NBC Transmitter (Jan-Dec 1939)

Record Details:

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4 NBC TRANSMITTER DAVID SARNOFF SPEAKS ( Continued from page 2) “Education” is one of those umbrella words that casts a wide or narrow shadow, depending on whether you keep it open or closed. In the open sense of the word, it is an educational experience to listen to a beautiful piano concerto. In the closed sense, the concerto becomes educational only when the listener practices it on the piano, or studies its construction from a score. When Dr. Angell joined our staff, I asked him to give us his definition of education as applied to radio broadcasting. After pointing out the necessity for distinguishing between the use of the word as applied to schools and colleges, and its use in a non-institutional sense, Dr. Angell supplied us with the following: “Any program may be regarded as educational in purpose which attempts to increase knowledge, to stimulate thinking, to teach technique and methods, to cultivate discernment, appreciation and taste, to enrich character by sensitizing emotion and by inspiring socialized ideals that may issue in constructive conduct. Education is essentially the process by which individuals come to adjust themselves intelligently to life.” I believe that Dr. Angell’s definition is one which educators will accept. When we identify education with all the processes by which character is enriched and knowledge is increased, the importance of broadcasting as one of the modern instruments of education and as a public service is self-evident. The sustaining public service programs of NBC represent more than half of its total program hours, or more than 10,000 program hours each year. There are programs planned primarily for reception in the home, to furnish information, culture, and inspiration to all classes of listeners; and programs designed or suited to supplement the work of teachers in schools or college classrooms, and home-study groups. These program subjects are not haphazard selections. Each is a carefully chosen unit in a comprehensive program pattern. The pattern is designed with the same editorial foresight that goes into making up a newspaper or magazine. No sharp borderline distinguishes programs of the general educational tyj >e from those more specifically designed for students in classrooms or the home. At this very moment this ANNIVERSARY CHIMES The NBC Transmitter salutes these members of the National Broadcasting Company, who, this month, complete their tenth year with the Company. New York George W. Malcolm, Guest Relations Katherine C. Parker, Bindery Charles Reyes Carvajal, International Theodore P. Gray, Music Clement Jay Walter, Sound Effects Joseph Kendall Mason, Sales Promotion Erances Barbour, Sales Charles Alfred Wall, Auditing Chicago Marvin H. Eichorst, Engineering Helen Shervey, Program Hollywood Alex S. Robb, Artists Service Stephen Charles Hobart, Engineering San Francisco Byron Fay Mills, Program afternoon, for example, some six million school children throughout the United States have put aside their arithmetic and geography books, and are listening to the beloved dean of conductors, Dr. Walter Damrosch, as he directs a symphony orchestra and expounds the meaning and significance of some of the world’s great music. At the same time, millions of home listeners are equally enjoying this Damrosch Music Appreciation Hour, even though it does not get them out of any recitations. In coordination with the company’s overall pattern of public service programs, the NBC Educational Department, under Dr. Angell’s direction, has mapped out its own schedule of balanced program activities. This schedule has been adopted after a careful analysis of what has already been done in this field, both in this country and abroad, and after consultation with prominent educators and educational organizational procedure. The usefulness of broadcasting in education is now clearly established. It should grow with the years. In it, the ultimate aims of educators and broadcasters are identical. Both desire to see American standards of culture and intelligence raised to higher levels. Both recognize the power of broadcasting as a means to that end. These are days when American institutions are the subject of attack, both abroad and at home. The question is again being asked, as it was in Lincoln’s time, “whether this nation LIBRARY EXCHANGE PLAN A meeting of all RCA NBC librarians, suggested by Miss Marie Lugscheider, was held on Thursday, October 5, in the NBC General Library, room 463 of the studio section, with Miss Frances Sprague acting as hostess. The purpose of the group was to establish an exchange system of ideas and facilities for all of the libraries concerned. Besides Miss Sprague, and Miss Lugscheider of the RCA Harrison Library, those attending were William M. Paisley, NBC Music Library; Miss Rose Lonberger, RCA Camden Library; Miss Doris Crooker, NBC Law Library; and Miss Katherine Shanahan, who has charge of the RCA Patent Library. The outcome of the meeting has a much greater meaning than at first seems apparent. Each one of the libraries holds books on some special field not owned by the others; Miss Sprague, for instance, has a large stock of volumes on programming and broadcasting in general, whereas technical works comprise the major portion of the Camden and Harrison facilities. This necessarily imposed a handicap, since in one of the libraries, books covering certain subjects might be called for so infrequently that their use hardly warranted the purchasing expense. Yet they might be on file in one of the others. Under the newly ( Continued on page 15) or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” I believe it can. But the answer lies largely in the use we make of our freedom; in the ability of our citizens to think for themselves and to govern themselves; in the ability of our self-controlled industries to render a larger measure of public service than is rendered by the slate-controlled industries of other lands. Young as it is, radio is proud of its share in helping to shape that answer. Education of the masses — as well as of the leaders — is one of the bulwarks of our democracy. Radio is a mass medium. It reaches the literate and those who cannot read. It brings the treasures of education to all alike. In fact, the richest man in the world cannot buy for himself what the poorest man gets free by radio. In no other nation of the world — even where it is endowed by the treasuries of the state — has radio achieved so much in the cause of education and freedom as it has in the United States.