Radio Advertising

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 42, 2 May 1930, Page 5

Radio Advertising

American Comment N Mareh 15 the B.B,C, proposed to : broadcast what, td the British listener, would be a novelty in progtamme style. It was proposed to give the British public a taste of the kind of programme which is now commonly broadcast from American studios, including the advertising announcements in the best style of the American "sponsored" programme, Commenting on this, the London "Wireless News" said :- "The intention of ‘the B.B.C. is that the programme should show us the ,humour of the situation in America, which permits of the programmes be‘coming a sandwich of advertising and entertainment. We would assure our readers, however, that though to us this programme item by the B.B.C. may prove diverting, served up as a novelty, there is no humour left in the idea as far as the American listening public is concerned. America introduced the principle of sponsored paid for by advertisers becausé they had no other machinery in forcé to meet the cost of the programme production and the running of the stations.

"Now, however, the American public is brought face to face with a Situation where advertisers virtually control the greater proportion of the broadcasting stations, and brodacasting itself, originally launched as a means of providing entertainment and interest for the public, has degenerated into little more than an advertising medium with programme matter virtually subservient to the ambitions of the advertiser. "NJOR was there, apparently, ever any altetnative to the ultimate ~over-riding of the original conception of the purpose of broadcasting when once the principle of microphone ad: vertising, however small in its begin nings, was admitted. ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune,’ and that is precisely what the American public has now found out to be as true in broadcasting as in any other sphere. "Microphone advertising is now so blatant in America that even the advertisers themselves are scared of the effect it may have, yet so jealous are they of each other’s facilities that there seems no prospect of agreement to check the progress of a situation which may ultimately kill the interest of the public in broadcasting itself. Dr. Lee de Forest, in an inaugural address as president of the Institute of Radio Engineers, in referring to the situation which microphone advertising had created, expressed the view that America was ‘killing the goose that laid the golden eggs." "Fortunately for this country, the wise decision to ban all microphone: advertising was one of the first restrictions, and, in fact, almost the only restriction put upon the character of matter to be broadcast. If it had been realised, that the introduction of advertising would inevitably lead to the situation which America now has to face, no doubt this initial decision which has saved broadcasting in this country would also have been insisted upon in America."