Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

We Pay Our Respects to PERSONAL NOTES • HARRY SHAW MEASURING the broadcasters' year from NAB convention to NAB convention, the year just ended was undoubtedly the most trying for organized broadcasting in the scant twelve years since American broadcasting began. Guiding the radio ship through the troublous seas of 193132 was Harry Shaw, owner and manager of WMT, Waterloo, Iowa, president of the NAB. To Harry Shaw, the editors of this magazine pay their respects with mingled feelings of personal regard, affection and gratitude. Not only has he steered the NAB through its most arduous period, but it was he whose vision made possible the establishment of this magazine itself. With self-interest the least of the considerations, with a vision of industry solidarity that might be stimulated by enabling the broadcasters, agencies and advertisers to know of one another's activities through a publication of their own, Harry Shaw, a former publisher himself, founded Broadcasting a little more than a year ago in collaboration with its present editors. The latter had the idea for such a periodical as this. Mr. Shaw, who had just sold his newspaper in Waterloo to his competitor, and had decided to concentrate all his energies on radio, furnished the initial capital. For that capital, he retained only a minority interest in the magazine for himself. To "the boys," as he likes to call us, he left the entire control and management of the paper, business as well as editorial. It was up to "the boys" to put it over. That we have done so, making this publication wholly selfsupporting within a space of one year, is our answer to his confidence in us. Aside from advising us as to the technical details of the publishing business — advice eagerly accepted from one so long experienced in that business — he has left us entirely to our own resources from the very start. It is unnecessary here to recount the problems and tribulations that have beset the broadcasting indus try_ in the last year — the year in which the well known depression really hit radio hardest and the year of copyright negotiations and multifarious other difficulties. Pursuing his duties as president of the NAB, he has spent much of his personal fortune traveling about the country in his own airplane to attend sectional and committee meetings and to deliver speeches. Harry Shaw was born in Salamanca, N. Y., Feb. 8, 1886. From the time he left the eighth grade, he has been on his own. Most of his energies — and he is a man of boundless enthusiasm and energy — have been concentrated on the publishing business. In 1909, he entered the employ of the Waterloo Evening Courier in the want ad collection division. Soon he was allowed to "chase copy" for the advertising department. Then the morning competitor, the Waterloo Tribune, offered him a job in the display advertising department. Within a year and a half, he was advertising manager; within three years, business manager, and in 1922 he bought the paper. In 1928, a broadcaster in Cedar Rapids interested him in radio. He saw the possibilities in a radio adjunct to his newspaper both as an advertising and circulation promotional medium. He moved the station, a 100-watter, into Waterloo and secured its present call letters to correspond with the initials of the Waterloo Morning Tribune. His proudest feat was the building of that newspaper's circulation to the point where, despite the fact that it was a morning newspaper — and morning newspapers in communities of that size seldom can compare in circulation with evening competitors, — it threatened the evening newspaper's circulation so seriously that the latter offered to buy. He credits radio exploitation for that amazing circulation buildup. His heart was in radio, and when he sold the newspaper he retained WMT with his partner, William Reed. Recently he bought Reed's interest. Harry Shaw was married in 1913 SAM FALLOW has joined the artists' bureau of CBS as head of the club booking department, under the direction of Ralph Wonders. This department is a new addition to the CBS' artists' bureau. Mr. Fallow is well known on Broadway as a booking agent. LEO FITZPATRICK, manager of WJR, Detroit, formerly the "Merry Old Chief" of WDAF, Kansas City, returned to the microphone twice recently as an announcer, handling election night returns and the Detroit Community Fund program. MARGARET MOORE, secretary of Paul McCluer in the NBC Chicago sales staff, has been added to the staff of the Chicago office of World Broadcasting System. Mildred M. Brannan has taken Miss Moore's place with NBC. DONALD S. SHAW, formerly a partner in the agency of Cleveland & Shaw, Inc., and until recently with Williams & Saylor, Inc., New York agency, has joined the New York sales staff of NBC. AL SHORT, NBC Chicago production man, was transferred to the NBC New York staff Nov. 1. Lawrence Paquin, formerly production manager of the Goodman Theater, Chicago, has been added to the NBC Chicago staff. Paquin formerly was head of dramatics at Dartmouth, head of the speech department at the Chicago Musical College, and directed the Bellmy Players of Des Moines, la. MORTON R. DUFF, advertising manager of KGBX, Springfield, Mo., has resigned, effective Dec. 1. He has announced no future plans. CHARLES GABRIEL, Jr., former assistant general manager of KNX, Los Angeles, has opened the National Broadcasting Studios at Figueroa and Santa Barbara streets, Los Angeles. Courses include all branches of technical activity, as well as announcing, drama, program direction, and other phases of broadcasting. FRANK BULL, manager of KMPC, Beverly Hills, Cal., was married to Peggy Price, blues singer, late in October. The wedding took place in Santa Barbara. THOMAS B. ROBINSON, formerly in the sales promotion department of the NBC, New York, has joined the staff of WKJC, Lancaster, Pa., and is creating a merchandising advisory service for local advertisers. UNIVERSAL RADIO Productions, Chicago, announces the appointment of Nathalia Gearzon, to its staff. Miss Gearzon, long associated with leading cosmetic manufacturers as lecturer, publicity writer and sales executive, will specialize in the handling of cosmetic and beauty preparation accounts. BORN, to Herbert Hollister, president and manager of WLBF, Kansas City, and Mrs. Hollister, a son. to Margaret Bragdon, of Waterloo. They have three children, Beverly, 15; Bill, 12, and Peggy, 8. In Waterloo community affairs, he has long been a leading spirit; it was he, as publisher of the Tribune, who sponsored the trip of the Cedar Falls Band to the Chicago Tribune's annual contest in 1930, in which it won first place among competition from all parts of the country. His greatest hobby is fly fishing for small-mouth bass, and he is an authority on the sport. Hunting, especially for quail, and working with fine dogs, is another interest. He has a houseboat on the Mississippi and owns a summer camp in Wisconsin. ROY F. THOMPSON, manager of WFBG, Altoona, Pa., has been appointed campaign chairman of the Blair county Red Cross drive which started Nov. 11. J. C. CONWAY, formerly with KFWB, Los Angeles, has joined GuentherBradford & Co., Los Angeles, as an account executive. BOB WHITE, Chicago radio producer and script writer, has been retained to write several of the CBS "Roses and Drums" dramatizations sponsored by the Union Central Life Insurance Co., Cincinnati. Mr. White also writes the "Mahdi Magic Circle" for 15 midwest stations, and broadcasts in several character roles, including Dr. Petrie in "Fu Manchu" and the NBC Rin Tin Tin Thrillers. JULIUS SEEBACH, director of program operations for CBS, was awarded a good luck medal by the Poor Richard Club of Philadelphia Oct. 26. The Poor Richard Club is composed of Philadelphia's most prominent advertising agency representatives. The medal was presented in apreciation of Mr. Seebach's speech on advertising made to the club the same day. JOHN DE PAGTER, manager of WNAX, Yanktown, S. D., visited Chicago on business this month. AL MASTEN, one of the best known musicians of the mid-west, recently became musical director of WSM, Nashville, Tenn. He was for several years musical supervisor at WOC-WHO, Davenport-Des Moines. MARTIN B. CAMPBELL, manager of WFAA, Dallas, has been appointed to the faculty of the Advertising Institute of Dallas for the 1932-33 term. His lectures will include "The Technique of Preparing Radio Advertising" and he will conduct a student radio laboratory. HAROLD HORTON, formerly chief announcer at KFRC, San Francisco, has succeeded Harry Geise as program director of KMTR, Los Angeles. He was previously with WOC, Davenport, la. HAROLD TANNER, formerly of the anouncing and commercial staff of WXYZ, Detroit, has joined the commercial department of WJBK, Detroit. He will also announce special sponsored programs. Mr. Tanner has announced on several stations in the middle-west. ALBERT G. CRANE, for many years a member of the national advertising staff of the Chicago Daily News, has joined the sales staff of WMAQ, Chicago. BEHIND THE MICROPHONE JOSEPH EMERSON, baritone, who has been heard in a variety of NBC broadcasts, has joined the staff of WLW, Cincinnati. JACK KAY, whose "Sunshine Express" was a feature of WXYZ, Detroit, has joined the staff of WJBK, Detroit, and is presenting a half-hour program with "Kentucky Jack" Williams, who sings and plays a guitar. Kay does the announcing. EDNA HALEY, formerly on the staff of WFI, Philadelphia, is now one of the featured artists at WIBG, Glenside, Pa. LLOYD SOLBERG has taken over the directorship of the Totem Broadcasters Orchestra at KOMO, Seattle. AUDRY FARNCROFT, formerly a vocalist at KPO, San Francisco, was married recently to Fred Scott, film and stage singer. She has been heard recently on programs of KFI, Los Angeles. "MICKEY" (CARROLL) GILLETTE, until recently a saxophone player with KFRC, San Francisco, but lately with NBC out on the Pacific coast, now has a weekly program of his own called "Sax Appeal." November 15, 1932 • BROADCASTING Page 21