"Classification of Educational Radio Research" (January 1, 1941)

Administrative groups such as state supervisory hoards and the Federal Communications Commission will want to know the audience size and distribution for educational programs. Such evidence is clearly one indication of the extent to which a station is operating in "the public interest, convenience and necessity." (2) Civic groups will want also objective information concerning the relative importance of radio in children’s lives. Do children listen mainly when they have nothing else to do, or will they forego other amusements for the sake of a radio program? Will they come in off the street, will they leave a well organized playground so as to be sure not to miss a particular program? Will they neglect their studies for the sake of an interesting broadcast? Does the radio have as great drawing power for those who are scholastically apt as it has for those who find school work difficult? It has been found, almost by accident, that many adults listen to educational programs that were produced primarily for children. How large a group of adults this is, what social and economic levels they come from, what subjects these adults find most interesting, what activities these adults forego to listen to these programs, are all unknown, but can be found out by suitable listener research. This information will be usable by civic agencies interested in general education, in particular causes, in particular groups of listeners, or in producing their own programs. Information on the relative preferences of listeners for educational and other programs Is of great importance to administrative groups even if the total amount of listening to educational programs at present is small, (The actual volume of listening In one community is being studied at Ohio State University.) The demonstration of a trend showing that this volume of listening Is increasing and that more persons are coming to prefer educational programs, would provide objective evidence of the public importance of educational broad¬ casts . (3) Civic groups interested in young people will need to know how their listening time is divided as between news, entertainment, quiz programs, educational programs, and so on. It may be that they are only objecting to 10 percent of children’s listening, or that only 10 per cent of the children spend most of their time listening to programs judged to be objectionable. It will be Important to know what children listen most to these programs, and what children least; then the interested groups will know where to focus their energies. Civic groups interested in adult education need to know how the listening time of the particular groups they are most interested in is allocated. For example, there is a considerable body of evidence showing that individuals of lower education prefer to get their news information from the radio, and that persons of more formal education prefer on the whole the newspaper and news¬ magazine as a source of news. This finding is of importance to any civic group sponsoring or encouraging news programs. Similar divisions of audience preferences for the other types of programs may be expected, and these group preferences must be known, if the organization interested in radio-education Is to reach the groups in the audience that it wants to reach. (4) Administrative groups (such as the Federal Radio Education Com¬ mittee) act as experts functioning for the radio audience in influencing the -10-