NAEB Newsletter (May 1948)

-16- EDUCATORS URGED TO SPEED UP PLANS FOR ESTABLISHING SCHOOL-OWNED FM RADIO STATIONS Hundreds of additional FM radio broadcasting stations should be established by- educators within the next few years to make full use of the 20 channels reserved for educational broadcasting, according to Wayne Coy, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, writing in "FM for Education," a bulletin just released by the Federal Security Agency. Mr. Coy states that the reserved channels, if left unused, might have to be assigned to commercial broadcasters. Quoting from.'Mr.Coy 1 s article, "FFC Views FM Educational Broadcasting"; — "To judge the value of this section of the ethereal public domain which the Commiss¬ ion has allocated for education, I suggest a look at the spirited competition which has arisen for assignments in the 80 channels allocated for commercial broadcasting. Although only relatively few FM receivers are in the hands of the public, 400 commercial FM stations are now in operation, 600 are under construction, and 120 applications are pending. This activity is building potential audiences for the FM educational broadcaster* I look for from 2,000 to 3,000 FM stations on the air within the next few years. Eventually the Commission expects FM to supplant AM in all but the sparsely settled rural areas." In a foreward to the Office of Education publication, John ¥. Studebaker, Commissioner of Education in the Federal Security Agency says: "This second and revised edition of "FM for Education" presents endouraging evidence of the rapid growth in the utilization of this valuable edu¬ cational tool since the end of the war. The availability of transmitter equipment and FM receiving sets is no longer a bottleneck. Dozens of colleges, universities, and school systems situated in various parts of the United States have made applications for FM frequencies. As of April 1948 some 100 school systems and colleges were on their way to FM station ownership ahd operation.*,. It is my confident belief that radio as a tool of education is entering upon a new era in the United States." The publication invites the attention of teachers of electronics, educational FM station planners, and of State and local' school administrators to the facts that FM radio equipment is comparatively inexpensive to install and maintain and that FM offers superior reception and transmission for educational pro¬ grams. It furnishes suggestions for planning, licensing and utilizing FM edu¬ cational radio stations owned by schools, colleges, and universities. Exper¬ iences of leading educational systems with FM stations are highlighted. "FM for Education" (revised) was prepared by Franklin Dunham, Chief of educational Uses of Radio Section, Office of Education, with the assist¬ ance of Ronald R. Lowdermilk and Gertrude G. Broderick. Copies are on sale for 20 cents by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 25 D 5 C. NEW FM NETWORK FORMED, IN, NET! YORK STATE Organization meeting of a new radio FM network to be called the "Colonial Network" was held in early May at Syracuse, N*Y. Announcement was made by Gerald Mayer, president and general manager of WKRT-FM in Cortland, N*Y. Action followed confer¬ ences over a period of weeks in which a group of independent central and western New York FM broadcasters developed plans for a regional FM network using an "Off the air" pickup rather than telephone or coaxial lines.