Radio Quotes

“For a while parents seemed to forget that their responsibility as parents did not cease when the child turned on the radio; rather it increases. In the August, 1938, issue of Your Life, Mary Linton has this to say to the parent who is blaming everyone but himself for his child's actions:
It isn't up to the teachers in the schools, nor the Federal Radio Commissioners, nor anyone else on earth. It's up to us — it's our job! Our job to teach them right from wrong, honesty from dishonesty, a clean and intelligent attitude toward sex, a healthful fastidiousness about their own bodies. We can teach these things because we have the daily opportunity of knowing our children and their reactions.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“Doctor James Rowland Angell has said that 'any program may be regarded as educational (and here we may substitute the words 'a public service') in purpose which attempts to increase knowledge, to stimulate thinking, to teach techniques and methods, to cultivate discernment, appreciation, and taste, or to enrich character by sensitizing emotion and by inspiring socialized ideals that may issue on constructive conduct.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“One hundred fifty years is not long in the reckoning of a hill. But to a man it's long enough.
One hundred fifty years is a week end to a redwood tree, but to a man it's two full lifetimes.
One hundred fifty years is a twinkle to a star, but to a man it's time enough to teach six generations what the meaning is of liberty, how to use it, when to fight for it.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“In the opinion of the A. C. Nielsen Company, the ideal radio research service must:
1. Measure the entertainment value of the program (probably best indicated by the size of the audience, bearing in mind the scope of the broadcasting facilities).
2. Measure the sales effectiveness of the program.
3. Cover the entire radio audience; that is:
a. All geographical sections.
b. All sizes of cities.
c. Farms.
d. All income classes.
e. All occupations.
f. All races.
g. All sizes of family.
h. Telephone and non-telephone homes, etc., etc.
4. Sample each of the foregoing sections of the audience in its proper portion; that is, there must be scientific, controlled sampling — not wholly random sampling.
5. Cover a sufficiently large sample to give reliable results.
6. Cover all types of programs.
7. Cover all hours of the day.
8. Permit complete analysis of each program; for example:
a. Variations in audience size at each instant during the broadcast.
b. Average duration of listening.
c. Detection of entertainment features or commercials which cause gain or loss of audience.
d. Audience turnover from day to day or week to week, etc., etc.
9. Reveal the true popularity and listening areas of each station and each network; that is, furnish an "Audit Bureau of Circulations" for radio.
A study was made by A. C. Nielson Company of all possible methods of meeting these specifications. After careful investigation, they decided to use a graphic recording instrument known as the "audimeter" for accurately measuring radio listening. . . .
The audimeter is installed in radio receivers in homes.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“The health of democracy, not its hate, is its best propaganda.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“It is scarcely fair . . . to permit only those with sufficient funds to spend to appropriate that which, in reality, is the property of all people.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“It is still evident that the problem of finances is an enormously important one. The lack of money to do the job and to compete successfully for audiences with elaborate and attractive commercial programs seems almost hopeless. As far back as 1936, Doctor [Levering] Tyson . . . stated at the joint meeting of the Council and the Institute for Education by Radio at Columbus: Unfortunately, there is not much chance to get money until there is some general understanding of, and agreement in, country-wide objectives to which local and regional objectives can be fitted, and until controversy over these objectives is eliminated so that a unified plan of procedure can be followed”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“the Chicago Tribune said on February 8, 1937: . . . . there is entertainment in erudition.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“it is impossible today to know how much the war colored the thinking and attitudes of the child of today.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“Mrs. [Sidonie Matsner] Gruenberg [in Radio and Children]. . . says:
Probably the 'good' effects upon children's characters are as unpremeditated as the 'bad.' We have not yet found any sure way through our didactic teaching or other devices to make our children 'good.' We may at least suspect that some of the objectionable lessons are equally ineffective in making them 'bad.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“Because of the times, and because the child has been living in a world filled with every kind of thrill and adventure, it is safe to assume that he is not interested in the same type of radio that amused him before the war.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“As Mary Grannon, the beloved Mary of The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘Just Mary’ hour says:
So many parents are clinging to some favorite story in their own youth and measuring all children's material by it—forgetting what the last minstrel found out in his travels, that 'old times are changed, old manners gone, a stranger fills the Stuart's throne.' Let's not be like the bigots of the iron time; let's be rooters for the modern.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“Then came the era of 'box-tops' and 'thrillers.' It is not strange that the advertiser, in his search for the right kind of program to catch the attention of the largest number of youngsters, turned to the comic strips.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“Of all radio program forms, the radio talk is the hardest to write, to give, and to make interesting and acceptable to the listening public. The first inclination of almost everyone, in turning on the radio and finding someone talking, is to switch the dial immediately until a music program is found. That is done almost as unconsciously as breathing.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“The majority of the people in the United States have had only an elementary education and have a speaking vocabulary of about two thousand words. (Even a well-educated person has a speaking vocabulary of approximately nine thousand words.)”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“Advertisers as well as political leaders long ago found that it is easier to appeal to the people through the heart than through the mind. Programs built with an emotional people are sure to draw the largest audiences and the biggest response. Workers in the field of educational radio are loath to acknowledge this truism, maintaining that certain programs must be built to appeal to the intellect. Of course, they are right, but that is the minority appeal.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“In a sense, the recording stylus and its reverse component have defeated time. Up until a little more than a generation ago, the sound of a word once uttered, a violin note once played, were possible treasures dropped into the none too safe repository of human memory; but the same sounds transferred to a wax or plastic or film or wire can live and vibrate again fifteen minutes or fifty years from now.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“Economic experts tell us that the women of America spend 80 per cent of the national income, and the largest part of this expenditure is made for the necessities and the small luxuries of life.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“It is interesting to note that in announcing the formation of the National Broadcasting Company, the Radio Corporation of America published a newspaper advertisement on September 14, 1926 which contained the following significant statements:

Any use of radio transmission which causes the public to feel that the quality of programs is not the highest, that the use of radio is not the broadest and best use in the public interest, that it is used for political advantage or selfish power will be detrimental to the public interest in radio and, therefore, to the Radio Corporation of America.
The purpose of the (National Broadcasting) Company will be to provide the best programs available for broadcasting in the United States.
In order that the National Broadcasting Company may be advised as to the best type of program, that discrimination may be avoided, the the public may be assured that the broadcasting is being done in the fairest and best way, always allowing for human frailties and human performance, it has created an Advisory Council.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“the Code [of the National Association of Broadcasters]. . . . also deals briefly with the presentation of news in a fair and accurate manner. In general, the handling of news largely consists in the accuracy and speed with which it is gathered and distributed, with freedom from editorial bias in its selection and presentation.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“The code of the National Association of Broadcasters enunciates as a cardinal principle in American radio the provision of time by stations, without charge, for the presentation of public questions of a controversial nature. At the same time, it advises against the sale of time for the presentation of controversial issues except in the case of political broadcasts during political campaigns. The basic foundation for the prohibition against the sale of time for the presentation of controversial issues is the public duty of broadcasters to present such issues, regardless of the willingness of others to pay for their presentation. If time were sold for that purpose, it would have to be sold to all with the ability to pay, and as a result the advantage in any discussion would rest largely with those having the greater financial means to buy broadcasting time.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate

“In many industries federal regulation is the outgrowth of inadequate self-regulation on the part of the industry.”
― Judith C. Waller, Radio: The Fifth Estate