Sell-Out

The American system of commercial radio is no great bargain. While it saves listeners from some problems of government ownership, and provides them with programs at no direct cost, the actual price of this method is high. For salesmen are mainly interested in selling, not in quality, truthfulness, or public service. And a radio system based on the Big Sell is one long stream of advertising, broken up by bits of standardized "entertainment." Most of this is repetitious drivel at best, but commercial radio still spews forth eight hours of soap opera daily because such abominations are a cheap way to Sell. Somehow, people accept all this as the cost of "free" radio broadcasting, but recently the networks have raised the price. Radio has taken on aspects of political indoctrination as well.

Boston listeners, for example, now get forty-five minutes of heavily slanted right-wing political commentary daily during the popular evening news hour of 6 to 7:15 p.m. Two out of these three fifteen minute programs are given the straight label of "news"; only one--Fulton Lewis--gets the accurate title "commentary." And out of the three networks which handle these polemics, only one schedules any counter-commentary--and even that doesn't come until ten o'clock at night.

Considering the rest of the radio menu, this latest movement is like adding injury to insult. The networks, after all, are given access to public airwaves for their own financial gain. This grant implies some responsibility for balancing the political elements which they allow to buy time on the air. Even the lack of a willing sponsor is no excuse for not doing this, since the networks are quite capable of originating their own programs when necessary. But if commercial radio continues to evade such responsibilities, the price of its existence may soon be too high to pay.