Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

The Battle (or Ears Wednesday and Thursday nights art the battle grounds on which the networks are lighting tor audiences, with Niles Trammel! warning NBC stations that 1946 1947 will no1 I"1 a walkawaj for the senior network, ABC is making its play for Wednesday night with the morning still under control. MBS has the juvenile programs but it'll be fighting for the audiences with ABC which has a Bock promotional program under way (see page 29), even if the programs with established audiences are at Mutual. AFRA Scale Increase AFRA American Federation of Radio Vctors will be asking for as high as 50 per cent scale increases when the present contracts expire. Although this seems like a real hike it will actually only affect the programs that pay scale minimums, which are only the smallest part of the network airings. The settlement will nevertheless he for less than 50 percent. Downey Did It First It all depends upon who does a thing. While there's a great fuss about Bing Crosby going network via transcriptions (October 16), it's been ignored that Morton Downey has been going over the Mutual network via e. t.'s for some time without the network falling apart or the Downey rating doing any flipflops. Nevertheless what happens to the Philco-Crosby show will determine in part just what Bob Hope and a number of other stars will want to do, come the end of their present contracts. The subject of transscriptions is a touchy one at both NBC and CBS. What happens to the show will have a bearing on what ABC will be in the future also. The Burl Ives show on Mutual for Philco is also transcribed. That fact hasn't even raised a ripple. George Washington Hill's Bequest The only indication that George Wash" ington Hill had <hv<\. as far as the Frank Morgan and Hit Parade broadcasts during the week ol Ins death were concerned, was that the Hit Parade didn't use its therm . "Happy Days are Here Again." It was Hill's personal ordei thai the programs not be disturbed bj requiems « hen he died. II. had made that tail clear, long before there was any llutt. ring .'I di ath's V TBA Awards II'. \ awards were admittedly the most intelligent evei made in the field. The ■ ical award went to the three men who dev( loped the image orthicon camera which has made most outdoor scanning possible and which will eventually reduce the lighting problem at studios to a minimum. Program awards went to John Royal who master-minded the Diuis-Conn TV presentation; to Standard Brands (Don Stetler, ad-manager' for its Hour Class on WNBT; to Paul Belanger (CBS) for his dance programs; and Klaus Landsberg (W6XYZ) for his scanning of Your Town. Third group of awards went to A. T.&T. men lor their work on the coaxial cable National Radio Week National Radio Week has been penciled in for November 24 30 by the advertising committee of the Radio Manufacturer's Association and executives of the National Association of Broadcasters. Keeping up with what's happened and why New Names for WEAF, WABC Both NFC and CHS have decided to take the whiskers off their key stations and tab them for what they are. key outlets for the networks. Thus WEAF will become \\ NBC, and WABC becomes W CBS. Program facts are that WCBS is. after 10 A. M., as near 100 per cent network as it's physically possible to be, but that WEAF is moving towards local identification as fast as its manager James Gaines can regulate the drift. Both Gaines and Arthur Hull Hayes insist that the name change will have nothing to do with the local service job that the stations will do. It'll COSl each network over $100,000 for promotion and physical changes to effect the renaming of their pioneer stati Program Analyzing Current research trend is towards finding out what makes programs tick just as much as finding out who's listening. Captain Schwerin has been doing for \BC ion a contract basis) what CBS has been doing for some time with its Stanton-Lazarsfeld program analyzer. Both methods of what is tabbed haven't come up with any revolutionary improvements in program ratings although Harta Herzog, Lazarsfeld's wife, has used the analyzer at McCannErickson to consistently increase the ratings of that agency's shows. More recently Ernest Walker has been delivering to agencies and sponsors "laugh graphs" of their comedy shows with Index figures which point the quick finger at what's wrong with the risibility ticklers. Research's wonderful. Somebody ought to do something with it besides pay for it. The Radio Set Situation While combination FM-AM-Phonograph sets are being bought as rapidly as they are available on the market, just as TV home equipment is, the midget sets that were first released at prices around S30-S40-$50 are not selling and manufacturers like Emerson are switching their production plans to sets at around S20 and in the higher brackets. Although R. C. Cosgrove of the Radio Manufacturers' Association claimed 8.660,000 radio receivers manufactured by September first, government tax figures prove that half that figure is nearer correct. And plenty of those 4.000.000 sets are still on dealers' floors. It isn't that the demand isn't there but rather that the demand for "good" sets is high and the demand for small sets is for those at a lower price range than have been made available thus far. New Transcription Net? Although the Keystone Broadcasting System (Michael Sillerman hasn't skyrocketed but built slowly though firmly, it hasn't stopped other transcription networks from dreaming. Latest is Ray Green's Transcription Broadcasting System. TBS is said to involve 160 stations all of which are promised 30 programs a week, sustaining or commercial. It's to be a big city counterpart of KBS's one-station town formula. KBS doesn't worry about sustainers. It does us job for spo; and permits the stations to do their own programing. TBS' starting day is still a question mark. The Sarnoff Prediction RCA's prexy, David Sarnoff, promised electronic wonders at the banquet in honor of his K)th year with the company. Among the wonders to come was a "wave length for m turn to pan 73) SPONSOR