Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

Commercial Value of Education Programs By SAM PICK ARD Vice President in Charge of Station Relations, CBS Stations Gain Prestige and Good Will From Broadcasts; New Fields for Special Advertisers Uncovered AN ANALYSIS of the American School of the Air audiences, as revealed in fan mail, portrays interesting possibilities of developing educational broadcasts for commercial purposes and for the purpose of gaining favor for individual stations. These programs have a considerable following among adults, particularly foreign-born, and are tuned in by housewives, business executives, old people and shut-ins as well as by a tremendous school audience. Educational broadcasts also offer station managers an opportunity to contact the cultural classes of his community, Mr. Pickard asserts. . commercial view Mr. Pickard 1 point with specS ial reference to their value to station managers. For the purposes of this inquiry, l the programs of the American School of the Air, offered by CBS ij to stations of its network, will be taken as a basis. This educational series, now in its third year, j is the only comprehensive, correi lated educational series presented | over the air on a coast to coast network. The broadcasts are a daily feature from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., EST, five times a week during the school year, and have been cairied by 78 stations of the network to reach an estimated potential school audience of 8,000,000 children. During the season just concluded 97 programs were presented, of which 20 were history dramatizations, 20 geography and music programs, 14 literary periods, 20 primary and intermediate music programs, 9 elementary science talks and 18 vocational guidance and current event broadcasts. Prominent Persons Heard THESE PROGRAMS have brought before the microphone, and thus direct to children in radio equipped schools, men and women prominent in every field of public life. Among these may be noted: the Secretary of Agriculture, Arthur M. Hyde; the Assistant Secretary of Navy, Ernest Lee Jancke; the Commissioner of Education, William J. Cooper; the Commissioner of Fisheries, Henry O'Malley; the Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Julius Klein; Sumner Blossom, editor of the American Magazine; Edwin Markham, dean of American poets, and Edmund Vance Cook; Lorado Taft, eminent sculptor, and Fannie Hurst, novelist. In the musical field, the American School of the Air has made available the world's greatest symphonic music to class rooms; and this year, for the first time in radio history, it brought musical programs designed especially for class room reception direct from foreign countries to American school children. In seeking to estimate the value of such an educational series to station managers, three main lines of inquiry will be followed: (1) to increase station audiences, (2) to attract advertisers and (3) to promote community good will. Analyzing Fan Mail LET US first see what special groups educational broadcasts have added to station audiences. An analysis of the fan mail received by the American School of the Air shows the following: An educational group consisting of: (a) school children in radio equipped schools, public and private, city and rural (this number has been placed at 8,000,000); (b) superintendents, principals and school teachers in kindergartens, grade and high schools and colleges (over 90,000 teachers' manuals and class room guides have been sent out in response to requests from this group); (c) art students and art leagues; \d) librarians; (e) study committees of women's clubs. More than one-third of the fan mail comes from adults entirely outside educational circles. These adult listeners fall in several clearly defined classes: (1) Housewives who listen in at home and often relay lessons to children in non-radio schools or who study to "keep up" with them. (2) Business executives — principally for insurance companies, manufacturing concerns, banks, etc.; professional men, chiefly dentists and doctors. (3) Old people — inmates of institutions, homes and grandparents at home. (4) The shut-ins— the blind, crippled, inmates of hospitals and institutions. (5) Foreign born — grown-ups often deprived of educational advantages in the old countries who now go to school here. A Growing Audience THIS LAST class has been greatly increased since the inauguration of the "transoceanic lessons," an outstanding feature of the school's 1931-32 curriculum as nearly 33 1/3 per cent of this nation's citizens is foreign born or of foreign born parentage. The foreign language press in this country has given these programs wide notice and their continuance can undoubtedly attract a vast new audience for the network. Having determined with a fair degree of accuracy which special classes listen in to educational broadcasts, let us consider their possible value to advertisers. The tremendous potential buying power in the so-called educational group hardly needs comment. It is sufficient to suggest the importance of time, either immediately before or following these broadcasts, to advertisers of school equipment and supplies to tourist and travel bureaus offering summer tours and excursions and in general to those same groups whose advertisements have long been a chief source of support to leading educational journals. For those who listen in at home, the school programs come at hours which find home makers at home — this is particularly true of the Pacific and Mountain time regions, where the broadcasts are heard at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and thus provide an audience comprising the chief purchasers of household goods of all kinds, children's wearing apparel, breakfast foods, etc. Spurs Radio Sales THE PURCHASE of radios by schools has undoubtedly been due largely to the availability of educational broadcasts. The board of education in Providence, R. I., equipped 300 schools with radio at an expense of $16,000 because of the value of the School of the Air lessons. In Tampa, Fla., the CBS station, WDAE, recently provided all grade schools with radios at its expense to permit reception of the broadcasts. In other cities where school funds were lacking, ParentTeacher Associations and frequently private citizens have donated sets to the schools so that they might profit by the CBS program. It is probable that not more than 15 or 20 per cent of the total public schools of the country — estimated at between 300,000 and 400,000 — are as yet radio equipped. Certain radio manufacturers, appreciating the importance of this school field, now specialize in complete centralized radio equipment for schools. This, in addition to permitting reception of broadcasts, also is used for inter-classroom communications. Central control in the principal's office makes possible the direction of broadcasts to all rooms, any one room or any group; a microphone on his desk permits direct communication for announcements to all rooms. Music for assemblies, gymnasium or chapel, provided by a school phonograph, may be relayed and amplified over the radio system. The perfecting of these centralized systems for schools will undoubtedly do much towards hastening radio in schools. Development of community good will for stations grows daily more (Continued on page 2U) PUPILS of Lincoln School, Bedford, Ind., listening to an American School of the Air program June 1, 1932 • BROADCASTING Page 11