Radio revue (Dec 1929-Mar 1930)

DECEMBER, 19 2 9 13 But the gentleman reckoned without the commercial sponsor. Paying celebrities unheard-of fees for broadcast recitals started in 1925 with the Atwater Kent series. Paying radio artists large fees under contract for fiftytwo weeks is more recent and is to be directly attributed to the commercialism in radio. This, quite naturally, has worked a hardship on the less fortunate entertainers, who depend on the stations and much smaller fees and who contribute ten times as much in actual labor to the radio public's enjoyment. The scale is all out of proportion, with the result that there is a great deal of discontent and unhappiness in artistic ranks. In several cases recently, artists have changed from one chain to another, in an effort to improve their status. The advent of the so-called Artists' Bureau, in conjunction with chain companies, has helped somewhat to promote the cause of the radio artist in arranging personal appearance tours or recitals for which the artist collects a stipulated fee and pays the Bureau a certain per cent. But even so, there are only one or two who have profited to any extent by this arrangement. The surest method for accumulating wealth via the radio route seems still to be through exclusive contract with a commercial sponsor. And the surest way that an artist may insure himself against discrimination is to develop an original line and then have it exploited by either station or sponsor, as the case may be, with full credit to himself. Press Agents for Artists Recently I have been repeatedly asked by artists for an opinion as to the practicability of engaging personal "press agents" or publicity representatives, irrespective of such service as rendered by broadcasting companies or advertisers. Newspaper critics are supposed to harbor a traditional dislike of paid publicity agents. Personally, I am of the opinion that radio artists, more than any other group of public entertainers, need the press agent and the business manager. There is an increasing demand for "personality" matter on the part of the readers of our daily newspapers. Magazines, likewise, are more freely than ever 5". L. Rothafel, Known to Mil llions as "Roxy," the First Radio Matinee Idol The Record Boys: Frank Kamplain, Al Bernard and Sammy Stept, Favorites in the Old WJZ Days before accepting radio artists as good material for "human interest" stories. There is a wide field for popularizing the radio star which has barely been touched upon as yet, for the American people, it has been said, must have their matinee idols upon whom to bestow their affections. With the growth of broadcasting as a business, the average entertainer, no matter how well qualified he may be or how great may be his artistry from the radio viewpoint, is lost in the shuffle unless he has, in a sense, been "radio dramatized." Sometimes a catchy headline will establish him in the minds of the listeners over night ; sometimes it means months of persistent exploitation. The dramatic artist, who is engaged on regular programs, may turn the trick by becoming so associated with the role he plays each week that he cannot be lost to his public. Announcers' Day is Over There can be no stronger example of the dramatizing of unseen personalities for the artists to follow than that of radio announcers. These gentlemen, worthy though they may be. have too long monopolized the broadcasting stage. They are not — when performing their announcerial duties — to be regarded as radio entertainers in the full sense of the term. They are not, it has been shown, time and again, even necessary to a large per cent of the broadcast programs, except for the reading of commercial credits. Yet to them has been handed the lion's share of radio's laurels in the past — simply because circumstances made it easy for them to exploit themselves or be exploited, while the radio artist, neglected as an identity and too modest to protest his rights, has too often found himself nothing but "a voice" that passed into the night. Every story has its hero ; every play its heroine, every motion picture its star — why, then, not radio? Those features that played up the personality appeal have gone down in radio history as the major attractions of their time. Strand.