Evening star., 1934-10-21

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broadcaSterS and other educators
The issue is this: Shall educational,
religious and non-profit organizations
maintain their own broadcaSting sta
tions on facilities taken away from
existing commercial stations in i'm
parting to the people program ma
terial designed to educate, enlighten
and uplift; or shall these same Or
ganizationS utilize the facilities Of
existing commercial stations, as many
have been doing, without acquiring
more facilities of their own? A
particular group of educators, hanked
by certain religious groups, fosters
the idea of exclusive facilities of
their own. The broadcasting industry
naturally favors retention of the
present system. and it is supported in
this view by a considerable number
of educators and Clergymen more or
less satisfied to continue using the
time allotted them by privately owned
stations.
Problem Is Six years Old.
The problem is half dozen years
old. It reached its crux early this
year, with the result that Congress
felt constrained to instruct its new
F. c. c. to investigate proposals that
specific facilities be given non-profit
organizations and asking the F. G. c.
to report to it with recommendations
by next February /. The F. C. C.'S
broadcast division, comprising Hamp-
son Gary, chairman; Thad H. Brown,
vice chairman, and Judge e. o. Sykes,
chairman of the full seven-man
agency, as ex-oficio member, began
its investigation october l.
During the last three weeks ap-
proximately 100 persons, from net
work presidents to the operators of
little 100 waters and from college
presidents to class room instructors,
have trooped before the broadcast
division. Educators and clergymen
favoring exclusive facilities for them
selves have loosed virtriolic attacks
upon commercial radio. Scores of
different suggestions have been ad-
vanced by them, some possible, others
fantastic. There was little unanimity
of view, but the principal theme was
that commercial stations are unfit to
carry education and religion into the
home, where the instructive and the
sacred would be intermingled with
advertising, which they resent.
The basic theory of the group ad-
vocating exclusive radio waves is that
only by such structure can the
class room be extended to the home
They say the commercial stations will
not allow them desirable hours for
their programs, and would interfere
with the manner in which they pro-
pose to present their instructional pro-
grams.
Br0adcasters Answer Critics.
The broadcasters, supported by many
progressive educators, ministers and
others, maintain that they are pro-
viding most useful educational serv-
ice now, devoting some II per cent
of their aggregate time on the air
to non-commercial, educational. and
informative programs. At the hearings
during the last week they produced
thousands of letters attesting to their
service, and dozen witnesses in the
persons of professors, clergymen and
others identified with non-profit pur-
suits who had used their facilities
and were pleased with the results.
First, the broadcasterS brought out,
the commercial stations have the
saudience appeal" which the purely
educational stations lack. Secondly,
they held, a comprehensive survey
has shown that the listening public,
by and large, construes radio essen
tally as an entertainment medium,
and does not like too many talks or
lectures. There is nothing manda-
tory about listening, they brought out,
and the listener can reject an educa-
tional program by the twist of his
dial, without embarrassing" the edu-
Gator who may be speaking. The
crux of the broadcaster's argument
is that, after a decade of experience
in broadcasting, they know best how
to present programs, whether educa-
tional or frivolous, so it will attract
the average listener and keep him
listening.
Out of this maze of testimony, the
F. c. c. must evolve its report to
Congress. Within the next month it
will receive supplemental briefs from
the various parties who participated
in the hearings, summarizing their
views and arguments. What its rec
ommendation will be, of course, re-
mains problematical, since no inkling
was given during the hearings by the
commissioners as to what their views
would be. After the smoke clears
away, however, 1t is possible that the
pro-legislation groups and the broad
casters, again supported by their
progressive educational factions, will
get together around a conference ia
BILE in an effort to work out solu-
ton for coordination of education
by radio. Many prominent educators
and broadcasters have expressed
themselves in favor of such move.
X X X X
THE excellence of the new seasons
i radios augurs 1885 as the best
radio year since pre-depression
DAYS. Improvements have been made
sufficiently important to warrant the
replacement of existing receivers.
Once again the factories have re-
sumed the production of quality
models.
Practically all lines include one or
more types of all-wave sets, some
manufacturers offering nothing else.
Receivers tuning from 10000 kilo-
cycles through the broadcast band
without a break are quite common,
and many makers are producing ex-
port sets good down as far as $50
kilocycleS in the hope that long wave
weather reports and the occasional
reception of foreign long wave broad
casts will stimulate demand.
Extended band broadcast sets, in
Guiding one or more police and anna
teur bands, are to be found in num-
ber of table and console offerings.
But by far the most common type of
receiver is the Jump band" type,
tuning in the broadcast range and
then skipping down to the more pop
ular foreign channels. omitting the
relatively (to the average nstener)
unimportant intervening services.
An-Wave Sets to Stay.