THE SHORT WAVE TO EDUCATION

Professor Robert E. Rogers of M. I. T. has proposed to the Massachusetts State Legislature that it take action to establish and support a short-wave radio station from which educational programs would be broadcast under the direction of the State Board of Education. Professor Rogers asserts that the few educational programs now fostered by commercial stations are at best sporadic or punctuated with advertising. He claims that a state institution such as he suggests would cost little to maintain, and that talent could easily be secured for its programs.

At the time of its introduction, the radio was hailed as the greatest means for education and entertainment that the world had ever known. It was not long before advertising agencies discovered how to combine the two for their own benefit, with the result that radio programs are now merely high powered sales talks. Some European nations have taken over the control of a few stations in an effort to curb this prostitution of a potentially beneficial agency. But in the United States no governmental effort has been made to stamp out the vicious parasite, commercialization.

Professor Roger's proposition is therefore most significant. It would afford a splendid source of education for many, while to others it would offer welcome relief from the nasal intonation of advertising blurbs. But if the suggestion is adopted, great care must be taken lest it, too, become barren of worth. Its operation should be placed in the hands of a non-political board; its benefits should not be confined to the small minority who possess short-wave receivers; and programs should be so arranged as not to become stereotyped and unpalatable.

Opponents will dismiss the plan as too embryonic, but it is indicative of an attitude toward broadcasts which is shared by most radio listeners. It is only by such projects as this that commercial situations can be forced, by dwindling audiences to effect a much desired change in policy.