"The University Station Director Faces His Problems" (December 11, 1936)

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reach all the people of the state with dependable reception day and night.' No educational station director has yet com¬ pletely solved this problem. Against the physical limitations of the broadcast band, the obstacle of entrenched commercial interests, and the disposition of the federal regulating body to make allotments without full consideration of social uses, this is undoubtedly the greatest problem the university sta¬ tion director faces. Now, anyone who knows anything at all about broad¬ casting assignments must recognize the difficult task before the Federal Communications Commission and be sympathetic to¬ wards the Commission’s efforts at achieving fair distribution. I would not presume to suggest a solution to this problem. The recent allocation hearing which resulted in volumes of testimony may help to do that. As wc know, there are plenty of reasons given for the limited place on the air now occu¬ pied by educational institutions. And educators themselves must shoulder a good share of the blame for this poor showing. It is often explained why it is so difficult to find or to^im¬ prove frequency and power assignments for educational institu¬ tions. The limitations of the broadcast band, the restrictions of natural laws of physics and engineering this is the chief explanation. But no one has fully explained why education, upon which everything else depends — our civilization, our culture, our prosperity — must take what’s left, or rather what isnt left. It was thoughtless of education to come so late to the facilities banquet, to find only crumbs left. But may I sug¬ gest that perhaps some of the greedy guests who arrived early may have stuffed their pockets with more than they need? Or they may be too impolite altogether to partake longer of public courtesy. Out of the October allocation hearing will come some help, we expect. At any rate the case for education on the air was presented by representatives of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters and the National Committee on Edu- cation by Radio. We hope the basic questions they raised will not be obscured by the major conflict within the industry be- tween super-power stations and regional stations. Problem Number Two, you remember, is: Finances. ^The university station director must sooner or later face the fact tVnt good broadcasting is expensive, that his station must have money real mone^Hf has been spoiled by the unselfishness of faculty and student workers. He may have thought m the be ginning that with a microphone, an operator, and perhaps a stenographer he could run a broadcasting station. He coulu take advantage of the abundance of free help —teachers who recognized the opportunity to extend their services, students