Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

THE HIGHBROW This is a picture of a lady playing a "whoozis" By Jose Rodriguez AMONG the many worms in radio that need turning, the high-brow is perhaps the one whose need is the most urgent. High-brows are always in the minority. But they have seldom been on the defensive as pitifully as they now are. Once a term of proud isolation or exclusivity, high-brow has become a term of timid self-reproach, when used by the high-brows, and of scornful dispraise when used by the low-brows. Let us define our terms: Radio high-brows are those who prefer music of depth and refinement, accurate information, and well-informed opinion. Radio low-brows are those who prefer music of the streets — and of the gutters — and who yawn to the point ot dislocation at any talk which is not wisecracks. It is very seldom that we meet an unadulterated high-brow or a pure and simple low-brow. Most people are mixtures of the two, just as all people are inscrutable mixtures of sins and virtues. • I wish to state the case as I see it from the point of view of a high-brow who has no desire to exterminate the low-brow nor to frustrate him, but who is very weary of the psychological ascendancy of low-brows in radio. In other words, I plead an even break for the high-brows, and I speak with freedom for, in my opinion, KFI-KECA are the only stations who attempt to strike a balance between high-and-low-brow material. • Vulgarity is a valuable quality. It keeps one in contact with original sources of human expression. It prevents one from excessive refinement. It encourages a social attitude. • All great persons have had a definite streak of vulgarity. It was a necessary element in their vitality. Whenever a great mind loses contact — active, cooperative contact— with vulgarity, he loses his effectiveness and a great part of his strength. To be vulgar means simply to be one of the herd. A low-brow is first and last a herd-animal, a vulgarian. The loud cry today is for individuality, for uniqueness, for originality and for personality. Bud Averill All these qualities are the extreme opposites of vulgarity. Yet, in order to achieve them, people nowadays adopt the lowest and most shapeless of all qualities, vulgarity. Shop-girls try to be exclusively dressed in gowns and hats that are manufactured by the millions. Their boy friends try to be original and individual by using the stereotyped expressions popularized by the funny papers and vaudeville actors. Both the shop-girl and the bov friend yearn for uniqueness but find it impossible, so busy are they being exact copies of everyone else. • I have no animus against shop-girls and their boy friends. Sometimes I am quite envious of them. But I cannot help deplore that nine-tenths of the broadcasters truckle to the herd exclusively. When a radio station does this, radio is in dangerous hands. I have never met a low-brow that did not admit that the high-brows were right. I have never met a high-brow who admitted low-brows were nol equipped with heads of solid bone. Both, of course, are wrong. The highbrows are not always right, and the low-brows are not always stupid. The most serious charge here can be laid against the high-brows. The high-brow is not high-brow enough. • He usually takes refuge in formulas. He is too willing to adopt arbitrary standards, or standards that are worn out — out of tune with the time and manners. He is aloof and very addicted to make of his appreciation a mysterious and cryptic thing. He first frightens, then awes, and finally bores the low-brow. The honest high-brow is another animal. He seeks to explain, to make clear, to show the inseparateness between fine music and life. For instance, in considering the strictest musical form, most high-brows speak of canons, intervals, doublecounterpoint and modality — nice terms, but antagonizing to a low-brow. The high-brow in this case should tell the low-brow that as children, they both knew and sang a perpetual canon in the octave — known as Three Blind Mice. Low-brows are militant and aggressive because they know they are wrong. When the chamber-maid realizes she Edith Agins RADIO DOINGS