Broadcasting (Jan - June 1936)

Half of Listeners Like Political Fare On Radio, "Fortune" Learns in Survey Women's Group Awards To Be Made on April 22 FIVE program awards will be made April 22 by the Women's National Radio Committee, the second year awards have been made by the organization. Proceedings will be held at the Hotel Astor, New York, with both NBC and CBS broadcasting the event. Mme. Yolanda Mero-Irion, advisory chairman of the committee, said April 4 that ballots already received "indicate a greatly improved standard of radio taste. The public is obviously ready to accept radio offerings of the highest type. Many comparatively new programs are crowding highly popular programs which have been a long time on the air." Mail From 73 TOWNS in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin for ONE SPONSOR in less than one month! We can do the same for you! WROK ROCKFORD, ILL. What folks think about politics on the air proved a matter of concern to the magazine "Fortune", which has tapped a cross-section of public opinion on the subject in connection with its quarterly surveys. Here is what "Fortune" teamed, according to its April issue: "JUST as Fortune's interviewers were preparing to set forth to ask Mrs. O'Malley and her neighbor what they thought about a number of things, a great to-do broke out in the newspapers about political use of the radio. President Roosevelt, facing Congress assembled, had sent his campaign challenge to big business into as many of the nation's radios as may have been tuned in on the networks at that hour. "Charging that this was political use of the air, Republican Chairman Fletcher demanded equivalent network time and, refused, sought to buy time for radio playlets in which were to be starred the voices of John Smith, Mary Jones, Doom and the G. 0. P. Presidents Paley and Lohr, CBS and NBC, again refused, asserting their right to edit their radio programs as a newspaper is edited, and declaring that the radio drama was not an appropriate medium for political education. "Now Fletcher's dramatic script (later locally broadcast in Chicago) may or may not have been entertaining fare for the radio audience. But the broadcasting indus try has no great fondness for political harangues as such and looks forward to the rainy season of campaign oratory about as enthusiastically as Marshal Badoglio scans the Ethiopian almanac. Raising Their Rates "SOME local stations translate their dislike of politics on the air into a premium charge above the customary commercial rates on the grounds that politics are not entertaining. A question of present importance is: Which would be shrewd editing — to increase, to decrease, or to discontinue politics on the air. "It is important especially now because the two old parties, plus the schismatic Al Smith-Talmadge Democrats, plus the Townsendites and Coughlinites and other upstart groups, threaten a record deluge of broadcast words. Accordingly Fortune set out to discover how well the radio listener likes his political fare. People having radios answered the question above [Would you like to hear more, less, or no political speeches on the air?] as follows: More Same Less None Men . . 20.3% 34.3% 29.4% 16.0% Women 11.2 41.6 26.8 20.4 Total . 15.8 38.0 27.9 18.3 "So now, before political broadcasts reach their convention crescendo, a little more than half of the radio listeners are willing, after fairly rigorous exposure, to go on listening to their politicos unhushed or even to hear more of them. That not only shows a wholesome interest in the problems of state, but it even indicates that what Mr. Fletcher has to say might have a hearing without sugar-coating by his Republican dramatists. Too Much Mud-Slinging "EVEN the 46.2% who want less or no political speeches are not wholly indifferent to the responsibilities of their franchise, because interviewers reported that among the principal reasons given for the answer 'less' were 'too much mudslinging without facts and figures' and 'too much talk by small-fry local politicians'. Many people said they would like their broadcast politics confined to top-notch figures like Roosevelt, Smith, Cough OVER 26,000 quarter-hour radio periods produced the last 12 months lin and Hoover. Interesting also is the fact that while fewer women than men want to hear more politics, as many women as men are ' willing to continue hearing the same amount of politics on their ■ radios. i "Just what the unprotesting radio audience may be letting itself in for may be judged on the basis of these precedents: Over the NBC j network alone 100 federal officials spoke 171 times in 1932 prior to the conventions. During the con ' ventions 57 hours of talk bumbled . through receivers tuned to NBC, and the campaign set a record of ; 160 broadcasts consuming 89 hours. ; These were all national, and the j figures take no account of several ' thousand gentlemen who at the same time may have been talking over local stations on the proposition that they should be elected to congressional or local office. ; "The geographical distribution j of politics' radio popularity suggests some interesting speculations: Most in favor of more politics on the air were the Mountain States, 23.6% ; but likewise were the Mountain States most in favor of no politics at all, 25%. Thus they contrast with their neighbors to the East, the states of the Northwest Plains, where only 12.9% want no politics, and their = neighbors on the Pacific Coast,* where only 10.6% are in favor of more. "Whether these differences reflect peculiarities in the habits of the people or whether they result from regional broadcasting practices it is hard to say. But this much is certain: Unless Chairman Fletcher succeeds in putting politics into buskin and sock, many fewer people will be clamoring to hear more politics by the post-election dawn of Nov. 4." St. Paul Appeal AN APPEAL from the FCC decision authorizing a new local station in St. Paul, to be operated on 1370 kc. with 100 watts full time by Edward Hoffman, local merchant, was filed April 7 in the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by the St. Paul Daily News. The court was asked to have the FCC vacate its grant during the pendency of the appeal. The newspaper, affiliated through ownership with the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, which has half interest in WTCN, St. Paul, had filed an application for the same facilities after the original hearing had been held and following the submission of an examiner's report favoring the Hoffman grant. Taplinger on Coast ROBERT S. TAPLINGER, public-i ity and radio relations. New York, f went to Hollywood April 10 toj open a West Coast branch office.; Among the Taplinger accounts are Eddie Cantor, Kate Smith, Burns i & Allen, Ripley, Phil Spitalny,j Walter O'Keefe, Red Nichols, Len-f nie Hayton, Guy Lombardo and theRepublican National Committee radio campaign. ^^Twigger Speaking ..." Pittsburgh Listening ! When Norman Twigger went on the networks with the WCAE News Parade (INS) broadcasts of the flood, America listened, editors copied, and the networks asked for more and more. The flood waters have receded Twigger's popularity. but not so News Parade, with its great loyal audience of Pittsburghers, now is available to a sponsor. Ask for details. PITTSBURGH • BASIC NBC RED NETWORK National Representative HEARST RADIO NEW yORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO LANGLOISandWENTWORTH INCORPORATED Advertisers' Radio Service 420 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK PRINCESS WJBY Kiddie Klub available for sponsorship. Broadcast from stage of Princess Theater Saturday mornings. Average attendence 400. WJRY Gadsden, Alabama Page 4a BROADCASTING • April 15, 19361