Radio and TV in the Soviet Union

The National Association of educational broadcasters presents the fourth of six reports on Russia By Berton Paulo director of radio and television broadcasting at the University of Minnesota and formerly president of NEA B. Dr Paulo visited the Soviet Union for three weeks in the fall of 1958 as a member of an official five man American delegation observing radio and television in the USSR. Today's program deals with radio and television broadcasting in the Soviet Union. In January 1958 the United States and the USSR to exchange materials and specialists in several fields including radio and television broadcasting. After many false starts our five man delegation arrived in the Soviet Union on October 23rd 1938 and left. Three weeks later on November 15 we represented a diverse aspects of American broadcasting. We included a real vice

president of Screen Gems. You know what produces films for television. Jerry Danzig vice president for radio network programs and NBC. Rob Harmon vice president for engineering with the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company. And Mike Wallace the ABC television interview. I was the only educator of the lot and also the only program person without a New York Hollywood orientation. And this gave me a double role to play. Personal and professional relations with our Soviet hosts were mostly good. We had long come for answers. Sometimes five hours at a stretch with the top radio and television people in Moscow Leningrad WILLESEE And here we were detained and we were shown or told most of the things we wanted to see or hear about except that our engineer were disappointed several times not getting to visit

factories and other tactical installations. But in Europe past US USSR relations we did very well indeed. As one would expect USSR broadcasting is government run and is noncommercial. Set users pay a yearly license fee which helps support the service. This is one hundred twenty roubles $12 for television and thirty three dollars and twenty cents for radio. Ultimate responsibility for programs is vested in the USSR Council of Ministers which appointed radio and television. The Ministry of Communication is in charge of transmitters and the responsibility is divided between the government in Moscow and the governments of the 15 republics of the USSR which also have radio and television committees communication ministry.

One of our favorite questions and one of theirs in return. What are your professional background. How did you get into broadcasting. We found that most but not all of the people were members of the Communist Party or heads of such specialized departments. Music often were not. What are the objectives of USSR broadcasting. After several days of conferences I drew up a statement accepted. Support of the basic communism of the Communist Party and the current government practices and policies is the principle underlying and continuing objective of all Soviet broadcasting. Another member of our group remarked that since all programs seem to have a propaganda objective one could say that Soviet broadcasting was

a commercial for the state. Our hosts reacted vigorously. If you want to put it that way they said better counted as a hundred percent commercial for the state. In the Soviet Union. Radio is much further developed than television. There was one national network out of Moscow and 200 other studio centers in addition to many stations was merely a program. There are 50 or 60 FM stations to. Most large cities have two or more stations. Moscow for example has three. Of. The principal stations in European Russia and some in Asia. I connected via wire lines just like ours. In addition to cover the wide open spaces the Soviet Union also puts automatic programs on short way. Local stations have considerable latitude in deciding what they take from a

national network and what they originate themselves although they are required to carry certain programs of national political importance. One thing affecting local broadcasting which wouldn't occur to us is the many languages of the Soviet Union all told domestic broadcasts are presented in 57 different languages. In the Georgian capital of Tbilisi for example the principal radio station is on the air 18 hours a day taking four hours on the national network and originating Fourteen of its own. Of these 12 are in the Georgian language. The distribution of radio sets is very extensive. There have been one radio receiver for every four urban dwellers and every nine rural inhabitants a large percentage of these however are loudspeakers fed from centrally located receivers. For example in Leningrad out of one million

sets 700000 are wired radio. This among other things makes it impossible for people so served to listen to programs from abroad. On the other hand money off the air receivers are shortwave equipped some of our hosts put it as high as 90 percent which is a factor in the opposite direction. Now something about the program. Have more of the time on the air to go to music. Much of this is serious music although there is live music too but not much of American jazz. Some of the Russian broadcasters hold it with great pride how they played American music from Samuel Barber to George Gershwin and seem even a bit disappointed when I said that our stations and many commercial ones too especially FM broadcast much of Russian music from Tchaikovsky they shot the court. Moscow Radio has over a dozen newscasts a

day. The Russians also do much drama special events and sports. They have very little comedy though. There are some excellent children's programs for out of school use. But strangely neither Soviet radio nor television broadcasts for in-school use nor does either offer a formal instruction like our tele courses for adults or a group listening by any age. It was surprising to discover this almost complete absence of teaching by radio or television in a country so education minded where audiences could so easily be organized. In the news especially and in many other programs too. There was a strong Communist Party slant. In the wake of the Young Communist League 40th anniversary. For example there were many programs on that theme. Well November 7th brought many programs about the forty first

anniversary of the Soviet revolution. But even though the award of the Nobel Prize to Boris Pasternak was front page news all over the western world while we were in Moscow Russian radio like Russian newspapers gave a very little play. Soviet broadcasting is noncommercial of course but many stations developed from 10 to 30 minutes a day to public service announcements including some about articles for sale in various stores. And for all of these are small charges made but these commercials are broadcast for information then to sell goods and the revenues derived from them are insignificant. In any case so be it broadcasters have notably liable way of finding out what effect such commercials have on sales. Since nowhere in Russian radio television is there any systematic study of the general audience to determine its

nature or its reaction. Television can produce better pictures technically than American television. The Russians use a six hundred twenty five line standard with a six mega cycle video broadcast with a five hundred twenty five line standard. If that sounds good to you say that it does to me but our engineer delegates stated that all factors considered the Russian television system definitely can produce better pictures than our. Television cameras and recordings film recordings made on television are right for them. Video tape recording and color television are still in the laboratory. In the overall television is behind ours they have only about 50 program

productions with transmitters. Most of which have low power satellite stations to extend their coverage. But we have over 500 television stations with their own studios for them some 400 miles apart so they can simultaneously carry the same programme. However relays are being installed and should connect the main cities in another year or two. There are about three million television receivers in the Soviet Union. About half of these are in Moscow. Three hundred and thirty thousand two hundred and sixty thousand a year which doesn't leave too many for the other three cities with television stations. Many sets have 16 or 17 inch screen although the ones loaned to us had 21 inch screens. There were many smaller sets in the department stores with

prices ranging from 900 to twenty five hundred ninety dollars to two hundred fifty dollars at the current tourist exchange rate. Program. Output is not remarkable either in amount or quality. Considering that the major Russian cities have had television for almost 10 years. One of Moscow's two channels broadcasts most today is from 6:00 to 11:00 PM and the other one for even less Leningrad here. After seven years on the air offer an average of four hours of programmes per day with a bit more on Sunday. And a good half of the film. Both old and new. There also is live drama. Some of it excellent. Much music ranging from popular to symphonic. Many carefully planned programmes for children and youth and sports events from water polo to football. There are daily news

programs in Moscow and Leningrad and elsewhere. News broadcasts of horrors a non Russian speaking judge are pretty heavily weighted with communist officials shaking with visiting delegations and giving or receiving medals. There also was much agricultural and industrial material but little hard of the wire stuff such as one gets from any American station. For the most part television production is poor in spite of the fact that Russian filmmakers do some superbe work in preparing films for television. The television production crew does seem to be content most of the time with putting cameras before speakers or performers and leaving them there for a shot of a minute or longer. Yet here again the Russians can do it. I saw your Russian television drama with her. A Russian radio and television are good

or bad depending upon one's point of view. If broadcasting is mainly a propaganda arm of the state then the Russians do well if broadcasting is to be a source of uncensored information and if it is to provide unfettered intellectual leadership then it is doing badly. The fact is of course that Soviet broadcasting with the prevailing information theories of the USSR just as our broadcasting grows out of the freedom of expression concept which underlies our political system. No reasonable man would expect it to be otherwise. Radio and Television do not exist in vacuum. They are integral parts of the national culture in which they serve. That was the fourth of six reports on Russia prepared especially for an AB by Burton Paulo. The series grew out of Dr. Paul and his trip to the Soviet Union as a member of an American delegation which went to the USSR to

observe its radio and television activities. The program was recorded in London where Dr. Palmer was spending the year on a Ford Foundation grant studying European broadcasting companies of the scripts for these broadcasts are available upon request to this station. The fifth broadcast in the series will be a discussion of limitations on freedom of expression in the Soviet Union. This is the ne e b Radio Network.