Broadcasting (July - Dec 1938)

Last -Minute Scramble Begins To Acquire Grid Sponsorship Oil Companies Monopolize Football Schedules; Only Four Pro Teams Have Sponsors to Date [Broadcasting, LATE placement of spot broadcasting for the autumn has been especially acute in the case of football, with both college and professional sponsorship in an uncertain state during mid-August. Last year football contracts had been in a more advanced state at the same period. As in 1937, Atlantic Refining Co., Philadelphia, will be an active sponsor of college football games. Although the complete Atlantic schedule could not be obtained from N. W. Ayer & Son, Philadelphia, it has been announced that the company will sponsor the entire 1938 Yale schedule of home games on 11 Yankee stations, as well as the outof-town Penn-Yale, Cornell-Dartmouth and Duke-Pitt contests. Atlantic is understood to have outbid Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 1937 Yale sponsor, for the 1938 schedule. Socony is out of football this season. The Yale season opens in New Haven Oct. 1 with the Columbia game, followed Oct 8 by PennYale, at Philadelphia; Yale-Navy Oct. 15; Yale-Michigan Oct. 22; Yale Dartmouth Oct. 29; YaleBrown Nov. 5; Cornell-Dartmouth Nov. 12 at Ithaca; Yale-Harvard Nov. 19. The Duke-Pitt game takes place at Durham, N. C, Nov. 26. Bill Slater will handle play-byaccounts for Atlantic. Network Plans Only one network broadcast with a football slant has been signed to date, the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. football forecast, and scores, on NBC Thursday and Saturday respectively. The networks themselves will broadcast games Saturday afternoon, selecting contests from different regions to spread them around the map. Tidewater Associated Oil Co. again will sponsor West Coast games. Wadhams Oil Co., Milwaukee, again will sponsor the entire football schedule of Marquette U. on WISN, Milwaukee. Alan Hale, of WISN, will announce. Scott-Telander Adv. Agency, Milwaukee, placed the account. In addition Wadhams will sponsor games of the Green Bay Packers, professional team, probably on a group of Wisconsin stations. WTMJ, Milwaukee, is understood to have the Packers' option. In Cleveland the Rams games will be carried on WGAR, it is reported, but no sponsor has been announced. Last year Standard Oil Co. of Ohio sponsored the games and the firm has an option this year which has not been exercised. No sponsors have been signed by the Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Pirates, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, or Washington Redskins, although all were involved in active negotiations. Chrysler Corp. will sponsor broadcasts of the Detroit Lions on WJR, Detroit, with Harry Wismer and Harry Kipke as announcer and commentator Aug. 1]. B. C. Remedy Co., Durham, N. C, will sponsor Big Five football games on WPTF, Raleigh, N. C, and perhaps other stations. Contracts for sponsorship of professional football games in Chicago have been signed and those for sponsorship of collegiate football are being negotiated. General Mills, Minneapolis (Wheaties), will sponsor 26 games of the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cardinals, beginning Sept. 11 when the Bears and Cardinals open the season at Soldiers Field. Broadcast exclusively on WJJD-WIND, the series will include seven home games for the Cardinals and nine away on WIND; seven home games and three away for the Bears on WJJD. Russ Hodges will handle the Cardinals broadcast and Jimmy Dudley will air the Bears games. Games played in Milwaukee and Detroit will be broadcast direct, while other away from home games will be aired from the ticker. Blackett Sample Hummert Inc., Chicago, is agency. Preceding all Bears games, Dick Hanley, former football coach of Northwestern University and coach of the East-West game, will be featured in a quarter-hour interview series sponsored by the local Hardings restaurants on WJJD. Following the Bears games, Red Grange will broadcast Dressing Room Interviews, a 15-minute series on WJJD sponsored by New art's Credit Clothing, Chicago. It is understood that Kellogg Co., Kites from KITE KITE, Kansas City, to merchandise change of its call from KXBY, is using the kite design extensively. D. E. "Plug" Kendrick, new vicepresident and general manager, gave away to children 15,000 full-sized kites during the last fortnight through 1 i Park View drug stores. All station calling cards are in a miniature kite design, and letterheads, contract forms and other stationery carry the kite insignia. sponsor of the Northwestern U. schedule on WBBM last season, may renew this season, but reported negotiations could not be confirmed at J. Walter Thompson & Co., agency handling the account. Home and away games of Northwestern U. were sponsored on WJJD last season by Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co., but the contract has not been renewed for the 1938 season. WMAQ-WENR will likely continue the policy of broadcasting Big Ten games played in and near Chicago on a sustaining basis feeding some of them to WCFL, although a few of the games may be sponsored. WGN will air the fifth AllStar-Pro football game from Soldiers Field Aug. 31 feeding it to Mutual. The 1938 All-Stars from various colleges were selected by 8,500,000 votes in conjunction with a national poll run by the Chicago Tribune. For the past three seasons WGN has followed the policy of broadcasting unsponsored collegiate games with Manager Quin Ryan at the microphone and with all games fed to the Mutual network. The 1938 schedule has not been drawn up and policy for the 1938 season is undecided. Following its policy for the past 12 years, Tidewater-Associated Oil Co. of California, with headquarters in San Francisco, will sponsor all the major intercollegiate football games and a number of the more prominent high school contests during the 1938-1939 season. Although the broadcast schedules and stations and networks to be used this year by Associated are only in the tentative stages, Harold Deal, advertising manager of Associated, stated that last year's record schedule of stations and games will in all probability be duplicated. All major networks and some regionals will be used again this year, it was hinted by the oil company, in bringing to the air audience the descriptions of the gridiron contests up and down the Pacific Coast. These include NBC, CBS, Mutual-Don Lee and the California Radio System. Last year Associated formed special statewide networks in the Northwest to carry some of its games. It is expected a like move will be made this season, if necessary. The oil company executives are now in the progress of negotiating with the networks and stations as to time available, rates and game schedules. Deal insisted that no definite reservations have been made on any network or station yet, although some of the negotiations have reached the tentative reservation stage. It was stated by Associated that the definite list of stations, networks and broadcast schedules for the football season will not be completed until Sept. 1 or later. Sportscasters to handle the garrfes have not been definitely decided upon, but in all probability some of those used last year will be re-engaged. Meantime Associated recently completed a spot announcement campaign in the Pacific Northwest for its fruit tree sprays and at present is sponsoring a show over KIRO, Seattle, titled "Let's Get Associated with Washington". The program is featuring Clifton Pease, who relates the history of the State of Washington and tells about interesting spots to see in the State. It is heard Tuesday and Friday from 6:45 to 7 p. m., PST. STREET ENTRANCE to the KSFO Annex to San Francisco's Palace Hotel, dedicated with appropriate ceremonies Aug. 12. Under construction since June 1937, the new $250,000 home of KSFO includes two floors with seven studios and 26 offices designed by the CBS architect, William Lescaze. Inaugural broadcasts included San Francisco Showcase starring Jack Meakin and Lud Gluskin orchestras, Tito Guizar, Joe Stafford's Pied Pipers, Simeone Sisters and Hollywood talent. There were salutes by CBS affiliated stations over the Pacific CBS network. Chimes Over Broadway Heard Hourly From NBC NBC chimes, famous musical trademark recently adopted as dinner gongs on the B. & O., Alton, and New York Central lines, began Aug. 11 tolling off the hours for New Yorkers and out-of-towners passing through Radio City and the adjacent plaza and walks of Rockefeller Center. Synchronized with a large ornamental clock overlooking the plaza, the chimes mark each hour between 8 a. m. and 1 a. m. To make the chimes audible in streets about Radio City, a system has been set up including a loudspeaker, three small clocks and the large ornamental clock in the south facade of the International Bldg. The loudspeaker is installed behind the grille of the large clock face, where two of the smaller timepieces also are located. The first small clock turns on the chime system; the second, a subsidiary control, switches on the loudspeaker a few minutes before the hour and cuts it out immediately after the chimes, which are located in NBC's main equipment room in Radio City, have sounded. Page 18 • August 15, 1938 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising