NAEB Newsletter (Jan 1958)

radio and TV stations? The elusiveness of good stor¬ ies? You tell us, and we shall present problems, too. For speed and convenience, write me in care of WUOM, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, not at NAEB headquarters. Remember this: the rest of the membership may never write at all, so I shall be looking for your letter. ***** DEFINITIONS: One authority (?) defines P/R as “Das Braggen und schnoen grupe.” Then there’s the more conven¬ tional: “Doing good and getting credit for it.” Public Relations News, one of the leading expo¬ nents in the field, declares, “Public relations is the management function which evaluates public atti¬ tudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an in¬ dividual or an organization with the, public interest, and executes a program of action to earn public un¬ derstanding and acceptance.” ***** REMINDER: Elmer Sulzer sent you a questionnaire by direct mail asking about your publicity program. (Our copy arrived Dec. 3) . Please get these to Sulzer (at Indi¬ ana) as quickly as possible. We’ll ask him to summar¬ ize the results so you can see where you stand com¬ pared to other NAEB-ers. ETV SEEN AS ANSWER TO SCIENTIST LACK Nationwide education by television is urged as a means of quickly producing thousands more scientists and engineers. Hugo Gernsback, editor and publisher of Radio-Electronics, proposes a closed circuit TV for schools to .be built by the federal government, but free of governmental controls over the teaching. Gernsback, who sees this country in shocking peril from lack of scientists and engineers, believes it is far too late now for a crash program in technical education through the use of “our antique teaching methods,” because there are not enough teachers. Gernsback is confident that through the ETV system, famous and inspiring teachers could reach great numbers of children and awaken the interest of youngsters in science. This, he says, would not eliminate local teachers, but would give them a boost. Gernsback thinks the closed circuit could be working within a year with the result that within 10 years many youngsters would be on the way toward “filling our sadly lagging ranks of scientists and technologists.” TV DIGEST PREDICTS ETV OUTLOOK FOR 1958 In its “Annual Crystal-Gazing Stint,” Television Digest (Vol. 14: No. 1) predicts that the addition of non-commercial, educational TV stations will follow “the same slow and steady pattern” of the last four years. From 10 to 15 new stations are expected to be added to the 28 now on the air. Compared with edu¬ cational station increases during past years (last year saw six additions), this estimate points toward a record number of stations to begin telecasting during a single year. Further predictions are that ETV stations will continue to grow as programming quality increases, and that educational and public service program¬ ming on commercial outlets will again hit a new high in 1958. Television Digest’s outlook for educational closed- circuit TV is similarly optimistic. The 200 schools and institutions now using this medium on a regular basis are expected to be joined by another 100. Set¬ ting the pace, according to the prediction, will be Washington County, Md., where closed-circuit teach¬ ing will be extended to the entire public school system by next September to reach 18,000 pupils in 48 schools. A number of tape recordings of folk and’ religious music, collected last summer in the hills of Assam and the Himalayas by Dr. Mostyn Lewis of Great Britain are now offered for sale. Persons interested in these recordings may write Dr. Lewis at Westwood, Gresford, Wrexham, Denbigshire, Great Britain. US1S LISTS NAEB PROGRAMS Seven NAEB Radio Network-distributed program series are included in the current Catalogue of Selec¬ ted Voice of America Programs now being sent to ap¬ proximately 165 USIS posts throughout the Free World. The programs will be used not only at USIS posts where local stations broadcast in English, but also where they may be used in information centers. The seven series are Jeffersonian Heritage, Tales of the Valiant, America on Stage, Document: Deep South, American Idiom, Negro Spiritual and Roots of Jazz. Additional NAEB Radio Network series have been obtained by the Voice of America and are now being prepared for distribution abroad. The majority of the series selected were produced under grants-in- aid. JANUARY, 1958 5