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new techniques when the old ones palled, seeking out a better or different or more fulfilling way to make radio serve its dual masters best of all.
The two masters are, of course, the public and the advertisers, with the station people functioning between them and, sometimes, caught in the middle.
It's this middleman — the station executive — who is the pivot for change in today's radio world, says Harold Fair. He approaches his own job — whatever it is — with the goal of being a "compleat" man — a professional who brings to his tasks of creativity or skill a rounded view of his work.
"You can't ever know too much about too many things," says Fair, "and the radio man is, in many ways, the ultimate in breadth and depth because his job demands extraordinary knowledge and — perhaps even more important — feeling." He him
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self started in radio as a solo pianist in 1922. Since then he's been an announcer, program director, salesman and manager, writer, promotion specialist, administrator, timebuyer, account executive and broadcast consultant.
Broader and deeper interests in other fields, he thinks, have helped him be imaginative and inventive about broadcast. He's still a pianist, a heavy reader of serious literature, a homespun philosopher who loves to chat with friends on almost any subject, an oil painter, a hobbyist who makes furniture and ship's models, a gardener.
He's also an avid radio listener, with two receivers in his country home at Old Lyme, Connecticut; three in his midtown Manhattan apartment (bathroom, kitchen, living room) and one in his car.
His personal listening peaks in the morning before walking to the B&J offices on Park Avenue and in the
evening when he's at home or in the country. This listening backgrounds some of his comments on radio, mixed, of course, with his professional appraisal of the medium in which he has worked for 39 years.
His analysis of radio today and in the future starts with the premise that nostalgia about the great days of radio is fine — as nostalgia. But as a way of radio life it has become extinct. "Radio had a priceless thing for a long time, almost a proprietary relationship between the audience and the broadcasters. The listener had complete confidence in what the station had on the air."
Harold Fair recalls a long-gone day when an elderly lady fan endorsed a $10,000 check, sent it to him and asked that he return $1,000 and invest the remainder in U.S. E bonds. The complications he ran into in safeguarding the check and communicating with her via phone and letter took many hours. "It's the kind
U. S. RADIO/July 1961