Broadcasting (July - Dec 1939)

ASIDE from the bursting enthusiasm which is his most marked characteristic, genial Herb Hollister, general manager and part owner of KANS, Wichita, is one of the few broadcast executives who can operate a station singlehanded. He can build and install equipment, create programs, announce them, sell accounts, ride the gains and even answer the phone — and in his earlier days in broadcasting, he relates, he had to do all these. Having risen from the amateur ranks and having run the gamut from engineering to management. Herb Hollister is perhaps proudest of the fact that he not only holds a radiotelephone first-class license but also continues to maintain his pioneer "ham" station (W9DRD) which he operates from his home. In fact, it was as a "ham" back in 1914 that he cut his first teeth in radio. Herb Hollister is one of radio's most popular executives because of the essential good nature that goes with the vitality, the "pep and ginger", that he brings to everything he does. "Enthusiasm" is the word for him, and that enthusiasm is translated into the operation of his station, where community service is the byword. In the short space of a little more than two years since he brought KANS into existence, he has made that station an integral factor in all Wichita's community affairs. Joseph Herbert Hollister Jr. (a full name he never uses, preferring to sign himself simply as Herb) was born in St. Louis Sept. 11, 1899, the son of a pioneer local automobile dealer. He was graduated from Kansas City's Manual Training High School in 1917, then spent a harvest season in the fields of northern Alberta. When the United States entered the war, he was raring to go and in April of 1918 joined the Marines. They made him a rifle coach and machine-gun instructor at Paris Island, S. C. and Utica, N. Y. He did not go overseas, not because he didn't try but because "you do what you're told to do in the Marines." The war over, he got a job as a grain buyer in Kansas City, becoming the youngest member of the Kansas City Board of Trade. That lasted until 1922 when his brother Ed, a motor dealer in Emporia, Kan., with whom he had shared the boyhood hobby of amateur radio, asked him to come to that town and run the 50-watt WAAZ, then operating like so many other stations on 360 meters. Ed's firm took on radio set sales and the station's prime purpose was to furnish programs that the sets it sold might pick up. Very often. Herb recalls, he sold a radio set, then went on the air himself to give the buyer something to listen to. The brothers Hollister gave up their radio license within a short time because there wasn't any revenue in broadcasting, and Herb took a job as salesman with a building and loan firm in Kansas City. All the while he continued "hamming". In 1927 the Graybar office in Kansas City offered him a job handling appliance sales, which soon included transmitter equipment sales. As a sideline he started the Hollister Crystal Co., grinding crystals and making other gadgets, some of which have since become standard items in radio stations. This experience stimulated his desire to get back into the broadcasting field, and in 1931 he bought WLBF in Kansas City, Kan. (now KCKN). This he sold to the Capper publishing interests in 1936 when he went to Wichita to build the newly-authorized KANS, for which a local business man had obtained a construction permit. Herb Hollister actually helped construct KANS and directed its growth to one of the livest local stations in the country, now boasting a staff of 25. Throughout his career, he maintained a sort of Damon and Pythias relationship with Don Searle, whose family operated KOIL in Omaha, now managed by Searle. The two have NOTES THAYER RIDGWAT, formerly general sales manager of Don Lee Broadcasting System, Los Angeles, has been named general manager of Pacific Broadcasting Co., Tacoma. He also will be assistant to Carl Haymond, president. His post is newly created. EARL H. GAMMONS, general manager of WCCO, Minneapolis, has been named chairman of the entertainment committee of the Minneapolis Civic Council arranging the Northwest Fall Festival, to be held in October. CLARENCE G. COSBY, who joined KXOK, St. Louis, last March after serving with KWK in that city for eight years as general manager, has been promoted from national sales manager to general sales manager of KXOK, succeeding Walter E. Weiler, resigned. T. E. SHEA has been elected a director of Electrical Research Products Inc., effective Aug. 15, succeeding H. G. Knox, who has resigned because of ill health. Mr. Shea, formerly with Bell Laboratories, becomes director of engineering in charge of all technical activities in New York and Hollywood. ARNOLD F. SCHOEN, publicity director-announcer of WSYR, Syracuse, has been named head of the station's newly created service department. He will relinquish his announcing duties and devote full time to promotion, advertising, publicity and merchandising. GUY LADOUCEUR, sales manager of WCOU, Lewiston, Me., has been promoted to manager. succeeding Bernard R. Howe, resigned. Eldeu Shute Jr., of the announcing staff, has been named production manager, replacing Roger Levenson, resigned. .John Libby has been added to the announcing staff. JOHN F. MERRIFIELD. farm editor of WLW, Cincinnati, recently was named secretary, and Powel Crosley Jr., president of the Crosley Corp., and George C. Biggar, WLW rural program director, were named members of the newly formed Ohio Chemurgic Commission. much in common, are the closest of friends and share like enthusiasms which have their chief outlets in radio. They are partners in the ownership of KMMJ, Grand Island, Neb., which they recently moved from Clay Center, Neb., and together they also own the weekly Clay Center Sim (for sale). He was married in 1924 to Elizabeth I. Atteberry, of Kansas City, and they have one child, Herbert III, age 6. His hobbies, aside from his work, are his candid camera and sports, particularly hockey. He is one of the most proficient among the growing army of camera fans in radio. His enthusiasm for hockey has been expressed in Wichita's acceptance of the local team of the American Hockey Association. He swims well and was on the Kansas City Athletic Club's team for several years. He still takes the mike to announce sports events over KANS. He has served for several years on the NAB board, and when it was reorganized last winter he was the popular choice for director from his district. He also is one of the two "local" members of the NAB's executive committee. RALPH L. POWER. American representative of Macquarie Network, Sydney, leaves Los Angeles Aug. 16 aboard the liner Mariposa, on a four-month business trip to Australia and New Zealand. He was honored guest at a farewell dinner given by the Radio Breakfast Club in Hollywood on Aug. 14. attended by more than 75 southern California writers, producers and transcription executives. GEORGE 1. MacLAREN, former production manager of Atwater Kent Mfg. Co., Philadelphia, and more recently factory manager of RCA Mfg. Co., Camden, has been named production manager of Zenith Radio Corp., Chicago. ART CROGAN, onetime commercial manager of WDGY. Minneapolis, now with WTOL, Toledo, has returned to his desk following a seven-week trip through the West which took him to Grand Canyon. Yosemite and the San Francisco Exposition. ART LINICK, vice-president of WJ.TD, Chicago, has returned to his desk following a long illness. W. W. (Bill) BERHMAN, manager of WBOW, Terre Haute, Ind., is recovering from an appendectomy performed almost immediately after his return from a cruise in Lake Ontario. RICHARD A. RUPPERT, who several months ago became promotion manager of WSAI. Cincinnati, on Aug. 8 passed the Ohio state bar examination. He studied law at the Cincinnati YMCA Night Law School during the last four years and was graduated last .Tune with highest honors. CARL WHITEMAN. vice-president of General Foods Corp., and of its subsidiary. General Foods Sales Corp.. will resign Oct. 1 to head his own organization specializing in the merchandising and marketing of grocery products. LEONARD LEWIS, vice-president of Spot Film Productions. New York, in charge of radio and television, has resigned. He has announced no future plans. G. DARE FLECK, traffic manager of KDKA, Pittsburgh, recently was named educational director of the station by Manager Sherman Gregory. Routine traffic details will be handled bv Mr. Fleck's assistant. Betty Fisley, although he will continue as traffic manager also. BARRON HOWARD, business manager of WRVA. Richmond. Va., is the father of a girl born recently. WALTER BEADELL. of the sales department of WOWO. Fort Wayne. Ind.. is the father of a boy born recently. KEN MEEKER, former CBS page boy. has been made a regular member of the network's announcing staff. MARION DIXON, of the sales staff of KGVO. Missoula. Mont., on July 27 married Violet Long. ED KEMBLE. in charge of the KH.T. Los Angeles, advertising service, is the father of a girl born July 26. BURRIDGE D. BUTLER, owner of WLS, Chicago, and KOY, Phoenix, is on a camping trip in the wilds of northern Arizona, in company with George Cook, business manager of WLS. JOHN HOGG, new to radio, has joined KOY, Phoenix, as account executive. WILLIAM KOSTKA, manager of NBC's press division, is the father of a son, his second, born Aug. 4. COMPLETE testimony of David Sarnoff, RCA president and NBC board chairman, before the FCC network inquiry Nov. 14. 1938, and May 17, 1989, has been published in a 110-page book just issued by RCA Institutes Technical Press. It is titled Principles t£ Practices of J^etwork liadio Broadcasting. BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising August 15, 1939 • Page 41