Evening star., 1947-01-05
For Radio Listeners
By Harry Macarthur


This first Sunday in 1947 should
be proper one for glance ahead
to see what the new year may hold
for radio. We are setting down no
list of predictions of things to come,
but we have been looking over the
year-end statements of the presi-
dents, vice presidents and other ex-
ecutives of radio and we are ready
to make one guess for 1947. This is
that the whims of the sponsors, who
often have wtins of iron, and the
ratings which purport to show how
many people are listening to given
program, will continue to rule the
content of your radio entertainment.
It is not clear to whom these re-
ports are directed-whether 1t be
the general public, by way OF news
papers or advertisers or stockhold-
ers or other radio executives. But
they do make interesting reading in
the portrait they supply of the atti-
tudes of men behind radio toward
the medium they control. A man
must be forgiven for reaching the
ultimate conclusion that radio
would rather be on good terms with
the advertisers than with the lis
teners. The advertiser pays his
money and you take your choice OF
listening to what he wants you toI
hear or turning on the phonograph.
We give you, for example, a por-
ton of the year-end statement
made by Frank E. Mullen, executive
vice president of the National
Broadcasting Co.
"The year 1947 should witness real
progress in the relief of shortages
of manufactured products, the re-
duction of prices and the restoration
of normal business competition.
While this process will entail certain
dislocations and readjustments it
is an essential preliminary to a pc
riod of economic health and pros
perity.
advertisers will explore every
possible means of increasing the
sales productiveness of each adver-
tising dollar. In the field OF broad
casting, the research and expert
mentation now going on to establish
reliable criteria for the effective
ness of commercial programs and
announcements will be intensified.
The objective of such study and the
anticipated result, will be to make
the sponsored program a still more
welcome guest in the American
home"
That's fair enough warning.
Mark Wood, president of the
American Broadcasting Co., is happy
about the same things that make
other radio folks happy. "It is
gratifying to see that this postwar
year, which has been fraught with
uncertainty and hesitation" he
writes in ABC's Report on 1946,
gave the American Broadcasting
Co. the continued loyalty of adver-
tisers who have been with us for
years and those which have joined
our ranks as their means OF squirting
on the commercial recovery of the
Nation"
Radio is the eager helpmeet, all
right, married to industry for better
and never for worse, breathlessly
certain it is her destiny to further
her mates career. THE biggest
Job for 1947 is" according to Niles
Trammell, president of NBC, 'the
restoration of full production in
industry. - There are hundreds
of new products born of wartime
research to be introduced to the
consumer in 1947. Radio will play
a major role in the creation of new
markets for these new products
and thus raise our national level
of prosperity"
We have no quarrel, to be sure,
with the basic system whereby ad-
vertisers pay for radio entertain
ment. We think this provides more
and better entertainment than nom
commercial radio could. But we
also think that the desires of the
listeners should be the primary con-
Germ of the radio stations. Keeping
advertisers happy is important to
the networks, of course, but We sus-
pect that this will be accomplished
in the long run by trying to keep
audiences happy.
Mutual's report on the past year
seems to be aware of this. 1t does
to be sure, contain the warning
from President Edgar Kodak that
"rising costs, material shortages and
labor difficulties on many fronts
would bring about reappraisal of
advertising values" But Mr.. Kodak
also expresses great optimism in
the future accomplishments of
radios public service and show
manship," and considerable en-
phasis is laid on Mutual's response
bility to listeners" You will have
to check Mutual through the year
to see If these are words with mean
ing
The report of the Columbia
Broadcasting System, in contrast to
the others, lays its emphasis on
programming. The chairman of the
board of CHS is, of course, William
S. Paley, who startled the National
Association of Broadcasters last
October by telling them what was
wrong with radio. 1t seems to be
Mr.. Paley's intent that fewer and
fewer of these things shall be wrong
with CHS radio as time goes by.
X X X X
We can't think of a more fitting