Radio annual (1939)

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RADIO AND THE NEWS (Continued from Page 45) room, the largest mass meeting. The world and the air are literally full of politics, politicians, political incidents and portents. Millions of people await them, hour by hour, in home and office and shop and general store, anxious with a new-found, personal relationship to all these events and personalities, listening, waiting, wondering — sometimes skeptical, sometimes all too credulous, but always stimulated by the intimacy of personal contact with the voice which brings them words — the familiar voice they have come to know from hearing it regularly, which will tell them what lies behind the words. Here, then, we stumble across the opposite poles of radio. The wonder of it, and the utterly commonplace thing it has become. As a radio commentator, I am never able to forget the backbreaking toil, the mental anguish, the unnerving precision which was mobilized to make it possible. It has become a boon to mankind which makes all that has gone into it well worthwhile. We can afford to rely on its mechanical efficiency, but we must also see that such an invention finds its best purposes and uses. With "news" as the sole weapon, all the forces and advantages of radio could be mobilized to produce confusion, discontent, ignorance, incompatability, intemperance, and moral and social disintegration — just as easily as they are concentrated on public enlightenment, intellectual stimulus, social awareness, greater understanding and cooperation. We should, of course, make a distinction between the way the United States runs its radio system and the way such systems are run in other countries. In our country, the profit motive is dominant. Many people don't like advertising; yet it seems entirely impractical to exclude it. The broadcasting systems themselves are constantly limiting the amount of advertising that may go with one program. On the basis of my study of radio systems all over the world, I know of none that touches ours in freedom from control, complete freedom of expression, and ability to provide a program that responds to the needs and interests of the people. Above all, American broadcasting does not serve any particular private purpose outside of the general purpose, served also by the press, of making a reasonable profit for those who own it. We are most fortunate that at a time when public education in political problems are of outstanding importance we have radio to help develop it. Democracy is being challenged all over the world. The challenge is real. Dictatorships cannot be defeated by mere negation. We don't really know, many of us, why we believe in democracy. What a chance there is to use radio to develop a wider knowledge of it. Democracy is the world's only hope, the only chance for human individuality to survive. Yet the world tends more and more to become collectivized under the leadership of individuals who have lost all moral perspective. Let us, with the help of radio, educate our people to a greater knowledge of democracy and a greater belief in it. TRENDS IN EDUCATION BY RADIO (Continued from Page 47) the series "Americans All — Immigrants All." These are now available for phonograph use at 33 1/3 and 78 r.p.m. Groups of both educators and radio officials felt a need for scientific research in the value and effect of different kinds of educational radio programs. The Federal Radio Education Committee, besides promoting the Script Exchange, sponsored two educational radio research programs, one at Princeton University and cne at Ohio State University. There was a significant development in the short wave field. I recommended to the Federal Communications Commission the desirability of setting aside a band of frequencies for the exclusive use of local educational agencies. The Commission finally set apart twenty-five channels for this purpose. Two cities, Cleve land and New York, received licenses during 1938 to operate stations under this provision of the Commission. It is probable that as many as 1500 stations can operate simultaneously while using these channels. It will thus be possible to expand enormously the services of the Office of Education to schools and educational stations. I believe we are now on the threshold of an era of very good feeling between broadcasters and educators, in which the broadcasters are becoming aware that education can be made interesting on the air, and educators are beginning to appreciate the requirements of radio. We are still only on the frontiers of a new field of education. There are no imaginable limits to our opportunities. 57