Education by Radio (1933)

Radio Education in Australia During March 1933, at the invitation of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the minister for education co¬ operated in the formation of an advisory council to deal with educational broadcasts. The chairman is A. W. Hicks, M.C., M.A., assistant director and assistant undersecretary for edu¬ cation, and the secretary, E. A. Riley, M.A., formerly inspector of schools. The council divided itself into two committees, one to deal with educational broadcasts for adults and one to concern itself with school broadcasts. The latter elected J. G. McKenzie, B.A., B.Ec., assistant chief inspector of schools, as chairman, and the general secretary as its secretary. Two types of school broadcasts have been decided on. From noon till 12:20pm they will be suitable for children between the ages of 10 and 12 years, while the interests of students from 12 to 15 years of age will be catered to on four afternoons [Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday] from 3 to 3:30pm. On Wednesday afternoons from 3 to 3:30pm it is proposed to have a broadcast especially for pupils of the correspondence school. Subcommittees have been formed to draw up programs and select broadcasters for each of the subjects, which include English, history, geography, music for both groups, with French and science in addition for the seniors, and nature study and health talks for the juniors. A handbook, giving the pro¬ grams, with notes, illustrations, and suggestions, will be issued to teachers, so that the young people may be prepared to re¬ ceive the full advantage from the broadcasts. A technical subcommittee is also at work seeking full in¬ formation as to the type of reception that is available in various localities thruout the state with a given type of receiver. It is hoped to epitomize this information on a map of New South Wales, so that each school may know whether it can expect A class reception [guaranteed under all normal conditions] or B class reception, that is, a reasonable expectation of satisfac¬ tory reception, or whether it lies in a “dead spot” where there is no reasonable prospect of satisfactory reception. — -The Edu¬ cation Gazette, New South Wales, May 1, 1933, p78. Baker Replaces Young One of the many difficult and important problems facing the United States today is that of removing radio from the domination of the Power Trust. When on November 21, 1932, the federal court in Wilming¬ ton, Delaware, decreed that there must be a complete separa¬ tion of interests between Radio Corporation of America and General Electric Company, Owen D. Young was ordered to sever his relationship with either RCA or GE. He accordingly resigned as director and chairman of the executive committee of RCA and all of its subsidiaries. This action by the court it was hoped would destroy monopoly in the radio field. It now appears that the Power Trust interests have found a way out. By bringing Newton D. Baker, one of the country’s leading power trust attoVneys, into the directorate in the place of Owen D. Young, they have continued the connection in fact if not in name. Lauds Radio Committee The National Committee on Education by Radio pro¬ poses to find the rightful place of radio in the general scheme of teaching. Good! And at the same time, the Committee should make an attempt to find the rightful place of radio in the general scheme of our entire cultural and economic system. Radio, as now handled, has many faults. Chief among these are propaganda [as pointed out by the National Committee] and inaccuracy, as evidenced by the foolish and harmful reports broadcast during the recent Cali¬ fornia earthquakes. Under the present system of commercialized programs the individual or company that purchases “time” on the air from the big chains can broadcast any sort of program which seems desirable. If they choose to make it a program of propaganda — there is no one to stop them, for they have bought the time and it is theirs. That fact, in and of itself, is a big drawback to education by radio. As to inaccuracies by radio announcers, they are so common¬ place as to be hardly worth comment. We mention the recent California ’quakes, however, and state as one California newspaper did: “The radio station that broadcast ‘wild’ accounts of a gigantic tidal wave that swept in from the sea, destroying towns and drowning thousands of people, gave the whole radio structure a ‘black eye’ that will remain for a long, long time. Inaccurate, sensational statements of this nature do serious harm.” Boxing enthusiasts who followed the Schmeling-Sharkey heavyweight match, were to some extent astounded. Radio accounts of the fight had led all listeners to believe that Schmeling had won by a wide margin. Merely another example of the helter-skelter and altogether questionable methods of today’s radio broadcasting. The ultimate solution seems to rest in government control. England and some other countries, operate the radio as a government institution. Educational and entertainment programs are put on without the endless interruption of: “Drink Whatis coffee” or “use this or that soap or smoke this or that cigar.” If handled properly, radio may serve humankind in many ways — If handled improperly, it may prove to be a curse. Right or wrong, each and every program put on the air is teaching something to millions of “listeners” every day. The National Committee has the laudable ambition to make these teachings right and proper, rather than the reverse, as is the general rule today. — Editorial, Meridian, Mississippi, Star, May 2, 1933. believe that [elementary and secondary school] programs will have to be worked out for areas smaller than the nation, limited within a time belt, limited eventually to states, altho I do not have conclusive evidence to support such a belief. — W. W. Charters in Education on the Air, 1930, pl29. [30 1