Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Kh voltage programming, by in- iiding in relatively short doses ings in which the people have no irticular interest in the hopes of •adually creating special interest those people, will be done on a anned level. Let me be specific. he opera will on occasions get rge audiences. Nonetheless it is ore likely that even larger audi- ices will result from such happen- gs as the Metropolitan Opera ars, Robert Merrill and Mar- lerite Piazza performing in op- atic vignettes on Your Show of lows on Saturday nights. When s put opera on, we are catering the wishes of a special group latively small in numbers. But multaneously and more important e are broadening and increasing e size of that group by presenting lera attractively in vignette form people who would not now watch in longer form. Some of them ill become opera lovers. The same thing can be said for e ballet and the efforts in the •eat entertainment show-s to in- jde ballet. Fine music and great singing om the concert stage can be han- ed in similar style. '^BC to Join in Social Advance NBC", to recapitulate fust in a ineral way, will be part and ircel of the great social advances at television will bring about rough the exposure through tele- sion to the world and all the !ople in it of imiiortance, a knowl- Ige of our times and exposure to 1 cultural influences by all famili- ;s witli sets. Secondly, NBC irough its public service and pub- : events coverage, through its :ws, will do a great job in advanc- g the special cause of news in- rmation. Then, NBC through gh voltage, high circulation at- actions will reach the all-set rculation and when that all-set rculation is available, we will ,ve the audience exposure to cul- iral and informational experiences ■ plan. And finally, we wish to replace le radio experience that we had ith a marginal time operation jpealing to special interests with new device which I am unveiling iday for the first time. This plan has the working title "Operation Frontal Lobes". As you can see, it is a cultural plan, and it is, in my opinion, the most in- triguing possibility that has ever happened in the communication field as far as marrying the practi- calities of a network operation and its high circulation necessity with the need to do a great job for all the people. To Create Reporting Style First, the shows NBC wants America to see: the operas in Eng- lish, the NBC Symphony, the Masterpiece Playhouse. Certainly we want to offer Sadler's Wells Ballet next year in peak time. Then in addition to music and drama of the finest, we want to create a new- kind of reporting for the American people. We want to present the issues of our times to the people with enough showmanship so that most of the people will watch the shows. Americans believe in self ad- vancement. We in advertising know how to get visibility for ideas and acceptance for ideas. We can get visibility and acceptance of the idea that important issues and peo- ple of our times should be watched on television. We can build shows and an acceptance of shows for the all-set circulation, even though the subject matter is not immediately appealing. For instance, the issues of our times certainly include the great problem of the individual and his rights and the group or state and its rights. Whether we have Ber- trand Russell and his book "Author- ity and the Individual", or whether we dramatize the life of an average man to show the large limitations on his freedom brought about by the development of our industrial society,—or whether we create a whole new approach to this creative challenge,—we have an opportunity and an inspiration to make people understand the times in which the.v live, so that they may make more intelligent decisions in the years of decision through which we are passing. We could get Dartmouth College, for instance, to develop a show based on its Great Issues course. Or we could make the issue of a future economic sy.stem of FRADIO AGE 2i" private enterprise or socialism, surely one of the greatest ([uestions of the century. We could present that issue by debates between se- lected American and English in- tellectual, business, and political leaders. We could do a show on the chang- ing credo of the American nation, showing what we as a people be- lieved a century ago and today, and why those beliefs have changed. We could face up to and report on the tide of nihilism that constitutes one of the obvious shaping forces of our era. p] very where we look we can find subjects that should be ex- plored and exposed to our people, because our people, you and I and the man next door, are going to need all the intelligence and knowl- edge po.ssible to solve our problems. Television has Impact America's future cannot be de- cided on the information given us at Mother's knee, unless Mother gave us information open to proof, and capable of demonstrating its social usefulness in today's world. Of all the forces that can move in on lethai-gy and prejudice, televi- sion has the impact, the power, and the fascination to make adult sub- jects worthy of mass circulation. Obviously, the selection of subjects and the handling of subjects must stem from the central core of ma- terial that might be called the area of agreement among most American groups. We plan to explore and expose—not propagandise. These great shows of cultural or (Continued on page 28) "EVERYTHINC; WK Do IN TELEVISION IS AN INFLUENCE ON THOSE WHO ARE WATCHING ANI> I.ISTFMNG T" IS."