Education by Radio (1932)

broadcasting policies. The more the broadcaster pleases the listeners the larger his audience and income. The less advertising, the better the listeners are pleased. Broadcasters in one small country abandoned advertising when it was pay¬ ing them seventy percent profits. Radio advertising was prohibited by law. No license fee was required of set owners. Broadcasting was left with no source of income except voluntary contributions, yet in two years one broadcasting organi¬ zation has accumulated a surplus of $600,000, another a very large sum, and the others are at least paying expenses. Listeners are glad to be rid of the adver¬ tising nuisance, and continue to contrib¬ ute liberally. Contributions come even from listeners on the frontiers who can hear foreign stations more easily than those of their own country. European listeners pay less for radio service than Americans — The American listener seldom can hear any program for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time without being inter¬ rupted by some salesman, whose state¬ ments may not agree with the facts. Many who listen become painfully con¬ scious of the fact that commercial broad¬ casters look upon them merely as chattels to be sold to the highest bidders. Tests made by asking American listeners to ex¬ press their preferences indicate that many would rather pay for their programs di¬ rectly, and thereby get what they want without advertising. European listeners do so. Many of them are asked, at least once a year, what they want, and pro¬ grams are made to meet their demands. There is very little demand for the meaningless stuff that some American commercial broadcasters claim the public wants. Jazz is described in Europe as “negro music capitalized by Jews.” There is a strong demand for good music and for educational programs. American listeners are told that they pay nothing for their radio programs. The fact is that the listeners pay, indirectly, the $444,179.94 budget of the Federal Radio Commission, plus the total budget of all the broadcasting stations, a sum reported as over $75,000,000. This is more than the listeners pay in all the other countries combined. It is extrava¬ gant in view of the fact that much of the time on commercial stations is devoted to commercial propaganda which many lis¬ teners consider as not in the public in¬ terest, convenience, or necessity. In the words of a wellknown radio editor: “The radio listener, altho he does not do it in a tangible way, actually ‘pays the bill’ for broadcasting. You paid part of that bill when you purchased a radio set, a tube, or any of the other gadgets that went into radio. You continue to pay when you smoke the cigarettes, use the soap, and patronize the merchants whose virtues you have heard extoled thru your Wisconsin is noted for its pioneering in the public interest, and now, thru the leadership of the University of Wisconsin, the state is at¬ tempting to enlist the radio as a means for disseminating in¬ formation of general concern. The orderly presentation of wellplanned programs will, I hope, find reception in the schools. I earnestly recom¬ mend the Wisconsin School of the Air programs to our teach¬ ers. — John Callahan, state su¬ perintendent of public instruc¬ tion of Wisconsin, in the Uni¬ versity of Wisconsin Press Bulletin, volume 25, number 24, December 16, 1931. loud speaker between periods of music or dialog.” Stations more crowded in Amer¬ ica — -Many American listeners are handicapped by the number of stations crowded into small areas. Several Amer¬ ican cities have ten or more stations with¬ in a radius of a few miles, the majority of which broadcast programs of the same general nature. This causes interference which in many cases prevents satisfac¬ tory reception. In Europe there are sel¬ dom more than two stations in any small area. Unfair discrimination and favor¬ itism— In America one distributor of merchandise is permitted to operate one or two broadcasting stations to adver¬ tise his goods and others are denied the privilege of operating stations. One man is given repeated renewals of his broad¬ casting license altho he uses his station to sell his own goods on the one hand, and to attack legitimate business enter¬ prise on the other. His privileges were continued even after he defied the gov¬ ernment which granted them, and in spite of the fact that listeners complained that he used profane and obscene language in doing so. Organizations of capitalists are given the most valuable radio privileges [2] while labor is compeled to fight contin¬ ually for its right to be heard. The decla¬ ration by a company that it wants to in¬ vest money in a radio broadcasting sta¬ tion and make profits by selling radio audiences to advertisers is considered by the radio authorities as giving the com¬ pany a right superior to that of a univer¬ sity which seeks to use radio as a means of extending its service to citizens who cannot sit in its classrooms. The testi¬ mony of an employee of a commercial broadcasting company to the effect that the public wants the service of its station has more influence with the federal radio authorities than the fact that the people of a state support a broadcasting station at their state university by paying taxes. The commercial broadcasters are permit¬ ted to discriminate in favor of one con¬ cern that wants advertising time and against its competitor. In Europe, radio channels are used pri¬ marily for service to the listeners. They are not turned over to favored business concerns. Where advertising is permitted the air is open to all legitimate business on equal terms. The advertiser usually pays only for the time used for his ad¬ vertising. He is not obliged to pay for an expensive program in order to secure a few minutes of advertising time. The man with a small business can advertise. The air is not monopolized by large ad¬ vertisers. Difference in treatment of press — American newspapers and magazines have lost a large part of their revenue thru the action of the federal government in granting broadcasting companies the use of the public radio channels for ad¬ vertising purposes. Also, certain news¬ papers are granted valuable radio privi¬ leges by the federal government while others are handicapped by greater re¬ strictions or are denied the use of the air altogether. In Europe the press is better satisfied. In one country a committee representing the press is financed by the national government so that it may serve the public thru the national radio sta¬ tions. Broadcasting adds to tax burden — The American government grants the use of radio channels to broadcasters free of charge. It receives no income directly from these channels and spends about $444,000 annually to maintain the Fed¬ eral Radio Commission which issues the licenses to the broadcasters. What the government pays out of its treasury must of course be collected directly or indirectly from the citizens. Most Euro¬ pean governments collect a small tax on