Profits before Programmes

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 30, 6 February 1931, Page 3

Profits before Programmes

American — Advertising Abuses Result in Listeners’ Revolt

by

Bolton

Woods

E live and learn. Anyone who thinks that the question of exploiting the air for advertising in the Dominion is a remote issue, would be amazed at the solidarity of a certain section which is working to bring about conditions

tat would lay the ether open to the mercy of brazen commercialisation by advertising announcements. The system is American in origin, and in that country it flourishes like the green bay tree. There, various broadcasting organisations sell programme hours to commercial firms for the purpose of advertising. The following is a fair example of the kind of thing that our American cousins more or less cheerfully submit to day in and day out, Ngnight after night, and year after year: ' The studio announcer parks his vanity case and starts off something like this: "T am sure you will all enjoy the Underwear Orchestra and their exquisite rendition of Bachoven’s immortal Nocturne in A Flat, which you are about to listen to through the courtesy of Backhouse and Legge, makers of shirts and shorts for men." Once more we are trans-ported-albeit in imagination only-to the land of. fair vaseline, heroine of Shortfellow’s celebrated lyric: pome on that and kindred topics. Once morethrough the courtesy of Backhouse and Legge, makers of shirts and shorts for men-we enjoy the rich and melodious texture of Bachoven’s immortal composi-tion-a texture only less rich than that Gund in Backhouse and Legge’s shirts shorts for’ men. You will, I am sure, recognise the supreme artistry with which this artist utilises the harmonic principle of invertible counterpoint, which in this instance finds expression in’ a felicitous transposition of three minor melodies above and below the principal melody-as you will of course recognise. 7 a ed

ints is the Underwear fiour. Whenever you change your under~ wear, be it now or later, think of Backhouse and Legge, makers of shirts and shorts for men." "A post-card addressed to Backhouse and Legge, makers of shirts and shorts for men, in care of the studio, will bring a richly illumin- * 4ated souvenir self-measurement chart, suitable for framing. This is Howler Advertising Company (Reginald Ladidah announcing). Please stand by for further station announcements." The most infuriating thing about a radio announcer of this type is the fact that you can’t answer back-what refnedy have you against a human voice? This doesn’t happen anywhere else. If you disagree with

an editor you can stop reading and cancel your subscription to the paper. You can "tell off" a man at the other end of.a.telephone even if you can’t land him one in the eye. The printed. word that cannot be answered is bad enoughBut the radio-protected human voice is the

worst of all. And we run the risk of the air becoming polluted by these advertising announcements if we are not very care-ful-*"the adman will get us if we don’t watch out." But even the worm will turn-if one may liken the hundred per cent. live-wire American to any individual of the phylum Vermes. We learn that the American listener is not only in revolt, but for some timé past has been in revolt against what Radio Commissioner Ira E. Robinson calls an: "overdose of ads." The action of the Argentine Government in suspending a broadcasting station for too much advertising prompted a statement from the Radio Commissioner. He reiterated also his prediction that a "revolution of listeners" will result from the "excesses of the broadcasters in their greed for commercial "gain." Advertising over the radio can be properly done without disgusting the public," the Commissioner asserted. "Assuredly it is not so now, and if the present overdose continues no returns from advertising by radio will be received. The method is simply killing the goose that lays the golden eggs," The official report to the Commerce Department stated that a station in Buenos Aires had been closed for eight days because it was transmitting up to 250 words of advertising matter between successive numbers on its programme (250 words makes a slightly lengthier announcement than my innocent example quoted above). In his report the attache of the department said that "this supports the oft-repeated charge that Arven-

tine programmes are overburdened with advertising matter. Many claim that sales of receiving sets would increase if there was more attention paid to the artistic feature of the programmes and less to advertising." Judge Robinson cited as an example of excessive advertising in America the broadcasting of the recent election returns, where "more than one station interrupted and ruined its giving out of election returns by throwing in commercial advertising. A number of listeners present with me became disgusted and left the audience. That illustrates the sentiment that is developing countrywide against commercialisation of the radian." (Conclided on page 29.)

Profits Before Programmes Fd (Continued from page 38.) The members of the National Association of Broadcasters sat in convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S,A., toward the end of last year, and departed with a warning in their ears about excessive advertising in ‘programmes, Hardly had the conference opened when General Saltzman, chairman of the Radio Commission, spoke on the subject: "Too Much Adyertising." "If I know the demands of the public," he said, "I should say they are for less advertising and for more education and better quality programmes." Some of the 600 odd stations on the air are thinking much more of tne profits than the service they are obligated to.render, and resort to "excessive advertising,’ General Saltzman said. He admonished his audience to remember that the ether belongs to the N\public and that the programmes on hese facilities, "loaned" to the broadcasters, "must be satisfactory to the public." Advertising was the central attraction during the business sessions. The two big chains reported more business than ever’ before. They realised 18,798,359 dollars for the first nine months in 1930, which in itself is a record, and there were then three months. to go. (These figures will make newspaper owners think.)

By a solid,vote the association adopted a resolution definitely opposing the allocation of facilities to any special interests, singling out the educators (who sought a percentage of time for teaching the nation) for specéal mention. Kgthere you have the American broadeasting attitude in a nutshell. Profits, first, second and last-the public weal nowhere. Commenting on the above two statements by responsible national radio officials, the "New York Sun" says:"One of our Federal Radio Commissioners has predicted a ‘listeners’ revolt at the present overburdened ether with advertising credits. Such a revolt has been in progress for some time, gaining in numbers steadily, yet ag steadfastly ignored by broadcasters, While the commission is not in any sense a board of censorship and does not seek to regulate radio commercialisation, still the fact that official cog-

‘ cee = nisance has been taken of the matter is a bif encouraging. Certainly, in the interest of public service, the commission might take steps to discourage the present advertising excesses. The listening public can help a bit, perhaps, by directing indignant protest to the broadcaster, instead of the sponsor, for a time. For example, WOR is not serving its audience by sanctioning any such credits as are found on its series depicting certain screen plays sponsored by a nut concern. And WOR, to our way of thinking, should be held accountable for the abuses of its hospitality as practised by over-zealous commercial accounts, ‘The Squealer,’ as offered in drama form this week, was poorly staged and acted, but its worst offence was its advertising. The listeners’ revolt was predicted by Commissioner Robinson at Washington, while news dispatches quote General Saltzman as yoicing similar criticism of present-day advertising credits." . Happily in New Zealand the control of the main stations is in the hands of a concern which exists first and foremost as a broadcasting service, and not as an advertising agency. Listeners would be well adyised jealously to guard the sanctity of the ether from desecration by the banalities of ‘advertising. After all, the air belongs to the people, and broadcasting is a social agency. Any attempts made by any interests whatsoever, to get in the thin end of the advertising wedge by sponsored programmes and similar specious schemes should be resisted by all from the Postmaster-General downward. It is clearly a case of "two’s company, three’s none." The intervention, however subtle and disguised, of a third

person between the broadcasting organisation. and its listeners could not fail in some degree to damage that sense of intimacy which is so peculiar and striking a feature of our broadcasting service, There is not the slightest fear of any such rude intrusion with the Radio Broadcasting Company’s stations, but if this principle is violated in any other direction we will rue the day we ever let the monster of radio advertising raise its head in New Zealand, Let us keep the air as free from the taint of commercialism as we should keep our loveliest landscapes free from advertising hoardings. Who owns the air, anyhow? Shall advertisers, sooner or later, dictate what shall be and what shall not be broadcast? When he was Secretary for Commerce, President Hoover said: "We may well be proud of this wonderful development, but in our self-con-gratulation let us not forget that the value of this great system does not. lie primarily in its extent or even in its efficiency, It is not the ability to transmit but the character of what is transmitted that really counts. An obligation rests upon us to see that it is devoted to real service and to develop the material that is transmitted into that which is really worth while."