Variety (Dec 1939)

20 VARIETY Wedneedaj, Deceidber 6, 1939 • • • Station Activity During 1939 • mm .. First of all: the main purpose of, beyond merely saying that an able program director is more desirable than an inexperienced and inexpert one? Why showmanship? Why energy? Why anything? Showmanship is not myslerioiis highbrow or theoretical. If it has to be related to salesmanship the link is clear. Continitou.s- enhancement of the properly, deliberate exploitation of all legitimate openings and a little Imagination pays dividends. Kven Washintgon politics are influenced by local showmanship when intelli- shines ,1 1> Kits' the V/iRiETY Showmanship Survey from its inception in 1933 to this present (seventh annual) report has been to focus attention upon and en- ccurage interest in certain radio sta- tion management problems. To 'get the point' here it is necessary to con- ce<le as a preliminary truism that there has always been, and still is, s type of radio station management which is—not to mince words— B.<;leep standing up. Secondly: neither in the beginning, not in 1939, was there any intention on Variety's part to praise mere, gently coordinated, 'stunting' or to identify the honor-■ Showmanship perhaps able designation of showmanship with the swivel chair brainwaves of the special events departments. A Eood deal of sheer silliness was palmed off as showmanship in recent years and there has been a regret- uble confusion of thinking and term- <lefinine. Suffice that by every means of blunt-speaking and heavy black underscoring Variety has, in 1939, made it clear and unmistakable that crazy stunts are belittled, not played up, in this Survey and that they are judged with a jaundiced eye looking for their (the stunts') justification. Thirdly: the questionnaire form employed this year has been set up like an X-ray to penetrate press ■agentry and get at fact. One broad- cast executive called the question- naire 'as peremptory as a spitting cat.' Which it probably was since the whole purpose was to get the Ktations to give answers pertinent to 1939 and recent activity and not to so into an old song and dance based cn market data and engineering palter. Fourthly: these surveys are critical and cannot well be otherwise. They have in the past stirred some criti- cism of Vamety itself. That, again, could hardly be otherwise. Because they are critical Variety has to take the blame and because they are out epoken and finger-pointing none of the persons among informed sponsor | organizations and among advertising. agencies (time buyers, etc.), to whom V-AHiETY turns for expert corrobora- tion and collaboration are willing to be publicly identified. (The privi- lege of submitting the station's own Btory was granted to the local broad- j caster after the first three years in order to nieet an objection that the' station should have a chance to speak in its own right) Fifthly: this annual survey is an, imperfect and an incomplete under- taking. Variety has tried to make It; better each year but is fully con-' (icious (more so naturally than any- j ' body else) of its limitations. It cao only be reiterated that it is an at-: tempt to see the tendencies of show- manship practice among radio sta-' tions and to single out distinguished examples of station operation and by the spotlighting of the subject in gen- eral, and particular case histories il-' lustrativc thereof, to stimulate more thousht on showmanship, which is' simply one approach to the problem «f operating in 'the pubUc convent-. ence, interest and necessity.' Inevitably there may be some local resentment at the mental picture of ^ « group of New Yorkers loosening \ the perrl buttons on their waistcoats j •nd going into a conference on who's who and what's what among radio , stations .scattered over the consider- able surface of these federated com- j »nonwcalths. It's just a v^ee mite pre-' eumptiQus. Don't accuse us. We ad-' mit it already. i However it's our pet eccentricity, brightest when a previously dull and In the very early days of radio, sloppy station comes alive under the ^ kiroa<lca.sting the. key to the popu-1 magic hypodermic of new and zestful I larity of a radio station usually was' management Take a minor station f tts physical position or wave length j 'n a minor market and contemplate jlus the power, dependability and j the mathematical results of a little clarity of the signal its engineering! turpentine on a lazy nag—in short stall achieved. | take WQDM, St Albans, Vermont Later the popularity of a station In May, 1938, there was only one derived largely from the network, or quarter hour a week sponsored, central program source, it belonged Every other cent of advertising reve siderable advertising attracted through these indigenous features. Station spread a tenacle into Dead- wood, nearby town, opening a studio in the hotel there. During a state American Legion convention KOBH made a deal to broadcast from a Main Street store window and be- came one of the big doings. It made make-shift arrangements in the dis- tant Black Hills to air-report a forest fire. Some or all of what KQBH did Is standard radio practice but in con- nection with the size of the commu- nity it seems provocative evidence of the nature of present-day man- cvitably there is iome element of 'social-mindedness' in truly broad- gauge station operation. More and more in the years to come stations are going to be (as they already are) subject to increasingly penetrating analysis. It, therefore, behooves sta- tions to give thought Luck may not forever protect the take-all-give- nothing broadcaster. Among other discerned developments these were characteristic of 1939: I Educational director.'!, ti-fre <ip- pointed by stations, a few hired spe- cially, most of them appoiuled /toii anioii0 stajf memtjcrs. >«M^:'.*«i«<!«w:p*trti«-:W: ::>«::lp*f" ^ ^ AMASS PATA I »«iWv ■<«:3««W^f^(^A8d.:^ft|^^*^:*«t;■■. Vf9 ■it^hMif. At -M«H»^Mt<ftt #**Wt4fiMfc4jlW^feW>?VW.*W^ .. ■tttW■t'AW:^«^^K^^(:V»:(*»:^l^^^^:^^^«;^■;J K«nt-:)«dii>kA(tf: _ k^AbJy^J*;:^. ... <FArn1mll« Rcproiluctlon mt Pla<ju Al'OUC Cnr-Halr ACtunI Siz*.) to, and it it had no network aflilia tion its audible personality was ex- pressed solely in phonograph record- ings interspersed with advertising announcements. Today the quality of transmission is still important but its importance is taken for granted^ Stations are expected to be beyond serious criti- cism in engineering. Network con- nection is still important, too, but there again the importance is often taken for granted. ^hat distinguishes one local sta- tion from another today? Variety believes it is the combination of arts and activities which, taken together, we call showmanship And why is showmanship impor- tant? What significance does it have nue came from announcements. Then new management came in, a former station sales rep who knew radio and had some imagination. Today, 18 months later, the station has 22 hours of programs. In far-off places the .ipark of en- terprise is fanned into flame in sun- dry ways, often with a first rate, if necessarily coin-shy, kind of show- manship. Take, as a small example, KOBH, Rapid City, South . Dakota. That is not a station often on the tongues of national spot buyers, but it probably gets more than its share of community word-of-moulh. Dur- ing the past year this station devel- oped a program filler of local interest in home town .softball games. A sports announcer was hired and con- agement in small towns a long way from any big ones. Variety makes awards of special plaques (see reduced facsimile on this page) within 12 classifications but Variety itself would not be showmanly if it rigidly limited itself to fixed categories. Whenever in any yearly survey manifestations of a showmanly policy or flair are noted a plaque may be designed to recog- nize such enterprise. Thus there may, from time to time, be awards to sponsors, agencies, networks, even those outside the immediate confines of commercial radio. But fundamentally the plaques arc offered as tokens for the further en- couragement of station management for it is through the station manage- ment of the 750-odd stations of the United States that the ultimate des- tiny of broadcasting under the so- called American way will be deter- mined. All sorts of related matters are loosely brought together under the convenient but partly-elusive term '.showmanship.' Variety otiers for those who prefer it the alternative symbol, 'station personality.' In- sist civic organizations in the prep- aration of programs, A station may Impress its person- ality upon the public in unique ways. KTSA, San Antonio, conduct- ed a crusade against 'wrecker, cars' which while rushing to accidents themselves caused menace to life and limb. Dramatizing these irre- sponsible accident-chasers the sta- tion played a part in getting a new municipal ordinance forbidding wreckers, to go to an accident unless summoned. Station KFPV, Spokane, by staff additions made in 1939 may be taken as typical of what the more alert stations were attempting to do to tighten the community laces. There were brought in an ex-army officer as it raconteur, a lady exec to liaison both clubwomen and children activi- ties, a new staff music consultant, a new continuity editor, and, finally, the organizer of the local council of Jews and Christians to conduct a station forum. Local radio in the network town. New York City, differs markedly from the norm for the country at large. There is no station anywhere else operated quite like WOXR with its frank catering to the highbrow in books and music. WEVD, of So- ciali.st antecedents, is probably well ahead of the most advanced in terms of grappling with challenging issues of the day.' It has a Free Speech Formn conducted by an Episcopal cleric. It arranges three-party po- litical debate instead of the sedate and cautious common practice of limiting each broadcast to one view- point and giving another time to the rebuttal. The station presented a Refugee Hour with Sigmund Spaeth as m.c. and it ballyhooed democracy hard. WNEW was much in the mazuma during the year and also made na- tional publjcalions quite a bit, WMCA probably got the worst kind of publicity from year's beginning to year's end, WHN did nicely un- der Herb Pettey, WOR continued to be the town's most pretentious all- around station'. I I Stations in Oklahoma City seem I to be keeping pace in the matter of I servicing the community with pro- ' grams that are indigenou.s. Major publicity in the market is hogged by exploitation-minded. Change in man- agement has tended to perk up things at KOMA, whereas at KTOK ideas are in process of crystalizing and at KOCY, an intelligent attempt is be- ing made to develop a program jiol- icy which won't exactly parallel tho.se of its competitive outlets. WKY is the only station in the town with a mobile unit and it makes plenty, and selective, use of the con- traption. In co-ordinating its pro- motional activities with network commercials WKY has .set a smart I pace, and a similar nod is due in ! KOMA's direction. KOMA makes lots of use of Its quota of musicians and injects much keen thought in framing its educa- tional interpolations. KOCY's strong emphr.sis on sports indicates that it's out to capture a particular segment of listeners, while among KTOK's topnotch bids for cerebral attention I is its Family Life Radio Forum I broadcast from the University of I Oklahoma. i Among .stations (and typical of , others) that showed evidences of be- , ing unusually alert enterprising and . endowed with a keen concept of community showmanship values, II ' were: Stations iiicreasinflli; .sent out . WHEC, Rochester—Clicks conslsl- luncheon speakers to tell tlie slorv en"y <>" "'1 cylinders whether it has to do with civic, special events or sports broadcasts. Also applies « goodly a.ssortment of ingenuity in building musical programs. Special bow due for its *A Day at City Hall," a 4.5-minutc demonstration in high tioiis thot hadprei>iousli/''tonoTed fhe' -'^ °* ■'«<^'° operation with the outtuing zones began cultiuatino Die station s entire staff participatmg. farmcTS as the plow-jockeys loomed ^his idea is not broadcast, large as a circulation bontt.s in cov-' WSYR, Syracuse—Continues to set erage. i P*)*^*^ O" sp<}cial events and edu- In Norfolk Station WTAR has .set cational program.s. Turns out a slick up a 'Program Planning Director I PT<""Ot'<">al job. whether It involves who creates a pool of program ideas . between, national advertisers from all available sources—such a.s '"""d local distributors or a local trade papers, staff members, service.^. 1 client of the station, other sUtions. adapting and localiz- WGST, Atlanta—It's Atlanta Civic ing the ideas and creating a perinn-1 Chorus stanza rates plaudits. As a nent file.' This sums up pretty clear- i ' csult of its successes with public ly and practically the ideal of station . events programs and .station won the alertness to what is going on In the i ^idmiration of a leading department realm of programming outside its I store and the first contract that store own zone'.. had ever made with radio. The same station manager. Camp-1 WGAUs Athens, Ga.—Though it'.s bell Arnoux, has also provided a 1 been on the air only since 1938 this twist to the educational thing. Ha.= i outlet has commendably carved out a 'Public Service Advl.sory Coun- '» niche for itself in building strong selor' whose responsibility is to as-, (Continued on page 22) oro>fK(•.^*t:oH4:-!^>K-:«:'f:l.,l^«f:.)M«l I lM*^^t¥.:JM^y«1l^^W::.fl^^<i^>«^WM^a( I :>*S^Mr«^»S)<5«:<«.<««w.M< .■■.■'/f>i:fn\fr.-f)i WJfc:r«*i4-4*rtti IM»5:': >JwyW»ihWft t<::**Jjtt:»"toU¥«i:;4 f^^:| 4S tttrr^httV i.i »*a j» In »rf f of radio sympatheiicaliy in Mobile nuits increasingly cavie standard station equipment IV A considerable number of nin be-