Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1946)

possible exception of courtesy to competition. Mame the newspaper tliat can (onipaie to any radio station in matters ot dean advertising, quality ot entertainment, political fairness and public service. CLEANLINESS Littell and his Plug Shrinkers become violently ill at the mention of halitosis, varicose veins and suffering stomachs. What about the newspaper that gives you an enlarged picture of a rotting, diseased foot to go with your breakfast? What about the newspapers and magazines who run millions of dollars worth of copy each year advertising whiskey, gin, rum, etc.? Radio restricts itself to beer and wine and many stations refuse even this ready source of revenue. What about the black and white copy that advertises slightly used correspondence cotu'ses, rupture cures without all that silly business of paying a high-priced doctor, how to have a baby the sanitary way, false teeth anchors to prevent embarrassment, the modern sex manual, Female Beauty Photographs that are exotic, intiinate, daring, ten thousand illustrated ways to mould a bedraggled bust into a buxom bosom and how to play golf at the wrong time of the month by following the principles of internal absorption which you can't even feel, Madame. . . . Who's kidding who abotit clean advertising? NEWS When the Pope died radio informed the world in a matter of seconds. When King Edward abdicated radio told you about it less than a minute later. War is declared and the news is flashed simultaneously to Brooklyn, Walla Walla and Knob Lick, Kentucky. The war is won and you sit at home listening to MacArthur dictate peace terms to a vanquished foe aboard a U. S. battleship thousands of miles aw^ay. The news is obsolete when it hits the newsstands. See your local paper. ENTERTAINMENT The entertainment value of magazines and newsi>apers lies in (arloons, short stories and novels which wv. all enjoy. Radio dishes iq> appn^ximately the same hue except that the characters come to life. Personally, I don't think a Lux Radio Theatre dramatization of Lost Horizons would be more enjoyable than the printed novel between magazine covers; possibly it wouldn't be as good. But when Fibber McGee says, "Those were the good old days, when I tinkered in Biggs' Garage. Biggs' tinker McGee, I was knowed as in them days," I like to hear him say it! On the air! POLITICS In the matter of politics, prejudice and poppycock the newspapers have no peer. A newspaper editor can, and too often does, go all out with free editorial space for the political objects of his affection. And there the matter ends. Not so with radio. If the Broadcaster donates or sells a radio program to one political party, he makes the same facility available to the opposition for rebuttal. In a thousand small towns there is one newspaper and many of tlie townsfolk btiy that paper without ever seeing any other. Until the advent of broadcasting the small town editor had very little competition in moulding public opinion. He expressed and suppressed opinion to suit himself. Today the farmer in the dell has a radio in his home and one in the barn. He milks the cows and learns the price of butter in Chicago before the pail is full. The farmer gets news and music and entertainment from his radio and he still buys the local newspaper because it serves a definite purpose in his community. Btit radio has broken the back of Ye Editor's monopolistic empire. No wonder he's agin' it. PUBLIC SERVICE In the matter of public service radio stands supreme. When disaster threatens, the networks round up their top flight stars and stage a performance which many advertisers would pay fortunes to sponsor. Within the space of a few hours the nation has telephoned and telegraphed millions of dollars in pledges to re APR I L, 1946 • 117 •