Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

IF THE RECENT convention of the NAB proved any one thing, it was the high regard, and sometimes the affection, in which the "big fellows" of radio with their high power stations hold the "little fellows" with their stations of 100 watts or so. Those "little fellows," especially when they are the only local factors in radio, play a role in the community life of America 'whose importance cannot be denied. At the St. Louis convention, the small station operators attending were for the first time made to feel that they really counted in the radio picture. One of radio's biggest "little fellows" is Roy Thompson, director of WFBG, Altoona, Pa. Here is a half-time 100-watter that plays a leading part in the life of a city of 100,000. To other large and small stations, owned as it is by the William F. Gable department store and used quite extensively by that store, WFBG also furnishes striking examples of how department store advertising on the air can be made to pay real returns. "R. T." is affectionately known by a large portion of the population of this town of 100,000, which boasts the world's largest railroad shops and the world's fastest automobile speedway. His voice is known to nearly everybody in and around Altoona, for he not only manages WFBG but is its chief announcer. Whether there is a campaign for funds for the needy (he is chairman of the local Red Cross drive) or an urgent distress call to railroad men (he did yeoman service before the microphone during the blizzard of 1928 that broke down all other communications in that mountain area in getting relief from other cities) or a warning to the populace against criminality (he once broadcast about a prison break in the local penitentiary) — "R. T." is called into action. On the commercial side, this little half-time station is entirely self-sustaining, if not highly profitable. Its owners think much of their radio investment, for it is an important advertising outlet. For five years up to 1929 WFBG car ried no advertising for the Gable store, though it allowed other merchants to use its facilities without charge. Then Roy Thompson proved its value to Mr. Gable when he went on the air to announce a "radio special lamp," selling 1,012 of them at $1 each by phone orders. Again he demonstrated radio's pulling power by selling out the store's entire stock of hose with a few simple announcements. Today the Gable store uses about an hour a day to advertise its products, and is one of the stoutest advocates of radio advertising. Roy Thompson is a home town boy who made good. He was born in Altoona on May 7, 1892. He left school at 13 to become a Western Union messenger. He became an operator, and soon joined the Altoona bureau of the Associated Press. In 1920 he entered a broker's office in Johnstown, and when it opened Altoona offices he was placed in charge. His introduction to radio came in 1924 when he was asked to announce stock quotations over WFBG, then managed by the late Walter Greevy, one of the founders and first directors of the NAB. Upon Mr. Greevy's death, he was asked to manage the station. He has been there ever since, and his position among his rado conferees is attested by his appointment as chairman of the local station committee of the NAB. One of his hobbies is singing, and the Thompson Trio, consisting of his wife as violinist, his eldest daughter, Alice Mary, 22, as pianist, and himself as vocalist, is well known to the WFBG audience. Married in 1908, his other children are Sarah, 21; Geraldine and Josephine, twins, 15, and Karl, 13. Besides his participation in practically all community activities, he enjoys one main hobby. It is mushball, a favorite sport in that section of the country. Last year he formed a Sunday League for this sport. ANTHONY CANDELORI, orchestra director and concert violinist, has been appointed musical director of WCAU, Philadelphia. PERSONAL NOTES CHAUNCEY OTIS RAW ALT, formerly wi*h James F. Newcomb & Cq., New York agency, has joined the sales promo' ion department of the Byers Recording Laboratory, Inc., New York, programs and transcription production unit of Scott Howe Bowen, Inc. JESSE S. BUTCHER, formerly public relations director of CBS, is now directing publicity for the Share-theWork Movement in New York which is headed by Alfred P. Sloane, president of General Motors. SWAGER SHIRLEY, who as a representative from Kentucky was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in the Wilson Administration, and who is now a Washington attorney representing various radio interests among others, conferred on governmental and party policies with President-elect Roosevelt at Warm Springs, Ga., Nov. 30. PAUL RICKENBACHER, for the last two years studio director and assistant production manager of KHJ, and the Don Lee System, has been appointed production manager, succeeding Lindsay MacHarris, resigned. Kenneth Niles, staff announcer, becomes chief announcer and studio director. E. C. BUCHANAN, president of the press gallery of Parliament, Ottawa, has been appointed publicity director of the Canadian Radio Commission. JAMES L. HUGHES, former editor of the Rock Island (111.) Argus, which recently took over WHBF, of that city, has been named manager of the station. Morean Sexton, formerly with WHO-WOC, Des Moines-Davenport, is program director. R. L. FERGUSON, for the last seven years commercial manager of WLW, Cincinnati, has been transferred to the WLW Artists Bureau, which he will head. PAUL J. BENDER, formerly on the sales force of Los Angeles stations, on Dec. 1 took up duties as commercial manager of KCRC, Glendale, Cal., new daytime station. DON GILMAN, vice president and Pacific coast manager for NBC, early in December visited Los Angeles with Jack Hanley, New York production manager of NBC. They visited other coast points on their itinerary. J. GORMAN WALSH, formerly with WGAL, Lancaster, Pa., is now with WDEL and WILM, Wilmington, Del., as continuity writer and promotion man. Walsh is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, and was one time a member of the editorial staff of the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal. DAVID SARNOFF, president of RCA, who is also a member of the New York University Council, was initiated Dec. 1 as an honorary member of Delta Mu Delta, honor commercial society. MYRON J. BENNETT, who recently joined KTAT, Fort Worth, as program director and chief announcer, has been appointed manager of the station. HAROLD E. FELLOWS, formerly with the Greenleaf Co., Boston agency, has joined WEEI, Boston, as commercial manager. GEORGE L. MOSKOVICS, with a record of more than 20 years in west coast sales experience, has joined KFAC, Los Angeles, as commercial manager. THOMAS SHEARER has been named manager of WAAM, Newark, recently purchased by Milton H. Biow, head of the Biow Co., New York agency. ATTENDING the Gridiron Dinner of the Washington correspondents' corps on Dec. 10 were David SarnofF, RCA president, and M. H. Aylesworth and Richard C. Patterson, jr., president and executive vice president, respectively, of NBC. BEHIND THE MICROPHONE JOHN SWALLOW, producer of "Hollywood on the Air" on NBC, was in San Francisco early in December to confer with Don Gilman, NBC Pacific division vice president, and to open negotiations with Carlton Morse for Radio Pictures to film Morse's radio serial "One Man's Family." WLW, Cincinnati, reports the following additions to its staff: Billie Dauscha, who has been heard from NewYork over NBC and CBS; the Randall Sisters, Paul Whiteman's find; and Frank Henderson, actor on both the American and English stage. HARRY GEISE, former program manager at KMTR, Hollywood, has taken up announcing duties with KMPC, Beverly Hills, Cal. In 1923 he was announcer at KYW, Chicago. TALBOT MORGAN, announcer at KGB, San Diego, has been promoted to chief announcer. OR A BUDGE, director of musical research at NBC, San Francisco, was married early in December to William Cleary, deputy attorney general after a romance of five weeks. DAVE RUBINOFF, musical director of the Chase and Sanborn hour since Jan. 11, 1931, has had his contract renewed for the calendar year 1933. DON HASTINGS, originator of the "Pep Unlimited Club," has returned to WFBM, Indianapolis, with that program after an absence of more than a year. CHARLES PARK, at one time commercial manager of KGO, Oakland, has taken time over KTAB, in the same city, for a thrice weekly program on financial problems of the home. AL FOX, announcer of all-night programs for KGFJ, Los Angeles, for many months, will be heard hereafter from KFVD, Culver City, announcing the midnight hour of recordings. THE COMINSKY TRIO, an instrumental group of two boys and a girl, has been engaged by CBS. The entertainers formerly were associated with the British Broadcasting System. THE VASS FAMILY, consisting of five children, the mother, the father and an aunt, has joined NBC and broadcasts each Saturday at 10 a.m., EST, on NBC-WEAF. The family is from South Carolina; its program is a comedy and harmony sketch. SIGMUND ROTHCHILD starts his sixth year of broadcasting over WOR, Newark, on Dec. 10. His Stamp Club, which is said to be the oldest on the air, has a nation-wide membership. Aside from WOR, Mr. Rothchild has broadcast in 22 other cities in the United States and has lectured in many more. HENRY SCHUMANN-HEINK, son of the famed singer, presented his orchestra in its radio debut late in November from KFI, Los Angeles, on the Union Oil program. JACK HUBBARD, once with KGB, San Diego, has gone with KROW, Oakland, for a series of monologues called "Try this on your radio." ALICE WOOD, NBC hostess and former Broadway actress, and Howard Petrie, NBC announcer, both of New York, have announced their engagement. Both are from Boston. Mr. Petrie formerly was with WBZA, Boston. MILTON J. CROSS, dean of NBC announcers, is doing his first Metropolitan Opera announcing this season. He was pioneer mike-man on the first opera broadcasts from Chicago years ago. At the Metropolitan this year he works in the observation box, high above the famous diamond horseshoe. December 15, 1932 • BROADCASTING Page 17