Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

TO©ADCASTHINie THE NEWS MAGAZINE THE FIFTH ESTATE MARTIN CODEL, Editor SOL TAISHOFF, Managing Editor F. GAITHER TAYLOR, Advertising Manager of Published Semi Monthly by BROADCASTING PUBLICATIONS, Inc. National Press Building Washington, D. C Metropolitan 1022 Executive and Editorial Offices: National Press Building, Washington, D. C. Subscription Price: $3.00 a Year 15c a Copy Copyright, 1932, by Broadcasting Publications, Inc. Eastern Representative: The Spencer Young Co-, 299 Madison Ave., Murray Hill 2-5279, New York City Western Representative: Warwick S Carpenter, 29 E. de la Cuerra, Santa Barbara, Cal Keep Sawing Wood CONGRESS, we are told by the radio leaders, won't consider legislation affecting broadcasting, at the current lame duck session, which ends March 4. To the industry — broadcasters, agencies and advertisers alike — that's gratifying news. But it should be remembered that this is so only because Congress will be so occupied with budget, beer and economy legislation that it won't have the time to take up less urgent matters. The inclination to meddle with broadcasting, incited by professional reformers, wave grabbers and their ilk, is still there. Broadcasting is far too juicy a morsel to be allowed to drift from its ranking position as the All-American political football. In other words, the perennial siege of Congress hasn't been eliminated; it has simply been postponed. The radio man who has been through the mill knows this. But the majority of the broadcasters, unless they are prodded, will accept the talk of non-interference by Congress as a cue to dally. It is one of the glaring faults of the average broadcaster. He is all too prone to lock the barn after the horse is stolen. Broadcasters must keep their Congressmen informed of the problems, whether Congress is in session or not. Then Senator Doe and Rep. Roe will know what radio is about when those inevitable bills to limit, restrict, cripple and even wipe out the business of broadcasting— your business — are introduced and lobbied by radio's powerful enemies. It is the legislator's duty to protect his constituents. It is the broadcaster's duty to protect himself. Sauce for the Goose IN HIS ORDER banning song plugging, Oswald Schuette seeks to give Tin Pan Alley a taste of its own medicine. But, in our opinion, the dose isn't strong enough. Here is another suggestion. Why not charge AS CAP members who pester stations with requests to plug this number and restrict that, a 3, 4 and 5 per cent of their "net receipts" from those compositions, plus a "small" sustaining fee, over a three-year contract period ? ASCAP makes the music, and radio makes it popular. If it is fair to charge broadcasters on such a scale for what they earn through only partial use of that music, it most certainly is just for the broadcaster to ask a similar scale for advertising and selling that music for the publisher. If that isn't so, why do those Tin Pan Alleyites work their plug racket, even to the extent of sometimes slipping "tips" to orchestra maestros and microphone performers ? Common Sense Law WHETHER it was right on the law or not, the majority of the Court of Appeals applied the yardstick of common sense in reversing the Radio Commission in the WIBO case. We don't take sides with any of the stations involved. The issue was far broader than the rights of those stations, which served simply as exhibits to test the Commission's power under the Davis amendment. The case involved the Commission's right to snuff out at its will and whim radio stations in which thousands of dollars are invested. A decision sustaining the deletion of WIBO and WPCC, Chicago, in favor of WJKS, Gary, Ind., would have cleared the way for wholesale shifts in stations and facilities in 27 overquota states. There was no complaint about the service of the Chicago stations. The sole issue was so-called equalization of facilities according to population. The court majority held Congress did not mean that there should be an exact mathematical equality, and cited the phrases "as nearly as possible" and "a fair and equitable allocation" in the Davis amendment. In its decision, however, the Commission elected to construe the language literally. The court majority called that decision "arbitrary and capricious", pointing out, too, that Gary is actually a Chicago suburb, and gets good radio from the overquota Illinois. Because of the dissenting opinion, a Supreme Court review may be sought. That review should be afforded, to settle the status of the Davis amendment for all time. Justice Groner, dissenting, on the question of property rights, which would have meant the wiping out of a $346,000 investment in WIBO alone, held that when such injury results, it is said to be "damnum absque injuria", which means "injury without a remedy" but which, in this case, would have meant something like "it's too damn bad" had the Commission been upheld. In the Swim AS LISTED in our exclusive compilation in this issue, 97 broadcasting stations in the United States, 13 in Canada and one each in Mexico and Cuba are owned by or corporately affiliated with newspapers. Many of the newspapers are among the most important in the country. Other newspapers, large and small, are still trying to get into the radio swim, finding the ranks of the publishers themselves split in the futile attacks on radio. It is not for us to espouse further newspaper ownership of radio, which is a definite trend that will take care of itself, but we repeat what we have so often iterated: that newspapers, cooperating with radio, will find that it can The RADIO BOOK SHELF WHAT SHALL we read to get a good background of radio ? This question is often asked of broadcasting officials. A partial answer is provided in the broadcast bibliography leaflet of the Handy Leaflet series periodically issued by NBC. It lists the following books on radio and advertising, which the newcomer to radio would do well to study and which any radio executive would do well to have in home and office libraries: "Broadcast Advertising, The Fourth Dimension," by Frank A. Arnold. Published 1931 by Wiley & Son. "New Empires — Newspaper and the Radio," by Karl A. Bickel. Published 1931 by Lippincott. "Radio and its Future," edited by Martin Codel. Published 1930 by Harper & Bros. "Radio Writing," by Peter Dixon. Published 1931 by the Century Co. "Advertising by Radio'' (Ronald Press, 1929); "The Story of Radio" (Dial Press, 1927), and "Radio in Advertising" (Harper & Bros., 1931) by Orrin Dunlap, Jr. "This Advertising Business," by Roy S. Durstine. Published 1928 by Scribners. "Using Radio in Sales Promotion," by Edgar H. Felix. Published 1927 by the McGrawHill Co. "Tomorrow's Advertisers and Their Advertising Agencies," by G. H. Phelps. Published 1929 by Harper & Bros. "Radio Industry; As Told by LeaderF of the Industry," a series of Harvard lectures published 1920 by A. W. Shaw Co. "How to Write for Radio," by Katherine Seymour and J. T. W. Martin. Published 1931 by Longmans, Green Co. Other Important Books TO THIS LIST the editors of Broadcasting would add also the following books on our own bookshelf: "The Outlook for Television," by Orrin Dunlap, Jr. Published 1932 by Harper & Bros. "Television," by Edgar Felix. Published 1931 by McGraw Hill Co. "Symphonic Broadcasts," by Olin Downes. Published 1931 by The Dial Press. "This Thing Called Broadcasting," by Alfred N. Goldsmith and Austin C. Lescaboura. Published 1930 by Henry Holt & Co. "Conqueror of Space — The Life of Lee DeForest," by Georgette Carneal. Published 1930 by Horace Liveright. "The Electric Word," by Paul Schubert. Published 1928 by The Macmillan Co. "Radio Speech," by Sherman Paxton Lawton. Published 1932 by the Expression Co., Boston. "Radio and Education, 1931," published by the University of Chicago Press for the National Advisory Council on Radio in Education. "Careers in Advertising," edited by Alden James. Published 1932 by The MacMillan Co. "The Advertising Agency Looks at Radio," edited by Neville O'Neill. Published 1932 by D. Appleton and Co. A SATIRIC, and yet remarkably accurate, portrayal of the program side of radioland has been done by J. P. McEvoy in "Are You Listening?" (Houghton Mifflin Co.; $2). Written in Mr. McEvoy's usual staccato style, the book presents realistic sketches of scenes behind the microphones around a human story of three sisters who break into New York radio. be used to pay them real dividends, not only per se but in the form of circulation, lineage and prestige. Page 16 BROADCASTING • December 15, 1932