Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

The Business of Broadcasting Current News About Accounts, Pending Schedules, Transcriptions, Representatives and Apparatus; Notes from the Stations STATION ACCOUNTS TAMPA cigar manufacturers, long alive to the use of radio in their advertising, are planning a new series of programs this winter. Already Hav-a-Tampa and Bearing brands have scheduled WFLAWSUN, Clearwater, Fla., to open Dec. 7. WSPA, Spartanburg, S. C, on Sept. 25 staged the first program ever sponsored by the Railway Express Agency, a test program believed to be a forerunner of regular nation-wide spot broadcasts by that company. Headquarters of the company in New York first sent out 70,000 inquiries to its employes, asking them to report on reception and criticise the program, which first went on the air at 8:30 p. m., EST, and then at 2:30 a. m. for DX reception. A dozen high officials of the company also went to Spartanburg. The program consisted of a quartet, string trio and Paury Pearson, popular Southern baritone. "Red" Cross, managing director of WSPA, announced. Reception reports were received from company employes in 38 states. PHILLIPS Petroleum Company is sponsoring the Phillips Flyers orchestra in half hour Saturday night programs of syncopated music, featuring no repeats during any week, over KYW, Chicago. PACIFIC States Building and Loan Association sponsors one of the oldest Pacific Coast radio features, offering its "home sweet home" concerts for two hours each Sunday morning over KFRC, San Francisco, and the Don Lee chain. A concert orchestra and vocalists are used. It has been on the air since June, 1926. KMPC, Beverly Hills, Cal., owned by the Macmillan Petroleum Corp., Los Angeles, has started the Macmillan 'Round the World Club, according to Glenn Ebersole, station manager. The first 30 days the station reported 20,000 members, each of whom bought 20 gallons of gas and received a miniature glider for the children of the family. The characters are Bill and Mack, aviators. Membership card and a button go to all who apply, but the glider only to the cash customers for gas. Roland U. Mcintosh writes the continuities and plays Mack, and Jack Carrington is Bill. HIRES Root Beer is sponsoring a nightly skit by Frank Watanabe and Reggie Sharland over KNX, Los Angeles. Offers of a free sample of the extract and a photo of Watanabe drew more than 10,000 letters over a five week period, according to Naylor Rogers, manager. KDYL, Salt Lake City, is handling a test campaign for the First Security Trust Co., a banking chain. THE FOREST Lawn Memorial Park account, Smith and Drum agency, Los Angeles, has at last gone to KECA, Los Angeles, with a remote to Glendale for a Sunday eve organ concert. While the mortuary idea on the coast has consistently been away from the religious type of broadcast, this new Forest Lawn program seems to be a sort of church broadcast. S. AND W. COFFEE, San Francisco headquarters, now uses three coast radio features to advertise its products: KPO, San Francisco, Cecil and Sally transcription daily; KFI, Los Angeles, four times weekly with "Great Trials of History" re-enacted; and Tom Mitchell, baritone-pianist, four evenings through KGW, Portland, KHQ, Spokane, and KOMO, Seattle. THE SOUTHERN California Music Co., an old established Los Angeles firm, is using KFAC, Los Angeles, twice weekly for a program it calls "Everybody Play Hour," featuring the various instruments it sells. BROADCASTS of the Tuesday noon meetings of the Los Angeles Advertising Club are to be sold to sponsors and carried over KHJ, Los Angeles. E. J. L'Esperance, insurance man, has been appointed to the radio sponsorship committee of the club. Benson Curtis of the sales staff of KFWB, Hollywood, is entertainment chairman for the club, arranging for the talent for the luncheon meetings. OREGON Woolen Mills is sponsoring a series over KRSC, Seattle. The Pearce-Knowles Radio Advertising Agency, Seattle, handles the account. ASSOCIATED Oil Company, San Francisco, is sponsoring 110 Pacific Coast football games this season, besides using the NBC Pacific Coast network for its Saturday night "Associated Spotlight Revue." Nine stations are carrying the games, several of which are being plaved at night. Thev are KPO. KFRC, KGO and KTAB. San Francisco; KFI, Los Angeles; KOMO. Seattle; KHQ, Spokane, and KOH, Reno. Announcers are Don Thompson, Ernest Smith, George Guttormsen, Harry Lantry, James Richardson and Don Wilson, all well known on the coast. ITALIAN-SWISS Colony, maker of "Juices of the Grape," is staging a twice-weekly program over KPO, San Francisco, featuring a character called "Tipo, the Grape Blender," who wanders about the countries which produce different varieties of grape. FOLGER Food Co., San Francisco, has been awarding prizes of foodstuffs to housewives in a 50-word letter contest announced in connection with its 15-minute nightly program over KHJ, Los Angeles. The program features "Black and Blue," correspondence school detectives said to be funny simply because they try to be serious. USING only its radio program over KFWB, Hollywood, and a limited number of suburban newspapers, St. Helens Gasoline, offering straight dance music for a half hour on Sunday nights for the last 65 weeks, not only survived a local price war without slashing its own prices but increased its gallonage. The J. R. Meyers Co., Los Angeles, handles the account. PHILLIPS Milling Company started an extensive campaign in the San Francisco bay district recently. The first medium used was KFRC, San Francisco, with a biweekly program called the Blue and Gold Parade. De Pauli and Park, San Francisco, handle the account, which later plans to use other stations along with newspapers and outdoor media. NEW local contracts totalling nearly $50,000 for station time and talent were signed by Station WRC, Washington, in the last few weeks. These contracts were with John H. Wilkins Company (coffee) ; Charles Schwartz & Son (jewelers) ; William Hahn & Company (shoes) ; Fairfax Farms Dairy (milk) ; Charles Schneider Baking Company (bread). WGN, Chicago, is carrying a sponsored series by the Kent College of Law in which legal information is explained in layman's language. ASSOCIATED Oil Company's spotlight revue, NBC-Pacific Coast program, has gone back to a winter schedule over KFI, Los Angeles. In the summer months, its southern outlet is KECA, Los Angeles, because of the Hollywood Bowl programs on KFI. NETWORK ACCOUNTS AGENTS of the New York Life Insurance Company in all parts of the country received instructions to urge their clients and friends to tune in the company's premiere program on Oct. 6 when it was presented over an NBC coast-tocoast network, featuring Calvin Coolidge. Time on western and southern stations were made available for the network through the courtesy of the Fuller Brush Company, sponsors of The Fuller Man, because of the importance of the ex-president's broadcast message. FLORSHEIM Shoe Co., Chicago, is sponsoring a new Friday night series, beginning Oct. 16, over the NBC-WEAF network. It is featuring Fredie Grofe, composerconductor and former arranger for Paul Whiteman, heading an orchestra playing light dance and concert music. Artists are Jane Froman, blues singer, and the team of Pratt and Sherman. A VOTE of radio editors decided the National Confectioners Association upon the all-musical, all-male program it is now staging over a CBS network on Monday afternoons for the purpose of appealing to an audience of women. Leon Bloom's 16-piece orchestra with Brooks and Ross, Chicago harmonists, furnish the entertainment. The association asked the editors what they believed would appeal mostly to women, and their composite opinion was that male talent with an admixture of popularclassic music was most desirable. HEALTH Products Corporation, Newark ("Feen-a-Mint," etc.), is going on the air over an NBC-WJZ network with a Saturday night half-hour series, beginning Oct. 24, called "Danger Fighters," based on Paul de Kruif's books "Microbe Hunters" and "Hunger Fighters." The programs will dramatize man's battles against disease and will include an orchestra directed by Thomas Belviso. TROPICAIRE, Inc., Minneapolis, maker of hot water auto heaters, has gone on a CBS network Saturday afternoons, 5:45-6:00 p. m., from WBBM, Chicago, featuring Bobby Brown, WBBM production manager, in resumes of middle west football results. THE NBC Pacific Coast network's woman's magazine of the air, a morning feature, carries Best Foods Co., Pet Milk Sales Corp.. Packer's Mfg. Co., Frigidaire Corp., Pacific Coast Gas Association, Roman Meal Co., Safeway Stores, Inc., Northam Warren Co. (Odorono Glazo), Proctor and Gamble Co., (Camay, Crisco and Ivory), Standard Oil of California and W. P. Fuller and Co. PROSPECTS CHRYSLER Motor Car Company is reported to be nibbling at a radio idea built around several shows within a show, the tentative scheme being to present a production in which the artists go to the theatre and see several acts of a show. S. KARPENER & BROS., 801 So. Wabash, Chicago (Karpen furniture and inner-spring mattresses) is making up lists during October, using broadcasting along with other media. Advertising manager is N. V. Field, and advertising is placed by the Charles Daniel Frey Co., 333 No. Michigan, Chicago. WANDER CO., 180 No. Michigan, Chicago (Ovaltine and Alucol) is making up lists during October, using broadcasting along with other media. Thomas J. Wild is advertising manager. BlackettSample-Hummert, Inc., 221 No. LaSalle St., Chicago, is handling the account. COPELAND PRODUCTS, INC., 332 Cass Ave., Mt. Clemens, Mich. (Copeland refrigerators) is making up lists during October and November, using broadcasting with other media. R. M. Douglass is advertising and sales promotion manager. The agency is Austin F. Bement, Inc., General Motors Bldg., Detroit. M. B. BATES, advertising and manager for Life Savers, Inc., Port Chester, N. Y., has been touring western states in the interest (Continued on page 2b) Page 22 BROADCASTING • October 15, 1931