Variety (Dec 1940)

40 niTERHATIOMAI. RAOia Wednesdi^y, Dcccinbcr 4, I940 lotes Rdio Colabration in Mexico; By POUfitAS L. GRAHAME Radio got going a big scale iii advancing-'the U.S. arid: Latin Amer- ican get toj^ether/program wit^^ the big hobk-up broadcast of the inaugu^ tatioh, of Gen. Manuel Avila Camacho as President of Mexico (1); This \yas the first hookup of all th? principal' U / S. and .Latin Amencan\ stations for the coyerage of ciriy individual ';..event ii\ PilMico;/' It en^ ■^^to hear pnrthe-ground accounts . in .both :.English. .. .and Spartish, direct from the ; torigressional; v chamber .here..-',; ' This air ;coverage .was an: example, of the ri.ew-' coordination ■ between S. and Meiticah a.tid' other Spari- ish-Arnerican radib stations:. Radio- . meh here see it as initiating bigger aiid. bfettei' things in ether and other reiatiohs between, the Nprdie and Latin Americans; The inaugural was reported -hiere, by top Anierican and. Mexican news- casters; Eric $eyaireid, veteran. Eu-, rojpean' conimentatbr, worked for CBG. Bob Allen covered for NBC. while .jack; StarrrHunt, local; foreign CQrresbc:riderit. aired the story for- Mutual, John F. Royal; NBC; y.p^ was; here for the inaugural. ,, . Local station XEW (100.000 watts) which . with its . sister station; XEQ ,(50.000 watts)', both owhied and oji- erated by: the Aicarraga syndicate are in the vanguard of radio .in Mex- ico, cooperated in the handlirig of all the .English trarismissions that NBC . ..broadcast. ■ ' :, GE had direct charge of the Span- fsh trahsmissidris, spoken by. Aloriso Sprdo Noriega, star Mexican an,- tipuricer. Noriega talked by direct telephone from the congress cham- ber to. Sah Francisco. His voice was transmitted: from . here by GE - to Central and South American stations. sters Army Camp Unit For Town Hail Luncheon W Welte on WOR, WQXR Statipns WOR and. WQXR, New York, vyill broadcast the luncheon given at the Astor: hotel, N. -Y., to- day (Wednesday) by Town Hall, for H. G. Wells.. Besides the English novelist, the speakers will include Anne O'Hare McCormick, Maurice Hindus and Kingmian .Brewster, jr., editor of the . Yale News. Subject will be 'Will Freedom Prevail?.'. . Luncheon is being given by the board of trustees of Town Hall, N. Y. Jerry Lester will m.c. the, show which Lucky Strike (American To- bacco) plans to tour around the-sol- diers camps, and cut in for a cou- ple numbers on its Saturday night Hit Parade (CBS). Lord & Thomas denies the report that; this same show might in the event of a break between-the networks and ASCAP: Dec. 31 ;become the placement for the Hit Parade itself. Touring setup will comprise also of a name danca band playing the particular area at the time and two or three acts. The band's will" all be booked out of the offices of the Mu- sic Corp. of America. . Session at the camp will consist of about an hour of. presentation entertainment and an hour or two of straight dance music. '■' Those Mexican Names Mexico City, Dec. S. Even MeXican radio an- nouncers have dilTlculty. in cor- rectly pronouncing some Mexi- can names. None of them agree, for instance, on the pronuncia- tion of 'Tequesqui.tengd,' dulcet ancient Indian name for th« lagoon where Maria R:iyera, the ; looker whoIs Mexico's champ . girl \ long distance swirhmer, practiced befoire going to the U. S. in quest of fresh laurels. Stations are getting plenty ■ : kidding from fans. But no two of the guyers who phone the studios pronounce ITequiesqul- terigC the same way. New Stress In GREECE STATION UP TO 75,000 WATTS Washington, Dec, 3. . Boost from- IS to 75 kw for. the radio-broadcasting station at Athens, Greece, was reported Monday by the officje of the American Cornmercial Attache at the Greek capital. ;. New buildings have been con- structed at the proposed site, the y. S. Department of Commerce was informed, but the entire installation will not be ready Until approxi- mately March, 1941. The frequency used by the Greek transmitter 'will remain unchanged at 601 kilocycles,' the Commerce Department was in- formed. r No . iridicatiph wai given Irt the pftkial dispatch , as to whether hbs-. tilities with the Italians had. begun. R. V. Howard, KSFO Saii Fran- cisco . engineering chief, . goee to NAB 15th district engineering com- mittee. ■ V ■'. ^■ Montreal, Dec. 8. Parliament Is again belrig urged to yote'funds for the construction of a 50 kilowatt shortwave transmitter in Canada as a means of counteract- ing Kazi radio propaganda. Leist week, saw members of the House of Commbns. advocating ■■. immediate building of the shortwave station to supplement the services of the Brit- ish Broadcasting Corp. The CBC is already building a 7% kilowatt shortwave station at Ver- cheres, Quebec, which is scheduled to begin operations next month. Main purpose of this station, . how- ever,. ■ to readh outlying French- language areas .in this province which are not now serviced by exist- ing CBC stations. • The 7% kw< transmitter, from ac- counts, will be able to reach Europe only under favorable metereological conditions.. Listeners in thie U. Si A;, Central America and the West Indies will be reached almost, under any conditions. It was originally planned to gradually increase power of this station in due course but Parlia- mentary opinion is now veering, to- wards view that a new .50 kilowatt transmitter will be necessary when it Is time to embark upon complete International .coverage. Eldon Campbell, special events di- rectof for WOWO-WGL, Fort Wayne, has returned to work following an appendecton^. Johnny O'Hara, sportscaster at KWK, St.. Louis, signed another con- tract and celebrated;by departing on a Carribean cruise. THE HUG H—PHYLLIS—JO-J EAN—RALPH Featured on "TEXACO STAE THEATRE" CBS—WEDNESDAYS 9 to 10 P.M., EST Vociil Ari'nnsementfl nii«] Dir(jet1on ny HL'UII MARTIN Personal Mannoement: FRED STEELE » Rockefeller Plaxa. New York City Suite 004 . . . ^ roinmhua 5-Zin Montreal, Deo. I. Board of. Goyernorf ol the Ca- nadian Broadcasting Corp. Thuraday (28) announced ratification of -new arrangements . with Canadian Press and British United Presa for news broadcasting on government stations in the Dominion, Private stations may, until further notice, continue using Transradio News. Under the new setup for.the CBC^ the government radio net will have the entire news^gathering organiza- tion of the Canadian Press and BUP at its disposal effective ;Jan. 1. CBC ■will have its own staff of newt edi- tors and rewrite m^n to handle Ca- DOmT MISS PALMOLIVE'S BESS JOHNSON By Adelaide Mdrston Dedicated to the wottien of America. ' The story of. woman who must choose between love and the ciarear of raising other women's children.. WABC-CBS— 4:30-4:45 A.M.. EST 78 Stations Coast-to-Coast D/reotiqn BENTON & BOWLES, Inc. Manaoement ED WOLF, RKO BUILDING, New York nadian Press copy in Toronto, Mont- real, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Hali- fax. Dan MacArthur, Toronto, is slated as editor-in-chief. , • : Canadian Press and BUP, from ac- counts, are providing this nevvs serv- ice to the Government free of charge. But CP news cannot be sponsored on either CBC stations or other stations asking to iise the same service. . Canadian Press , formerly received $20,000 a year fromthe Government. No credit will hereafter be given to Canadian Press .for newscasts. The bulletins will be billed as CBC News Service, arid will be. main- tained 'on ■ a sustaining basis only. No news agency, or newspaper can be credited as a news source, under ; this arrangement, and direct or ihr direct sponsorship of any kind :is taboo. ■■• ■ •■ ■ ■ ^.^--O-- /.■- '■ Free UpoliRequSSt The CBC News Bulletins will be issued over , liine CBC. stations, and 25 priyately-owned stations.; But all CBC network-affiliated, privately- owned stations may receive the service free of charge.; Private, sta- tions not, tiied in with the CBC may also obtain the service free upon, re- quest except that they must under- take to pay line charges, and with the . strict understanding that these newscasts cannot be sponsored. ■ The CBC has also undertaken to ban the broadcast of news taken ffom .any daily newspaper in Canada on any station in the Dominion. Understanding, is that CBC News Bulletins will be. prepared from British United as well as Canadian Pre.ss .services, with the CBC retain- ing privilege of using qny other so.urces that may be found useful. . Mexican Anouncers Do Traditional "Don Juan' Shirer Due in U.Sj^., Sevareid Stays Here; Hartridge on Lectures William Shirer, CBS correspon- dent in Berlin, leaves there .tpmor- rbw (Thursday) to catch the Clipper from Lisbbn, and is due in New York probably Sunday (8). He will remain here about four to' six weeks for a rest, the exact time being up to him. Harry W. Flannety, who re- cently went to Berlin from station KMOX,. St. Louis, will remain there indefiriltely. Shirer v will . probably go back to Berlin; . ; ■ CBS will send another man to London in place of Eric Sevareid, to help Ed Murrow and Larry Le Sueur,; Sevareiid, who went to Mexi- co City to. cover thie inauguration of the Mexican president, started back Monday night (2). fte wiill remain in New York as a regular member of the home staiPT indefinitely. Edwin Hartridge, currently in the U. S. on leave, will fill lecture dates until June or July, when he may r^-. turn to duty In Berlin. However, that depends on future develop- ments. Paul White, head of the bureau for CBS* is due back shortly befofe Christmas from his South American trip with Williarri S. Paley, the network's president. AUSSIE REFUGEES FROM ENG. CROWD HOMELAND Melbourne, Nov. 14. ■ .. Some 52 Australian entertainers Who were perfprming in Europe or England, including over the British Broadcasting Corp; system, are how. in AustraliiaiK driven home by hos- tilities. They ; congest the already unhappy talent rnarket here. Wilfired Thomas, one of the Lon-. don radio entectainers of pre-war. days,, has been conducting a Celeb- rity TbUi^ since last" February for the Australian Broadcasting Commis- sion. . ■' - Crosley DX Pickup Of Chicago Livestock. Show ' - : ; / ' Cincinnati, Dec. 3. WLW: and its intei-riatipnal affjll- ate, WLWO, are originating' Special programs this week from the Inter- national Livestock Exppsltlbn in Chi- cago. Ed Mason, farm, program dlr rector of the Crosley stations, is in charge, of the airings at hopn on WLW. .Proceedings of the exposition are being done in; Spanish on WLWO by Tony Vargas, assistant foreign ad- vertising manager of the Interna- tional Cellpcottpn Corp. SHORTWAVE COMMERCIALS Export : Airlines, Esterbrook Pen Use NBC DXers American Export Airlines, Inc., started a series of programs with the NBC shortwave divisipn Sunday (24). it's three quarter-hour pror grariis a; week in Portuguese; Spanish and English. All programs will deal with American aviation. Esterbrpok pen Co., has also joined NBC's roster of shortwave custo- mers, It will underwrite 15-minutes of opera commentary following the Saturday broadcasts of the Metro- •politari Opera, starting Dec. 7. Yank Swing on XEBZ Mexico City, Dec. 3. The pro-U.S.A. trend in Mexico has lined up yet another radip sta- tion, XEBZ, 100 watts, which calls itself , the • 'Mexican Mouthpiece.' This station has American Hour as a regular, evening feature. . Prpgram is mostly swing numbers and typically; American songs, irt English. ■ .rv ' Readies WTO Transmitter, ' . Chicago, Dec. 3. Following' okair: for 5,000 watts for WIND • Ralph Atlass last week let contracts if or - the immediate con- struction, of a new transmitter out- fit which will give WIND one of the finest technical plants in the country. Additional. land has already been purchased for the constructipn of the new towers, with work expected to be cpmpleted by Feb. 1. • Mexico City, Dec. 3. The 1.5 announcers pf local radio station XEW (100,000 watts) copped some juicy extra coin by turning dramatic players for a novelty air and. visual presentation from their station, and flesh presentations in various theatres here. They put on for the first time §o elaborately, a rendition of 'Don Juan Tenpr'io* classic Spanish 16th century tragedy which originated ihe ttrm. Don Juan! This tragedy is a traditional show for Mexican theatres in November. The announcers drew capacity galleries. Their gross was $60,000 (Mex.), the announcers receiving a pro rata split. I ' , .'' .-,; . ' Tokyo, Nov. 1. . The Broadcasting Corp. bf Japan has revealed plans for a large-scale expansion of its activities. Two new lOOtOpOrwatt transmitters will be con- structied, one; in Osaka and' the other in Fukuoka, Kyushu, arid nine new local stations will be added to the national chain. • The number of foreign; languages used in the foreign section of the CPrppration's activities , will be in- creased frpm 12 tp 16, and the total number of hours given oyer to pro- grams raised from 12 to 40. A meet- ing will be held shortly in Taihbku, Formosa, to; coordinate the radio ac- tivities of japan, China and Man-, chukuo. Bafael Heliodoro Vaile, of; Ex- celsior, Mexico City, and recent win- ner of a $1,000 Cabot prize for news- men promoting better relations be- tween the Americas, broadcast Dec. 15 pver General Electric's short wave stations in Schehectady,' A' p PBESiENTED BY .tradi-mark; Every Sunday CoMumbia J^etwork 4:30 P.M. E.S.T.