The School of the Air (Ohio), or Ohio School of the Air (OSOA), is a radio program established in October 1928 and began live broadcasting on January 7, 1929. Its abbreviation Air School was used in some newspaper broadcast schedules.

The Ohio Department of Education operated the program as an experimental supportive tool for its state-wide public-school system. Initial State funding was bolstered by grants from the Payne Study and Experiment Fund. OSOA was the first State sponsored educational radio broadcast program in the Nation. Program broadcasts were planned and conducted by Benjamin H. Darrow, known on-air as "Uncle Ben, The Radio Schoolmaster". Programming was initially simulcast from AM radio stations in Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1937 OSOA's experimental status concluded and operational responsibility was transferred to Ohio State University (OSU), where educational broadcasting continued through at least 1973, a span of 44 years. By 1955 several science programs had expanded into OSOA television broadcasts. During later years, broadcasts were conducted by OSU's Telecommunications Center via WOSU-AM, WOSU-FM; and WOSU-TV.

OSOA received nationwide publicity and renown; it was credited as being the most carefully developed statewide school broadcasting system in the country. In 1932 it was praised in the British journal Nature and in the late 1930s a radio station in Peiping, China, requested copies of its program scripts for re-broadcasting.

Directors and supervisors

Benjamin H. Darrow, OSOA Director, 1928–1937 Ann Charles, WOSU program director, 1937–1941 Gordon G. Humbert, OSOA Director, 1938–1973 Margaret C. Tyler, OSOA Supervisor, 1941–1968

History

Ohio-born Benjamin Darrow was an educator, entrepreneur and salesman. He promoted radio as an educational tool and relocated to Chicago in 1924 when radio station WLS, owned by Sears, Roebuck and Company, hired him to develop broadcasts of the "Little Schoolhouse of the Air". The program was known as the "nation's first school-of-the-air program", with Darrow as the "radio schoolmaster". It aired for a year and half attracting an audience of 23,000 to 28,000 schoolchildren in Chicago and neighboring states. Chicago's school of the air (SOA) success inspired Darrow to expand the concept, conceiving a national school of the air. He began searching for sponsors and in 1927 connected with the Payne Study and Experiment Fund of New York. He was hired to study the feasibility of implementing such a national program, presenting those results at the National Education Associations (NAE) annual meeting in Boston, February 1928. There was consensus to proceed, but progress paused awaiting further NAE assessment.

Darrow returned to Ohio, soliciting the Ohio State Director of Education in July 1928. In October he was again contacted by the Payne Fund in Cleveland, its administrators interested in developing educational radio focused on Ohio's classrooms. They offered continued salaried employment during an initial experimental phase, supported by their Payne Study and Experiment Fund. He was titled "Chief Investigator of the Payne, Study and Experimental Fund" and loaned to State of Ohio for the experiment."

OSU's Bureau of Educational Research believed programs like OSOA extremely beneficial to rural area schools, due to disparities existing between rural and city schools, and promoted State-wide radio coverage. Access to a second broadcasting station was crutial- WEAO did not singularly have full radio coverage to the schools across Ohio. Powel Crosley Jr., owner of Cincinnati's higher-powered WLW radio station, offered to co-broadcast WEAO's educational programming free of charge.

The Payne Fund conducted research studies during 1927–28, surveying the superintendents and principals from hundreds of American schools on the benefits of educational broadcasting. Positive responses led to the Ohio Department of Education organizing the Ohio School of the Air, to provide all students with supplemental lessons in "history, literature, health, and art". The Ohio legislature allocated $20,000 for the project. John L. Clifton, Ohio's State Director of Education, pronounced Darrow as Ohio's first "Director of Educational Broadcasting", the first such director of any State. OSOA's operational planning began on Oct 6, 1928, with OSOA's first classroom broadcast on Jan 7, 1929.

Operation During OSOA's experimental phase the State Department of Education published annual operating reports at the conclusion of each school year, continuing through its final 1936-37 session. Thereafter, annual operating summaries were reported in OSU's College of Education Educational Research Bulletin's.

Funding + Ohio Legislature's OSOA funding Year $ Approp. 1929 20,000 1930 20,000 1931 14,650 1932 14,050 1933 15,290 1934 15,290 1935 13,641 1936 9,278 1937 0 1938 13,000(to OSU) 1939 7,500(to OSU)

The Ohio Senate and House of Representatives approved $40,000 for OSOA for the 1930-1931 biennium for purpose of radio broadcast education, the first State in the Nation to fund state-wide educational radio. That level of support was short lived due to effects of the Depression, ending midway through the period on Jan 1, 1931. State legislature eliminated the prior 1931 authorization reapproving only $24,700 for the 1931-1932 biennium. The legislature's final approval for July 1935-July 37 was "virtually at the strangulation level", with funds previously paid for talent being eliminated.

OSU's 1945 Bureau of Educational Research Bulletin listed OSOA's State funding from 1929 to 1936 and its planned transition to OSU management in 1937; see accompanying table "Ohio Legislature's OSOA funding".

Without 1937 legislative funding the State Director of Education secured operational money from the Payne Fund enabling OSOA's regular annual report and preparations for transfer to OSU.

Additional income sources: Funding was solicited from supporting agencies during 1930-32. A dozen schools provided cash and\or assistive personnel. Organizations, e.g. the Columbus Federation of Women's Clubs, sponsored their favored program series. OSU provided educational staff to produce and present new programs, e.g. the Nature series. The National Committee on Education by Radio provided a cash donation. Station WLW increased its OSOA support by sharing more of its dramatic and musical staff. Cost savings were realized by substituting high-overhead series with newer programs. WLW's Crosley Players presented new dramatization series, ironically producing higher classroom approvals. Ohio's three neighboring states provided a new program series with representatives promoting the features and accomplishments within their regions. OSOA received the largest share of a $370,000 dispersal from the General Education program distributed among four elite educational radio projects c.1935. Due to budget constraints, OSOA experimented and found it feasible to rent out scripts from its program inventory. It created a feature service for other radio stations, collecting supplemental income from stations in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Supplemental monies were redirected to OSOA from the Ohio Promotion Fund administered by Ohio's Director of Education and OSU's Director of Visual Education. During 1936 these funds paid salaries for several script writers. OSOA received some government support via depression-era recovery activities, e.g., the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA, est. 1933) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA, est. 1935). During 1933-35 OSOA used FERA-paid stenographers to help produce program publications and for office support and its understaffed radio workshops were backfilled via FERA's un-employed teachers lists. OSOA added a summer school program in 1935, aided by FERA supplied staff. WPA's first Federal Radio Workshop (FRW) was developed in Cincinnati, its staff selected from FERA's list of unemployed teachers and trained by OSOA's director in both script writing and radio broadcasting. In OSOA's 1936 budget analysis the FRW had contributed $21,050 in the value of its script writing and presentation, nearly twice the amount contributed by Ohio's State legislators. In 1936 WPA's Federal Radio Workshop (FRW) and the Radio Education Project partnered with OSA to produce a series of Latin America travelogues, programs intended for commercial radio broadcasts. FRW also employed out-of-work Ohio educators to create a series of OSOA classroom programs. The “Travelog” program aligned with President Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy, a revamped policy promoting cultural exchange where previous U.S. actions had involved military intervention. FRW's “Travelog” programming so obviously followed Roosevelt's new doctrine its works were labeled politically themed in radio industry publications.

Program planning and metrics

On November 22, 1929, near OSOA's first year's-end, a broadcast evaluation conference was held in Columbus, Ohio, by State Director of Education, J. L. Clifton. Its purpose was to present OSOA's current operational status, its curriculum summary and to develop corporative plans for increasing lessons' usefulness. Over forty educational representatives from across the state were present during the two-day event, attendees enumerated in the "Members of the Conference" list.

OSOA was assisted in 1930 when the Payne Fund supported educational radio development by funding the Institute for Education by Radio to provide nationwide aid to producers of educational programs. OSU's Bureau of Educational Research Radio Division conducted the institute's annual meetings with "proceedings published in the Education on the Air Yearbook" [sic]. It was said "there are fully a hundred problems in this field that need thorough investigation",(Koon, 1930) e.g. necessary to investigate and define: the purpose of educational broadcasts program lesson effectiveness methods for refining, improving lessons suitable training for broadcasters what schoolroom radio equipment is necessary how to assist teachers in the listening classrooms

The Bureau of Educational Research's Radio Division provided training to school administrators and teachers, both direct and by publications, on radio education and the use of radio. It conducted research studies quantifying radio program effectiveness, in compliance with objectives of a national study requested by the Federal Radio Education Committee, chartered by a General Education Board grant. It coordinated meetings between broadcasters and classroom teachers to access students' reactions and program ideas.

Darrow believed the best use of radio was to support the teacher by reinforcing existing curriculum, a philosophy supported by educational research. A criterion for OSOA's program selection was developed with potential topics having three necessities: align with subject preferences requested by school administrators adapt to presentation over the air with minimal visual support from classroom teachers "availability of talent" (knowledgeable, interesting, affordable presenters) capable of delivering the subject-matter via microphone. There was scant time to screen and train every presenter. Candidates were profiled ahead of time, sometimes covertly, searching for the crucial quality Darrow felt necessary to connect with listeners- enthusiasm. Natural enthusiasm was far more valuable than delivery technique or subject-matter organization.