Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1946)

In order to determine whether a program, commercial or sustaining, is actually serving the public, we have obviously, in the first place, to determine what the public thinks about it. We all know that there arc always a few people who have decided views upon all sorts of issues and who are at the same time extremely vocal and prolific of correspondence. These people are in a decided minority. The gieat mass of the public is silent and uncommunicative. It takes real effort to get any response from it and frequently the response received is not as coherent as we should like to have it, but in spite of its inertness and its failure to volunteer information to us, it is, nevertheless, listening and thinking. It is up to us to find out what and how it is thinking because to such a large extent it constitutes the people we serve. THE NON-WRITING PUBLIC The people who really concern me are the hundreds of thousands, the millions, who don't write letters to the Federal Communications Commission, to the broadcaster, to the advertiser or to anyone. W'hat do they do when the singing commercial comes on? Do they turn it off? Do they sit back in perfect bliss, tap the floor and enjoy it? Do they rush out and buy the product it advertises? Or do they just sit there and let it go through one ear and out the other? It is terribly important for us to know. We profess to serve the public, the whole public, not a small vocal segment of it. The closer we get to knowing what the majority of the people of all groups and classes think about our programs and our commercials the farther we get from the danger of being stampeded by a vociferous minority. It doesn't seem to me we can over-emphasize the essentiality of determining the public's desires and needs in radio programming. We must have the facts and figures at our finger tips. How can we possibly assert that we are fulfilling those desires and needs if we don't have a very clear conception of what they are? WHO RULES LEAST! I believe our industry is young enough and vital enough to move toward its own self-improvement without being prodded or whipped toward it. 1 here is already considerable agitation for all types of legislation to restrict and control program material. Much of the legislation proposed, if enacted, would for all intents and purposes emasculate radio. There is even talk of legislating good taste into commercial announcements which is just about as practicable as attempting to legislate polite table manners in a dining car. It seems to me that it quite apparently behooves all of us, advertisers, agencies, networks and stations, to engage upon a much more intensive study of our audiences and the program materials we are furnishing them. I, for one, believe we are falling far short of our potential. I think we have been much too easily satisfied. On the other hand, I am convinced, that our deficiencies are not nearly as black as one would have them. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, in an article in the American Magazine, closed it with this parting thought: "There is a saying about 'putting your own house in order, before the law does it for you with a rough hand.' It is an old, trite saying, but still true, as many a proud industry, from the railroads to the stock exchanges, knows to its sorrow." There is another older and more trite saying which a lot of us used to consider rather sound but during the last few years has for some reason or other become rather unfashionable. That saying went something to the effect, "He rules best who rules least." That maxim, as applied to a democracy, obviously means that the laws which are the creation of the people should not be passed needlessly to limit the freedom of the people. I say that we should look conscientiously and steadfastly at our house. Let us put it in order as we find it needs to be put in order and then let us stand in good conscience and defend it. JANUARY, 1946 • 7 •