In the Groove

From Washington last week some 800 special recordings were hustled by air to radio stations throughout the nation. They bore messages from more than half the members of Congress to their constituents; some were five-minute talks, others were 15-minute question & answer platters. Most were concerned with the congressional news of the week. Local stations broadcast the discs as "a public service ... in the hope that listeners will gain a better understanding of the serious problems confronting our legislators."

The idea for this barrage of flying discs originated with a radioman named Robert Coar who now operates a recording studio, the Joint Radio Information Facility, on the fifth floor of the old House Office Building. Coar, his wife and a staff of five are on the congressional payroll at salaries totaling $26,000 a year, plus $1 a year rental for Coar's $15,000 worth of recording equipment. The idea came to him, Coar says, because he felt that the press "ridiculed" members of Congress. "I thought Congressmen should tell in their own words what they were doing in Washington," he explains.

Coar charges Congressmen $3.50 per recording. He has built up an impressive list of regular customers. Washington's Senator Harry Cain (who once pepped up some of his records with American folk songs from the Library of Congress) sends out 38 copies of his weekly platter. Pennsylvania's Ed Martin uses 74 every two weeks. Ohio's Robert Taft is good for 39 a week.

Last November's elections were a big shot in the arm for Coar's project. When the dust had settled, it was speedily noted that not one of the Republicans defeated at the polls had used Coar's service. Now the new Democrats and the surviving Republicans are keeping the microphones so busy that the studio wiped out its $10,000 deficit in June and grossed about $13,000 last month.

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