Lectures From OEJRC (Part 2)

Last summer I scanned and posted a pdf from a history lecture aired on WOSU-AM in 1935. That post is here. It was a part of the OEJRC (Ohio Junior Emergency Radio College) program at Ohio University. This lecture is in Spanish and admittedly I barely understand a word of it.

It's author was Professor William Samuel Hendrix, one can hope it is some forefather of the infamous 60s guitarist... but I doubt it. According to the The Modern Language Journal of 1937 the course was taught in 1934- 1936 at 10:30 in the morning by radio over WOSU. Similar classes continued until at least 1942. Hendrix appears in the Ohio State course catalog at least as early as 1918, and I found a copyright for a first Spanish text book dating to 1923. By 1935 Hendrix was  the head of the foreign language department at Ohio State U. He later went to to be the chairman of the Radio Committee for the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers.

The lecturer was Demetrio Cabarga, he wrote of his involvement in  The Modern Language Journal but other documents just describe him as a Spanish language instructor. He is however listed later in a 1943 issue of Printer's Ink as having also worked at Mississippi State U. Crosley International and WLWO. If you remember, WLWO was a commercial short wave station owned by Crosley. It broadcast Voice Of America (VOA) in Spanish, English and Portuguese into South America. They did air advertising, but really the bills were paid by the U.S. government in return for airing WWII propaganda. It's a fascinating story I'll write about another day. More here.

OEJRC Lecture: HISTORY 

by Prof. Arthur H. Noyes

DOWNLOAD HERE

WOSU Radio Lectures from OEJRC

The OEJRC (Ohio Junior Emergency Radio College) is obscure beyond obscure. Ohio University was way in the lead for pushing radio as a teaching medium. In 1935 George W. Rightmere, University President was already mourning its misuse. He thought the FCC (then only 1 year old) could mandate some high-brow educational use. To quote him exactly:

"Most of the public are articulate, and must be so concerning their objections to programs and somehow it seems to me to be within the province of the commission [FCC] to give voice to these people thru  prescriptions and regulations of a sensible and constructive kind."

He wasn't alone. John C. Futrall the president of U. Arkansas in Fayetteville and George Norlin, president of the University of Colorado were both as vocal, perhaps more so. In that environment their campus stations were encouraged to innovate in this arena. This was critically important in the great depression, when affording education was an impossibility, a distant priority behind food, water and clothing. That's the "E" in OEJRC . It stands for Emergency, because from their point of view, it was. Thus came into being the Ohio Junior Emergency Radio College (OEJRC ).  It was set up set up in January 1934 at the Ohio State University as a part of the Ohio emergency schools program.

They broadcast college level classes on WOSU-AM with university staff such as the above Prof. Arthur H. Noyes (who also wrote a couple history books). I can affirm the 1934 date as those calls were introduced on Sept.1, 1933 prior to that their callsign was WEAO, on 570. [They moved to 820 in 1941] Their mimeographed lessons were distributed free by request. Over 1,700 students enrolled. One source claimed that only 55 passed the course requirements. Ohio kept up the program anyway. the were home to The Institute for Education by Radio which held it's Annual Conference at Ohio State University from 1930 to 1953.

According to the book Growth Of An American Invention by Thomas Diener, Classes were taught in psychology, Home-making, French, English, Philosophy, Education, Engineering and Art appreciation. But I just got a hold of two of those mimeographed lessons and those are for History and Spanish lectures dating to 1934. Clearly Mr. Diener does not have a complete list. I have begun scanning them and the first is below. It runs 32 pages and comes in at a tidy 3 MB 60 MB. 

**************UPDATE**************

I re-uploaded the doc at a much higher resolution to improve readability. 

OEJRC Lecture: HISTORY 

by Prof. Arthur H. Noyes

DOWNLOAD HERE

School of the Air

Is this College Radio? it's not really what we mean today with the term but it was a series of educational courses conducted over the radio waves. On February 4, 1931 the American School of the Air was launched. The Encyclopedia of Old-Time radio described it thusly:

"Perhaps the most outstanding show in educational radio, offered as a teaching supplement; the equivalent of a half-hour course, often dramatized by radio's top actors."

It began in 1930 with little fanfare, but quickly gained popularity with schools. Positive reviews from 35 early-adopting schools helped spread the word. It was the first educational program designed for schools. It was a 30 minute program that ran on Tuesdays and Thursdays weekly. the program was not made up of voice actors. it was comprised of educators. It taught classes in history, literature, civics, art, music, and biology. A program might explain how pearls are formed, or folk music, or life in a foreign country. The equivalent today might be screening a documentary in civics class. More here.

In 1940 the events of WWII compelled supervisor Sterling Fisher to syndicate the program abroad. It made it to atleast 15 other countries. Although it was not overtly political, newsmen like Edward R. Murrow guested on the program. It ran for 18 years only ending it's run in 1948.

While purely educational programming was rare, the "School of the Air" branding was used by a number of stations individually. Florida and Oregon has state-funded programs with the same name, as did stations WHA, WCAL, WOSU, and WLW, all broadcast programs hitching a ride off the successful branding and CBS let them. But the CBS School of Air was the leader. Late in the game they rebranded as "the American School fo the Air" to better distinguieh the program.

But it ultimately why the confusion arose becomes clear. In 1924, when general Mills lanched a cooking show on the radio it was called the "Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air." In 1930, the branding was already in use. It was never theirs to be co-opted. It was stolen, or else the terminology had already entered some kind of general usage.

William Lucious Graves

I find myself drawn to the smallest, most obscure and irrelevant figures in radio. Most maddening are the ones I never write about. Despite persistent research what I discover most often is that the figure is too obscure to have been written about and all those with first-hand knowledge are most-often deceased.

It's been almost a century now in the great history of radio, and almost anyone that ever heard "Uncle" Billy Graves read poetry on 820 WOSU-AM is probably dead. Professor William Lucious Graves was born in 1893 and died in 1943. He lived just long enough to see the radio the fledgling newborn grow into it's golden era. And more importantly he got to be apart of it. WOSU was on 570 at the time. Youngstown’s WKBN paid for WOSU-AM to move its frequency from 570 to 820 kilocycles in March 1941.

I read the book The Thurber Album by James Thurber and almost missed the radio connection. The chapter dedicated to Graves includes no reference to radio nor the WOSU calls. But in the Photography Gallery, on an unnumbered page was a single image. The caption said:

"Professor Billy Graves was a popular brodcaster whose audiences loved to hear him read prose and poetry over the air."

It dosen't mean it's true of course. But the mic is read, it's not a posed image. He was a writer of poetry, and a brodcaster. He may have been unpopular, but how can we know now? In 1955 A.G. Preist mentioned him in a Beta Theta Pi article.

"William L. (Billy) Graves, Ohio State 1893, warmly devoted Beta who is said to have visited our Theta Delta chapter house more than 5,000 times, was toastmaster at one of the convention banquets of the early ’30’s, after having spent the Summer in England."

He was Beta Theta Pi back when fraternities meant more than innovative drinking games. He taught English, and fiction writing. He was uptight enough to dislike the brutish prose of Hemmingway when it was new. In 1924 Colleris magazine published an article by Frederick L. Collins titled "Everywhere I find a Pal." It was the public debut of Graves. But others disregarded his writing as "sweetly innocous." WOSU-AM by comparison is the oldest continually-operating radio station in Columbus. In 1920, a license was issued to The Ohio State University for experimental station called 8XL.

The image is not dated, but WOSU was originally licensed as WEAO-AM in 1922, only changing the calls to WOSU in 1933. That gives us a big ten-year window and somwhere in that William Lucious Graves was on the radio.

Cleveland and Columbus, worlds apart...

I drove from Cleveland to Columbus Ohio today. I stopped and picked a small basket of rasberries at Rosby's and ate them while they were still warn from the sun, while driving South only looking at the road. It is not a great distance, maybe 120 miles center city to center city, but in radio terms they are different planets. Without getting into the fact that Cleveland is better. Allow me to explain.
http://www.rosbys.com/

Cleveland is saturated.. maybe over saturated in the non-commercial band. It is not as bad as Chicago but, what is? details below:
88.1 WZIP college U akron
88.3 WBWC -college Baldwin Wallace
88.7 WJCU -college John Caroll
88.9 WSTB -Streetsboro High school
89.1 WKSV -simulcast of WKSU
89.3 WCSB -college Cleveland State U.
89.7 WKSU -NPR talk & classical
90.3 WCPN -NPR talk & classical
90.7 WNRK -Classical
90.9 WCVJ -Christian AC
91.1 WRUW -College Case Western Reserve U.
91.3 WAPS -Triple A
91.5 WKHR -standards

... I'll admit they are all over the market and obviously not all of equal stregnth or HAAT. But as you travel even local roads the cross talk is incredible. On vacant frequencies you get a wash of multiple stations. many stations are only audible on some sides of some buildings. Every stations is on the first and second adjacent of two or three stations. Some of these are great stations, and I dont want to lose them... but curently it is difficult to listen to any of them at all.

Columbus is the opposite:
88.1 -religious repeater
88.5 WLRY -a WUFM repeater
88.7 WUFM -christian AC
89.7 WOSU -Classical
90.5 WCBE -NPR talk

So how does one market get over-served and one get under served?
... I have no idea. If I get brave maybe I'll ask he Old Akronite himself:http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com/