as these would be of greatest use in solving the intricate problems which surround this question of what radio can do for education, there are so many other complications in the educational field as we have known it up to this time? "EDUCATION" IS HANDICAP ONE of the biggest handicaps inreaching an effective solution is the word "education" itself. The ordinary American citizen has a passion for self -betterment. The success of our American commercial correspondence schools is eloquent testimony of this. But few Americans would willingly be backed into a corner and allow a fist to be thrust into their faces followed by the admonition "Now we are going to educate you!" The American prefers to get his intellectual food without any confession that he is inferior to anyone else, particularly to Mr. and Mrs. Jasper Jones next door or across the court. He would under no consideration admit his inferiority to the Joneses and he won't willingly submit publicly to any intellectual regime if it is an admission of inferiority. This may be regarded as an argument for sugar coated educational programs over the radio. It being alloted to the speaker on economics and 15 minutes to the speaker on psychology. All of the speakers were chosen by a representative committee of educators, and all are men and women preeminent in their respective fields. Designed largely for the adult ear, the programs follow somewhat along the lines of the British Broadcasting Corporation's adult educational programs, which consist of lectures by the outstanding authorities on various phases of life and which are presented for half hours daily under the title "This Changing World." LAUDED BY LEADERS PRESENTATION of this series is viewed as extremely significant in the radio and educational worlds, and especially by John W. Elwood, NBC vice president in charge of educational programs, and Lever isn't. It is, however, a plea for rational presentation of subject matter which can be understood by the average man in the street, and not necessarily either of material which will conform to the lowgrade intellect which is asci'ibed by so many to our population. The fact is that we have learned relatively little — certainly not as much as we can learn — about the best way to present facts over the radio by the spoken word. Because a large per cent of the listening audience is still in the habit of turning to another station when a "talk" begins, is no argument that this condition will continue indefinitely. Although there is substantial agreement that radio can be of great aid to education in this country, there is surprisingly little being done to find out how. Present indications are that it is going to require a long time to discover how; there are so many complexities in broadcasting, and there is so much to learn before one can speak with any certainty about any of them. There are economic questions, and political questions, and engineering questions, and legislative questions, — and any one of these groups of questions are puzzling enough to keep the educational world, the broadcasting industry and the law-makers of the land occupied for many years to come. Yet, at the heart of all these intricacies, there is always the pro(Continued on page 36) Air ing Tyson, director of the NationalAdvisory Council and formerly head of the Home Study Development Department of Columbia University. "The Council is the first educational group to approach radio with a comprehensive plan," Mr. Elwood said. "Although there has been much discussion, this is the first organized attempt to harness education and radio. "Since the birth of broadcasting much has been said concerning the part radio should play in education. In recent years a number of experiments have been made by individual stations, but no conclusive evaluation of the results have been obtained. With the exception of one or two programs such as the NBC Music Appreciation Hour and the Standard School Broadcasts on the Pacific Coast, no experiment has satisfactorily demonstrated the educational possibilities of broadcasting." Education Goes on the October 15, 1931 • BROADCASTING Page 13