Evening star., 1934-09-30
EDUCATION SPLIT
ON RADIO POLICY
Broadcasters Hold Pro-
grams to Be Effective
Must Be Entertaining.
BY MARTIN CODEL.
= INCREASINGLY the educators in

both as 1t applies to class room
work and to the education of adults.
Here in this country their ranks
are apparently hopelessly split among
various factions. There are those
satisfied to continue utilizing the time
allotted to them or to their central
organizations by the existing pri-
vately operated stations and net
works. Others want wave-length IA
cilities allotted to their individual
institutions. Still others profess out
right the conviction that a govern
mentally owned and operated system
of radio would be more advantageous
to education by radio.
Complicating the situation further
Is the demand of certain religious
institutions, whom the networks have
sought to satisfy by alloting time to
their central organizations by faiths,
for wave lengths and stations of their
own. Indeed, it was the demand of
the Paulist Fathers of New York for
an improvement In the assignment
of their part-time station that really
impelled Congress to direct the Fed
eral Communications Commission to
report by next February whether It
would be feasible to allot 25 per cent
of the wave lengths or time on the
air to educational. religious and other
non-profit institutions.
Technique Is Problem.
Returning to school this Fall, stu
dents are being greeted with the usual
amount of local and network educa-
tional offerings via radio. Locally
the plan is usually to have local school
officials and teachers broadcast to
the class rooms and to the parents
over local stations. Mass education
on a national scale by national or
ganizations is the motivating idea
of the network programs. these Or
ganizations placing prominent figures
before the microphones or co-operat-
ing with such periodical class room
programs staged by the networks
themselves, as the N. B. c. Walter
DamroSch concert-lectures and Co.
lumbia's American School Of the Air
The big problem in education by
radio is technique-that is admitted
on all hands. The broadcasters
frankly assert that the pills of edu-
cation" must be sugar in
asmuch as the public has come to
expect chiefly entertainment by radio.
Some educators balk in horror at any
such idea, but a growing number have
come to believe in 1t as implicitly
as do the impresarios Of the radio
studios.
On the broadcasters' part the tend
ency is to classify all cultural and
current events programs as educa-
tional. Thus the placing of Govern
ment officials, party speakers, college
professors and others on the air and
the broadcasting of symphonic or
dramatic works of high merit, are
regarded by them as contributions
to education by radio However. the
fact that so much time on the air is
devoted to sponsored programs, usual
ly Of the lighter entertainment va
riety. interspersed with advertising,
has alienated many educators from
the present system.
Split Delays Agreement.
Until the educators reach an ac-
cord among themselves, which seems
to be long way from being in pros
pect, there appears to be little like
lihood of any appreciable change in
the American method. Even the Oc-
tober l hearings before the Federal
Communications Commission, at
which the various educational fac
tions may be expected to show why
they do or do not need radio facili-
ties Of their own. promise to lead no
where as long as the educators are
divided among themselves as to the
basic structure Of radio or undecided
as to the technique of primary and
adult education by radio.
Abroad the problem is not quite so
acute. In the first place, the radio
systems of most countries are oper-
ated by the government. Secondly,
the educational groups do not seem
to be diverse, as in this country.
Finally, there is no conflict as be-
tween time that should be allotted
to sponsors and non-sponsored pro-
grams. Here the broadcasters frank
ly give priority to sponsors, first, be-
cause they provide the revenues nee
essary to maintain themselves, and
secondly, because the competing ad-
vertisers vie with one another for the
listeners ear and thus bring wide
variety of their conception Of what
the people want" before their micro
phones.
British Give Education.
The British Broadcasting Corp.
carries regular schedules of educa-
tional programs for class room re-
ception, the subjects ranging the
whole gamut Of primary and higher
learning. French broadcasting is
still too disorganized to furnish any
kind of criterion. Germany's radio,
completely government dominated,
tries to feature the national culture
and variety of entertainment. but has
become primarily an instrument of
Nazi propaganda. Soviet Russia's S
radio has turned more and more to
music and the lighter forms of en-
tertainment, but it is also first and
foremost an instrument of the state.
Indeed, the Soviets present curl
GUS attitude toward radio that, If
adopted in this country, might well
mean all things to all educators. THE
objects of the future activity of
broadcasting, both central and local. :"
reads a manifesto of Moscow meet
ing last month of delegates of local
radio committees, "are the raising Of
the cultural level of the masses, their
political education and the organi-
zation of a rational use Of spare
time" But to hard-headed, practical
broadcasters here this omits what
seems to be the prime essential and
certainly the first demand of the
American radio listener-entertain-
ment.