Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

Choosing a Radio School By HOWARD S. PYLE YESTERDAY, imaginative and adventuresome young people were known to run away to sea, eager to try the sailor's rough and varied life in all corners of the globe. Times, may have changed, but human nature hasn't: to-day also, there are those who long to sail the seven seas; hundreds of would-be sailors, likewise imaginative, likewise adventuresome. But how different, in many cases, is their picture of sea life from that which fired the enthusiasm of their predecessors! The job of cabin-boy gives way to the position of radio operator; the work is concerned less with coils of tarred rope than with coils of fine wire; less with activity in which physical strength is demanded, than in which technical knowledge is of supreme importance. Particularly among young men of high school and college age will be found the desire to try this modern game, to taste the life of the searover, even if only for a trip or two, or long enough to see some of the far places of the world, before passing up the carefree life of marine operator for a more prosaic application of the scientific side of radio in some factory or laboratory. And in radio, as in all worth while fields of endeavor, we may learn much from others. For this reason we have schools, colleges, trade schools, and the modern correspondence methods of supplying information. Electricity, chemistry, medicine, all the most important sciences have been brought within the understanding of the American public through institutions of learning, which have provided the keys with which to open the doors of the minds best informed in these classes of learning. The result has been scientific specialists of world renown. Should we not then expect as great things from our radio schools, teaching exclusively, as they do, this new science? THE FIRST WARNING BUT — there seems to be a certain amount of bad in all good things. As soon as the question of money is involved, we find persons who live by preying on those who are too easily persuaded. Hence we have numerous small schools of the fly-by-night variety, who advertise "in a loud voice" for a short while, take our money, promise much — and give precious little in return. This, unfortunately, hurts our many conscientious and excellently conducted schools of good standing. Now, radio, as applied comjnercially, is a very new art, and like all infant enterprises, is sometimes beset with unscrupulous methods. In choosing a radio school, therefore, we must be on our guard. Let us consider, to begin with, the matter of advertising. It is the attractive presentation of the opportunities in radio that first catches the eye of the layman, through the advertisements in popular trade magazines. Let us suppose that you are one of those who have a keen desire for knowledge of radio, but know nothing more about it than what you may have gleaned from the daily paper. Or perhaps you have been interested enough occasionally to purchase a copy of a radio periodical. You glance through its pages, and while much of the matter therein is in terms unintelligible to you, merely to read some of the less technical items, describing the marvels accomplished by radio, fills you with a desire to know more clearly and more thoroughly how all these things are brought about. More particularly, if you are a student, or perhaps a dissatisfied office worker, and of a mechanical turn of mind, it will not be long before your fingers will itch to grasp the subject and have a hand in the molding of its future applications. At about this time, you turn a page and come face to face with a large ad, fairly radiating opportunity (and consequent life of ease and plenty to be yours in a few short months), if you will only "sign and mail the coupon today". Please note that such advertising is seldom found at the front of the magazine, but generally toward the end, where the reader will find it after being warmed to his subject by a perusal of the text. This is good business. I do not disparage the advertising efl^orts; advertising is the real foundation of any business. What I want to drive forcibly into your mind is a caution not to allow the glamor of the ad