Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1925)

The Revolution in the Art of Teaching of single circuits so we who are anxious to learn will have to make the best of it. Well Mr. Manager it is well worth trying for. When you go fishing some get little ones others get big ones so 1 hope I will be be able to get all that is possible out of your generosity. That is the sort of friendship the University of Pittsburgh feels glad to have made; it is worth much to the people who are wondering whether or not radio pays. A gentleman from Pittsburgh wrote, I am an invalid who is getting well. I have had a wonderful sense of help by radio in listening to the good sermons, prayers, and lectures. I have been ill many years and have spent many years in bed with too much weakness to even listen-in. Radio opens a glorious avenue to me. I love the fairy stories for children and the bed time talks. . Now I see that light and health are coming. This beautiful spring day — all Nature simply singing— I had to write you this personal side of things, it seemed. Pardon me, but you will be glad to know it. You asked so kindly what we would enjoy. 1 would enjoy bird lore and nature talks, woods and out-doors. It is so lovely to hear word pictures over the radio. I imagine I am living it. One enters with much more intimacy into the mind of the speaker when there is nothing to divert. I enjoy the literature professors. . . . I enjoy your voice 50 much. DR. JOHN G. BOWMAN Chancellor, the University of Pittsburgh. Radio college courses have been tried under his direction and are meeting with a favorable reception according to statements of the University authorities And this is another of the letters the university studio is happy to have on file. WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT A MONG the courses asked for by listeners were lectures on ancient and medieval and modern history, biology, banking, advertising, and salesmanship, musical appreciation, and history. Radio teaching will mean a busy life for the University if it tries to meet suggested demands. An alumna in New York felt that she was back on the campus again when she heard the English lectures, and asked for a series on Child Psychology. "Of course, I realize that any work of this kind must, of necessity, be very superficial but it certainly has some value dependent largely upon the amount of supplementary work that is done in connection with it." So the letters came in. Each mail brought new acquaintances from new places. The first year of University Extension by radio was a successful experiment. It is, as yet, only an experiment. What science can do to make radio reception easier and more certain, what the University can do to give more and better lectures, what the listener-in can do in the way of preparation for what he reads, make the trio of factors upon which success in popular education depends. Some people — as the hundreds of letters show — are getting pleasure and profit from the work. But can it hold its own place, this educational program, in the face of dance music and comedians? Or is the percentage of fans who do not want this, large enough to make the radiobroadcasting companies reject educational features because they are unpopular with a majority? Only time will tell. The best letter of appreciation for serious programs came to the broadcasters from the pastor of the Point Breeze Church, to whom the following letter of thanks was addressed. Monday To the Minister of the Point Free Presbyterian Church Pittsburgh, Pa. Dear Sir: Last night while making for port off the Montauk Point Light, I was listening in on my radio which I installed on the last trip to the States, and the first which came in was the music and then the rest of the service at your church. I write this to you for the purpose of calling your attention to what I call a study mixed mentality. When I got the music