Broadcasting (July - Dec 1938)

CELEBRATING completion of arrangements for return to the air this autumn of Grove's Laboratories, St. Louis, and surprising Fred Waring, orchestra leader, with a party on his 38th birthday June 9 were (1 to r) Hal Kemp of Stack-Goble Adv. Agency, Waring, Phillips Carlin of NBC program department, and Charles Phelps of NBC sales. The Pennsylvanians will start in October over NBC-Red network. Rush of Renewals by NBC Sponsors Said to Augur Well for Fall Billings Network Contract With AFRA Goes Into Final Stages Both Sides Ready to Sign as Legal Details Cause Delay SIGNING of standard contracts for actors and singers employed by NBC and CBS will take place "any day now", according to executives of the networks and of the American Federation of Radio Artists, AFL union having jurisdiction over all radio talent except union musicians. Negotiations have been carried on since last winter and have reached the stage where all major points have been settled and both sides are ready to sign as soon as the lawyers have agreed on legal details. Contracts run for two years and cover wage scales and hours for all actors and singers employed by the networks in their stations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. National minimum scale for actors and soloists is $25 for an hour broadcast, $21 for a 30-minute show, and $17 for a 15-minute program. Singers employed in groups will receive $18, $15 and $12 for broadcasts of an hour, half-hour and quarter-hour, respectively. These rates apply to national programs, and are slightly reduced for regional or local shows. Rehearsal Charges Rehearsals for actors are to be eight hours for an hour broadcast, four hours for a half-hour program and two hours for a quarterhour program, with rehearsals of half those lengths for singers. Overtime rehearsals are to be paid for at the rate of $4 an hour, which may be split into half-hour units for actors and quarter-hour units for singers, after the first half-hour. Contracts also contain a 15-minute stand-by clause which prohibits calling the cast into the broadcast studio more than 15 minutes before the start of the program. Singers employed as staff artists will have a 25-hour week with a maximum of eight hours in any day and may be used on only six broadcasts wTeekly. Scale for staff soloists is $65 weekly in New York, $45 in Chicago and $40 in Los Angeles; for group singers $45 in New York, $37 in Chicago and $33 on the Coast. Staff singers in Chicago and Los Angeles will receive additional pay for programs originating in those cities but broadcast by other network stations as well. All these rates apply to sustaining programs only. Talent employed on sponsored programs will be paid a higher scale, which will be the same rate as that charged advertisers or advertising agencies. Staff singers employed on additional programs, above their six weekly, are to be paid at the perprogram rate as free lance artists. Commercial audition charges will be 50% of the commercial program rate. Rebroadcasts will be 50% of the regular broadcast charge. All minimum fees are to be net to performers, with casting bureau and similar commissions extra unless the performer is paid in excess of the minimum fee. A separate contract for announcers is now being worked out by AFRA and NBC. Beyond that AFRA officials are vague, but un RENEWALS by 11 sponsors for 23 programs involving 19% hours a week, received by NBC within a single week, are taken by the network to indicate the faith of leading advertisers in an early business upturn. Of the programs, 18 will continue through the summer and five will return in the fall. The former include eight programs for Procter & Gamble, two each for Bristol-Myers and JergensWoodbury, and one apiece for Stewart-Warner, Kellogg Co. and Time Inc. Sponsors of programs returning to NBC in the fall include Sherwin-Williams, Bowey's, Ralston-Purina, General Foods and Adam Hat Stores. Further indications that advertisers have retained their faith in the ability of radio to produce sales come from NBC's billings for the earlier months of 1938, which for the first five months of the year show an increase of nearly a million dollars over those for the same period of 1937. Food advertisers during this period increased expenditures for time on NBC by more than $1,500,000, due chiefly to the sponsorship of Amos 'n' Andy by the Campbell Soup Co. and of three daytime serial shows by the Quaker Oats Co. The daily Chesterfield sports review, Dorothy Thompson's commentaries for Pall Mall cigarettes, the change of the Lucky Strike program from a halfhour to an hour, the Alias Jimmy Valentine series for Edgeworth Tobacco and the Fendrich Cigar Smoke Dreams nearly doubled NBC's income from the tobacco field. Sizeable increases in the classifications of furniture, farm machinery and soaps and cleansers helped to swell the total and to offset the million dollar decline in billings in the automotive field as compared to last year. Current Renewals Itemized list of the recent renewals follows : PROCTER & GAMBLE — Pepper doubtedly the matter of setting up standards for network commercial broadcasts will receive early consideration. A number of conferences were held with officers of the American Association of Advertising Agencies on this matter earlier in the year. Other items on the AFRA agenda include working out Young's Family, Blue, 5 quarterhours. Red, 5 quarter-hours, Camay, renews July 4 through Pedlar & Ryan ; Road of Life, Red. 5 quarterhours, Chipso, renews July 4 through Pedlar & Ryan ; Vic & Sade, Blue, 5 quarter-hours, Crisco, renews July 4 through Compton Adv. ; Jimmy Fidler, Red, two quarter-hours, Drene, renews July 1 through H. W. Kastor ; Story of Mary Martin, Red, 5 quarter-hours, Blue, five quarter-hours, Ivory flakes, renews July 4 through Compton Adv. ; O'Neills, Red, 5 quarter-hours. Ivory soap, renews July 4 through Compton Adv. ; Ma Perkins, Red, 5 quarter-hours, Oxydol, renews July 4 through Blackett-SampleHummert ; Guiding Light, Red, 5 quarter-hours, White Naptha, renews July 4 through Compton Adv. ; STEWARTWARNER — Horace Heidt, Red, half-hour, renews July 17 through Hays Macfarland & Co. BRISTOL MYERS — Town Hall, Red, half-hour, Ipana, Sal Hepatica, and For Men Only, Red, half-hour. Vitalis, renews July 6 through Young 6 Rubicam and Pedlar & Ryan. JERGENS-WOODBURY Sales Corp. — Win Tour Lady, Blue, halfhour, and Jergens Journal, Blue, quarter-hour, Jergens lotion, renews July 3 through Lennen & Mitchell. KELLOGG CO. — Don Winslow of the Havy, Blue, 5 quarter-hours, renews Sept. 26 through Hays Macfarland & Co. TIME INC. — March of Time. Blue, half-hour, renews July 8 through BBDO. Returning in Autumn Returning in the fall are Sherwin-Williams, Metropolitan Auditions of the Air, Blue, half-hour, resumes Oct. 9 through Cecil, Warwick & Legler; Bowey's Inc., Terry & the Pirates, Blue, 3 quarterhours, resumes Sept. 26 through Stack-Goble; Ralston-Purina, Tom Mix, Blue, 5 quarter hours, resumes Sept. 26 through Gardner Adv. Co., General Foods, Good News of 1938, Red, hour, resumes Sept. 1, through Benton & Bowles; Adam Hat Stores, Championship Fights, Blue, irregular schedule, resume Oct. 5, through Glicksman Adv. Co. contracts with MBS and with the regional networks and individual stations for artists, announcers and production men. KLX. Oakland, Cal.. 1,000-watt outlet operated by the Oakland Tribune, has applied to the FCC for authority to use 5.000 watts full time. Court Broadcasts Favored by Press CHICAGO newspapers came to the defense of radio June 21 following a statement by the Chicago Bar Asso. board of managers which condemned broadcasts from courtrooms. In its statement the board said that broadcasts of actual trials from the city's traffic and safety courts were "calculated to detract from the essential dignity of the court proceedings, degrade the court and create misconceptions with respect thereto in the minds of the public and should not be permitted." Columnist Howard O'Brien of the Chicago Daily News belittled the board's contention that the broadcasts detracted from the dignity of the court and stated that in 1934 traffic deaths were 986 as compared to 826 in 1937, which he attributed to the safety appeal of the court programs. In an editorial the Chicago Times praised the broadcasts for arousing public opinion to safety on the highways, stated that the "fixing" of traffic cases on a wholesale basis had been eliminated by the programs. "Broadcasts are in the spirit of the American tradition of the public trial. They have taught respect for the law," the editorial read in part. Trials of the Chicago traffic court have been aired on WIND in a Tuesday evening series during the last four years. WJJD has broadcast a daily series from the metropolitan safety court for the last two years. No formal statement has been issued to these stations by the Chicago Bar Assn. and the programs are being continued. AFRA Signs KJBS KJBS, San Francisco, has signed an agreement with American Federation of Radio Artists, it was announced by Vic Connors, executive secretary of the San Francisco Chapter of AFRA, effective June 16. The agreement of the AFRA calls for a 40-hour, five-day week for announcers and producers and a graduating wage scale which starts at a minimum of $35 weekly to a maximum of $42.50. Mr. Connors announced negotiations are under way with several San Francisco stations. Philip Morris on Five PHILIP MORRIS & Co., New York (Paul Jones cigarettes) , about July 10 will start sponsorship on a test basis of local live programs on an undetermined number of stations. William A. Chalmers' of the agency, Biow Co., left New York June 24 to inspect local programs, particularly in Missouri and California. Pure-Pak on WJZ PURE-PAK Division of Ex-Cell-0 Co., Detroit (milk container machines), on June 27 started sponsorship of Capt. Tim H e a I y ' s Stamp Club on WJZ, New York. From April 11 to June 23 the program, heard Mondays and Thursdays at 5:45-6 p. m., was sponsored by Max Wulfsohn Inc., New York, for Temu soap. Pure-Pac agency is Ferry-Hanly Co., New York. Page 14 • July 1, 1938 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising