Broadcasting (July - Dec 1939)

mm MARTIN GOSCH is resigning as a CBS writer and producer the end of September, when he will go to Hollywood for the resumption of the Melody d Madness series, sponsored by P. Lorillard Co. for Old Gold cigarettes on NBC-Blue, which Gosch produced last year. He will continue to handle the series through its next season. When the program returns to New York later in the fall, Gosch plans to go into partnership with a radio writer to build radio programs, which will be offered for sponsorship through an outside agent. A West Coast office probably will be opened later. Gosch has been with CBS for two years, but for a year he has been engaged chiefly in outside work. DONALD RALPH, announcer of KGDM, Stockton, Cal., has been named program director of the station. MERVIN CLOUGH, news director of KFYR. Bismarck, N. D., will speak on "Radio and the Weekly Press" at the summer session of the State Press Association in Bismarck Aug. 25. He was invited to speak as a result of his new program. The Weekly Press, featuring editorial quotation from papers of the state. AL SHEEHAN. manager of the artist bureau of WCCO, Minneapolis, has been named director of entertainment of the Minnesota State Fair, to be held Aug. 26-Sept. 5. Last year Sheehan was drafted for the job just before the Fair opened, when the previously appointed entertainment head died suddenly. The Fair board this year unanimously petitioned WCCO for loan of his services again. JOHN HATES, assistant production manager of WOR, Newark, has been commissioned a lieutenant in the U. S. Army Reserves. RUBY CARPENTER, of the continuity staff of KMA, Shenandoah, la., has announced her coming marriage to Carl Upp, of Duluth, Minn. FRED DAIGER, formerly of WGST, Atlanta, has joined the announcing staff of WAPI, Birmingham. MASON DIXON, formerly of WCSC, Charleston, and WFBC, Greenville, S. C has joined the announcing staff of WNOX, Knoxville. PHIL McKERNAN. new to radio, has been added to the announcer-operator staff of KRE, Berkeley, Cal., for the vacation season. GEORGE T. CASE, formerly of WRAL, Raleigh, has joined WING, Dayton, as production manager. BERT BUZZINI. formerly with KYA and K.IBS. San Francisco, is now on the KPO-KGO announcing staff. SPENCER ALLEN, announcer of WGN. Chicago, is the father of a boy bom Aug. 1. CHARLES PASWELL, Hollywood writer, has been assigned to the new CBS Screen Guild program, sponsored by Gulf Oil Corp., which starts this fall. PHIL BOWMAN, producer of WBBM, Chicago, was recently given a watch by the cast of History in the Making in appreciation of his work on the CBS sustaining program. .IIM DRUMMOND recently joined KOMA, Oklahoma City, as news editor. EOY COLLINS, WOR page boy and part-time song writer, has had two more numbers accepted for publication— "That Lucky Day" and "I Can't Get Them Blues from My kJoul." YOUTHFUL announcer of British Broadcasting Corp. and its Empire Service, Henry P. Strakey had an interesting day when he did a regular announcer's turn on WJSV, Washington, on Aug. 2. Strakey read commercials, did station breaks and time signals, and even read a Wheatie commercial during the ball game. He achieved a lifelong ambition in staging a quarterhour swing program in the American manner. CLIFFORD SHAW, staff pianist of WAVE, Louisville, has written a new song, "Moon", based on the poem of Alexander M. Watson, published recently by G. Schirmer Inc., New York, and sung during a Louisville recital a few weeks ago by Roland Hayes, well-known negro tenor. Schirmer's also have accepted another Shaw composition, a piano number, "Vienna Fragment". ROBERT FERRIS, formerly of KFPT, Spokane, recently joined the news and special events department of KOMO-KJR, Seattle. LAVINIA S. SCWARTZ, educational director of WBBM, Chicago, attended the Progressive Education Workshop held recently at Sara Lawrence College, New York. ARTHUR RADKEY, of the educational department of WLW, Cincinnati, has been appointed instructor in radio continuity writing at the evening college of the University of Cincinnati, Director V. H. Drufner announced recently. WALTER WINDSOR Jr., formerly newscaster of WOOD-WASH, Grand Rapids, has joined KFDA, Amarillo, Tex., as announcer on sports and news programs. He was previously with J. Walter Thompson, Hollywood, where he wrote for the Chase and Sanhorn Hour, KFOX and KGER, Long Beach, and WTOL, Toledo. KENNEDY LUDLAM, announcer of WOV-WBIL, New York, on Aug. 6 defeated Julio Occhiboi, musical director of the stations, to regain the golf championship of WOV-WBIL. VERNON CRAWFORD has joined WIP, Philadelphia, as vacation relief announcer. CHARLES VANDA, CBS western program director, confined to a Ft. Smith, Ark., hospital with influenza, directed the network broadcast of Our Leading Citizen at Van Bnren. Ark., on Aug. 8 from his bed. Premiere of the film was sponsored by Paramount Pictures, and produced by Bob Hus=py of that company's radio department. ARTHUR FELDMAN of NBC news and special events department is recovering in Medical Arts Hospital, New York, after a throat operation. JANET BAIRD, commentator at KPO-KGO, San Francisco, who recently received her pilot's license, has teamed with two fiiers to open a flying school at the San Francisco Bay Airdrome, specializing in women students. RUSSELL SINER, publicity-merchandising director of KSAL, Salina, Kan., has resigned to take charge of a newly organized publicity bureau specializing in industrial and travel accounts, with officers in Wichita, Kan., and Los Angeles. HOWARD J. GREEN, Hollywood writer, has been signed by Young & Rubicam Inc., that city, to write dramatic portions of the weekly CBS Screen Guild Theatre, sponsored by Gulf Oil Corp., which resumes Sept. 24. JACK WELDON, formerly assistant program director of WDBJ, Roanoke, Va., recently was named head of the station's program department. DICK FISHELL, sports commentator at WHN, New York, is the father of a baby girl, born Aug. 1 at Park West Hospital. ERNEST N. GEORGE, formerly of KMTR, Hollywood, has joined the KGER, Long Beach, Cal., announcing staff. Finis Bell also has joined KGER as announcer. He was formerly at KXA, Seattle, and KFIO, Spokane. LUD GLUSKIN, CBS Pacific Coast musical director, Hollywood, has been signed to do music scoring for the Principal Productions film, "Everything's on Ice". JEROME SCHWARTZ has resigned as continuity editor of KMPC, Beverly Hills, Cal., to join the CBS Hollywood writing staff. WILBUR CORLEY, formerly of WDOD, Chattanooga, and WDAY, Fargo, N. D.. has joined the announcing staff of WIND, Gary, Ind. His brother, Stan, is also a member of the WIND announcing staff. lADIESf FLORENCE WALLACE EVER SINCE May, 1926, Florence Wallace, manager of KXA, Seattle, has been in radio and she claims the distinction of being Seattle's pioneer woman radio executive. She started at KJR as a secretary shortly after graduating from the University of Washington. In 1927 she went with the old KPCB where she did programs and continuities until 1931. That year KXA engaged her to write continuities. In a reorganization in 1933 she became office manager. Three years later she was appointed station manager, the only woman on a staff of 11. RUSH HUGHES, Hollywood com mentator on the five-weekly quarterhour Langendorf Pictorial, sponsored by Langendorf United Bakeries Inc. on NBC-Pacific Red, has completed a commercial short film, "The General Goes to Town". He is actor as well as commentator in the two-reeler. DOUGLAS EVANS, KFI KECA. Los Angeles, announcer, has been assigned by Columbia Pictures Inc., to portray the role of Francis Scott Key, composer of "The Star Spangled Banner", in a film to be released shortly. BOB MOSS of the NBC Hollywood staff has replaced Owen Crump as producer of the weekly half-hour Grouch Club sponsored on that network by General Mills (Corn Kix). NAOMI F. REYNOLDS, KNX, Hollywood, music commentator, has been appointed national radio chairman of the National. Federation of Music Clubs. HOWARD SMILEY recently was named publicity director of KROY. Sacramento, Calif. JIM O'NEIL, former newspaperman of New York, Chicago and other eastern cities and more recently of the KYA, San Francisco news staff, has joined KJBS, San Francisco, as news editor and newscaster. WILLIAM TALLEY, announcer of KWG, Stockton, Cal., is reported recovering from a head injury suffered in an airplane crash some time ago. BILL BALDWIN, announcer of KSFO, San Francisco, recently resigned to become publicity director of the Roller Derby, currently running in San Francisco. DAVID BRADLEY, formerly a member of the production staff of KYA, San Francisco, has resigned. FLORENCE BALLOU, formerly assistant in the program department of WICC, Bridgeport, Conn., has been named program director of the station, succeeding Judson LaHaye Jr., recently appointed WICC supervisor in New Haven. JIMMY VANDIVEER, KFI-KECA, Los Angeles, special events director, is the father of a 7-pound girl bom July 26. RICHARD WESTBROOK, head of Allied Representation Co., Chicago, is the father of a boy born July 28. PEGGY K NO CHE, secretary of Wythe Walker & Co., Chicago, was married recently to Edward M. Dreis. Paul Francis Morgan PAUL FRANCIS MORGAN, 41, who retired from the managership of WHBC, Canton, 0., last March, and his wife and six-weeks-old son died by suffocation from smoke and heat in a fire which swept their Canton home July 26 and trapped them in a second floor bedroom. Mr. Morgan from 1927 to early 1938 was with the Canton Respository, Brush-Moore newspaper which owns WHBC, and was successively reporter, assistant advertising manager, advertising manager and business manager of that newspaper. He quit WHBC after less than a year due to ill health. Harold B. Porter HAROLD BENNET PORTER, 43, Hollywood radio producer and cameraman, was found dead in his home July 30, from what police describe as a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the head. He is said to have been despondent over finances and failure to find a sponsor for his radio program, Handy Kink. EDWARD D. PORTER, 58, weU known Hollywood radio and stage actor, died in that city July 29. He had been an invalid for the last year, following a paralytic stroke. Page 42 • August 15, 1939 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising