Broadcasting (July - Dec 1936)

RADIO broadcasters must have motion picture material to satisfy ir listeners, say the thoughtful business men of the production 'bny, let them have the right kind. Hearing these words and finding m good, producers have gone seriously into the question of how ch and what kind of motion picture material is good for radio eners and, at the same time, for the box office. Already available, :m all studios and on practically all products, are 15-minute transcripis, some of them scenes from pictures, others interviews with players, iat not, suitable for morning programs. Reports from the exhibition field thus far indicate that this type of ance exploitation is meeting with substantial response when coupled h the usual formal advertising via standard media. In addition to direct ticket sales value, of course, the discs serve a regulatory ction of substantial if indirect consequence. They keep incompetent jpma commentators from cluttering the air with erroneous and ill sidered chatter and, by the terms of their availability, they confine broadcasting of screen material within the non-box office hours, els yet the transcriptions have attained no established form or plan. ducers are feeling their way and watching results. All the old ?bler problems — how much plot to expose, how much sales effort to rt, whether to spread or concentrate the buckshot — remain to be wered for the new medium. Satisfaction with progress made to date general. Tip to the Motion Picture Industry Reprinted from Motion Picture Herald pen. He envisioned such a reionship eventually working to J point where a slogan such as 3 tend the movies twice a week/' be commonly broadcast, in the mer of Amos 'n' Andy's "See r dentist twice a year," "Brush <r teeth twice a day." He said t the Amos 'n' Andy slogans e done more for the toothpaste dness and dental professions In any other medium in history. J 'Attend the movies twice a k,' " he continued, "should be air slogan personifying the raj|film cooperative idea. r|The automobile is the motion ure's greatest competitor, not o, except that in another year iO,000 cars on the road will :e radios, and right there the petition of the car will be lespd considerably as the car ra| start making the occupants fifvie conscious.' " In the Laboratory 1LEVISI0N still is in the labory," Mr. Aylesworth explained, ■j will be another five years beit goes into the homes of rica on a commercial basis. In ancing my idea for radio-film Iteration, I suggest that the mopicture business now turn : attention to television coatively. They could let the exmienters use old films, out of jlation, to televise. Motion pictures will be the first form of entertainment to be televised on any large scale. "Television will never be a competitor to the regular theatre screen. They will not televise feature pictures produced expressly for the purpose of a single television broadcast because of the enormous sums required for production. Imagine any advertiser spending $500,000 to broadcast a production of 'Little Women'? "The only way to get one industry to work with another is for both to work together." In practically all other countries, Mr. Aylesworth continued, there is a definite cleavage between radio and the screen. There is almost no cooperation, each working independently of the other and in direct competition. It is impossible in Europe, for instance, for exhibitors and the film business to get the cooperation from their radio systems that is already being extended films by radio in this country. "Let there be an understanding between us!" CRYSTALS •fc Low Temperature Coefficient for the Broadcast Band Mounted in Isolantite adjustable Air Gap holder 1 ~k Approved by the Federal Communications Ml Commission ■eq. drift less than — oo Cps/°C./Meg 35 ■eq. drift less than $ ~ oo Cps/°C./Meg 40 Actual Frequency Drift Curve furnished upon request. MERICAN PIEZO UPPLY COMPANY unny Slope Sta. P.O. Box 6026 KANSAS CITY, MO. NBC Speeds News NBC has installed a speed-up system in Radio City for broadcasts of news bulletins a few seconds after they have been received. Microphones, automatic volume control panel and other facilities have been placed in the office of the supervisor of announcers. The second a bulletin is received the announcer on duty can push a button which automatically connects his microphone to the networks and fades out programs. A staccato hum of wireless signals is heard at the opening and closing of each news flash. Formerly a delay of two or three minutes was involved in rushing bulletins by messenger and setting up lines. WTCN St. Paul — Minneapolis FREE & SLEININGER, INC. National Representatives. Movie Opposition To Radio a Myth HOLLYWOOD radio programs have yet to feel the effects of the so-called motion picture exhibitor tirade against broadcasting by important film stars. Such programs employing picture names as Shell Chateau, Kraft Music Hall, Hollywood Hotel, Lux Radio Theatre and Camel Caravan have continued to book stars, and their agencies report no opposition from the film studios. All, with the exception of Hollywood Hotel, pay their screen guests, Louella Parsons on that program securing their services gratis in exchange for publicity in her Universal Syndicate columns. None of the agency or network executives have seen any of the thousands of letters purported to be swamping the film producers; as a matter of fact the editors of the Hollywood trade publications that have carried numerous scare stories on the situation admit that they haven't seen the letters either. One Hollywood trade publication pointed out that radio entertains as many millions an hour as movies do throughout the day and that it will find attractions no matter what attitude picture folk take. The only complaint from exhibitors is said to be against producers who do not supply entertainment good enough to offset attraction of some big radio programs. Meantime NBC and CBS in Hollywood, not only are originating the aforementioned programs using guest stars, but are preparing new fall shows either starring film names or using picture talent in guest spots. Such programs as Joe Penner for Cocomalt, Nelson Eddy for Vicks, Jack Benny for Jello, Eddie Cantor for Texaco, Fred Astaire for Packard, Marion Talley for Rykrisp, Burns & Allen for Campbell's are definite. There are a half-dozen others, largely in the rumor stage. MACON, G A. We Hand YOU an IMPOR TANT Memo regarding New York WBNX affords a NEW approach to the Metropolitan New York Market! Watch this space in next issue or . . . . . . WRITE and ashabout it today! r speaks the /*»/ language' 31,600 KC 'so"! 31,100 KC 3UR 'ROSPECT LOADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising August 1, 1936 • Page 61