Broadcasting (July - Dec 1938)

Press Wireless Denied Foreign Relay License DENIAL of the application of Press Wireless Inc. to establish radiotelephone service for relays of international broadcasts from abroad, in competition with RCA and A. T. & T., was announced Nov. 4 by the FCC. MBS, it was brought out, proposed to employ the facilities for interchange of programs, testfying at the hearing that its interest in the proposal was based upon the possibility of a lower rate. The Commission found that Press Wireless had failed to show a public need for the proposed telephone transmission either for regular press traffic or for additional program transmission service. The lower rates tentatively proposed, it added, were "without significance in the absence of a showing of applicant's ability to render an adequate service." Griffin in South GRIFFIN MFG. Co., Brooklyn, New York (All-Wite shoe cleanser), having concluded its summer CBS program, Time To Shine, on Oct. 11, is planning to start its usual winter spot campaign in Florida. Campaign will consist of 36 announcements and time signals weekly to start Nov. 28 on WQAM, Miami, to run four months. On Jan. 2, the sponsor will add WDBO, Orlando, WJNO, West Palm Beach, WFLA, Clearwater, and WSUN, St. Petersburg, and, in February, WJAX, Jacksonville, to run 13 week3. Bermingham, Castleman & Pierce, New York, is agency, KftT€ 250 WATTS 1420 KC 0f« is* tot e«* „A«> INSPECTING the antenna of W5XD, new 100-watt ultra-high frequency transmitter designed and built by WFAA engineers, is Ray Collins, technical supervisor of WFAA, Dallas. Located atop the Tower Petroleum Bldg. in downtown Dallas, the tip of the antenna is 386 feet above ground. The transmitter, on the 22d floor, is being placed at the disposal of educational, civic and music organizations for the broadcast of cultural programs. W5XD, which went on the air Oct. 31, is carrying two hours daily of WFAA programs. WPEN-AFM Dispute DISPUTE between WPEN, Philadelphia, and the American Federation of Musicians local in that city over the amount that station should expend for union musicians is still unsettled. An attempt to get Joseph N. Weber, AFM national president, to make a ruling ordering the Philadelphia local to accept a smaller amount from WPEN than it is asking for failed when Mr. Weber refused, stating that he had no authority to make such an order, the question being one of local jurisdiction. No further meetings have been scheduled, although they will probably be resumed shortly. Meanwhile the station staff orchestra continues to perform as before, the union having turned down its proposed strike in favor of reaching a decision through arbitration. REACHES Thai rich territory between Spokane and Butte... /. Kich irrigated farm lands. 2. Spendable income over $652 percapUa. 3. Over 10 million dollars in PWA construction alone, under way or approved in this region. ■S? Only one station covers this area. CBS Affiliate 5.000 watts Once Is Enough EMERY MELBORN, engineer at KWLK, Longview, Wash, is hoping that lightning will not strike twice. He was recently given a knockout punch when a bolt struck the station's antenna tower. KWLK was off the air for a few hours, but was otherwise unaffected. 44* AS CAP in Canada Asks Rate Boost Increase of 6 Cents Sought in Receiving Set Fees By JAMES MONTAGNES AN INCREASE of six cents per licensed receiver is being sought by the Canadian Performing Rights Society, Canada's ASCAP, on which to levy the 1939 fees from the broadcasting stations. The 1938 rate was eight cents per licensed receiver, which netted the Society $83,080 from the broadcasters. This year the Society asks 14 cents per licensed set as of March 31, 1938, when 1,104,207 receivers were licensed, according to government records. This year the Society is endeavoring to collect $190,978 for the use of its repertoire by radio broadcasting stations in Canada during the calendar year 1939. In addition to the $154,588 to be realized by the tax on licensed sets, an additional $36,390 is to be levied on 3,639 commercial radio set users at $10 per set. Last year the Society also endeavored to collect 14 cents per receiver, but the copyright appeal board under the Department of State at Ottawa ruled that conditions in Canada had not changed from those in 1935 when a Royal Commission had set the rate at 8 cents per licensed receiver. The CPRS last year based their increase on an increase awarded the parent society in England to 14 cents. Broadcasters and other music users have till Nov. 30 to present their case before the appeal board. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. work in harmony on this appeal, although the CBC stations are not members of the CAB. The CAB representatives were in Ottawa the week of Nov. 7 to present their case. Vermont Maid Syrup PENICK & FORD, New York (Vermont Maid Syrup), through J. Walter Thompson Co., that city, on Nov. 1 started for 17 weeks, thrice-weekly participation in the quarter-hour Early Morning News by Norman Nesbitt, on 13 California Don Lee network stations, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, 7:45-8 a. m. (PST). Other thriceweekly participants are Scudder Food Products Inc., Monterey Park, Cal. (potato chips) ; Wernet Dental Mfg. Co., New York (Polident) ; Peter Paul Inc., Naugatuck, Conn. (Ten Crown gum), and Los Angeles Soap Co., Los Angeles (White King soap). _ CONTROL ROOM AMOS B. COLLINS, of the FCC field staff in New York, has been transferred to the New Orleans office, replacing W. Irving Abbott, who has been assigned to the Dallas office. Carl A. Johnson of the Dallas office has been assigned to New Orleans. NORMAN HURLEY has been named chief engineer of WAPI, Birmingham, succeeding Clayton Dow, who has left radio to enter the insurance business in Montgomery ; and Jimmy Evans and Bill Wrye have joined the engineering staff. ROBERT LAWTON, formerly with Hart Enterprises, New Orleans, and a graduate of Loyola University, has joined the engineering staff of WWL, New Orleans. • GERALD SELLAR, junior supervisor in NBC's New York master control room, is the father of a girl born Oct. 19, the Sellars' first daughter and second child. FLOYD HUBBARD recently joined the engineering staff of WOMI, Owensboro, Ky., replacing Asa W. Adkins Jr., who recently accepted a position as experimental engineer with the Ken-Rad Corp., Owensboro. REG. DURIE, formerly government radio operator at Churchill, Man., has joined CFAR, Flin Flon, as operator. TONY THOMPSON assistant supervisor of New York master control at CBS, has been promoted to acting supervisor of field engineering. Jack Norton, formerly assistant supervisor of field engineering, will take over Mr. Thompson's duties. J. NAT JOHNSON, head of J. Nat Johnson & Co., Chicago tower installation firm, has returned to his desk following an illness of several weeks. LENNIE HAYDEN, KFWB, Hollywood, technician, is the father of a girl born Oct. 31. ROBERT E. STUDY, chief engineer of WOV-WBIL, New York, and WPEN, Philadelphia, is the father of a girl born Nov. 4. WILLIAM P. SIEGMAN, formerly chief engineer of WTOL, Toledo, and more recently chief engineer of WIBC, new 1,000 watter in Indianapolis, has resigned. Don Lee Video Shift SOUND channel of W6XAO, Los Angeles, the Don Lee Broadcasting System television experimental station, has been lowered from 54 to 49.75 megacycles, according to Harry R. Lubcke, television director of the network. Switch was in accordance with the allocation of specific channels to television scheduled to go into effect in April, 1939, under FCC rules. New allocation calls for the sound and sight transmitter frequencies to be closely adjacent so that the combined program can be received simultaneously with ease, he stated. The image channel of W6XAO remains at 45 megacycles. LIGGETT & MYERS TOBACCO Co., New York (Chesterfield cigarettes), on Nov. 4 altered the format of its CBS Burns & Allen show, introducing a weekly musical comedy in which original music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby are featured. Musicals will occupy the full half-hour, using the regular cast. Ray Noble has the orchestra. APPLICATION for a new 100-watt station on 1420 kc. has been filed with the FCC by the Cedar Rapids (la.) Gazette. Studios in O Albert Lea and Austin MINNESOTA Page 48 • November 15, 1938 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising