Radio: Gifts

Of all WPA projects, the one most lavishly encouraged by private enterprise is the Federal Theatre Radio Division. For none of its 44 series has the F.T.R.D. ever paid the radio broadcasting systems any time charges. Obligated to fill unsold air time with entertainment and edification, networks and radio stations have handed F.T.R.D. rich slices of the ether. Free time contributed to the project in two years is valued at more than $3,000,000, almost ten times the project's actual cost. And the project has succeeded in returning about half its actors to professional...