Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1944)

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lIicsc progianis, and gets iheni because it I dciTiaiuls iheni. I am not taking tiie position tliat a program is justifiable simply because a i certain share ol bsteners may seem to I like it. Neither am I maintaining that i radio's notable achievements in develop! iiig and satisfying a desire ior l)etter and better programs cainiot be out-distanced as time goes on. HiU if this amazing mechum is to hve and grow, it nuist try to satisfy not a class or a group, but litcraUy nuny /; o dy . Most inteUigent broadcasters pay a lot of attention to this group called "everybody;" they have faith in the broad American public. 7 hey believe that the jjublic in greatest numbers has simple tastes, is decent and right-thinking; that radio programs are most likely to build large, loyal audiences to the extent that they please and do not offend this decent, right-thinking public; and that, therefore, programs are likely to be successful and pay out best over the long run when they have in them, above all, the ingredients for keeping them "/// good public standing." Ihere is wisdom in keeping a program "/;/ good public standing," and we in our company have thotight about it since away back in 192.^ wlien the fhst .S-station network carried the fhst Criscx) cooking lecture. We consider it constantly as our No. 1 rule in creating, editing and produc ing oiu" programs. IhI'.ri'. are several ways in which we ap])raise the pid:)]ic standing of a radio program. Such a standing, of course, may l^e evidenced by a practical nonexistence of critical mail and by a farge volume of sincerely favorable mail from listeners. Most broadcasters use as one important measure of audience opinions, an analysis of mail comments. Secondly, the pul^lic standing of a program may be cletermined by periodic surveys which dig deeper than polls of listening habits. When, for example, a survey of this kind reports that some of the popular daytime serials seem to bring their housewife-listeners a release, a diversion that seems to Ijuild them up, and that helps them solve the probleiiis of everyday lives, we may feel that here is evidence of this very important characteristic of "good public standing" in radio programs. Lastly, "good public standing" may f)e evidenced by the recognition (you might call it professional recognition) which comes from those of competent skills and talents who carefully study radio programs in the same way that creative work in drama, music and other fields is criticized and evaluated. Stich professional recognition of the "good public standing" of radio programs designed primarily for the woman atidience is evidenced, for example, when Hendrick W^illem Van Lcjon characterized the scripts of the Vic and Sade program as "the finest piece of folk writing in America today." As a result of the efforts of broadcasters to keep their programs in line with \n\hlic demand and in good public standing, a popular program like Ma Perkins or Pepper Young's Family, for example, prol^ably reaches an audience of well over seven million homes in the course of the average month. Obviously, a medium of entertainment that holds the attention of such enormous audiences must rank as one of tlie prime pufjlic-in formation mediums to help our government in wartime; and because radio is almost invariably listened to in the home, it fulfills its most important function in wartime education when it is used to tell those in the home of the many ways in which they can serve in the home. Because the intelligent, systematic cooperation of housewives is so important to such vital wartime projects, it is not surprising that daytime radio programs,