History of public media

Tuning out education

By Eugene E. Leach, Professor Emeritus (Trinity College) | January 14, 1983

How did advertising-driven broadcasting establish itself as the dominant user of the airwaves in America? A crucial episode occurred in the 1930s when commercial broadcasters argued successfully that they would put education on the air, and educators should stick to their books. Eugene E. Leach, Ph.D., a professor of history and American studies at Connecticut’s Trinity College, tells the story, originally serialized in Current. Chapters
1. The doctrine of ‘Cooperation’ won early battles of ideas

2.