NAEB Newsletter (September 15, 1939)

NAEB Haws Letter*Sept* 15, 1939 Pag© 3* — practical and useful® The producer airs his problems here; problems involving pul lie relations; matters of utilization and evaluation ar© all discussed and re-discussed; and 1 suspect that the minutes which are very carefully taken of th© proceed!ngs of these staff meetings aia about the most valuable single record of the Radio Oounoil that w© h&re* Outsiders are frequently invited to this staff meeting when w© are considering matters of deep concern to them* "Now* & word about the physical set-up* We have quarters in the Builders* C' Building where the Board of Education houses Its activities* These consist of two studios —- one a dramatic studio; the other # a speaker and round-table studio« Each is equipped with the latest RCA equipment, and each is supplied with its own control room — although the whole group is tied into an articulated unit* There is a workroom for the WPA writers; a mimeograph room; a continuity room; and a large general office,-, Some of our equipment consists of items which have hem assembled by our own engineers* The electric shop in the Lane Technical High School in cooperation with the woodshop out there, constructed a four-arm*, three turn-table sound wagon* a piano company donated a spin€>t plane for us© in the studio; and many other generosities will be noted in one place or another in the set-up• "May I say a few words now about how program® are planned? This subject is covered more completely in an article which I was privileged to write for Educational Method for February of the present year* Suffice it to say that we,"'of t*he Radio Council feel less responsibility for content of the programs that we broadcast than wa do forSthe develop-* aumt of objectives for their use; for safeguarding utilization in ©very conceivable way or manner; and providing that color and showman¬ ship in the programs which will not allow thorn to suffer in comparison with the best commercial programs. The content is normally a matter for curriculum and content committees* We have many of these* "One illustration will suffice, 1 am certain* In studying the nation¬ wide practices in broadcasting, we found that certain subjects were broadcast much more frequently than others* For example, social studies* There probably isn’t a school system in the country which is producing programs which does not have one kind of social studies program on its schedule* In Chicago, w© feel that w© had something that could be done, and wa decided to organize a program which we called by the title, Chicago la nd * This series wa® suggested to us by the social studies cdmEiTCeeT It was a aeries of dramatizations portraying the historical development of Chicago, integrated with the social and economic aspects of its life* Immediately^ we set the research writer to work, digging out the materials and getting them, incidentally, into a form which we have developed, wherein the r% script writer can very easily find materials lined up, from which a script could be written with almost no further research* "After a script is written, wa always read on© or two from a series to the staff meeting* Their criticisms cause a revision* Then, the script is auditioned, and a record made of it; following which, our evaluation teacher take® the record and a playback out to certain olaoses representing a cross section of the city, and tests the record out* The evaluation teacher tries to do a little preliminary