NAEB Newsletter (Feb 1958)

lying the project and of program areas which can be profitably and appropriately explored in pursuit of the goals which have been established. The Grants-in-Aid Committee of the NAEB, on the basis of the achievements and experience of the first year of programming under the three-year theme, is prepared to offer certain supplementary sugges¬ tions to those who are preparing applications for grants-in-aid. Thus, for example, it will be noted that of the 10 grants-in-aid awarded last year, six were for series in the general area of the social or behavioral sciences, two for programs dealing with the arts, one for an essentially religious series, and one for a series concerned with science. Recent de¬ velopments in world science, combined with a concern for a substantial balance among the major areas of knowledge, suggest that program proposals in the field of science will be particularly welcome this year. Similarly, programs dealing with the human¬ ities, philosophy, religion, and moral values in con¬ temporary life will, all other things being equal, re¬ ceive enthusiastic attention from the Committee. At the same time, it should be clear that significant, authoritative, and attractive program projects in the social sciences will continue to be regarded as en¬ tirely appropriate for grants-in-aid. The experience of recent years prompts the Com¬ mittee to call particular attention to certain aspects of the program application which, if neglected, en¬ danger the success of any proposal. Chief among these is the requirement that all budget proposals specify explicitly — in dollars and cents — the char¬ acter and extent of the applicant’s willingness to match, or exceed with his own funds the financing supplied by the grant-in-aid. It is not, that is, suf¬ ficient merely to enumerate in general terms the services, facilities and materials which will be in¬ volved in producing the proposed series; it is nec¬ essary, on the contrary, to reveal the willingness of the applying institution to draw upon its own funds for an amount at least equal to that provided by the grant-in-aid, although this latter way be par¬ tially services and facilities expressed in monetary equivalents. Applicants are, in addition, again reminded that the Committee cannot properly assess any proposed' series upon the basis of a general “idea” alone or upon a fragmentary “sample topics” which fail to reveal a well-planned, topical outline for a total ser¬ ies of radio programs. Indeed, applications not ac¬ companied by cdl materials and details specified in the printed announcement of grants-in-aid are, at the very least, under grave disadvantage when com¬ pared with other proposals which are not thus im¬ poverished. This is particularly true of the “pilot tape,” since, in the past, the Committee has found such recordings the most eloquent evidence of the character and quality of the proposed program ser¬ ies. At a time when prospective applicants are still presumably engaged in preliminary planning, it may be useful to disinter for quotation here the report of the NAEB Grants-in-Aid Committee for the year 1957. That report contained (as the pious minority who read reports may remember) the following state¬ ment of four general objectives which seem, to the members of the committee, to govern its judgements. They are: 1. To achieve valid and important educational goals in terms of genuine needs on the part of the listening public or clearly defined segments there¬ of; 2. To provide for educational broadcasters — and possible secondary users — recorded materials which can be enthusiastically and profitably broadcast. 3. To encourage, through financial support and interest, the production by an increasingly large and diversified group of educational broadcasters of programs designed for distrib¬ ution through the NAEB network; 4. To support the production of programs which constitute, in themselves distinguished speci¬ mens of the broadcaster’s art. Over the past few years there has been an as¬ tonishing increase in the number of grants-in-aid applications received as well as in the care, wis¬ dom, and imagination with which proposed series have been planned. There is every reason to suppose that the Grants-in-Aid Committee will, in 1958, be faced with delicate and difficult choices among an unprecedentedly large number of excellent propos¬ als. In this highly competitive situation, applicants will be well-advised to be as informative as possible and to reveal clearly the relevance of their proposals to the goals of the total three-year project. 6 NEWSLETTER