Press-Radio Relations and the Emergence of Network, Commercial Broadcasting in the United States, 1930–1935

Notes

• See, for example Sanders Keith P. The collapse of the press-radio news bureau Journal of Broadcasting 1968 12 549 552 Herbert Moore (1967) The news war in the air, Journalism Quarterly, 44 (Autumn), pp. 43–54; George E. Lott (1970) The press-radio wars of the 1930s, Journal of Broadcasting, 14 (Summer), pp. 275–280.
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• Radio survey public business, says Dill, Editor & Publisher, August 25, 1934, p. 6; Foreign notes of the year, in The BBC Year-Book 1934 The British Broadcasting Corporation London 1935 283 283
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• Leiss , William , Kline , Stephen and Jhally , Sut . 1986 . Social Communication in Advertising , 78 – 78 . New York : Metheun . see also Asa Briggs (1961) The Birth of Broadcasting (London, Oxford University Press, 1961), pp. 172–175, 302–304; R. H. Coase (1950) British Broadcasting: A Study in Monopoly (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), pp. 103–116, 192–193. Regarding Canada, see Frank W. Peers (1969) The Politics of Canadian Broadcasting 1920–1951, p. 77 (Toronto, University of Toronto Press).
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• Pollard , James E. 1934 . “ Newspaper publicity for radio programs ” . In Education on the Air: Fifth Yearbook of the Institute for Education by Radio , Edited by: MacLatchy , Josephine H. 216 – 216 . Columbus : Ohio State University . [Hereafter Education on the Air, 1934]
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• See Spalding John W. 1928: Radio becomes a mass advertising medium Journal of Broadcasting 1963–64 8 31 44 (Winter) Regarding the status of educational broadcasters, see S. E. Frost (1937) Education's Own Stations, p. 4 (Chicago, University of Chicago Press), Federal Communications Commission (1935) Digest of Hearings, Federal Communications Commission Broadcast Division, under Sec. 307(c) of “The Communications Act of 1934” October 1–20, November 7–12, 1934, pp. 180–249 (Washington DC, Federal Communications Commission). Regarding newspaper ownership, see Christopher H. Sterling (1969) Newspaper ownership of broadcasting stations, 1920–68, Journalism Quarterly, 46, pp. 227–236, 254.
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• Volkening , Henry . 1930 . Abuses of radio broadcasting . Current History , 33 : 396 – 400 .
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• For an overview of this chapter of US communication history, see McChesney Robert W. The battle for the U.S. airwaves, 1928–1935 Journal of Communication 1990 40 29 57 For discussions of some of the key elements of this opposition movement, see Robert W. McChesney (1988) Constant retreat: the american civil liberties union and the debate over the meaning of free speech for radio broadcasting in the 1930s, in Stephen A. Smith (Ed.), Free Speech Yearbook, Volume 26, 1987, (Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press); Nathan Godfried (1987) The origins of Labor Radio: WCFL, the ‘Voice of Labor’, 1925–1928, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 7, pp. 143–159; Eugene E. Leach (1983), Tuning Out Education; The Cooperation Doctrine in Radio, 1922–38 (Washington D.C., Current); Robert W. McChesney (1987) Crusade against mammon: Father Harney, WLWL, and the debate over radio in the 1930s, Journalism History, 14, pp. 118–130. For some relatively accessible examples of this criticism, see American Civil Liberties Union (1934) Radio Censorship: Proposals for a Federal Investigation (New York, American Civil Liberties Union); Jerome Davis (1935) Capitalism and Its Culture (New York, Farrar and Rinehart); William A. Orton (1933) America in Search of Culture (Boston, Little, Brown & Company); James Rorty (1934) Order on the Air! (New York, The John Day Company).
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• Editors of Magazine Broadcasting The First 50 Years of Broadcasting Broadcasting Publications, Inc. Washington DC 1982 2 2 Report of the Radio Committee, American Newspaper Publishers Association Bulletin, No. 5856, May 6, 1931, p. 179; Results of Radio Questionnaire, American Newspaper Publishers Association Bulletin, No. 5848, April 9, 1931, p. 113; Duel W. Patch (1931) Radio competition with newspapers, Editorial Research Reports, 1, pp. 331–347.
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• Mann Robert S. After all, why radio advertising? Editor & Publisher June 1931 12 12 6 Cited in Education by Radio, June 4, 1931, pp. 63–64; A.N.P.A. fails to renew radio attack, california body urges european system, Broadcasting, December 1, 1931, p. 8; Want government ownership, Broadcasters' News Bulletin, November 28, 1931.
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• Committee on radio appointed American Newspaper Publishers Association Bulletin May 1923 4771 362 362 10 Report of the committee on radio, American Newspaper Publishers Association Bulletin, No. 5374, May 5, 1927, p. 285.
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• Asserts radio ‘ads’ disgust listeners New York Times 1931 January 14 And now for the facts, Broadcasters' News Bulletin, April 4, 1931; Broadcasting and newspapers, Broadcasters' News Bulletin, April 25, 1931; ANPA Bulletin, No. 5856, May 6, 1931, p. 209.
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• See First 50 Years, p. 2 Ventura crusader now asks editors to pay for anti-radio screeds Broadcasting 1933 August 47 47 15 An unholy alliance, Broadcasting, February 1, 1932, p. 16.
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• H. O. Davis to H. L. Williamson Box 5, Folger 65, Ventura Free Press, National Broadcasting Company Manuscripts, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, WI [Hereafter NBC MSS] 1931 September 25
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• A vicious fight against broadcasting Broadcasting 1931 December 10 10 1 M. H. Aylesworth to George Harris, October 24, 1931, M. H. Aylesworth to H. L. Williamson, October 6, 1931, Box 5, Folder 65, Ventura Free Press, NBC MSS.
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• Broadcasting under attack Broadcasters' News Bulletin 1931 April 11 M. H. Aylesworth to Karl Bickel, March 26, 1932, Box 114, Folder 69, United Press Association, 1932, NBC MSS.
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• Facts prove Editor & Publisher wrong in conclusions on radio advertising Broadcasting June 1934 14 Merlin Hall Aylesworth (1930) National Broadcasting, In Martin Codel (Ed.) Radio and Its Future, (New York; Harper & Brothers); Stephen Lacy (1987) The effect of growth of radio on newspaper competition, 1929–1948, Journalism Quarterly, 64, pp. 775–781.
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• Bellows answers critics Broadcasters' News Bulletin 1931 February 28 Virgil Evans (1932) Let's make it fifty-fifty, Broadcasting, February 1, p. 24.
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• Scuffler Harry K. Why radio broadcasting is not a public utility service Public Utilities Fortnightly January 1933 7 44 44 8 Ruin of radio broadcasting, Nation's Business, March 1932, pp. 13–14; Radio threat concerns press, says Don Gilman, Broadcasting, February 15, 1932, p. 8.
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• Kaltenborn , H. V. 1934 . Radio Bows to the Press 1 – 1 . New York “‘Too Brief to Turn Out’,” Broadcasters' News Bulletin, April 18, 1931.
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• Federal Radio Commission . 1932 . Commercial Radio Advertising , 158 – 160 . Washington DC : United States Government Printing Office . Caleb Johnson (1932) Newspapers share radio revenues, Broadcasting, May 15, p. 17; NBC acquires WMAQ stock, Broadcasters' News Bulletin, August 29, 1931; Hedges pleads for stability, Broadcasters' News Bulletin, June 20, 1931.
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• Radio and the press Broadcasting 1931 November 18 18 15 Welcome press inquiry, Broadcasting, December 1, 1932, p. 18; Sees radio as supplement to press, American Newspaper Publishers Association Bulletin, No. 6054, December 22, 1932, p. 516.
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• Much of this correspondence is in Box 5, Folder 65, Ventura Free Press and Box 15, Folder 5, Ventura Free Press, NBC MSS. See also State radio committees appointed American Newspaper Publishers Association Bulletin November 1932 6045 467 469 18
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• Elzy Roberts quits press radio post Broadcasting 1932 May 17 17 15 Radio vs. newspapers, Business Week, December 21, 1932, p. 12.
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• Radio and circulation American Newspaper Publishers Association Bulletin October 1932 6033 427 427 28 Alfred McClung Lee (1937) The Daily Newspaper in America p. 562 (New York; The Macmillan Company); T. R. Carskadon (1936) The press-radio war, The New Republic, March 11, p. 133.
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• Harris , E. H. 1933 . Radio, The Newspapers and the Public , 10 – 11 . Nashville : Southern School of Printing . Editors urge rigid radio control, NAB Reports, June 10, 1933, p. 63.
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• A.P. and A.N.P.A. declare war on radio Broadcasting 1933 May 5 5 1 Five point program urged on radio, Editor & Publisher, April 29, 1933, pp. 14, 74; Barnet Charles Shapiro (1935) The press, the radio and the law, Air Law Review, 4, p. 133; Llewellyn White (1947) The American Radio, p. 46 (Chicago; University of Chicago Press).
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• Report of radio committee, American newspaper Publishers Association Bulletin, No. 6266 May 1934 283 283 3 Martin Codel (1934) News plan to end press-radio war, Broadcasting, January 1, p. 10.
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• Kaltenborn . Radio Bows to the Press 1 – 1 .
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• Carskadon . The New Republic 133 – 133 . H. V. Kaltenborn (1934) Radio's place in distributing news, in Education on the Air, p. 207; Propose press-radio agreement, NAB Reports, December 23, 1933, p. 261; Peace with the press, Broadcasting, January 1, 1934, p. 22.
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• Harris , E. H. 1934 . “ Shall the government own, operate, and control radio broadcasting in the United States? ” . In Radio and Education: Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Assembly of the National Advisory Council on Radio in Education, Inc. 1934 , Edited by: Tyson , Levering . 96 – 96 . Chicago : University of Chicago Press . M. H. Aylesworth to David Sarnoff, October 10, 1934, Box 32, Folder 6, David Sarnoff 1934, NBC MSS.
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• Nockels Edward N. Labor's rights on the air Federation News February 1931 7 7 7 1931 Labor resolution presented, Broadcasters' News Bulletin, January 12, 1931; Sol Taishoff, Session of radiominded congress nears, Broadcasting, December 1, 1932, p. 5; Labor's big fight for freedom of the air, Federation News, March 21, 1931, p. 9; Labor bill headed for congress, Broadcasters' News Bulletin, February 21, 1931.
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• A congressional investigation of radio, Education by Radio 1932 December 105 105 8 Nationally-Owned radio system for Canada, Education by Radio, July 7, 1932, pp. 81–82; Martin Codel (1932) Canadian Broadcasting to be Nationalized, Broadcasting, May 15, 1932, pp. 7–8; Sol Taishoff, War plan's laid to protect broadcasting, Broadcasting, March 1, 1933, p. 5; see also, Report of the Standing Committee on Communications, In Report of the Fifty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association, 1932, p. 452 (Baltimore; Lord Baltimore Press). The point regarding the Communications Act of 1934 as a victory for commercial broadcasters was emphasized by the NAB's chief lobbyist at the 1934 NAB convention. See Henry A. Bellows (1934) “Report of the Legislative Convention”, NAB Reports, November 15, 1934, p. 618.
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• See Mickey David R. The National Association of Broadcasters—its first twenty years Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University 1956 1 1 Eddie Dowling (1934) Radio needs a revolution, Forum, 91 (February), p. 69. This point was uniformly acknowledge by elements of the opposition movement as one NCER representative emphasized to the director of the ACLU in 1933. Tracy Tyler to Roger Baldwin, October 26, 1933, Volume 599, 1933, American Civil Liberties Union Manuscripts, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. Regarding Hearst and Elliott Roosevelt see First 50 Years, p. xi. For a discussion of President Roosevelt and broadcast policy, see Robert W. McChesney (1988) Franklin Roosevelt, his administration, and the communications Act of 1934, American Journalism, 5, pp. 204–230.
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• H. O. Davis to Mr. L. Lena Box 5, Folder 65, Ventura Free Press, NBC MSS 1931 August 8
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• Smith , Richard Joyce . 1933 . “ The ultimate control of radio in the United States ” . In Radio and Education: Proceedings of the Second Annual Assembly of the National Advisory Council on Radio in Education, 1932 , Edited by: Tyson , Levering . 186 – 186 . Chicago : University of Chicago Press . To the author's knowledge, the most thorough examination of early network news broadcasting has been conducted by Gwenyth Jackaway and will be presented in her upcoming dissertation which is tentatively titled ‘A struggle for control of news dissemination: the press-radio war, 1926–1937’, (University of Pennsylvania, 1991). The author is indebted to Professor Jackaway for her assistance with this article. Text of debate on broadcast reform proposal which was broadcast over NBC on November 1, 1933 later published as Debate: Resolved: That the United States Should Adopt the Essential Features of the British System of Radio Control and Operation (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1933).
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• Scripts provided author courtesy of Corporate Press Services, Columbia Broadcasting System, New York, NY
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• Testimony of Father John B. Harney (1934). In House of Representatives, 73rd Cong., 2nd Sess., Federal Communications Commission, Hearings Before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce on H.R. 8301 United States Government Printing Office Washington DC 1934 May 162 162 9
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• For one of the few times that proponents of the status quo actually discussed the implications of a mixed system, see Herring James M. The radio regulation challenge Public Utilities Fortnightly September 1935 16 308 308 12 1935 Herring concluded that any mixed system would be “unequal” and lead to the eventual domination of the non-profit stations since they would not have to carry advertising, “which in most cases detracts from the appeal of the program”; Joy Elmer Morgan (1933) The new American plan for radio, pp. 82–83, in Bower Aly & Gerald T. Shively (Eds.), A Debate Handbook on Radio Control and Operation (Columbia, MO., Staples Publishing Company).
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• Davis to Lea Box 5, Folder 65, Ventura Free Press, NBC MSS 1931 August 8 Organized labor's battle cry for freedom, Federation News, September 7, 1929, p. 1.
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• March 1934 . “ Can America get the truth about radio? ” . In Education by Radio March , 9 – 9 . 15
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• A New York newspaper derides government control of the air Radio Digest 1932 February 47 47 Frank M. Russell to R. C. Patterson, Jr., February 10, 1934, Box 90, Folder 52, Frank Russell, NBC MSS.
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• Air enemies unite forces Variety 1934 May 37 37 8 Frank E. Gannett to Robert F. Wagner, May 1, 1934, Legislative Files, Box 223, Robert F. Wagner Manuscripts, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
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• See Godfried Variety E. N. Nockels (1931) Appeals to honor of American Bar, Federation News, September 19, pp. 1, 2, 5, 9; Labor wins victory in long air fight, Federation News, June 4, 1932, p. 6; Control air we breathe, Federation News, January 5, 1929, p. 4; Federation News, September 7, 1929, p. 1.
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• See, for example Radio Digest 1932 February 51 51 Broadcasting, December 1, 1932, p. 18.
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• Jos. F. Wright to Tracey F. Tyler Subject File (39/1/1), 1919–1984, Box 3, NCER Public Affairs Director's Office Manuscripts, University of Illinois Archives Champaign, IL 1934 February 3 [Hereafter Illinois MSS]; Wanted-an honest radio writer, Education by Radio, May 16, 1935, p. 23; Cited in Pollard. Education on the Air, 1934, pp. 222, 223; Radio censorship in America and England, Education by Radio, February 15, 1934, p. 5.
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• Wright to Tyler Illinois MSS, Box 3, NCER 1934 February 3
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• Pollard . Education on the Air, 1934 218 – 218 . All-American team, radio editors popularity poll reveals several repeaters, Broadcasting, March 1, 1933, p. 17.
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• Dunlap , Orrin E. Jr. 1929 . Advertising by Radio , New York : The Ronald Press . A. R. Williamson to Wayne L. Randall, August 8, 1934, Box 30, Folder 31, National Radio Editors Assn., 1934, NBC MSS; Editors favor American plan, Broadcasters' News Bulletin, June 13, 1931.
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• Testimony of Joy Elmer Morgan Official Report of Proceedings Before the Federal Communications Commission … Hearing In Re Before the Broadcast Division of the Federal Communications Commission on Section 307(c) of the Communications Act of 1934. Volume One Washington D.C. 1934 22 23
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• September 1930 . Standard Rate and Data Service September , 365 – 365 . Broadcasters on their guard, Radio Digest, March 1931, p. 61; “Kill the Fess Bill,” Radio Digest, September 1931; Ray Bill, A plea for continued freedom of the air, Radio Digest, November 1930, p. 65; H. A. Bellows, Chaos!, Radio Digest, November 1931, p. 18.
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• These campaigns were noted with much approval by the commercial broadcasting trade publications. See Radio Digest against Fess Bill Broadcasters' News Bulletin 1931 September 19 Harold E. Hill (1954) The National Association of Educational Broadcasters: A History, p. 21 (Urbana, IL, The National Association of Educational Broadcasters; Helen Walker to Hampson Gary, December 6, 1934, Curtis Mitchell to Eugene Sykes, November 30, 1934, E. O. Sykes to Curtis Mitchell, Editor, December 6, 1934, Record Group 173, 201–4, 1934–46, FCC General Correspondence, Box 497, Federal Communications Commission Manuscripts, National Archives, Suitland, MD. [Hereafter FCC MSS]
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• FCC General Correspondence Box 497, FCC MSS; As for the Senate, letters and petitions stored in United States Senate Interstate Commerce Committee Manuscripts, National Archives, Washington DC, Sen 73A-J28, tray 155.
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• In Co-operation of commercial stations and educational organizations, In Radio Education 1934 45 45 “Our American system of broadcasting,” David Sarnoff informed a nationwide radio audience in 1938, “is what it is because it operates in the American democracy. It is a free system because this is a free country. It is privately owned because private ownership is one of our national doctrines. It is privately supported … at no cost to the listener, because ours is a free economic system. No special laws had to be passed to bring these things about. They were already implicit in the American system, ready and waiting for broadcasting when it came.” Cited in In their own behalf, Education by Radio, June–July 1938, p. 21.
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• Paley William S. The Viewpoint of the Radio Industry Educational Broadcasting 1937 Marsh C.S. University of Chicago Press Chicago 1937 6 6 in Paul F. Lazarsfeld (1946) The People Look at Radio, p. 89 (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press).
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• Newspapers end antagonism to radio Broadcasting 1937 May 15 15 1 Aylesworth joins Scripps-Howard, The Literary Digest, February 13, 1937 p. 28; Frank A. Arnold (1937) Radio and the newspapers, Editor & Publisher, April 17, p. 48; in 1936 Sarnoff stated: “I believe that a free radio and a free democracy are inseparable; that we cannot have a controlled radio and retain a democracy; that when a free radio goes, so also goes free speech, free press, freedom of worship, and freedom of education.” See David Sarnoff (1937) Broadcasting in the American Democracy, p. 154, in C. S. Marsh (Ed.) Educational Broadcasting 1936 (Chicago, University of Chicago Press).
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• Ernst , Morris L. 1946 . The First Freedom , 126 – 141 . New York : The Macmillan Company .
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• See Bagdikian Ben H. The Media Monopoly , third edition Beacon Press Boston 1990 ix xii 3–26
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