Educational Radio Rides the Range

Abstract

To ANYONE traveling through the vast, seemingly uninhabited reaches of the states of Colorado and Wyoming the potential listening audience for the daily fare which comes over the radio would seem at first to be contemplative herds of Shorthorns and Herefords, ruminating over the most important crop of the area-grass. On second thought one could add sheep as welldirty-gray bands of them blocking the roads on the way to winter or summer pasture. In the entirety of the two states Denver is the only town that might lay claim to being a metropolis, its population being somewhat short of 500,000. Partly because of its isolation, it was this area that was chosen six years ago to become the center of a significant experiment in educational broadcasting. These hundreds of thousands of square miles of scattered farms and ranches, dry lands, mining towns, coal camps, and oil-shale mountains are served by nineteen radio stations, only five of them outside the city of Denver having any network affiliation. And yet there are in this region eleven colleges and universities, three junior colleges, and scores of civic and educational organizations which have something of value and interest to say to the radio audience. Here, then, was an untilled acreage ready for the plow. If radio could do the job in this area, then radio was truly a potent force in regional education. The answer lies in unimaginative figures compiled by the Radio Council for the period July, 1944-July, 1945. During these twelve months the Council, through its member organizations, broadcast 419 separate programs. Most of them were in turn rebroadcast by transcription on the stations outside Denver, to make a total of 2,139 broadcasts. Eighteen radio stations contributed free time for these programstime which if computed at commercial rates was worth $70,580. Scientific c oss-section listening surveys made from time to time over the period in which the Council has been in operation show that ratings are as high as those of many of the network programs which enjoy a comfortable Crosley; sometimes they have nosed out competing commercial shows broadcast at the same time in the same city. This success in an admittedly difficult aspect of education was due to: (i) the unique structure and organization of the Radio Council itself; (2) the isolated nature of the Rocky Mountain region; (3) the Council's willingness to experiment with new program techniques as well as to go in for window dressing and showmanship comparable to that of commercial radio; and (4) the co6peration of the radio stations, which encouraged in every way possible (including financially) an organization that could fill a noticeable gap in their programming. First, then, what is the Rocky Mountain Radio Council? Chartered as a