NAEB Newsletter (May 1958)

of you at the IERT, and I wish to extend a special invitation to representatives of those stations now not taking network service to stop by the NAEB exhibit. I believe an examination of the benefits of¬ fered network members will convince you that your stations should subscribe to our service. Anyone not attending the IERT should write directly to me at Headquarters. PUBLICITY AND PUBLIC RELATIONS —William Bender, Jr. WUOM, University of Michigan The report in this column on “Visitations” drew a valuable postscript from Irving Merrill at WKAR- TV, Michigan State University. They have worked out a technique for handling large (100 or more) groups which, according to Merrill, “routes them through the station, provides a demonstration of equipment, and allows discussion of their questions, all without disrupting the normal activities of the station.” Three staff members handle the whole thing. First, they divide the visiting group into three segments. Then every 30 minutes, each group moves to a differ¬ ent guide. Of the three staff members, one presents a technical demonstration, another acts as escort through the entire station, and the third leads dis¬ cussions in the conference room. Each repeats his performance for the three segments of visitors, and the tour is over in an hour and a half. ***** How many of you would favor using an NAEB “bug” on your printed program schedules? Elmer Sulzer, WFIU, Indiana University, thinks we are overlooking a continuing promotional item here. He recommends we develop a logotype to identify our NAEB membership, and then print it on each monthly schedule. “Bromo” even sketched several suggestions, and urges others to contribute their ideas for an NAEB “bug.” If any of you have other ideas, sketches or suggestions, please pass them on to NAEB Headquarters. Somewhat along this line, Franklin Dunham (Washington, D. C.) recently commented on the lack of any sort of uniformity and identity in the printed schedules of NAEB stations. Larry Frymire, WKAR-radio, Michigan State University, made an informal, exploratory study and concluded: “There is great confusion among the various program schedules printed by our members. There is a need for some standardization—the problem being what form to follow. This would be a good topic for a clinic ses¬ sion.” Frymire then makes some recommendations from his study of several score programs: (a) Use a Grid-style schedule, placed so it may be easily unfolded for viewing. (b) Use the letter “n”, placed just above the last word in the title, to identify programs coming from the NAEB network. Directly below the grid, “n” would be explained in usual footnote fashion. A lot of thought and effort lies behind those two, apparently simple, recommendations. We urge you to give serious consideration to adopting them for your own program schedules. ***** From Queens College, N. Y., Robert Crawford describes a vigorous publicity campaign that launched their new college credit courses-by-radio. The build-up included general news releases, live spot announcements, 15-minute radio interviews with the teacher, a special direct-mail piece to adult edu¬ cation lists, window displays, and commercial ads in the New York Times and the Saturday Review. They pulled 1200 requests. Nice going! ***** You are all thoroughly aware of the Bell System Science Series (“Mr. Sun,” “Hemo,” “Unchained Goddess”) Publicity for this is conducted by N. W. Ayer & Son., Inc. In our next column, we’ll give you the inside story of their promotional campaign. It’s being prepared by Donald C. Thompson, supervisor of Ayer’s P/R department. FOURTEEN GRANTS-IN-AID AWARDED Grants-in-aid totalling $16,665 have been awarded to 14 institutions planning summer workshops in differ¬ ent aspects of educational broadcasting. These grants will be used to assist the institutions in improving planned workshops by providing additional income for bringing in outstanding broadcast consultants whom they otherwise might not be able to afford. Recipients were selected by a special NAEB com¬ mittee on the basis of workshop objectives, organiza¬ tion, need, and the contribution which will be made to the national advancement of educational broad¬ casting. The 14 grants, made possible by funds from the Ford Foundation, range from $400 to $2215. Re¬ cipients and their workshop objectives are: 4 NEWSLETTER