Radio daily (Apr-June 1937)

Thursday. June 24. 1937 RADIO DAILY 7 WITH THE ^ WOMEN ^ CADIC PCCXONALITICX • No. 45 in the Series of Who's Who in the Industry • THE story ol Ralph L. Aflass, president of WJJD, Chicago and WIND, Gary, runs back to 1914 when as a lad of 10 he toyed with wireless down in Lincoln, 111. His older brother, Leslie, now CBS v.p. in Chicago, became interested, and soon they were broadcasting for amusement, finally moving the station to Chicago where they persuaded their mother to let them continue broadcasting from their home at 7421 Sheridan Road. Thus they gradually forged onward. Ralph Atlass was the pioneer play-by-play football reporter doing Northwestern games from Dyche stadium himself. From announcing he moved to control board operations — and then into the program department. While here he arranged for the Granada cafe pickups that were to make Guy Lombardo famous. Atlass took a chance on Lombardo playing ten miles from (he loop. The night he went in, six couples attended. A week later place was a sellout and Lombardo became overnight sensation. Ralph Atlass was the first broadcaster to put such organizations as the American Medical Association and Chicago Dental Society on the Air. Educational broadcasts occupy year in year out important positions on the WIID and WIND schedules. Several years ago Ralph Atlass disposed of his interest in WBBM to CBS and acquired WJKS, Gary, now WIND, and soon thereafter WJID from the Loyal Order of Moose. Relatively unknown at the time, both have since been made outstanding successes. € CC H EST CAS ML S I C By ADELE ALLERHAND ^— IVTARY SMALL, teens-age vocalist, busy as anything these days, what with a guest appearancee on the Joe Cook show Saturday .... an opening at Detroit's Michigan Theater on July 2, then back to N. Y. to depart on a 15-day cruise with Canadian and Bermudian ports of call accompanied by Mama Small, on the 31st. . . .If rumor proves reliable she'll go coastward as featured singer with a J. Walter Thompson air show of impressive proportions .... "Hilltop House", the Selena Royle, Carlo D'Angelo offering, seems likely to have a five a-week spot on Columbia, come fall, barring accidents. . . .Louise Massey and her western entourage booked for 14 (count 'em) guest shots, in Chi .... they play a return engagement at the Chicago Theater the week of July 9, with a mammoth western production being built around them. . . . T T Dorothy Thompson takes the air Aug. 8 for a big cigarette sponsor over the NBC coast-to-coast network ....One reason Benay Venuta, Patti Chapin, Ray Block, the Eton hoys and Russ Morgan are glimpsed at the Zebra Bar is Ann Balthy ... .Ann's married to Pat, one of the two proprietors, hut retains her job as sec to Ray Block, with whose outfit she's done considerable ether warbling. . . . Elsa Maxwell and Gertrude Lawrence, both lotus-eating across the Atlantic, report the usual "wonderful time" ....Jean Paul King and his scribe wife spend week-ends at the Provincetown Wharf Theater on account of he's associate manager of the enterprise The Watson Sisters of variety fame to record four swing ditties for National Recordings, according to Ben Greene .... T T Mitzi Greeen, who failed to make her scheduled appearance on the Rudy Vallee program last week, because of illness, will be aired on it tonight .... La Green will do her much-heralded "The Lady Is a Tramp" and will offer her impression of Luise Rainer in the "Ziegfeld" opus Little Norma Lind, now pow-wowing with M-G-M execs, to vocalize with the Bamberger Symphony over WOR on luly 2. . . . Roxanne convalescing with a broken wrist, acquired when she stumbled in front of the Music Hall .... Gladys Netbum, Ed Wolf's diminutive brunette amanuensis, joins the ranks of the married luly 24.. . Unless something unforeseen occurs, Gladys and spouse will honeymoon in California. . . . JERRY GILBERT and ork will play at the Edgewater Gulf Hotel, outside Biloxi, Miss., again this summer. Spot has a WGN wire. Harold Jotdy, whose musical aggregation was scheduled to break up when the New Orleans Rose Room closed, advances into the Roosevelt's swank Fountain Terrace cocktail room instead. They'll he ethered via WWL, WSMB and WDSU. Tony Almerico, trumpeting singercomic, whose band is featured at Club La Place, La Place, La., takes the place of a floor show, with the assistance of his musical ensemble. Nightly broadcasts of dance music from the grill room of the Hotel Muehlehach, Kansas City, via WDAF. which were discontinued three weeks ago because of local hotel strike, have been resumed with Carlos Shaw in command of a bayid of local musicians. No Sunday broadcasts, however. The NBC Rippling Rhythm Revue Sunday night goes nautical in the zany manner, with Bob Hope offering his own version of "Sailboat in the Moonlight". Horace Heidt and the outfit he batons will attend the premiere playing of his first records on WNEW's "Make Believe Ballroom" today, from 6-6:30 as guests of Martin Block. Program consists of brand-new Brunswick releases: "Building a Band", "Gone with the Wind", and "T)ie Bells of St. Mary", with a sprinkling of songs by Larry Cotton, tenor, Alvino Rey, electric guitarist. the four King Sisters, and Jerry Bowne, comic and singer. WQXR has designated July as request month for music, with listeners writing in their favorites. Results so far have proved that the great composers are those which listeners over that station prefer. Beethoven heads the list, followed by Tchaikowsky, Wagner, Mozart, Sibelius, Brahms, Schubert, Bach, Debussy and Liszt, in the order named. Johnny Green and his band will introduce new ditties by three unknowns, namely; a bank clerk, a real estate man and the sister of a movie star, all of whom show great musical promise, on their June 29 broadcast over the NBC-Red network at 9:30 p.m. Composers are Mel Wettergreen, hank clerk, Richard Lewine, New York real estate man, and Bonnie Lake, younger sister of Ann Sothern. Remick's Charlie Warren will run a special midnight preview of "The Singing Marine" Monday evening at the New York Strand Theater, introducing Warren & Dubin's new score. 60-Day Deal for Earhart NBC Artists Bureau yesterday signed Amelia Earhart to a 60-day contract to take effect at the completion of her present world flight. Fred Newman, navigator with Miss Earhart, has been signed to a 90-day contract which will also become effective at the end of the flight. The Kidoodlers, a novelty quartet, has been signed to an exclusive contract by the bureau. ^ E. C C. ACTIVITIES APPLICATIONS GRANTED Owensboro Broadcasting Co., Owensboro, Ky. CP for new station. 1500 kc, 100 watts, unlimited. WAPO, Chattanooga. CP to install new transmitter, increase power to 100 watts night, 250 watts day. change hours of operation to unlimited. 1420 kc. WJAR, Providence. CP to make changes in equipment and increase power to 1 KW. night. 5 KW. day. 890 kc, unlimited. Harold M. Finlay and Mrs. Eloise Finlay. La Grande, Ore. CP for new station. 1420 kc. 100 watts, 250 watts LS., unlimited. WHBB, Selma, Ala. Mod. of license to change hours of operation to unlimited. 1500 kc, 100 watts. Okmulgee Broadcasting Corp., Okmulgee. Okla. CP for new station. 1210 kc, 100 watts, daytime. WHBB, Selma. Vol. assignment of license to Selma Broadcasting Co., Inc. APPLICATIONS DENIED Edwin A. Kraft, Petersburg, Alaska. CP for new station. 1420 kc, 100 watts, unlimited. Bayou Broadcasting Co., Houston. CP for new station. 1210 kc, 100 watts, daytime. HEARINGS SCHEDULED June 28: El Paso Broadcasting Co.. El Paso. CP for new station. 940 kc, 1 KW.. unlimited. World Publishing Co., Tulsa. CP for new station. 940 kc, 1 KW., 5 KW. LS., unlimited. KGKL, San Angelo, Tex. CP to change frequency and power to 940 kc, 1 KW., 5 KW. LS.. unlimited. Tribune Co.. Tampa. CP for new station. 940 kc, 1 KW., 5 KW. LS., unlimited. Earl Weir, St. Petersburg. Fla. CP for new station. 1370 kc, 100 watts, unlimited. KCMO, Kansas City. CP for change in frequency and power to 1450 kc, 1 KW., unlimited. KRE. Berkeley, Cal. CP for change in frequency and power. 1440 kc, 500 watts. 1 KW. LS., unlimited. APPLICATION RECEIVED HoUenbech Heights Christian Church. Los Angeles. CP for new station. 1170 kc, 100 watts, limited. Extra Value WFBM, Indianapolis, furnished the Columbia network with some unexpected extra talent when originating a program with A. Copeland Callen, president of Kiwanis International, as speaker. Callen, in town from Pittsburgh, for the national convention, brought along a chorus of 20 mixed voices, who were also fed to the web during the quarter-hour program. OKLAHOMA CITY Neal Barrett, manager of KOMA. is doing a bit of vacationing in New York, the Carolinas and Florida. While in New York, Barrett will confer with Columbia and Hearst officials in lining up the fall schedules. His main intent in visiting New York was to attend the convention of the AFA, of which he is Governor of the tenth district. In Barrett's absence, Buryl Lottridge, KOMA's new commercial manager, is in charge of the Station. Harold Sparks, announcer and writer for KFXR is little, but how that boy does get the work out. Bob Elliston, station manager of KFXR is out of town just about all of the time, staying in front of the "mike" to let the natives know who's hitting which ball for the Oklahoma City baseball team.