Broadcasting (Jan - June 1939)

PIQUED at listeners' doubts that he uses the sponsor's product, Maurie Condon, newscaster on WGAR, Cleveland, for Manhattan Soap Co. (Sweetheart soap), posed during his morning ablutions. KOMA Sale Approved Without Hearing, First Of Hearst Cases Decided APPROVAL without a hearing of the sale of KOMA, Oklahoma City, by Hearst Radio Inc. to KOMA Inc., a new corporation headed by J. T. Griffin, chief owner of KTUL, Tulsa, and prominent Oklahoma wholesale grocer, for $315,000, was voted Feb. 13 by the FCC. Chairman McNinch dissented and Com j missioner Craven did not vote. ] Entered into Oct. 20, the trans ', action is the first of seven involving sales of Hearst stations to be approved by the FCC. Transaction was completed by Mr. Griffin, W. C. Gillespie, general manager of I KTUL, E. M. Stoer, Hearst comptroller, and Elliott Roosevelt, president of Hearst Radio. Mr. Gillespie will serve as general manager of both stations, which are CBS outlets. KOMA operates full time on 1480 kc. with 5,000 watts. Other stations in the Hearst group under contract for sales but awaiting FCC approval are KEHE, Los Angeles; KTSA, San Antonio; WINS, New York; KNOW, Austin; WACO, Waco. The new owners, it is understood, plan to relocate KOMA and install new equipment costing $75,000. Television and Films PREPARING for the inauguration of regular television service this spring, NBC has approached a number of leading motion picture companies concerning a tieup which would make their productions available for experimental video broadcasting. Since no definite arrangements have been completed the subject is not being discussed publicly by those in charge of the network's visual programs, but it is understood that the movie people have shown considerable interest in learning to what extent their products are adaptable to this new medium of entertainment and that definite offers of cooperation will be made within the next few weeks. News reels, short subjects and at least one feature picture. The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel, have been used by NBC in its previous experiments. FCC QUESTlOmAIRE SENT TO STATIONS AS OF Feb. 15, the FCC is distributing to all station licensees its new questionnaire covering 1938 operations, to be returned by March 15 [BROADCASTING, Feb. 1]. The forms must be filled out in compliance with the rules of practice and procedure adopted last fall, the balance sheets being a substitute for the requirement that such data be filed with renewals. In addition, the forms request data on program breakdowns and employment for 1938, paralleling generally the type of material required for 1937, under Order No. 38 of last summer. The balance sheet calls for data as of the calendar year. Data on personnel will be for the week beginning Dec. 11, 1938, and on program service for the same week. Principal changes from the 1937 report deal with earnings from sale of time and specific breakdowns on receipts from networks, whether national or regional, plus bulk sales. Recordings to Paris A FOUR-MONTH radio X-ray of the peoples, regions, industries, educational facilities, amusements and history of the United States, recorded by NBC for the French Government, has just been finished and on Feb. 11 the results — 26 one-hour recordings — were shipped on the liner Paris to France. There the recordings will be played, one a week for 26 weeks, with accompanying talks. The men who toured America in two automobiles with broadcasting and transcribing equipment were Henri Diamant-Berger, of the Administration des Postes, Telegraphs et Telephone of France, a French World War hero and formerly a movie director; J. Harrison Hartley, assistant NBC director, and Jack Holmes, NBC engineer. FCC CHAIRMAN McNinch plans to leave Washington for a 10-day rest prior to hearings on the FCC Reorganization bill before the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee, tentatively set for March 1. NBC and CBS InstaU Atlantic Clipper Radios WHEN THE Pan American Airways' Yankee Clipper No. 17 makes its maiden trans-Atlantic crossing early this spring, American listeners can follow its progress almost without interruption from American to Europe, merely by tuning to the nearest NBC or CBS station. Both networks are installing special shortwave transmitters within the air liner. For the past month engineers Dan Whittemore of NBC and Clyde Hudson of CBS have been superintending the installation of their transmitters at the Boeing factory, Seattle, where the plane is being given its final trials. The flight is expected to be in March or April. Neither network has assigned an announcer to the flight nor determined the size and personnel of its crew, waiting until Pan American lets them know the space available. ^ i:^ FOOD -DRUG -COSMETIC "D Tj' "[3 "D Q! Affiliated with Telecommunications J.\. J__l J_ X\. J. 1".^ Publishing Company, Incorporated A Specialized Confidential Washington News Letter Devoted to Government Activity and Trends in the Food, Drug, Cosmetic and Related Fields. VOL I. No. I of FOOD-DRUGCOSMETIC REPORTS has just been issued. Designed for executives in the food, drug, cosme+ic and related fields, advertising agency executives, radio station executives . . . FDC REPORTS gives a clear, concise, accurate, confidential news (and behind the news) analysis of the activities and trends of government regulation based on the allimportant Wheeler-Lea and Food and Drug Acts. Published in Washington, written and edited in lay language by expert reporters on the Washington scene, FDC REPORTS provides ( I ) summary of the news and regulatory trends in the four page letter, (2) detailed accounting of the past week's developments on supplementary mimeographed sheets. Formal hearings, conferences, decisions as they affect the food, drug, cosmetic and related field will be presented in detail, without bias or color. If the Wheeler-Lea and Food and Drug Acts mean anything to you, you need FDC REPORTS. FOOD-DRUG-COSMETIC REPORTS Wallace Werbie, Editor Samp La 958 National Press Bldg. WASHINGTON, D. C. Phone Metropolitan 0606 Please send sample copy of FDC REPORTS to: NAME FIRM TITLE CITY STATE BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising February 15, 1939 • Page 81