NAEB Newsletter (June 7, 1932)

A WORD FROM THE NEW PRESIDENT I appreciate very much the honor of heading the association and ask that each of you help in every possible way to make our efforts for the coming year hear fruit. There are many things to do, hut an official announcement of what we have in mind will not he forthcoming until earlv in the ffnll. In the meantime, I want to leave the fol¬ lowing remarks for vour consideration. The inference voiced repeatedly during the past two or three years by our com¬ mercial friends, not only at radio hearings hut more frequently in the radio press, that educational stations are not doing a good job because a good job is impossible even by a smaller station unless a large sum of money is spent, is an erroneous one that needs some denial. These statements are invariably based on judgments which follow the reading of budget figures as presented by the various educational institutions. The fact that an educational institution spends only $1500 or $3000 (some spend many times this amount) to do a nine months* job is no more a criterion of what it accomplishes than it would be for us to accept the fact that because $60,000 is spent by a chain in producing one program it is 10C$ perfect. This impression concerning educational stations has come about through a lack of knowledge on the part of those not familiar with educational broadcasting and more particularly with the budget systems - of educational institutions. They do not take into consideration, at least for the purpose of argument, that educational stations pay nothing for talent and in most cases not even a charge is made against the radio operating funds for salaries. Last year, to cite our own case as an example, the University’s budget showed a total charge against the radio station for $3950. Only •^600 of this was included in the salary item, A true picture would have shown that by charging one-fourth of the time of the Director and one-fourth the time of the Assistant Director to the salary item, the salary expense alone would have exceeded $2600. If we add to this another item which takes care of those people working at the radio station but who are not on regular University appointment, another $1,000 would be added to this figure, or a total of $3600. It just so hardens that educa¬ tional budgets for the most part are not made up in the way as are those of commercial stations. The talent item would amount to a considerable sum if we found it necessary to pay for that item in the same manner that the commercial stations do. These short educational talks that a certain portion of the listening public seems to enjoy (whether our *commercial friends believe it or not; have some value and I can prove it by just this one instance. One of our staff members has been giving a series of talks which has been so well liked that a commercial advertiser has offered the gentle¬ man $600 apiece for a series of twelve ten-minute talks. In my opinion the discus¬ sions of this man were no better than those of most of our other speakers, Is it entirely wrong then to assume that if these talks are worth $600 apiece to this com¬ mercial advertiser that they should be worth at least a tenth as much to us - or $60 apiece? Over our own station during the past year we have given 493 talks which, figured at the rate of $60, would be worth $29,580. Likewise, I might show you that were it necessary for us to pay for the musical talent which is available to*us, we could easily have spent some $20,000 for that item alone. Just on the above.few items, therefore, my budget might have read $53,180 instead of &3950.. This is without all consideration of maintenance and depreciation and of such operating costs as operators and announcers. All such personnel are students who receive the student rate of fifty cents an hour for the time actually spent. Neither does the above amount include anything for the expense of office and building rentals, heat, light, correspondence, and the hundred and one other little things that go to make up the average operating cost sheet of a commercial station.