Radio: Why Not?

It’s simply a matter of mechanics. If we treat the baby as a passenger and the mother’s pelvis as the passageway, a larger passenger will have more difficulty coming into the world than a smaller passenger. Therefore, oversize infants are more apt to cause difficult labor.

Listeners tuned to station KECA (Los Angeles) last week heard that simple explanation of the mechanics of childbirth. Although it might have shocked other U. S. listeners, Angelenos were not even surprised. They know that KECA’s Manager Harrison Holliway is not scared by radio’s taboos, is always ready to broadcast sensible medical information shunned at most microphones.

When cancer and syphilis were under a general radio muffler, he aired lecture series on both. Last summer station KFI (Los Angeles), also Holliway-managed, lectured parents on their duties, illustrated the need for parental understanding by broadcasting the dramatized story of a 15-year-old girl with an advanced case of gonorrhea.

Last week’s broadcast of medical plain speaking opened a series of four called Why Not Have A Baby? The programs feature an obstetrician (anonymous for reasons of medical ethics) questioned by Special Features Director James Vandiveer (himself an expectant father), KFI-KECA Editor Jose Rodriguez (father of three). On the first broadcast the interviewers asked about prenatal care, got straight medical advice on sterility, the best age for child bearing, paternal and maternal hygiene, diet during pregnancy, danger of miscarriage.

Said Broadcaster Vandiveer: “The only-thing we have to guide us is the truth.”