The gentlemen who have preceded me have discussed the relation of radio to civic education largely from the point of view of the broadcaster. I shall confine myself to making some observations on this topic from the standpoint of the listener. I count myself as one of the unnamed millions who turn on the dial and listen to the great variety of programs which come over the air. In order to focus our attention, I shall confine my remarks to the You and Your Government series. The time has now arrived for an appraisal of this particular enterprise in order that the objects and procedure to be followed in the days which lie ahead may be founded on clearly ascertained policies which have their roots in experience. I have listened to most of the talks in the You and Your Government series from their inception. And I have been far removed from the many and complicated details which attend the broadcasting of a program of this character. All that I hear as I sit in my study are the voices of the announcer and the speakers. There is an objectivity about such an experience which all of you have felt. Voice inflection, the cadence of speech, the clarity or lack of clarity of the outline pursued in the talk, the substance of the remarks, and the amount of interest and thought which they evoke-all are weighed, almost unconsciously, by the listener. And if he disapproves, he has but to turn the dial to another program or shut off the radio altogether. The voice, to the radio listener, is to a certain extent removed from the personality of the broadcaster. In fact, the irony of the situation is simply this-that the very effect which the radio speaker desires to make upon the listener may not be realized at all. One factor which a broadcaster should keep in mind is that in a very real sense he is in a competitive enterprise. There is a great variety of programs on the air. Before the presentation of the You and Your Government address, the listener may have been regaled by a specious appeal, done in the non-sectional American accent, mixed with large doses of jazz, to buy a certain cigarette which one may inhale without becoming a social outcast or to listen to the latest quotations from the Chicago stockyards. And after the talk has gone off the air, the radio listener may be plunged into another medley of jazz, Mrs. Winchell's Walter, and the
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