Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

The RADIO BOOK SHELF BM>AD€ASTDINI€ of THE NEWS MAGAZINE THE FIFTH ESTATE MARTIN CODEL, Editor SOL TAISHOFF, Managing Editor F. GAITHER TAYLOR, Advertising Manager Executive and Editorial Offices: National Press Building, Washington, D. C. Subscription Price: $3.00 a Year 15c a Copy Copyright, 1932, by Broadcasting Publications, Inc. Published Semi Monthly by BROADCASTING PUBLICATIONS, Inc. National Press Building Washington, D. C. Metropolitan 1022 Recovering A Fumble NOT ANOTHER intercollegiate athletic group in the country followed the example of the Eastern Intercollegiate Association when several months ago it decided to ban the broadcasting of its gridiron games in the interests of gate receipts. Instead of leading a movement against radio, the East's Big Twelve found themselves alone. Moreover, as predicted, a deluge of protests descended upon the heads of their athletic directors, particularly from alumni who depended upon the radio to carry the play-by-play accounts of the games of their alma maters when unable to atte'nd them because of distance. So it was natural that the Eastern Intercollegiate Association should have reconsidered its decision, lifting the ban at its New York meeting Sept. 8 and authorizing each member to decide for itself whether its home games shall be broadcast. Army and Harvard, particularly Army's athletic chieftain, Maj. Fleming, led the move to permit football bi'oadcasts. Columbia and the Navy immediately announced that they, too, would allow their games to be broadcast. It is our prediction that not a single one of the Big Twelve will refuse to permit the installation of microphones at their games. We said before, and we still believe, that it was the high cost of tickets and the depression that hit football attendance — not radio. It is still our firm conviction that radio can do and does more to stimulate football interest than any other factor. The Pacific Coast Conference recognized the promotional value of radio, and, ignoring their Eastern brethren, its directors recently voted entire cooperation with the broadcasters. In the Western Conference, we have the example of the University of Iowa which is conducting a paid radio advertising campaign, handled through usual agency channels, to stimulate attendance at its games. Common Sense THAT SO OUTSTANDING a periodical as Fortune, which this month took the lead among all monthly magazines in advertising lineage, should write about radio advertising so comprehendingly and so fairly, is indeed gratifying to the broadcasting fraternity. Fortune's parent publication, Time, has used radio with excellent results in the way of building identity, circulation and good will, and is returning to radio in a short time. Surely, if radio were seriously menacing their revenues, these two great magazines, like many other magazines and like too many newspapers, would have seized this opportunity to deride radio as an advertising medium rather than praise it. But the editors of Fortune and Time plainly are far-sighted individuals, who see that the hurling of "sticks and stones" at what they call our "Hard-Boiled Fauntleroy" would not stunt its growth. They seem to be aware of what others of the printed advertising realm cannot or will not accept as facts — -that progress in the advertising arts cannot be halted any more than the stagecoach could stay the growth of the railroads or the railroads the growth of the bus lines. They apparently realize that the printed and the audible advertising media complement one another, stimulating business activity and thus stimulating advertising for all classes of media. As Fortune points out, radio devotes only 7 per cent of its time to advertising, which, "even if it were an unmitigated nuisance, the audience would probably stand for it." More than that, "most of the audience actually seems to like it." In the periodical publishing business, it is great stuff if the publisher can fill 50 per cent of his columns with advertising — certainly a tremendous disparity between printed and spoken advertising. More About Radio Itself TO OFFICIALS of CBS we doff our hats for undertaking to get into closer intimacy with the radio audience by means of the series of "executive office messages" being presented periodically by Columbia announcers. It has long been our contention that the radio managers are standing too far aloof from the listener, that they don't take the audience into their confidence often enough, that they should go before the microphone now and then and tell the listener something about radio itself. That is precisely what CBS is doing — taking the audience back of the scenes in radio, telling it how stations and networks opei'ate, narrating the experiences of the folk who stage radio programs, and the like. It is surprising to find out, every now and then, that a listener does not even know that networks are connected by vast systems of specially engineered telephone lines, that American broadcasting operates without subsidy from the government, that radio advertising furnishes the wherewithal that makes our competitive system offer attractive programs to interest and entertain all types of audience. Unlike newspapers, broadcasting stations seldom toot their own horn through their own medium. They are all too willing to let their exploits and accomplishments get press notices, and no more. They fail to grasp the fact that they have the most powerful publicity medium in the world at hand. For their own individual sakes, as well as for the good of the broadcasting industry as a whole, it would be well for them to devote regular sus SOUNDING the call for a radio announcer who can combine showmanship with salesmanship, Norman Brokenshire, popular Chesterfield announcer, maintains that that is one way of making sales talks more effective and less boresome. Writing in the August 18 Advertising & Selling, he says: "To sell a commodity over the air, more than mere reading of words by a man with a pleasant voice is necessary. Those words must come from somewhere deeper than the speaker's larynx. They must be felt as well as spoken." And, to bring about this result, Mr. Brokenshire suggests that the advertiser get a man with selling ability "who can create, or help to create, the copy that is adapted to radio advertising and who can read that copy through a microphone, not so that it is blatant and cold but rather so that it becomes a part of the entertainment, because he himself is a part." Comparing the announcer's job with that of the salesman's, he finds that, while they have little in common, "both kinds of selling demand a knowledge of the product, confidence in it, and the ability to inspire confidence in it." THE ELECTRICAL Equipment Division, Department of Commerce, has issued a new list of foreign stations broadcasting for popular reception, giving location, designation, operating characteristics and ownership. Separate tabulations are given for middle, long and short-wave bands, and for television, though the television list is not presumed to be complete. Under recent legislation it has been made necessary to charge for these lists, formerly distributed free. The price has been set at 25 cents. Sales stocks are maintained at the Bureau in Washington and at District Offices of the Bureau in principal cities throughout the country. A NEW CHART showing the 46 radio-beacons along the eastern Atlantic coast from Maine to Panama has been issued by the U. S. Lighthouse Service. These long-wave stations have in some instances had their operating frequencies changed, a recent reallocation cutting down their wave separations from 5 to 4 kilocycles in order to make room for more stations. THE FIRST of a series of articles by experts on architecture, engineering and broadcasting on Broadcasting House, the new home of the British Broadcasting Corporation, was carried in "The Listener," BBC organ, on July 13. It was on the architectural phases of the building and was written by Prof. C. H. Reilly. A DESCRIPTION of "A New System of Sound Recording," which World Broadcasting System has present right to through its contract with Western Electric Co., is contained in Bell Laboratories Record, July issue. The article was written by H. C. Harrison, transmission instruments engineering. THE 1931 annual report of the American Academy of Air Law, dealing with the studies and lectures on radio and aeronautical law at New York University has just been issued. Copies are obtainable from Alison Reppy, chairman, New York University, Washington Square East, New York. taining periods to discussions, interviews and dramatizations that have as their purpose acquainting the audience with the facts and the problems of radio. Page 16 BROADCASTING • September 15, 1932