Radio today (Sept 1935-Dec 1936)

By the terms of this abortive compact, leading and powerful press asspciations agreed to supply incomplete news bulletins to radio stations, to a limited and restricted extent. In return for this abbreviated "service" (for which the stations paid) the broadcasters agreed to discontinue all plans for perfecting their own newsgathering facilities. The Press-Radio Bureau service has, of course, never been altogether satisfactory to the radio industry nor to the public. Its news is limited to a few restricted five-minute periods a day; bulletins are skimpy and unsatisfying; listeners are referred to local newspapers for full details, and the news cannot be broadcast until it has been published elsewhere. PROPAGANDA! National Radiol Advertising OU! 70PX.inl934\ Sk Jn Radio 'Ad, °f the S.WI D Radio scoops press Also, the ill-starred Press-Radio Bureau, depending upon the press services for its news flashed to cooperating broadcasting stations, has made several bad boners for which radio got the blame. One after another, in a series of some of the biggest news events of the year, the press services got their first tips dead wrong, and sent out to broadcasting stations erroneous news flashes, which later had to be corrected. Look at the record : — Press associations told broadcasting stations the Macon hit a mountain; it fell in the ocean. — Press associations said Hauptmann got life imprisonment ; he was condemned to die. — Press associations got the famous Gold Clause decision of the Supreme Court completely cockeyed right from the start; more apologies and more corrections. Meanwhile, new special radio news services for broadcasting stations have come into the picture — like Transradio — getting things right, getting them fast. — got the Macon story right; got the Hauptmann story right; got the Gold Clause story right. — first with confirmation of rumors of the deaths of Will Rogers and Wiley Post. — first by half an hour with news of the death of Queen Astrid of the Belgians. Radio cannot afford to be wrong; once the news is broadcast, it cannot be called back; newspapers have time to stop the presses, destroy the papers ; radio must stand or fall on its own speed and accuracy. Radio can not only get the news fast and right, but it can put the news into the homes of America min <pt RA^O \ sot utes and hours before that same news can be read in the newspapers. What the outcome of an open break between radio and newspapers will be, only time will tell. Meanwhile, the American Newspaper Publishers' Association, through its latest pamphlet, "Yardsticks on the Air," has made a definite attempt to discredit radio, both in the eyes of the public and in the opinions of national advertisers whose fine programs have made radio broadcasting the popular institution it is today. MANY ADVERTISERS QUIT USING RADIO SurvtyShows70.6% olThost on Air From 1 929 Throagh 1933 Had Dropped Oat in 1934. Full of distorted and misleading "information" this "analysis" of radio issued by the newspapers is laughingly akin to Italy's claims against Ethiopia. Only one part of the story is told and that part often inaccurate. Theme song of the statistician who authored this specimen is that 70 per cent of the advertisers who used radio in 1928 had dropped out by 1934. That's true, as far as it goes. What the newspapers did NOT (Please turn to page 30) BUT HERE ARE THE FACTS! "'°NALtl^KV Broadcast advertising has mounted while newspaper and magazine d-eclined (zero percentage equals 1928-1932 average) »,NO advertising September, 1935 11