NOVEL EXPERIMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 23, 27 July 1933, Page 21

NOVEL EXPERIMENT

ARE LISTENERS INTELLI-

GENT?

A daring though, as it turned out, rather inconclusive' experiment was recently conducted by a professor of educational psychology at the University of Chicago (F. N. Freeman) in an endeavour to ascertain the mentality of radio listeners. This is a particularly difficult task. American broadcasters, or some- of them, test the magnitude of their audiences by the magnitude of the demand which follows an offer of a free sample of some commodity, or other attractive bait, but instead of accepting this ready material for his- intelligence test, the professor drew up a scries of simple questions and sought answers. Obviously this would not cause an overloading of the mails, and he had to use a ready-made audience—a-group of 700 students —of all ages" from 6 to 80 —in three schools equipped for radio reception. They had a rather: better chance of escaping >ho duty-'of-reply than the millions of the American Army upon whom other intelligence testers worked, with what looked like' disastrous results to the i average man's reputation for brains. 1 The professor's simple questions led him to the tentative conclusion that the average intelligence. was '' above the average." But as his audiences were not chosen because they were radio listeners, but because they were attending the classes and chose to assent to the tests, the verdict seems to bo founded on rather shaky ground, and the professor very properly expressed his opinion with great caution. His questions were, as a matter of fact, so absurdly elementary (so far as samples were given in the report on which this comment is based) that one would hesitate to assume that they j showed anything except that he expected the worst. He'does, however, conclude that "there is a largo group of listeners who are interested in serious programmes, though they may not be the people who usually write to express their preferences," and he advises broadcasters to keep this group in mind when planning programmes. Unfortunately, up till the present, the demand for radio service, as expressed: inthe extent of the patronage,, does :not seem to be affected by the intellectual character of the broadcast material. Everywhere radio listeners have consistently increased in number, whether the programmes are good, indifferent, or worse. A vast number of people like simply to let their time be whiled away with some sort of rhythmical noise. And as long as mere ■numbers of listeners is the test, the broadcasting authority will tend to point to the rising numbers and claim them as proof that the fare it is giving is evidently what the people want. But is it? Is it not rather that the people take what they get—anything rather than nothing? The idealist who attempts to elevate the character of broadcast programmes will quickly find himself snowed under with protests from a large group of people who will want less "highbrow stuff" and more jazz; less talks and more "humour," and he may become discouraged. But it is not necessary or sensible to conclude that the noise thus created, is a more serious factor than the silence of those who want less jazz and more good music and food for thought. ~