Education by radio (1931-)

Six Important Dont's Don't take it for granted you can make a good radio talk without preparation. Every address by radio should, if possible, be preceded by a rehearsal. Don't orate in the style usual to plat- form or pulpit. A discourse delivered in a conversational tone, and in such an intimate manner as one would use if he actually entered each of the million homes that may be tuned in, is much more effective than the one offered in the style of platform or pulpit address. Don't speak from a manuscript that is clipped together. Bring your script with the pages loose. When you finish with a page let it drop to the floor. This eliminates the shuffling and rustling of the paper. Don't clear your throat or cough near the microphone. Both sounds are borne to the radio audience as the growl or roar of some hitherto unheard mam- moth of the jungle. Don't hiss your sibilants. The s sound executed with the slightest whistle is disagreeable on the radio. Keep the tongue as far as possible from the roof of the mouth and the sibilant may be uttered softly. Don't guess at the number of minutes your speech will require. The speaker in each broadcast has a time allotment which, with the necessary announce- ments and perhaps some incidental music, should exactly fill the assigned period. The address should therefore be accurately timed by paragraphs and parts of paragraphs in seconds. The microphone which picks up the voice of the speaker in a radio broad- cast studio is a very sensitive instru- ment. The slightest sound, even one that is almost inaudible to the speaker himself, is picked up by the microphone and amplified in transmission so that sounds intended for our listeners may be clearly reproduced in the homes of those who make up the radio audience.—John Carlisle, production manager of the Co- lumbia Broadcasting System, in the Washington Evening Star, December 4, 1931. The United States Census Bureau Enumerates Radios Area UNITED STATES. Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire.. .. New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Number of families 1930 29.980,146 592,530 106,630 439,408 1,618,533 268,531 389,596 59,295 126,014 377,823 654,009 108,515 1,934,445 844,463 636,905 488,055 610,288 486,424 198,372 386,087 1,024,527 1,183.157 608,398 472,354 941,821 137,010 343,781 25,730 119,660 987,616 98,820 3,162,118 645,245 145,382 1,700,877 565,348 267,690 2,239,179 165,811 366,265 161,332 601,578 1,383,280 116,254 89 439 530,092 426,019 374,646 713,576 57,218 1920 24,351,676 508,769 80,208 390,960 900,232 230,843 311,610 52,070 96,194 234,133 628,525 100,500 1,534,077 737,707 586,070 435,600 546,306 389,913 186,106 324,742 874,798 862,745 526,026 403,198 829,043 139,912 303,436 21,862 108,334 721,841 83,706 2,441,125 513,377 134,881 1,414,068 444,524 202,890 1,922,114 137,160 349,126 142,793 519,108 1,017,413 98,346 85,804 483,363 342,228 310,098 595,316 48,476 Population per family 1930 4.1 4.5 4.1 4.2 3.5 3.9 4.1 3.8 3.9 3.9 4.3 4.3 4.0 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.3 4.0 4.9 4.7 3.9 4.2 3.6 4.3 4.1 4.7 4.3 4.3 4.2 4.4 4.0 4.6 3.7 4.6 4.1 3.9 1920 4.3 4.6 4.2 4.5 3.8 4.1 4.4 4.3 4.5 4.1 4.6 4.3 4.2 4.0 4.1 4.1 4.5 4.4 4.3 4.5 4.4 4.1 3.9 4.3 3.5 4.1 4.4 4.3 4.3 5.0 4.8 4.1 4.6 3.9 4.5 4.4 4.8 4.5 4.5 4.6 4.6 4.1 4.8 4.0 4.7 4.4 4.0 Families having radio sets, 1930 Number 12,078,345 56,491 19,295 40,248 839,846 101,376 213,821 27,183 67,880 58,446 64,908 32,869 1,075,134 351,540 309,327 189,527 111,452 54,364 77,803 165,465 590,105 599,196 287,880 25,475 352,252 43,809 164,324 7,869 53,111 625,639 11,404 1,829,123 72.329 59,352 810,767 121,973 116,299 1,076,770 94,594 28,007 71,361 86,229 257,686 47,729 39,913 96,569 180,229 87,469 364,425 19,482 Percent of total 40.3 9.5 18.1 9.2 51.9 37.8 54.9 45.8 53.9 15.5 9.9 30.5 55.6 41.6 48.6 3^ 8 18.3 11.2 39.2 42.9 57.6 50.6 47.3 5.4 37.4 32.0 47.8 30.6 44.4 63.3 11.5 57.8 11.2 40.8 47.7 21.6 43.4 48.1 57.0 7.6 44 14 18 41 44 18 42.3 23.3 51.1 34.0 Read table thus: In 1930 Alabama had 592,530 families while in 1920 the number was 508,769; there was an average of 4.5 persons per family in 1930 as co.npared with 4.6 in 1920; in 1930, 56,491 or 9.5 per cent of the families had radio sets. Similarly, read the data for each of the other states and for the entire United States. THE CONDITIONS OF OUR RADIO at the present time constitute a national scandal and disgrace. If they are allowed to continue for another ten years we shall have the most depraved and vulgarized people in the world, and the fault will not rest with the people, who are helpless, and have to take what is handed out to them by exploiters and commercialists of the basest type. I expressed my own opinion of the radio by giving away my set a couple of years ago, and subsequently declining the offer of another set which a friend tried to give me. If those who pay their money for radio advertising knew how many sets are silent in this country, they would reduce the amount of their subsidy of buncombe and rubbish.—Upton Sinclair. r iw 1