Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

RADIO DAILY: new Business Future Of Radio Secure, Speaker Tells Advertisers WNBC, New York: The Washington State Apple Commission has signed a contract for participations in the Mary Margaret McBride program on a Monday-thru-Friday basis. The order, running through March 6th, was placed through J. Walter Thompson. The Whitehall Pharmical Co. has renewed its contract for participations on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the Bob Smith program and has added spots on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The order, calling for 143 announcements, was placed through Duane Jones Co., Inc. The Musterole Company has signed a contract for station breaks on a five-days-a-week basis. The order, running through March 31st, was placed through Erwin-Wasey & Co. Procter and Gamble has contracted for station breaks to advertise Spic and Span. The order, running for 35 spots, was placed through the Biow Company. "News With Charles F. McCarthy" program (7:30-7:45 a.m.) was renewed by Peter Paul, Inc. The 7: 00 a.m. "News With Clyde Kittell" program was purchased by Seeck & Kade, Inc. The Peter Paul contract, calling for sponsorship for a 52-week period on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, was placed through Piatt Forbes, Inc. Erwin-Wasey & Co., Inc. is the agency for the Seeck & Kade account, which calls for Monday, Wednesday and Friday sponsorship for a 13-week period. Charles H. Phillips represented WNBC in both sales. KSFO, San Francisco: According to Jack Campbell, commercial manager of KSFO, both Robert Hall Clothes and The Seaboard Finance Company are including the San Francisco radio station in their Fall promotion plans. Robert Hall Clothes bought 28 quarter-hours weekly on KSFO; while The Seaboard Finance Company takes up the daily 8:00 a.m. 'and p.m. news periods, a total of three and one-half hours per week. Agency for Robert Hall is Frank Sawdon, for Seaboard — Smith, Bull and McCreery. (Continued in somewhat the same position as the theater — reports of its demise are apt to be exaggerated. Neither is dying as yet, and neither will die as long as they provide good entertainment." Cowan continued: "The radio and television people can argue between themselves as to who can do what best. At the present time, and in the near foreseeable future, there is no question about radio. Basic areas, large population centers, can be covered well by television. But as of today, large portions of the country are without any television communication at all, and other areas are served by a few stations, and these on the air only for a short time. This is changing, and will continue to change. Right now, in many homes, radio is the only outside entertainment medium inside the home. Will Survive Changes "Even after that condition changes, even when radio and television are competing for attention inside a home, there will be a place for radio. There will be people who just want to hear music, not to look at musicians; there will be people who want to listen to a comedy or a drama while rocking the baby to sleep, or listen to dramatic shows or something else while doing housework or homework. There will, in short, be a large audience made up of people who want entertainment, but who do not, or cannot, give the time and concentration necessary for extended television viewing." Future of TV The future of television itself was surveyed in an earlier speech, titled "Television Caught Us Napping," by Donald W. Stewart, advertising manager of the Texas Company, which sponsors the weekly Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle on NBC. Stewart declared, perhaps significantly: "In the near future I don't believe that big one-hour shows will Two Comedy Programs Acquired By ABC Web (Continued from Page 1) Thursdays, 8-8:30 p.m. and 8:30-9 p.m., EST, respectively. ABC has signed for both shows for 26-week periods on sustaining basis. The net retains both radio and television rights to the two programs. Arthur Lake will continue to star in the "Blondie" program in the role of "Dagwood." ABC officials currently are conducting a search for "a top-flight" radio actress to handle the "name" part. Johnny Green, the original Writer of the program when it started in 1941, will continue that chore. Dick Woollen will direct. "A Date With Judy," which began on the air in 1945 as a Summer replacement for Bob Hope, is written by Aleen Leslie. from Page 1) need to be seen more than twice a month, since the impact of television is so much greater than radio and it is not necessary to expose yourself on a weekly basis. ... If this schedule is followed, obviously more rehearsal time can be given to each program and in our show with Milton Berle, there would be less chance of his burning out too soon. . . . The other end and one of the most important reasons for going on this basis is the expense involved. It will be very hard to justify spending as much as $75,000 every week for 39 weeks when you can accomplish the same results in 26 weeks at a saving of about $1,000,000." Plea for 'Adulst Conscience' Another 4-A speaker yesterday was Charles Underhill, director of television programs for CBS, who voiced a plea for an "adult conscience" in television. "Perhaps what is most needed in television today," he said, " (is) a conscience that can temper our adolescent enthusiasm for every new talent or program approach with the reminder that this is not the be-all and end-all, not even the pattern, and certainly not the perfection that TV will some day attain." "I merely would like to point out," Underhill said, "that the record of the last year or two is no more an indication of a pattern for the future than was the percentage of organ music in the radio picture of 1928. : . . The things that have been proven or indicated by radio are not necessarily applicable in the same degree to television. Radio is subjective. Television is objective. . . . It is my opinion that the outstanding successes of television will be closer related to the theater, and to motion pictures, than to radio despite the fact that radio geography and radio economy will tend to dictate the presentation of television." Bunting Of NAM To Talk Over ABC Chattanooga, Tenn. — NAM managing director Earl Bunting will discuss "Civic Responsibilities" on a special half-hour ooast-to-coast broadcast by ABC, Oct. 18, 10 p.m., EST. He will be introduced by Dr. David Lockmiller, president of the University of Chattanooga. Benton & Bowles, Inc., is the agency. Simon Ackerman on WMGM Simon Ackerman Clothes, Inc., will sponsor "Take A Tip," 15-minute football commentary, over WMGM, New York, for the third successive year. The program will precede and follow all Army and N. Y. Giants games. Erlich and Neuwirth is the agency. Wednesday. October 5, 1949 PROMOTION Celebrates Anniversary WEEI in Boston, marked 25 years of broadcasting by an all-day open house last Thursday and a 7-foot birthday cake. The neighbors flocked to the studios, letters and telegrams of congratulation came in from Military and Naval Commandants, political bigwigs, former employes (one from as far south as Charlotte, N. C. where Jack Knell, ex-WEEI, is broadcasting), other network and independent station managers. It was a field day for the "old hands" like E. B. Rideout, meteorologist, who came to the station but 10 months after it started broadcasting, and has remained with it ever since; Carl Dickerman, chief announcer, who has chalked up 23 Vz years announcing for the station; Caroline Cabot, whose 23-year-old "Shopping Service" was the first of its kind on the air. 25 per cent of WEEFs staff are members of its 15-Year Club . . . and half that number plan to secede this year to form its 20-Year Club. KVOO Visits Fair KVOO, Tulsa, Oklahoma NBC affiliate, rounded up its entire roster of talent, personalities and characters, to produce an almost continuous show in the KVOO tent at the Tulsa State Fair. The special tent was filled with sponsor displays, and combined with the talent — and the only free ice water available— attracted most of the 150,000 persons in attendance. The KVOO Farm Department, headed by Sam Schneider and assistant Marshall Smith, used the occasion to mark the 8th birthday of its activity. Some statistician figured that if all the farm features and interviews, handled by the department during the last eight years, were placed end to end — but with no reason as to why they should be so placed — it would total 139 broadcasting days of 18 hours each. Station personalities who co-operated in the Fair festivities included Leon McAuliffe and his Western Swing Band, Johnny Lee Wills, brother of Bob Wills, and the Boys, Sons of the Range, John Henry, Ken Miller, Bob Jones and an otherwise unidentified person named Way. J»w Service Camden, N. J. — New commercial microwave relay equipment, making possible a system of highfrequency point-to-point radio communications for such diverse users as pipe lines, gas companies, electric power utilities, trucking companies, forestry services, and fire and police departments, was announced recently by the Communications Section of the RCA Engineering Products Department. Movie Approach Movie scenes of actual sales results obtained from radio advertising are being made by the All Radio Presentation Committee, Inc., as sequences for the industry film, "Lightning That Talks." First film takes were made recently at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the Me Too chain stores are heavy users of radio time. The action shots show the sales results obtained from the radio advertising which featured the merchandising of three carloads of peaches. Victor M. Ratner is producer for ARPC and the filming is being done by IMPS, Inc.