Education by Radio (1937)

A Bulletin to Promote the Use of Radio for Educational, Cultural, and Civic Purposes Volume 7 JUNE 1937 Number 6 Eighth Institute for Education by Radio The eighth annual institute for education by radio, held in Columbus, Ohio, May 3-5, by the Bureau of Educa¬ tional Research of the Ohio State University, was a fitting climax to the series of meetings which have preceded it. It proved again that the Institute has found its place in radio and is prepared to make an annual contribution of lasting value. The function of the Institute seems to be that of evaluating the specific procedures which are being developed to meet special prob¬ lems of educational and cultural broadcasting. So far as possible, the differences between the educational and the commercial ap¬ proach to radio are forgotten while the common problems of method are stressed. This year particularly, conflict seemed to be at a minimum, while much emphasis was being placed on the possibilities of cooperation. As a background for a discussion of technics, there is always some consideration of the philosophy of educational broadcasting. This year that aspect of the program was covered largely by the speeches of Major Gladstone Murray, general manager of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Dr. John W. Studebaker, U. S. Commissioner of Education. Dr. Studebaker’s speech has already been reported in this bulletin.^ Major Murray’s contribu¬ tion was equally fundamental. He emphasized that the responsibility of radio for national culture is one of the most important considera¬ tions of this generation; that this cultural responsibility must extend to all programs; and that radio should assume the role of a ministry of the arts. He stressed the importance of radio in adult education. He said that there was probably too much broadcasting and that quality was to be preferred to quantity. Major Murray’s speech was the keynote of the conference and its influence carried thru the meetings. The first session devoted to specific problems dealt with the subject of the educational broadcasting station. First there was a rollcall of the various stations, each reporting the outstanding achievements of the year. These reports were followed by a careful defense of the educational station made by H. B. McCarty of station WHA, University of Wisconsin, president of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters and representative of that organization on the National Committee on Education by Radio. Mr. McCarty went back over the history of the educational broad¬ casting stations to point out that the early stations were interested in technical experimentation, not in the dissemination of knowl¬ edge. Many of those stations went out of existence with satisfaction that their purpose had been achieved and that their record was one '^Education by Radio 7:17-22, May 1937. A RMSTRONG PERRY, for five years director of the service bureau of the National Com¬ mittee on Education by Radio, was one of the passengers injured when the plane in which they were flying from Brazil to Caracas, Venezuela, crashed in a Venezuelan jungle on April 22. The five injured passengers waited fifteen days in the jungle for the aid which the three uninjured went to seek. Mr. Perry is said to have been very seri¬ ously injured and unconscious for nine days. According to the latest report, the survivors were rescued on May 7 and Mr. Perry is recovering in a Caracas hospital. Since leaving the National Committee on Education by Radio in January 1936, Mr. Perry has devoted himself to freelance writing and was in Venezuela collecting material. ^T'HE RADIO COMMITTEE of the Montana Society for the Study of Education, of which Boyd F. Baldwin is chairman, has issued a report recommending that the Society lend its support to the plan for organized educational broadcasting on a statewide basis. The plan is the one advanced by the National Committee on Edu¬ cation by Radio and calls for the establishment of state or regional radio boards which will enable civic organizations to pool their resources in order to secure the assistance of expert radio production staffs and the cooperation of broadcasting stations. • Dr. IRVIN STEWART, vicechairman of the Federal Communications Commission, whose term expires on June 30, has notified Presi¬ dent Roosevelt that he will not be a candidate for reappointment to the Commission. He will retire from the Commission to become director of a new Committee on Scientific Aids to Learning of the National Research Council. Dr. Stewart is chairman of the Telegraph Division and a member of the so-called “liberal” wing of the Communica¬ tions Commission. • STATION WOSU, Ohio State University, Columbus, celebrated its fifteenth anniversary on June 3. A broadcasting license and the call letters WEAO were acquired on that date fifteen years ago, but a “wireless station” had been in existence on the campus for a decade previously. The station changed its call letters to WOSU in 1932 in order to identify itself more thoroly. [23]