Education by Radio (1933)

EDUCATION BY RADIO VOLUME 3. NUMBER 6, APRIL 27. 1933 NBC Changes Policy CONSIDERABLE INTEREST HAS BEEN CREATED in radio circles by recent statements which give the impression that the National Broadcasting Company has made a definite change in policy. Previous public pronouncements by its officials had convinced the man in the street that the company did not believe in the support of broadcasting from any other source than the sale of time to advertisers. It is now reported on good authority that a new source is to be tapped, namely, listener contributions. The scheme does not provide that all receivingset owners shall pay fees of suffi¬ cient size to support broadcasting but will follow the novel but extremely suc¬ cessful plan now used in the Netherlands of asking for voluntary contributions. There is one essential difference be¬ tween the new arrangement which is pro¬ posed by the NBC and the system now in use in Holland. This small European country does not permit radio advertising yet the two broadcasting organizations report substantial profits over and above the cost of operation. The NBC on the contrary, tho claiming to be operating in the public interest, evidently proposes to force the listeners to pay for every pro¬ gram peculiarly prepared to serve the public interest. Let no one be misled. The National Broadcasting Company has not decided Martin Hegland, director of radio station WCAL, head, department of religion, and to cancel its advertising contracts. As a matter of fact an official of the company recently stated that in his opinion there has been an increase rather than a de¬ college pastor, St. Olaf College, Northfeld, Minnesota. A graduate of St. Olaf College, Dr. Hegland holds an M. A. degree from the Uni¬ versity of Minnesota, and a Ph. D. from Columbia University. WCAL, which derives its support from the contributions of listeners, enables St. Olaf College to render a distinctive educational, cultural, and religious service to listeners in that area — large numbers of whom are of Norwegian descent. Please accept my personal appreciation of your kindness in answering these questions. Sincerely yours, John W. Davis r 1 1 Do you believe that the Damrosch Hour should be continued? [2] Do you think many of your friends and associates would like to see the Damrosch Hour continued? [3] Do you favor the proposal that a special Damrosch Hour Continuance Committee sponsor an ef¬ fort to raise a fund of $300,000 to assure con¬ tinuance for three years? [Any funds so raised would be turned over to the National Advisory Council on Radio in Education, a non-profitmaking organization of which the eminent sci¬ entist, Dr. Robert A. Millikan, is president, to administer.] [4] Would you be willing to take part in raising the fund for continuance of the Damrosch Hour? [5] Can you recommend any organization in your locality that would lead and sponsor the project locally? If so, please provide name of person with whom we might communicate. [6] Do you believe that phil¬ anthropic foundations should contribute to a fund in behalf of the Damrosch Hour? [7] Would you be willing to contribute to the fund for continuing the Damrosch Hour? [8] Other remarks? It has been evident for a long time that sooner or later the break would come. It was only a matter of time be¬ fore a disgusted, intelligent, and dis¬ criminating radio audience would insist upon the maintenance of such current programs as are worth continuing; the presentation of a greater amount of high-grade microphone material; and the curtailment if not entire elimination of radio advertising. Conceding that the present haphazard plan will not con¬ tinue long, NBC would now place the burden of providing good programs on the shoulders of the audience and at crease in the number of hours sold during the past year or so. The reports of the change in policy arose as a result of the following letter sent to a select mailing list: IS Broad Street, New York, April 3, 1933 Confidential Dear : The Walter Damrosch Music Appreciation Hour, which is being heard each week by more than six million school children [This is an extremely exaggerated estimate 1 and two million adults over the largest regular radio hookup of any program, commercial or educational, faces abandonment after its final program of the present season, April 28. The National Broadcasting Company, which has presented the Dam¬ rosch Hour for the last five years, at a cost of approximately $100,000 a year, has found that it can no longer make this expenditure. A group of music lovers who feel strongly that the Damrosch pro¬ grams should continue, without any impairment in quality, have asked me to form a special Damrosch Hour Continuation Committee. To ob¬ tain representative opinion on the possibility of raising the funds neces¬ sary to provide the Damrosch Hour for three years, a few questions have been shaped. Your answers would greatly aid me in reaching a decision as to future plans for the Committee. the same time line its pockets from the programs of the ad¬ vertisers given over the protests of the listeners. It is significant that this movement to throw the support of the Damrosch programs upon the listeners should be headed by a man wellknown as one of the leading attorneys for the big power companies, which dominate radio broadcasting. However, there is a brighter side to the picture. The demand for a congressional study of radio along the lines of the bill introduced by Congressman H. P. Fulmer of South Carolina is gaining ground. Such a thorogoing and impartial study would unearth many inconsistencies in the present type of radio operation in this country. It would furnish the founda¬ tion for a system of broadcasting in the United States which would avoid both the evils of government systems in certain other countries and of our commercialized American system. Conditions in America are unusually favorable for broadcast¬ ing. There is no reason why the United States should not have the best system in the world at the least cost to the individual. [ 21 1