Education by Radio (1937)

A Bulletin to Promote the Use of Radio for Educational, Cultural, and Civic Purposes l>u RADI O Volume 7 APRILI937 Number 4 So They Don’t Want Educational Programs? IN THE NEXT FIVE HUNDRED WORDS I will describe the puncturing of a myth of modern broadcasting. This myth, a frustrating fan¬ tasy, is worth killing because its execution may encourage the assassi¬ nation of some of the more hideous monstrosities that crawl out of our loudspeakers. What is this myth? You will find it wearing various guises. You will find both broadcasters and educators accepting it. You will find it cropping out in many of the speeches delivered at the recent Na¬ tional Conference on Educational Broadcasting. You will find it in the report of 4 Years of Network Broadcasting. Briefly, the myth asks you to believe that, “The majority of the American people want entertainment from their radios — they do not want education.” Sometimes you find it couched differently. Promi¬ nent educators will say, “Of course we realize that educational pro¬ grams can never be as popular as ‘Amos and Andy’ or Rudy Vallee, but they appeal to the minority and that minority should be served.” That myth, that conviction, that assumption is now dead. It has been slain in the last nine months; murdered by the combined strength of 300,000 American radio listeners. Little did these 300,000 listeners realize that they were killing a modern myth when they wrote to the U. S. Office of Education. They thought they were writing in response to broadcasts presented by the Educational Radio Project, but their letters, flowing into Washington in an ever-increasing flood — ten thousand, fifteen thousand, twenty thousand per week — have introduced a new fact in American broad¬ casting, namely, that the public for education on the air is probably as large as it is for entertainment! By what right can this claim be made? Three hundred thousand is small beside 4,200,000 letters recently received on a soap series. It is small beside the other records established by many commercial con¬ cerns. Yet 300,000 letters is probably more listener mail than any sustaining educational program not created by network broadcasters has yet rolled in. Considering the fact that prizes were not offered, it is very heavy. Few if any sustaining programs on NBC, CBS, or MBS can show listener response anywhere near that of the five net¬ work programs now being presented by the Office of Education. What does this prove? It proves that millions of Americans want educational programs prepared to meet public tastes and interests. To those who have examined this flood of letters, there is clear evi¬ dence that educational programs, adequately financed and skillfully produced, can compete with any entertainment programs on the air. This evidence challenges the moss-covered assumption that the pub¬ lic demand is solely for entertainment and issues a clarion call for a new definition of “public interest, convenience, and necessity.” [ 13 ] A SUGGESTED SYLLABUS for a course in radio education has been completed as a cooperative project of the National Committee on Education by Radio. A tentative draft of the syllabus, prepared by Dr. Cline M. Koon, U. S. Office of Education, I. Keith Tyler, Bureau of Educational Research, The Ohio State University, and S. Howard Evans, secretary, NCER, was sub¬ jected to criticism by a considerable number of competent reviewers. The final draft should be available shortly and will be sent without charge to interested persons. Address requests to: Na¬ tional Committee on Education by Radio, Room 308, One Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y. • npHE RADIO WORKSHOP of New York University is now accepting registrations for its summer session, July 6-August 14, 1937. A maximum of sixty students will be admitted and registration will close when that figure is reached. Requests for admission should include data con¬ cerning the applicant’s training, experience, and present occupation, and must be accompanied by a $5 registration fee. The cost to each student will be $50 for the complete course. Applications should be addressed to: Dr. Carl E. Marsden, Radio Workshop, Division of General Education, New York University, 20 Washington Square North, New York, N. Y. T^R. LESTER K. ADE, superintendent of publie instruction for Pennsylvania, foresees a day when every well-planned school will have a radio coach as well as an athletic coach. The radio coach would be expected not only to write and produce effective educational radio programs but also to instruct pupils in the art of radio. • Every added potential listener adds to the responsibility which always follows the broadcaster, the responsibility of see¬ ing that the program is worthy of its audience. — Franklin D. Roosevelt. • 'IT/'ILLIAM DOW BOUTWELL, chief, edi' Y torial division, U. S. Office of Education, and director, Educational Radio Project, is the author of the article in the adjoining column.