BLURBS AND BROADCASTING

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 22, 7 December 1934, Page 5

BLURBS AND BROADCASTING

"(CLEANING UP CANADIAN BROADCASTING," is the heading to an article which we print to-day. It mentions the ‘‘de-commercialising’" of Canadian radio programmes under the influence of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, and says, in passing, that the experiment is being watched with no little interest in the United States, The latest papers to hand from the latter country tell us that Washington has officially recognised the widespread disesteem into which commercial programmes have brought American broadcasting and the "first great official study" is shortly to be made of the country’s radio services. America is raising its voice: Why haven't radio managements taken steps to protect not only the public interests but their own by setting up and insisting upon high standards of entertainment and reasonable limitations on sales blurbs? One or two American advertisers have made a genuine attempt to raise the standard of sponsored pro- . grammes, but the majority have abused the air, not only to the detriment of listeners but-in the long run -of the present controllers of broadcasting in the United States. Radio is an instrument of tremendous dangers and possibilities, and the present American system is creating so-much dissatisfaction among listeners on the other side of the Pacific that the whole service is heading for a big smash. Washington is insistent that the broadcasting authorities must, in some way, be made to recognise radio’s responsibility for public welfare. Newspapers and magazines the world over have had to take a firm stand against the encroachment of undue advertising influence. They have had to protect their editorial and news columns from the dangers of unbridled commercialism. It seems likely that American broadcasting concerns will have to take similar steps in the interests of their listeners.