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     National Association of Educational Broadcasters Convention - Radio
    Business Meeting - Tape 2
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Now we turn to the deacon of Riverside Drive. And someone without whom I know I speak not only for myself. But for John and for Bob and for all of us who've been directly concerned. I've lost a few more hairs since September 1st but not because of this guy. None of this could have been done without the. Inspirational leadership. Of Jack Summerfield the chairman of the NPR board. You know it wasn't so long ago. About a year and a half ago. When we were all working puls side. At the nationwide in at the IAEA our team meeting planning what we thought might be up. Blue sky seminar dealing with the future of educational radio. And there are about six of us sitting there some of us were in bathing suits. Most of us were not Jack. In any event all of us and no one believes this my wife doesn't believe this to this day. But it's true. All of us were working for four days on this
problem and addressed ourselves to it. And the guy who was toughest to convince. That there was a future for educational radio that something like and any arc could really happen. Was the guy who has really made it possible. He played devil's advocate with us and I know with himself during that period. He raised not only the questions that you people have been asking us and writing us about but many many more. And so for him I know this has been a very trying period. I don't know how WRVA R has managed to hold on to him or he did it because any art has put more pressure on this guy in terms of time. Than any other single thing. And yet it's because of the kind of. Determination. And belief to borrow Bill Kalends phrase and you're going to hear more about that before the afternoon is over I promise you. It's because of that that I think any
art is off to a flying start. And at this point I think we're about ready to find out what all of this is really all about. Is it just a matter of finding out who pays what to receive what. Why are we any are. What is any are. And what do we hope to do about it all. So with this kind of a philosophic base and I assure you and the kind words that I may have attempted to say. Are strictly in the world of understatement. It is my joy to introduce. The chief brand in the face of any art Jackson review. Thank you. And I'm a little embarrassed by the introduction because I'm beginning to feel with Bill Kalen that the problem with educational radio today is that a step a smile on the face of its
practitioners must generally be attributed to can conditioned reflex rather than mirth. But what I'm supposed to do sounds impossible. It certainly does to me is in less than 10 minutes. Provide a capsule Chronicle. And an historical perspective for the development of national educational radio. And if we were to go back only to the conference on. The future of educational radio held at the University of Chicago last January out of which grew this blueprint for. That whole educational radio. If you haven't. Gotten a copy of this document it's one that's worth. Your time and security. But if we only went back to that point it would allow us about 1 minute per month. If we went back before that we begin to be duplicating Harel Hills history the NE be optical in 1054 and since
1954. The one that Wayne Alpert is working on his doctoral dissertation Peabody college in Nashville is Wayne here now. He is at registered at the convention. You should look for his name tag Wayne Alford because he's doing some taped interviews. Would like very much to do it with some of you old timers in particular in order to provide the basis for his thesis. So asking me Jerry to provide a chronicle of. Of educational radio in 10 minutes is a little like. Albert Schweitzer asking a pygmy inturn to describe life inside Africa while removing John Gunther's gallbladder. Almost. Almost every history of American radio begins with KDKA and Harding Cox election returns I don't have to tell you that. I suppose every account of educational radio is passed should begin with the University of Wisconsin and its hearty offspring WAGA. Those call letters as you may not know are no accident. After the University looked at what
it had spawned at about 1990. One administration official is reported to have turned to CM Jan ski and HB McCarty and the others and exclaimed Why not. But you know me a lot. Somewhere between the time that Carwin sounded his notes of triumph and size Siegel and to call a great loss most in Burton Paul and Alan Miller and Jim Miles and all the others founded the n. A B network and not so long after Orson Welles had invaded Mars with men for mercury. There came another way of exploring the ether. Well with one deep whiff in their nostrils many of radio's keenest craftsman including a number of the above. Became entranced. If not is fixated. Almost before Frank Stanton could finish his doctorate. Bob Underwood. Bob Underwood found himself peeling bandaids off of magnetic tapes which were returned I'd say. Wrapped in vituperation about the network's
poor technical standards. But let's face it fellas and girls network radio was soon to sing its one song of soups and soaps. It seemed as if Sarnoff it barely made corporal and already inner sanctum had become sacrosanct on. A brighter day was sounding more like radio faces life against the storm would soon become second fave. While one man's family would give way shortly to every man for himself. As national sponsors turn to the new medium local spot sales soared. The best announcers in the business were signed to sell Saint Joseph aspirin for children with that natural r Inge flavor. OK. But. The man on the street was dragged indoors to rip and read about the latest rape case in a moment a murder but first another traffic injury brought to you by Vicks vapor rub. Every FCC examiners dream come true. I'm soon to be ushered in. It was the era of local radio by now regarded regarded by
better broadcast councils and network radio time salesmen alike as the era with the aura of horror. But where oh where HP McCarty was our little band of educational radio warriors and their great white fathers the state legislators the deans the controllers and vice presidents. They were making ready not to like what they were going to see by slashing the budgets for what they no longer wanted to hear. And some even turning in their licenses a few still taking them out without the budget to support them and most of them staying alive but never lively. By now it had become fashionable to like on the bus. But by a brat's box for the campus crew. Heaven forbid it sounded vulgar. Anyway when the popular media had to be discussed one could always quote the philosophical injunctions and educational epithets of Alfred North Whitehead who sat Mrs. Legion on foundation row and
whose erudition on our present condition must be due at least in part to the fact that he neither saw nor heard a single educational broadcast. In brief the priesthood of educational radio like their Roman counterparts in the commercial world soon realized they were predestined to a life short on viaticum and long on sound have Catacomb as Radio Radio budget shrank. So when our personnel and often our imagination and ingenuity more out of frustration and demoralisation than necessity where good ideas remained creative courage had often given way to make room for canned lectures or news ticker and the top 40 classics though barely an infant educational radio was about to develop a language all its own all right. No one else could claim it. Not even Time magazine. It's rhetoric and timbre was so distinctive. We should characterize it for what it truly was an educational radio genre indeed the idiom of tedium. Clearly
to any student of read of the Radio Renaissance educational radio has passed through at least three great ages. The first was the age of a colony extending from about one thousand one thousand to one thousand thirty nine roughly from one war to the next and encompassing several minor phases beginning with a regularity eliding with impropriety and finally lapsing into sterility. The second great age almost the Golden Age was the age of euphony lasting through the 40s for the most part though in colder climes where glaciers move more slowly even into the 50s. There are vestiges even now in the form of euphoria nostalgia and even occasionally pandemonium. The third age you know well for we are just putting it behind us. The age of melancholy with its sub periods inertia senility and imbecility. But beyond the pitfalls and promises of yesteryear what remain. It's one of the hopes and aspirations of today the
dreams and challenges of tomorrow. Whether our fourth grade age is truly the golden age of educational radio. No one can say. Perhaps it is better not to even try to predict it merely to work. Is it likely to be more than the age of stary often and certainly it is not for radio the age of philanthropy. Perhaps it will simply be the age of catastrophe. For my own part I submit there are genuine and heartening signs that we are capable of transcending the level which seems to be our lot. Some time in the past year or two with a radio with a capital R has been rediscovered. At least it's being widely reconsidered and remembered and renewed and revitalized and reemphasize and regenerated and recreated and even when we speak of the contemporary radio revival or rebirth or even radio
resuscitated or reincarnated or resurrected. We're saying more in humor and in fact. About the life of the media than its demise. We asked. No flexing of muscles no mere recitation of radio's advantages over other media but simply a re-examination of our educational objectives. And then on the part of administrators civic groups and foundations on the part of every interested citizen a close scrutiny of radio's potential role in achieving our national goals. We predict an early end for the breast beating and self proclamations of the pathological partisan for the days of radio's inferiority complex and set of second class citizenship no longer must come to an end. They are coming to an end soon they will be gone forever. And radio will once again assume a significant role in the family of mass communications the changing of the guard has begun.
Responsible artisans able craftsman. Even some experienced professionals are finding their way into radio or back into radio. What a source of encouragement. What a fresh reservoir of skills has become ours now that the period is past when imaginative strong personnel were leaving radio our work on attracted to it mimicry is being replaced by creativity ardor is being overcome by candor artifice by experimentation and zeal by genuine vitality. The self-appointed guardians of conformity no longer rule the airwaves. They have proved unworthy adversaries in communications as well as politics. For those among us who dare express bold ideas in untried formats you and I and the anybody hyphen any are are the beneficiaries not the benefactor. In little more than six months after the
Washington conference on radio networking supported by the now defunct E.R. in the educational communication system was spawned in barely nine months since the NE B conference on the future of educational radio any R has not only become a reality with all of the problems and growing pains of the newborn but has assembled an extraordinarily gifted staff. Their talents are diverse never perverse. They are high flying but never high flown. They display ample thrust with no excess of bombast and I can assure you they know more about circumspection than genuflection. But most of all they have the spark of humanity and you will discover if you haven't yet. That they are truly dedicated to making any are the most vital and professional force in educational broadcasting today. Not out of any mere ambition but out of sheer commitment. Frankly I am proud and I speak as well for the entire radio board to
consider ourselves members of the NEA our team. This team is chosen as as its touchstone the belief that radio need no longer remain the Appalachian of educational communications the bedrock of any art is a vigorous and spirited membership a flourishing network and a lively dynamic programme service. All of these within not outside an environment of mature professional Parenthood on the part of an APB. With these both as our strength and our goals we have adopted a declaration of. We have adopted not a declaration of independence but a declaration of purpose and I shall conclude by submitting for your consideration therefore not the articles of secession but simply a first draft of a bill of rights for educational radio. We believe that we as educational broadcasters own no duty to individual to any individual group our institutional authority above and
beyond our obligation to explore our natural environment our social setting and our spiritual destiny that the fulfillment of our declaration of purpose requires our freedom of expression and maturity in the use of radio as a national resource that is guardians of this public trust. We must in the face of controversy and criticism ensure that even unpopular ideas are heard and that responsible though dissident minorities are presented regularly and fairly. That as practitioners in the arts sciences and professions we shall express our perceptions with all the truth accuracy and imagination within our special gifts and capacities that any interference by politicians of any ilk is anathema in a free industry. That our understanding of the significance of our work carries with it an unreservedly responsible and discriminating use of the radio medium and a residual concern for national and
international audiences beyond our own. That our province is the realm of ideas and our sphere encompasses the universe of knowledge and the multiplicity of issues which confront. And challenge contemporary man. That is arbiters of social change purveyors of instruction. And agents of cultural development which will safeguard our ultimate responsibility for the fullest and most effective use of educational radio. Thus. We simply acknowledge our responsibility as human beings with a professional Quest whose aims are excellence in our endeavor. Service to our fellow man. The realization of self. And within our own lives. As for those who live after us a betterment of the human condition. The AN A. Thank you Jack. After having heard so many excellent speakers this morning
and Bill Cale and at lunch. I thought we had reached the peak of expression and ideas today but I was wrong. I'm going to address myself very briefly to you now. In the form of up a very brief progress report on any Our specific activities since September 1st. A lot of this will be. Just a brief review for many of you those of you particularly who have been receiving our memos to managers regularly and I'd like to say a couple of things which I hope will bring into focus in a very specific way. The business at hand at this business session today. It wasn't completely an accident. That next to my name under the reports in the business section we listed the cloud in the silver lining. You know when we dreamed up this Indian motif our original temptation was to come in here with a very fancy slide presentation and have a mushroom cloud show on
and ask ourselves Is this what is about to happen. I think the only cloud that we really have. Is the cloud that stops us all from seeing really what's right in front of us and what has been right in front of us for a long time. I really feel that I must address myself to the one thing that I do believe in and I don't know if it's a silver lining. But there is something beyond that cloud and I think we are finding so many of these silver linings there. That it's going to become a question of which priorities. In a nine day week we can address ourselves to first. In our Memo to managers number one dated September 8th we began by saying quote Any R is a going concern. Well little did I know then how true that statement would be. For I tell you here and now that these two months. Have been the most exciting busy frenetic days for me personally the most challenging period I have ever seen.
Chauvinism notwithstanding. I'm more convinced now than ever before. That radio indeed has a right to dream of a fruitful future. Namely the development of a vital national public service. Second to none. Ne r is on its way toward making that dream a reality. But as we all know. And that's the purpose of this business session. Educational broadcasters cannot live by dreams alone. Particularly since they must translate those dreams into concrete terms into tangible benefits if you will in order to make sure they have a future. So again we address ourselves to the inevitable questions. What are we doing on your behalf. What do you get for your money. What can you tell your administration. Well we'd like to review with you first of all. Some of our activities today. And perhaps suggest some of the main areas of policy concern to which we hope to
address ourselves on your behalf. As a as national educational radio. First and foremost of course. Is the growing expanding programme service which Bob Underwood in very positive terms outlined for you just a few moments ago. You know Bill Harley mentioned a number of challenges that he addressed himself to in January. And we could take as a text of many of our top priorities right now some of the the key points in Bill's remarks. First you'll recall that Bill reminded us that it's about time that radio people stopped apologizing for radio and for themselves. Well I think if you have read the material that we have been sending out and are aware of some of the special programs we've already begun feeding into our network service and all of the other ongoing activities like having the chutzpah to give you three weeks to come up with the best ideas and creative radio production and insist and
insist we did that October 10th would be a deadline. So that on the evening of the NAACP banquet tomorrow night we are going to announce five of the most exciting programs that we can help get produced for all of us during this coming year. And I can tell you that we have received. Many exciting proposals many more than I had hoped possibly to expect particularly with such short notice. Bill Kalen said at lunch today. That we have to have faith. He said that we have to believe. That the piece of paper was not a piece of paper but a tree. I'd like to carry it one step further. And say that if you believe and see and know. That it is a tree. A tree has branches. There are members of that family. And in order for any art to succeed it is not going to succeed as a unilateral
operation. Is a two way street. It means involvement means involvement on this side of the podium and on that side of the podium. It means that you must be involved and I mean involved all the way. You've already heard from John. A review of our first five year plan if you will to begin the long range attack on radio research. It was very heartening to me indeed yesterday when Tom Clements. Addressed himself to the opportunities under NDA Title 7 that we did have an opportunity to go into some detail on some of our research ideas. Quite a few people have come to me since then and have been very very interested in the depth of the concern shown even there and I tell you we have barely scratched the surface we haven't had the physical time to develop these beyond this informal memorandum stage. But I can tell you off the record that we have already been encouraged by us so we not only to develop these ideas fully.
But I've been encouraged to believe that this is something they have been waiting for for a very long time because indeed there have been few radio research proposals. We do have a future place in that sun as well and it is already underway. To answer Bill's second challenge. Third. The problem of course of dissemination of information. We're beginning to do this now as you well know through our immediate attack. Via our memos to managers press releases and a number of other devices that we have used will use to let you know what is going on but you must help us not only by letting us know some of the things that you are doing or want done. For instance John we're going to the Voice of America this morning suggested ways and means in which the NSA be ne our stations could and should be cooperating with the Voice of America. I submit that one of the ways in which we can help John Wigan and John will quicken can help us. Is to disseminate this information
above and beyond the few of us we happy few. At the convention. There are many others who are not here and we will continue to let you know about these and reiterate them and act as a liaison in the clearing house. But it goes beyond that. I was at the music directors conference of Minneapolis a few weeks ago. And I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that more than 50 percent of the music directors there. Had never seen any of our memos to managers did not know any of the things that were going on. Why. Because most of you in this room are busy administrators. You barely have a chance to read the memos as they come to you. It is a very difficult thing an impossible thing for me to stand here and have the unmitigated gall to plead and I am not pleading I am insisting you must communicate what is going on in any art with your people. Let them know what's going on. Let them know how they can become a part of it. Your
program directors your music people your producers. They've got ideas lots of them. We know that because we've been getting this in the last few weeks through the production grant proposals. We've already received some ideas that will blossom into many other things to come particularly if and when and believe me it will be when and not if for the first time we have a staff working full time at the NABJ headquarters on behalf of radio. We must and will within human limitations find the time and the ways and the places to do something about getting outside funding for radio projects program projects a Quitman needs and God knows the equipment needs of our network. Are very pressing indeed and have been for some time. We must do something about a long range financial base for educational radio and we mean to do something about it. But it will not happen overnight. We are not quite two months old Believe it or
not I can't believe it it seems like I have lived with any r all my life and it's a good feeling. I have. Only one regret. I don't see my wife and children very often. And that's the only regret. I don't even regret losing some sleep because in those hours. Not insomnia. But in those hours where the telephone does not ring and I do not disturb John and John doesn't disturb me and all the rest of it. Ideas come and then the next morning when John comes to the office when he's not on the road for recess and he sits at his desk and begins untangling the letters from all of you people out there saying What the devil is this all about. I come running in and say John I had a great idea at 4 am. And this is part of what is going on. It is intangible. It is a sort of thing. I hope that Bill Kalen was getting out at lunch today. It is a disease. And we hope to do something about making this disease a
contagion. And then an epidemic it will mean it must mean if any are is to survive. To grow to prosper. Your involvement. It cannot mean a wait and see attitude out in left field because if you do that any are will not be around a year from now for you to wait and see anything. I don't think we'll be here a year from now one a year. Not really sure we can continue with a tape network. We started very modestly in 1950 with a bicycle network. I know because one of my programs WNYC was one of the first ones on there. But we've come a long way since then. We've got a long way to go but we're on the road. I don't think that national educational radio is meant to be an exclusive club. But. We have to do something about the problem of identity. Identity first to ourselves then among ourselves and
then with the outside world. We must first understand who we are. The fact that we do exist. And what we are talking about by calling ourselves national educational radio. Is Calling Attention. I hope eventually to a fact today it is a dream. Today it is a vision. But what it is is a vision and a dream leading towards the reality of a going a healthy vital club certainly not an exclusive club. NPR's doors are open not only to radio people. But we hope. Through our involvement with people in television. With people in other areas of education. We hope to take our rightful place among all of the media of communication. We need to do it and we need to do it in an articulate way. We can't do it by sitting down and saying well we don't have the money. Of course we don't have the money. But if we take that attitude will never happen money. We can't say we don't have the time.
I assure you that the majority of the production grant proposals that will be announced at tomorrow night's banquet. I happen to know this for a fact because I talked with virtually every one of those people both before the convention and during this convention. Almost all of the ones that will be announced and many of the others that unfortunately we do not have been on enough money for that will not be announced almost in every case. If they took the attitude that we dont have the time that we don't have the money that we don't have the staff that we've got problems in our own shop. They would have never been written they would have never been developed they would have never been submitted there would be no production grant program. We can only help you if you will help yourselves. This is but a beginning. A very modest beginning indeed but we hope a beginning in the right direction. What we're talking about really is a range of service.
A belief yes. And this is what NPR is all about. This is why we're taking steps towards doing something about. Recognition of radio as a unique medium of communication. We must no longer be in a position it seems to me. Where our Canadian neighbors and our British neighbors who for many many years have recognized the uniqueness of radio as a medium of communication and education. Any name you want to give it entertainment. I don't care what it is. They know that radio is something special. Some of us who have lived with the radio the better part of our lives know it and we believe it and somehow it has been difficult. Through splinter groups through diffusion. Through some confusion. The advent of the TV. Don't be angry about television it's here. It's a wonderful medium of communication. Don't use it as an excuse to lie down and die. I don't like the idea of being a
vegetable and I don't think you do either. I think radio has a great deal to say. I don't think we've said it. I do think we've begun to say. And it isn't a question of going back to the Green Hornet and the Lone Ranger is Jack Wilson pointed out this morning. It isn't a question of that at all. It isn't a question of nostalgia. It's a question of finding out who we are and what we are and then coming to grips with it. I would say then. In terms of this kind of base. That the seeds have indeed been planted. And the Lord knows there's been plenty of fertilizer been spread around. Now I say it's time for us to do something about reaping the harvest. And along those lines I'm going to call your attention very briefly. In outline form. To some of the things we've already called to your attention via the memo to managers. But I want to focus in on some of these because as you began asking us
questions about what is NPR who is ANY our what does it cost what are we getting for it. These are some of the things we're talking about. These are some of the specifics we can and will be doing things about. The production grant program you already know about. The long range of time allocation study. You know how bureaucracies are. Bill Harley at the Regent three meeting last March in Bloomington put it very well when he said that the negotiations just to get the one contract for easy yes was a classic and bureaucratic immobility. There has been in the hands of the Office of Education and believe me they want to help radio do research but they are part of a tradition bound bureaucracy it takes time. The paperwork there is monumental. Both in quantity and quality I assure you. The FM allocation study memorandum has been before them for quite some time. We hope to see if we can do something about moving it from one desk to another very shortly. In the area of
special network programs and projects. We mentioned to you as recently as our as long ago I should say as our Memo to managers number one September 8th eight days after any are officially opened its office. That negotiations are underway to require a special bonus programs in the area public affairs and so on. Well as I mentioned to those of you who were there this morning it was no excuse. It was No. Accident that Bert Cullen of W.A. Westinghouse New York. Was part of that panel. He wasn't there only because he's a good speaker and had some darned good ideas in his programs he's there because those programs and programs like it are going to be made available to any are. I have asked people like Bert Collin and Bill Cale and others and other organizations and commercial broadcasting and elsewhere if it is so easy to make these available. Why then have they not been made available and their answer is a legitimate one.
We have not had a staff a full time staff who's been in a position to do something about this on an everyday basis. They say simply. Let's sit down and talk. Ask us. We want to be a part of this too and they do and they will and we will have these programs. We will have some of them perhaps as early as this winter. We may even throw a special or two in to make Bob's hairs even thinner before the end of this quarter. That's not a threat or a promise Bob but it's just maybe possible. Definitely the next quarter in any event. I also mentioned in the first memo to managers we said that there were two interesting and timely program projects to be funded by outside sources and we alluded you know to top scientist in a series of documentaries we had to use this sort of thing because we didn't know how soon the contractual arrangements would be made. Well this week for those of you who were at the lunch you now know this. We have. Been given a contract by the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute for the production of a series of
13 1/2 hour documentaries in cancer research featuring the leading cancer scientists in the country. Again bureaucratically speaking I wish I could say to you they will be ready 13 weeks from now. They will not be ready 13 weeks from now. Not because we want it that way but that's the way they work over there it's going to take a year. Which may mean more than a year. So don't ask us six months from now where those programs are promised us in cancer research. The only answer we can and will give you is that they are in production and they will be in production. The other one that we alluded to in that first memo is still in the early negotiation stage we have. A very interested NATO's organization in Paris that wants to see the not A but the authoritative series on the toe done by any R.. And they not only want to but are helping us through letters and personal
contacts to find the appropriate outside private source. To give us enough money to get this done. They have authoritative unique materials that do not exist anywhere else in the world. NATO's story has been confused as we all know in recent months. Politics notwithstanding it is certainly a misunderstood story in many ways and it's an important one in any event. And it's the kind of series it seems to me that we should be addressing ourselves to. And we're going to try to see if we can get this one going very shortly. We have been we've had preliminary negotiations with. An industrial group and if they are not the right ones we will move on to the appropriate one but move on we shall. The problem of funding for radio we've already alluded to. We intend. To do what we can in this area. This may mean in some cases finding a foundation type angel to underwrite a specific
program series. It may mean a foundation type angel or other it will take any kind of angel. What we need is not only financial help. It's really a statement of faith that it isn't only educational television that it isn't only books that radio has something to say in the educational spectrum. And we need this kind of help if we're going to do a big impressive important job. Many of these things can be done with. Small amounts of money but we're already taxing you people beyond not only representation but beyond your budgetary limitations. How far can this go indeed. We agree with you. We're going to try and do something about lessening that load and at the same time to do something about firing up the possibilities of developing. Impressive sensitive imaginative programs programs that say. With great affirmation. But Bill came and said to us I believe I have faith. There is something here
and we're going to try to do this but it's going to take some time. Foundations do not hand over money newspapers stories to the contrary overnight. Some of this takes a great deal of. Preliminary discussion and cultivation and so on. You've got to have a certain amount of patience and fortitude as my favorite mayor used to say. We know now a little bit more about the future of educational networking through the report on D.C.'s. We don't know exactly how it's going to turn out because again we have just begun to over turn the stones here. But we do know this that it is opening up an exciting era. These are the live networking. It is true that Bob has developed a fast track distribution system a miraculous one believe me John and I were out in their band. Shortly after any are opened its offices and what Underwood and those duplicate operators do with that antiquated equipment in a crowded space is literally unbelievable. How many of you in this
room have actually seen the Urbana operation. May I ask for a show of hands. Do I exaggerate Bert cliff. ALICE. Or is it an understatement perhaps the understatement of the year. How they are able to do this with that kind of situation is beyond me. Can you imagine what would happen if we were able to get him some modern equipment. And not the antiquated slaves that they've got. If we were able to give them perhaps do something about even better quarters Bob would lose all his hair. In any event. Moving on one of our concerns is in the area of legislation. We are in Washington and we will be working closely both with the parent organization because of the copyright. And this is an important area. You will be hearing more about this. We hope to be developing an expertise summary about not only the old A new law but also we're going to set up a two way communication link here the sort of thing I've been thrown at you now that you have to get
involved and we hope very shortly to be getting into this in a very real way. The copyright problem is not only a knotty one it is one that may affect every educational radio station in this country and we don't have very much time to investigate and do something about it. We're also concerned not only with legislative and incidentally before I leave the legislative area I want to say one thing about this. Completely unsolicited about a month ago I got a call from someone fairly well placed in the legislative sun within the bureaucracy in Washington who said completely unsolicited. Do you have any ideas about what radio might like he in terms of legislation not just TV. Well of course this was music to my ears. To my knowledge this was the first time that a question had come from such a source in Washington. Perhaps ever certainly in many many years. The FCC Of course we are we will be working with directly and all the
time not only in terms of problems like the AM FM duplication problem which is before us now. We are hoping to hear from those of you who have not yet responded to our October 1st bulletin on the problem of AM FM duplication. That's just one sample. We hope to be working closely with you. In terms of your problems as they relate to the FCC the N A B through great. Great attempts at. Educating the FCC staff and they have done that that's what they've done they've educated the staff they've been working overtime on this. There is a rapport over there that is remarkable. I can say this because I've only been in Washington since March. I may forget this six months from now but right now I can tell you that the NABC staff. Has done a remarkable job of making the FCC see some of what it is we're concerned with and they are trying to help us in every way possible. Well these are some of the things that we're doing. I want to. Mention one
specific thing in terms of some of these timely programs. This program the news from Dallas and those of you who haven't ordered it Bob will shoot me for this. Ought to still order it. Fred finally a producer of WUOM a station I've heard of because I spent eight years there sent me a letter and said you know we had a guy from the Foreign Service here recently in the studios of WUOM and he talked about some of the experiences he had overseas last November 22nd it was such a poignant moving story. I thought maybe you ought to know about it. Maybe there is a documentary here if you got others like this is there something for this for any are. We contacted John Lewis has done a lot of freelance work for us and asked him specifically to interview as many such people in the Foreign Service and elsewhere that he could round up in Washington. We gave him. Practically no money and certainly no time. And asked him to address himself to a very few questions. John's voice is not heard really in the context of this program
but to record what these people experienced what they saw both an on an official and a human level. He got something like 30 interviews from every continent of the world. The State Department not only cooperated they created miracles for us. It can be done all you have to do is think about the idea and then ask and then do something about it. And then Ed Burrows a w o m and his very fine staff. Are producing this program and Bob I assure you because it is here. He will produce it won't you Ed and it will be in Bob's hands on November 1st and you will have it for broadcast from November 15th on. We pick November 15th because it's the 22nd happens to be a Sunday we want to give you a little flexibility. Ed. Brought up some excerpts that will be included in that program and I have heard them and Bob's heard them and Jack has heard them and John has heard them. And I can tell
you that some of that material is pretty powerful stuff. Now even without the live network we are now in a situation where we can no longer say way out all we can't do timely stuff. I spoke with Steve old the other night at the beer bust before I got bust on the head again on solicited. And Steve and I were talking about it. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a live network and we could feed in some timely programs because Jerry he said we are producing maybe the best show we've done in years in Flint for in-school broadcasting use. And it's a timely news program and it's well produced and isn't it a shame that we can't do something about it and I said why not when do you produce it. Well he said we finish it Thursday afternoon I said fine. What is to prevent a Steve from airmail special ing it to Underwood Underwood's turning gray. He hasn't heard this yet.
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Program
National Association of Educational Broadcasters Convention - Radio Business Meeting - Tape 2
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-hh6c6k85
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Description
Description
No description available
Topics
Environment
Public Affairs
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:47:00
Credits
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 4335 (University of Maryland)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:30:00?
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Citations
Chicago: “ National Association of Educational Broadcasters Convention - Radio Business Meeting - Tape 2 ,” University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-hh6c6k85.
MLA: “ National Association of Educational Broadcasters Convention - Radio Business Meeting - Tape 2 .” University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-hh6c6k85>.
APA: National Association of Educational Broadcasters Convention - Radio Business Meeting - Tape 2 . Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-hh6c6k85