Radio stars (Oct 1938)

IN KADIO BY GENE HARVEY any smaller station — superior, in fact, to many. Each studio room has its "dead end" and "live end" ; there are ribbon mikes, velocity mikes and carbon mikes ; recording and playback equipment. It is, really, more than an experimental studio, for several programs originate here daily, and are piped by remote control to the networks or by direct line to independent New York stations. The entire course has been shorn of pedagogical frills ; the student actively participates in every phase of radio production. Starting with the first germ of the idea, the student learns from Mr. Coulter, who was for twelve years vice-president in charge of radio with N. W. Ayer & Son. how to build and plan a program. The writing of radio scripts is under the direction of Lewis Titterton, of NBC's script division, and Max Wylie, CBS script director. And they're not merely told about it. Having planned a program, scripts are written and criticized, then Earle McGill, CBS casting director, and Robert Emerson take over the problems of casting, cutting, timing, sound effects, music and transition. Instruction does not stop at the production of programs. Students in the group take their turns at radio acting, under Mr. Emerson, and the programs they have produced and enacted are recorded and played back for comment and improvement, while some go out on the air. It's a busy six weeks. Numerous field trips are made to observe radio rehearsals, production and broadcasts at the studios of the Columbia and National networks, and students hear lectures by outstanding radio personalities. For example, among the talks scheduled for the 1938 Summer Session were Paul Whiteman on "Planning the Musical Program" ; Roy Durstine, President of Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborne, on "Agency Problems in Radio" ; Deems Taylor on musical criticism ; and similar authorities on subjects in their fields. The group invades studio control rooms, experimental television studios and. under' supervision, is allowed to experiment in the N.Y.U. studios. And at the end of the six-week session each student has not only learned about radio but has, himself, held for a time practically every broadcasting job except that of engineer. The genesis of the Radio Workshop idea began about half a dozen years ago when Dr. Kline Coon of the U. S. Office of Education. S. Howard Evans of the National Committee for Education by Radio and Keith Tyler of Ohio State University compiled a syllabus on Education by Radio. It covered three departments : history and background, teacher-training, and workshop groups. This syllabus was sent to various summer schools and, as a follow-up, many executives on the commercial radio chains were written, in effect, to ask : "Would you be interested in teaching certain aspects of radio broadcasting?" and if so, "Will you send us your qualifications for teaching?" The result was that as schools became interested in forming workshop groups in radio there was available a selection of competent and experienced radio experts to head these courses. In a recent survey made by the National Committee for Education by Radio, over sixty colleges were shown to have one or more courses in radio or summer schools with radio workshops. Apart from those schools which offer only isolated single courses, such as Radio Script Writing, most radio courses fall roughly into two divisions : Those in which the undergraduate participates actively in radio work throughout his college term, and those aimed primarily at teachers' problems in radio education. The University of Washington, for example, exemplifies the former type. ■ Besides instruction in classrooms, the U. of Washington undergraduate starts, from his freshman year, doing various jobs in and about the University's station, KIVSC. Just as students in schools of journalism fill, progressively, positions on the school paper as reporter, copyreader, rewrite, editor, etc.. so do students in Washington's radio division learn the practical aspects of various radio jobs on the school station. They participate actively in production, performance and program building. In their senior year, students of marked ability may be handling" positions of real responsibility at KIVSC and, again like student editors and reporters, often step out of college into good positions in professional radio. The N.Y.U. Workshop, on the other hand, was originated primarily to deal with the problems of teachers engaged in radio educational work. It began in 1934 in cooperation with the Federal Educational Radio Project, which presented nine series of Coast-to-Coast programs over NBC and CBS networks. The techniques used by participants in the Project shows were observed by the students in the Workshop, and from this grew the present procedure which offers students active participation in broadcasting. Many radio courses, like N.Y.U.'s concerned themselves with the teacher angle. Why ? Because before the classroom took up radio, radio had come into the classroom. Forward-looking educators had begun to realize the tremendous force for education this new entertainment medium was becoming ; not onlv in its direct educational aspect, as in the School Of The Air, but in the tastes it cultivated and developed indirectly. Yet, teachers themselves were inclined to depreciate the microphone ; in educational programs they were prone to assume that no special technique of approach or program planning was necessary. They approached the mike with a professorial sniff of disdain, confident that the same sort of lecture they gave their classes would be heard and appreciated over the air. To quote Paul A. McGhee, Assistant to the Dean. Division of General Education, N.Y.U. : "Teachers spoke glibly enough of education by radio. But almost invariably they missed the real point of radio's value as an educational medium — its indirect {Continued on page 75) 45