Radio revue (Dec 1929-Mar 1930)

12 RADIO REVUE If Radio Is To Survive it M UST "Hitch Its Wagon To a Star" By K. TRENHOLM TfDITOR'S NOTE— Few people are as well qualified to discuss the development of radio broadcasting from the entertainment angle as is Miss Trenholm. For over five years she has written a daily critical column on radio in the "New York Sun" and she has seen the field of air amusement grow from its humble beginning to its place as a necessary part of presentday life. WITH the expansion of broadcast programs and the perfecting technically of receiving apparatus it is only natural that the radio artist should step jauntily to the center of radio's stage — there to receive the applause and acclaim of a "personality starved" audience. Yet there has been in the past four years a slow, steady fight behind the progress of each artist's flight to stardom and to recognition — a fight that has only just begun. Radio personalities, or "names," were the original link between the few scattered fans and the broadcasting studios. Back in the days when WJZ occupied a corner of the ladies' rest room in a dingy brick building in the old Westinghouse plant at Newark, stars of the theatre, the musical stage and the concert platform were imported as frequently as they could be lured by the weird story of having their voices heard many, many miles away without visible means of transmission — a story which, truth to tell, few of them actually believed. Billy Burke, Paul Whiteman, the Shannon Four, now the Revelers, Mme. Johanna Gadski, Mme. Olga Petrova, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks — these were only some of the names written etherealy in the early days of broadcasting history. And, except for a very limited Billy Jones and Ernest Hare, the Erstwhile "Happiness Boys" Now Struggling Rather Fruitlessly to Re-establish Themselves Under Another Commercial Name "budget" for entertainment purposes, these celebrity programs cost not one cent in artist fees ! Volunteers in Early Days Then there was another phase of early radio that dealt with its artistry — that of the loyal volunteer entertainer who, week in and week out, stood by in the studio, ready to "take the air," turn the phonograph handle or do anything else that might be demanded at the moment. From the ranks of these enthusiasts have come many of radio's most prominent stars. Trained thoroughly in microphone technic, cognizant of every small detail of the development of that technic, pioneers themselves in experimenting with the transmitted voice, and with a long-established contact with their public, these artists have "arrived." This, perhaps, is the "pretty" part of the picture — "the home-town boy makes good in the big city." There is another side, however, one that has come along with the ever-increasing competition and one that is not so pretty. It is the story of the prevailing injustice in broadcasting studio circles in the exploiting of radio "names," and classification of artists, not to mention the total lack of balance in the pay-roll. For two or more years radio interests sotight openly to down the tide of "personality appeal" in broadcast entertainment. "Exploit the artist," one broadcaster explained to me as recently as 1927, "and you put in his, or her, hand the weapon which may mean your destruction. We cannot afford to make the mistake the motion picture business did in creating public demand for individual artists. We have not the money to pay huge salaries, nor will the returns coming in justify the experiment."