Education by radio (1931-)

Consumer Education and Defense Extend the Broadcast Band ? A NUMBER OF CAREFUL STUDENTS of the social and economic life of the United States have continually pointed out the crying need for consumer education. In an article entitled "The Education of the Forgotten Man," appearing in the October 1932 issue of the Journal oj Adult Education, Robert S. Lynd makes a strong case for making available adequate information about the products used in the American home. A few quotations from Dr. Lynd's article are indicative of his point of view: ... If the automobile industry guessed badly in the 1920's, the result in the 1930's is an intensified campaign directed at the consumer in which even the President of the United States is drafted to make a public state- ment urging the pubhc to buy new cars. ... In the summer of 1931 the United States Public Health Service ventured a radio broadcast earnestly advising people to eat less meat in hot weather. In response to a torrent of protest from the meat industry, the Treasury Department, under which the Public Health Service operates, immediately ordered all broadcasts by the service to be sub- mitted to the Treasury Department for censorship. . . . Under existing pure food and drug laws, only the grossest abuses of those laws are caught, and the administrative machinery is admittedly inadequate to cope with the situation. Washington can proceed against misleading advertising statements on bottles, cartons, or in enclosed cir- culars, but it has no power over advertisers' claims, however misleading, when they are made thru the medium of the radio or newspapers. . . . ... A rigid rule thruout all federal departments forbids the imparting to the public of the names of the brands that are proved by the govern- ment tests to be the best. . . . Impelled from within by the need for security in the most emo- tionally insecure culture in which any recent generation of .\mericans has lived, beset on every hand by a public philosophy that puts the health of business ahead of the quality of living, uneducated in the backward art of spending to live, the consumer faces a trying situation. . . . We need to be educated as to what constitutes an adequate test of a consumer commodity. What, for instance, is the mail order company's test of a mattress by dropping a log on it worth ? What do tests by such agencies as Good Housekeeping Institute signify? Recent developments in the merchandising field suggest that we are in for an era of vigorousl>- exploited pseudo-tests. We need to be taught to ask the federal government why the consumer is the man nobody knows in Washington. Congress cannot longer delay passing adequate legislation to protect the public against fraudulent advertising. Unprin- cipled advertisers, and radio station owners, finding it difficult to keep out of bankruptcy under the American System of broadcasting, have filled the air with false and misleading ad- vertisements. Thru the present effective radio censorship by private interests, the public is denied the chance to hear the truth about countless rad'o advertised articles that no one would buy if the real facts were known. DATA HITHERTO PRESENTED to the Committee Preparing for the North American Radio Conference appears to have been chiefly of a technical nature, bearing on the question of how necessary it may be to bring certain additional channels within the broadcast band, in order that all broadcast stations now operating may continue to be heard. Without questioning any of the engineering data submitted, we desire merely to point out that the primary question is rather, how necessary is it, in the public interest, that all these stations should con- tinue to be heard at all? No sane man would assert that a com- munity which can tune in six stations is necessarily being better served with broadcasting than one which can tune in only three. All depends on the programs. And if it be claimed by anyone that program service is likely to be just as good on each station, no matter how many additional ones are licensed to operate in the same territory, then that is a claim which we desire here to deny most emphatically.—Harris K. Randall, executive director, American Radio Audience League, in a communica- tion dated June 9, 1933 to the Committee Preparing for the North American Radio Conference. Indecent Radio Songs THE PREDICTION that the mothers of the nation would unite in protest against "indecent" songs on the radio, as some of them already have united against th2 broadcasting of "lurid" bedtime stories, was made yesterday morning by the Rev. Dr. Minot Simons in his sermon in All Souls' Unitarian Church, Eightieth Street and Lexington Avenue. "One of these days," he said, "I expect to see these mothers rise up against the indecent songs which are coming into their homes over the radio. Some of these songs are obscene. There is almost no limit to their immoral suggestiveness. They are adding one more to the demoralizing influences bombarding the youth o' today. The broadcasting companies would much bet- ter wake themselves up to this abuse before the general pubHc wakes them up."— New York Times, March 6, 1933. NORWAY HAS TAKEN OVER all broadcasting stations and levies a tax of §3.50 on each radio set to maintain the system. We may have to follow suit. They used to broadcast programs "thru the courtesy of the advertiser." Now it's thru the courtesy of the listener.—A. G. Erickson, Springfield [Min- nesota! Advance Press. EDUCATION BY RADIO is published by the National Committee on Education by Radio at 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C. The members of this Committee and the national groups with which they are associated are as follows: Charles T. Corcoran, S. J., director, radio station WEW, St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, The Jesuit Educational Association. Arthur G. Crane, president, the University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, National Association of State Universities. J. O. Keller, head of engineering extension, Pennsylvania State College, State College, Pa., National University Extension Association. Charles N. Lischka, 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, Washinctnn. D C. National Catholic Educational Association. John Henry MacCracken, vicechairman, 744 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C, American Council on Education. Joy Elmer Morgan, chairman, 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwe>t Washington. D. C, National Kducation Association. James N. Rule, state superintendent of public instruction, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, National Council of State Superintendents. H. Umberger, Kansas State College of Agriculture, Manhattan, Kansas, Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities. Jos. F. Wright, director, radio station WILL, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, HI., Association of College and Univ. Broadcasting Stations. Everyone who receives a copy of this bulletin is invited to send in suggestions and comments. Save the bulletins for reference or pass them on to your local library or to a friend. Education by radio is a pioneering movement. These bulletins are, therefore, valuable. Earlier numbers will be supplied free on request while the supply lasts. Radio is an extension of the home. Let's keep it clean and free.