Variety (Dec 1929)

Wednesday, December 26, 1929 RADIO-MUSIC VARIETY 57 Coast Stations Record Free Saps for Commercial Hours lios Angeles^ Dec. 24. Ijocal radio et'atlons mean little or nothlner in the way of revenue for entertainers. KFI and KHJ, the two largest stations, on the coast, due to their NBC_ and Columbia hookup, use .little local talent. At KPWB, KNX, kEJK ttnd KMTR, |100 is top for an enter- tainer. For orcheBtr9,s the union scale is paid. None of these sta- tions has developed an -brchestra to "name" standing. Tli^ only "name" entertainers developed in southern California are Charles Hamp, June purcell and. Charlie Wellman, Of the, 22 stations in and around L. A., 15 of them will not pay more than liO for entertainers'''-and most of them want singers and others to work for nothing. One-station, on the air 24 hoiirs daily, has a $6 sal- ary top. Others get the perform- ers to give. auditions on. programs paid for by commercial Jiouses. This gag is worked plenty. . In moist cases the 'station en- gages the performer' and in turn sells him or lier to the company buying the program, the station charging a flitt rate for the time and entertainers. Some stations are re- cording the broadcast, using . the records .^t*^ later date to re-broad- cast the same program. Because of this the musicians* union has issiied an order that all union musicians working on a program ^ which is re- corded must receive the same scale paid to muslciaiis recording for Movietone or Vitaphone. This, scale for broadcasting Is |6 per hour for recording, $30 per man for three hours or less. KFOX at Xiong Beach rates as the biggest 'money-maker among Southern Califorhia stations. liong Beach is populated by former mid- dle-west citizens^ now in?retirement, who think; Jaz2 ^ is strictly the nertSi The owner of KFOX is a fiddle player and spends most of his tloie'before the .ttiike playing old-time tunes, which, are ace high for local cpngumptibn. His . rates are equal to those oiC the I/. A. sta- tions and it's all profit to him, as long as his fiddle holds out. Hollywood, Dec. 24. P9.n American Broadcasting Corp., of which Kenneth G. drmlston of Almee Sempl© McPherson fame, is president. Is attempting to cash in on the influx here of Spanish play- ers for the foreign versions. Company has shipped low wave receiving sets to a dozen or more broadcasting stations In the prin- cipal South' American countries and has arranged for them to rebroad- cast programs to be sent from here four times a week. Programs to be given in Spanish by players at the various studios, services of whom they will get gratis through studio publicity tle-^ ups. Dubin for M-G-M Al Dubih moves to the M-G-M lot Feb. 1, under a new three-way arrangement between. the song- writer. Gene Austin, to whom he Is under contract, and Bobbins Music Co.,. publishers to M-G-M. Dubln Is now finishing his year with Warners and when moving will be the first major songwriter to change afilllations In Hollywood since the theme song thing came in. Agreement with M-G-M runs a year. Austin gets a cut-in on the Bobbins end. PpIIZ MUSIC CHIEF His duties amplified, Boris Morros has beeln placed in direct super- vision of the sheet music and reeord department of Publix, which gov- erns the production and sales of music and discs in Publlz houses. Herbert Hayman has been In charge of this department. "Whether he will remain in the department has not yet been decided. Leo Feist, Inc., in New Tork, was awarded a judgment for $211.31 last week against David Sellg for dam- ages sustained by one of Feist's delivery trucks in a collision with Sellg's car Jan. 17, 1929. Discreet Radio A toilet tissue company has been trying in vain to get on the air for the past few nionths. ^Though ihe company offers nearly double the usual amount for ia conimerclal hour, various networks and independent sta- tions refuse to accept the ac- count. Germany to U. S. Radio First broadcast from Germany to the United States was eflCected Friday while: experimenting for the international broadcasts which are to take place in celebration of Christmas day. Program, which lasted 22 min- utes, was sent frpni the Berlin Stu- dios, Germany, on a short wave length, station operating on a power of 31.38 meters. It was picket, up In New York by BCA, using a spe- cial short wave receiving set,. and transmitted to NBC, which ether- ized the entire program. Program consisted solely of singing, all in German. JUIEIiiE'S AimONY SaVAWK Don Juielle, former music direc- tor for Demarest & Lohmuller's "Woof Woof,", has made a, motion, through. Atty. Saul Godwin, to mod- ify, the decree of .alimony which he was ordered to pay to Minnie Juielle by the Supreme court of Kings county. . . '. Last month/ the Kings coupty court ruled that Juielle slip his wife $30 weekly. Juielle's explanation for a re-argum^nt of the decision is that he is now out of a job and cannot raise the necessary |30 weekly. , OBaAN JUDGMENT Walter Beade, Broadway theatre operator, lost by default When no appearance in his behalf was filed In the New Tork Supreme Court in a civil suit brought against him ta collect an unpaid balance on a theatre organ by the Rudolph Wur- lltzer Co. ^ Judgment was for $5,200.63j which represents a:n unpaid balance of $4,800 plus interest. LICENSE FEE SCHEDULE LAID BEFORE CONGRESS Washington, Dec. 24. Hadio commission has submitted to Congress a schedule of license fees proposed to support the govr ernment lii its regulation of the broadcasters. Industry is reported to favor the licensing system principally because of the belief that paying Uncle Sam for the use of the wave length arid the service rendered would give them a firmer hold on their ^allot- ment of ether. Schedule of fees was worked out by the commission on request of the Senate. It cost $628,103.29 to run things last year. This was con- siderably more than originally ap- propriated, with the commission left for a time without funds to meet the payroll. /"Under unit systeni worked put the communication stations would pay the highest fees. Broadcasters of programs second. These unit fees will be $25, $100 and $300. Highest powered station working on a cleared channel and, on full time would ,be required to pay either $800, or $3,000, or $9,000, this deter- mined by the number of units the commission decided the station should carry. , ; . To collect these fees the recom- mendation is that Congress provide for licenses to be issued by the com- mission with collection made in ad- vance. SALL LEAVES MAJESTIC . The Majestic Badio Hour has re- signed with C. B- S."for 1930. Wendell Hall, previously in charge of the Majestic program^ left employ of the company last we"ek. He is replaced by Lee Seymour. Gage at KTNl Los Angeles, Dec.- 24. . Frank Gage, former manager of KPO, Frisco, replaces Gordon Soule as manager of KTM, the Pickwick Stage Company's radio station here. Earl Carpenter opens at the Cafe Naclonal, Havana, New Tear's Eve. Jerry Friedman go^s Into the Mont- martre, Miami Beach, on the same day. INDIE STATIONS' 'CANNED'BREAK Los Angeles, Dec. 24. Small radio stations and those outside the national chains are be- ginning to see daylight through the canning of entire progra;ms by the large commercial advertisers. In the past the big chains have grabbed all the choice advertising programs due to their locations in cities where talent was, available. Now, with advertisers such as Shell Oil, JtCfelvinator ja,nd Prudential Ih- suriance canning their prograriis and shipping them to small stations, the chains are beginning to" feel the pinch. Warner Bros, is trying to make arrangements with Electrical Be- search Products, owners of the re-- cording patents, to permit theni to make commercial records. In this connection they will use picture players as the entertainers. Recently they had a record made by an put- side Recording company for Screen Secrets, fan msie* . Alice White, Doug Fairbanks, Jr., Dorothy Mac- kaiU and Jack Mulhall were on the record. The advantage expialhed in re- corded programs being -released through individual, stations instead of £L chain is that due to the differ- ence in time from the Atlantic to the Pacific seaboard, the advertiser can have his program released throughout the. country at the same time. Releasing through a national chain there is a difference of three hours between New York and the coast. A program released in N. T. at .7 p. m. is heard, in L. A. at 4 p. m. The lattef is- a dead hour. Cost of broadcasting through the smaller stations is much less than through a chain. It also cuts the cost of .performers. The advertiser can also eliminate those parts of the cPuntry where his product is not used. • These arjguments are offered to counteract the greater listener line- up of chain broadcasts. Maurie Rubens replaces Anthony Trinl as musical director for WMCA, New York. and Happy New Year THIRD CONSECUTIVE SEASON Manger Grill, New York KEMP AND HIS ORCHESTRA THROUGH COURTESY OF HOTEL MANGER IN JANUARY AT CORAL GABLES COUNTRY CLUB, FLORIDA Exclusive Brunswick Recording . J^^ersonal Manage^ment..E.^ Personal Representative ALEX HOLDEN Some More Greetings to E. W. Scheuing, Emerson Yprke, ^. W, Ploger, Joseph Schmidt, Fred Waring, Louis Katzman