Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

M ' AS THE Drawings by Fran\lyn F. Stratford The Complicated Business of Running a Broadcasting Station i N GENERAL the work of a broadcasting station falls naturally into two divisions, getting the programs, and broadcasting them. A third and indirectly connected function is that of securing publicity for the station's programs and achievements in newspapers and other publications. Three sorts of people, therefore, work at a broadcasting station: the program organizers, engineers, and publicity representatives. Musicians should be added as a fourth class, for, as we shall see, musicians as well as engineers are needed for the actual broadcasting, as well as in arranging the programs. The musicians function in the no man's land between the program and engineering departments. I refer, of course, to the musicians attached to the station staff, not to the artists or performers, with whom this article is not directly concerned. Fig. i shows one possible organization chart of a good-sized broadcasting station. The great mogul on top is not the same in every station. On a newspaper which has gone in for broadcasting he may be one of the editors or the promotion manager. He may be the president or the vice-president of a radio company or any other organization that has entered the radio field. In the case of a university he may be a professor or dean. What happened in all these instances was the intrusion of a new activity into a more or less settled organization, engaged in selling chewing gum or operating a telephone system or in teaching or what not. Some executive, with or without qualifications for the task, was entrusted with the job of broadcasting. Often the head of the enterprise took the new responsibility for himself. At any rate, this "manager or other executive" is the man who makes the ultimate decisions, who decides how much money shall be spent, what the policies of the station shall be, and other matters of that sort. He may not be found at the offices of the station, and he may have a lot of other things to do besides broadcasting, but his is the guiding hand, and, if he is not himself one of the chief executives or owners of the enterprise, he reports directly to them. From this officer, the organization line splits into a number of divisions: program, publicity, and technical. There may be some variations. For example, if the station broadcasts for toll, and has an income, there may be a head accountant or bookkeeper. Again, the publicity man may not report directly to the executive; he may be a member of the program department. And often, of course, various diverse functions may be assigned to one man, complicating the chart in ways which need not be taken up here. If the station IT TAKES ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE TO RUN A BROADCASTING STATION is large, instead of one position shown on the chart, there may be a number with the same title. For example, there might be two music critics instead of one, as shown in Fig. i. In presenting this chart, the object has been to make it inclusive enough for large stations and yet as simple as possible. Thus stenographers and general office workers are not included, and special workers, such as statisticians, who may be employed in some instances, are also omitted. The work of the publicity representative is probably the least unfamiliar to the general reader, since press agents antedated broadcasting. However, it is not quite the same job in a broadcasting station as in a theatre or hotel. The publicity man goes around to the various radio editors in his town and tries to keep on amicable terms with them. They are necessary to him and he is also necessary to them, for he supplies them with material for their pages, material which may be written by a copy writer or by the press representative himself. The members of the publicity staff are also in contact with the artists, who give them photographs and data for articles, which, if they are interesting enough, get into the newspapers. Part of the publicity man's duty, also, is to attend to the printing of programs well in advance, sending them to newspapers, and calling up those in his own town, on all broadcasting days, to make corrections in these lists, for there is many a change in the programs between booking and modulation of the carrier. This information the press man secures from the booking de