The Loyal Opposition

Over the past quarter century, the boring mediocrity of U.S. radio has turned an estimated one-third of the nation away from its sets. A campaign to recapture this disenchanted audience was begun last January by a small band of dedicated radiomen of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, headed by 42-year-old Seymour Siegel, director of Manhattan's city-owned station WNYC. Their bait: literate drama, good music, intelligent talks.

Lacking money, an adequate staff or network experience, Siegel began by transcribing a series of Cooper Union Forum lectures ("Ideas in Conflict," "Education v. Thought Control") with $600 donated by Cooper Union itself. He assembled recorded plays (Fry's The Lady's Not for Burning, Sartre's Crime Passionnel, a three-hour King Lear) from British Broadcasting Corp., and recorded music (Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra and Puccini's opera Turandot) from The Netherlands and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. By special arrangements with musicians' and artists' unions, other N.A.E.B. members made inexpensive transcriptions of concerts in the Los Angeles County Museum and dramatic productions in the Boston studios of the Lowell Institute.

Both Little & Big. After twelve months of shoestring financing, N.A.E.B's highbrow network has grown from six stations to 51, covering every section of the U.S. except the Rocky Mountain region, and ranging in size from a little ten-watt station in New Albany, Ind. to potent 15,000-watters in such cities as Minneapolis and Los Angeles. Most of the stations are owned by universities, some by school boards; all are noncommercial.

Though N.A.E.B. believes that radio should include elements "other than trivia, shallow entertainment and the sale of goods," it is not at war with the big networks. "We don't want to do away with commercial broadcasting," says Siegel.

"We want to be their loyal opposition, a minority radio voice . . ."

Both Brains & Money. In recognition of Siegel's spadework, N.A.E.B. has elected him president. But the burgeoning network has grown too big to be handled any longer on a part-time basis by WNYC's overworked staff. This week, network headquarters will move to the University of Illinois, where the Institute of Communications Research has given it office space, administrative help and funds.

After a hard-pressed infancy,N.A.E.B.'s network is looking forward to a well-fed future. It is negotiating for $6,000,000 from an interested foundation, and has mapped a ten-year plan to produce daily programs of "culturally valuable, socially significant and newsworthy broadcasts." Says Siegel: "We got this far with brains but no money. We want to see what we can do with both of them together."

In Philadelphia this week, educators made another impressive move, this time into commercial television. With the backing of 19 Middle Atlantic colleges and universities, station WFIL-TV launched a televised University of the Air (weekdays, 11:10 a.m.). Aimed at a predominantly feminine audience, the University will give courses in Spanish, Self-Improvement, Child Care, Government and Nuclear Physics for the Layman.

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