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

They Keep the Standards High NBC Unit Reviews All Broadcast Material Problems of taste are day-to-day business for the National Broadcasting Company. In quantities of pro- gram and commercial material prepared each day for broadcast there are occasional offensive items that call for immediate treatment by a corps of specialists in the art of reviewing broadcast material for family consump- tion in the home. For example: The flag is an inspiring symbol to all Americans, but isn't it out of place as a cake decoration in a television commercial for a brand of flour? A broadcast performer may play George Washington or an equally respected historical figure without giving offense, but can a comedian do likewise for the sake of a laugh without risking charges of having thrown aside good taste? The Bible is a source of spiritual strength to mil- lions, but is it the sort of item that should be offered as a premium to any radio listener who sends in a mone- tary consideration and the box-top from a sponsor's product? Add to these fairly obvious questions a wide range of situations involving offenses to moral or political views, to racial dignity and to religious sensibilities and the result is a general idea of the responsibility that rests upon the broadcaster. The answer is, of course, a reasonable, self-imposed censorship with the sole aim of protecting a family audience—and sponsors and broadcasters as well—from the flagrant but uninten- tional lapses in taste that inevitably occur in the great volume of program and advertising material that makes up the day's broadcast fare. Code Established in 1934 The Radio Corporation of American, announcing the creation of NBC in 1926, emphasized the responsibility of the broadcasting service for producing high quality programs in the public interest and by 1934 NBC had equipped itself with a detailed code governing program and advertising content, along with the machinery for ensuring its firm application. The NBC code antedated by more than eighteen years, and set the pattern for, an industry-wide code established by the National Associa- tion of Radio and Television Broadcasters. Applying the code eff^ectively means a considerable task of reviewing all films and scripts for radio or tele- vision broadcast—both programs and commercials. NBC has placed the job in the hands of a small but enthusiastic group known as the Continuity Acceptance staflf, headed in New York by Stockton Helffrich, an NBC Twenty-Year Club Member. Fourteen comprise the staffs operating at NBC headquarters in New York; proportionate groups are maintained in Washington, Chicago, Hollywood, Cleveland, and San Francisco. The job is perhaps the closest approach in broad- casting to a tightrope-walking act. The reviewers are responsible for weeding out any clearly offensive oral or visual material that may terrify, anger or disgust a considerable segment of the audience, but at the same time they must avoid hampering the creative talents necessary to high quality programming. Mr. HeWrich defines the function this way: "Essentially we're a common-sense department, de- voted not to telling producers what they can't do, but to helping them to say what they want to say in a man- ner acceptable to the widest possible majority." This gives only a faint idea of the dimensions of the task. A more graphic measurement lies in the files of the Continuity Acceptance staff—a collection of dread- ful examples that have been stopped in their tracks, and of indignant letters proving the point made by a prom- inent columnist that "there is hardly a radio or television program that doesn't offend wmebody." Occasional complaints may refer to the dramatic quality of a program or the performance of an artist— aspects with which Continuity Acceptance is not pri- marily concerned—and a number represent isolated points of view that in all justice cannot be allowed to influence programming for the great majority. In the RADIO AGE 29