Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

If You Like Them, Let Them Know It 249 one of the most popular artists on radio programs. When her vibrant personality goes over the air, the radio audience falls under the spell of it, as surely as do the crowds at the Metropolitan Opera House. "Singing by radio is a spooky experience," Miss Arden confides. "There is something so vast, so indefinite about singing into a microphone. 1 always have the feeling that I don't know where my voice is carrying, who is hearing me, how my singing is being reproduced. On one occasion I sang in Kansas City and my program was broadcasted. Some friends of mine unknown to me, were in Dallas enjoying a receiving set. Suddenly tuning-in to the Kansas City station, they heard me singing and recognized my voice. Immediately they sent me a telegram and within nine minutes after they had heard me, I received the telegram. To me, that was a revelation of the power of radio." Miss Arden is a radio "veteran." She made her debut almost two years ago as the first opera singer to give a concert broadcasted. " My first impression was one of wonder. I thought of the message — 'What hath God wrought' — that Morse sent after he had invented and perfected the telegraph," Miss Arden explained. "No, I was not nervous the first time I sang. I was too struck with the wonder of it all. Later on, when I began to realize the size of my audience, I got scared. But by that time 1 had received letters of thanks and 1 felt reassured. " I don't mind singing to an unseen audience. To me, the only drawback in radio is the inability to gauge how your audience likes you. On the stage you immediately know whether the people out front are gay or sad, whether they want rollicking tunes or a classic program. A radio entertainer never knows exactly how his number gets across. He is at the mercy of a diverse number of people, weather conditions, and freaky sound waves which are apt to distort the most perfect rendition. "When I am singing a program that is being broadcasted, I like to think of the shutins and the people in the hospitals, to whom I am trying to bring a little pleasure. I like to reach the audience who has little communication with the outside world, that audience which by the invention of radio has been given something for which to live." In speaking with artists whose programs are frequently broadcasted, you are struck with their interest in the moods of their audiences. Most of the entertainers feel that the disadvantage of playing to an unseen audience is the inability to tell how the selection is being received. If we knew how our hearers liked us. we wouldn't mind performing to a microphone, we wouldn't even mind the stony silence, the radio artists say. It is the dreadful uncertainty of knowing how the public likes their work that worries the entertainers. So, radio fans, there is just one thing for you to do. When you like a number, write and tell the artist that you enjoyed his selection. Not only will the artist feel repaid for his work but he will appreciate the courtesy of the letter. Audiences in a concert-hall sometimes have to pay several dollars for the pleasure of hearing a certain player or singer; radio audiences often have the music of the same artists brought to them free. A letter of thanks is small payment. Radio fans, it is up to you to show your applause in writing.