Broadcasting (July - Dec 1939)

TROPHY FOR CHILDREN'S SERIES Hisbee Co., Cleveland, Wins Annual Award for Popular Series Broadcast on WHK New NBC Maps Reveal Coverage Day and Night Coverage Areas Are Charted Separately ALTHOUGH NBC has just completed its first set of coverage maps to show separately the daytime and nighttime coverage areas of its affiliate stations, these maps will not be distributed to advertisers and advertising agencies, nor will they be individually available even to NBC's own salesmen, according to J. M. Greene, recently appointed circulation manager of NBC. Each station gets a copy of its own maps as fast as they are received fi'om the printer, Mr. Greene said, with the distribution about half completed at present, but there will be no further distribution. In explanation of this policy, which is in direct contradiction to that of CBS, which for several years has been publishing and distributing day and night coverage maps of its affiliate stations, Mr. Greene said the NBC maps picture the listening pattern of each station when that station is broadcasting network programs and therefore do not give a true picture of the station's coverage when it is broadcasting local programs not available from its neighboring NBC stations. Not for Spot "If we make our maps available to advertisers and agencies," he said, "they will inevitably be used in planning spot campaigns, and they are not intended for that purpose. Each station has its own coverage map and data which the advertiser or agency can obtain from that station or its representative and NBC has no place in that picture. "We will use these maps and the data underlying them," he continued, "to make network presentations, showing advertisers the coverage available with any specific network setup, either present or prospective. With this information we can tell a network client how many radio homes the addition of any station or station group to his present network will add to his audience. These figures are not always constant for any particular station, as the overlapping of its coverage area with those of nearby outlets will vary with the inclusion or exclusion of those other outlets in the proposed network. "Individually, our maps generally, although not always, show coverage areas more limited than would coverage maps based on the station's own signal strength and mail response when considered as an individual entity and not as part of a network," he added, "which is another reason we are not going to distribute them generally." Maps, prepared by Mr. Greene and his assistant, Charles Robertson, who was formerly in NBC's research division, were based on mail response ov^r an extended period of time, using the regular NBC Airea method broken down for the first time into day and night coverage. Method of determining the par counties when day and night coverage was combined, through use of the half-milivol1; line in conjunction with mail, was used this time to determine daytime coverage of all stations and nighttime coverage of clear channel CLIMAXING a two-month promotional drive, the Higbee Co., Cleveland department store, on Dec. 8 was awarded the Cleveland Plain Dealer 1939 Radio Poll trophy for sponsoring the year's most popular children's program — Pinnochio, heard on WHK, Cleveland. Charles L. Bradley (left), president of Higbee Co., received the trophy, "Miss Oscarette", from Robert S. Stephan, Plain Dealer radio editor. The Pinnochio series, which made its sudden rise to top popularity in less than two months, has been one of the most effective promotions the store has ever used, Mr. Bradley commented. On the day following announcement of the award, the department store made two announcements on WHK, offering a free "Pinnochio mask" to all members of the Pinnochio Club, to be given away at three locations in the store — children's clothing, boys' clothing and the toy departments. Response to the announcements was so great that 14 extra salespeople were added in these departments. The day the announcements were made more than 3,000 new members of the club were signed up, swelling the nine-week total to more than 15,000, and depleting the supply of badges and membership cards until more were ordered. Sales in all departments offering the masks jumped, with an especially large increase in the toy department. Other Reader Choices With Plain Dealer readers in 149 cities and towms in six States participating in the balloting, favorite programs and radio personalities included: Personality: Charlie McCarthy; Program: Chase & Sanborn Hour; Master of ceremonies : Don Ameche ; Classical sing stations. For regional and local stations, however, whose ground waves are subject to interference at night from the sky waves of distant stations, a nighttime interference line was set up, computed by NBC engineers in accordance with FCC standard signalto-noise required ratios. ers : Nelson Eddy, Lucille Manners ; popular singers ; Bing Crosby. Kate Smith ; comedian : Jack Benny ; drama : Lux Radio Theatre: serial: One Man's Family; symphonic program : Ford Sunday Evening Hour; light classical music: Voice of Firestone; dance band: Guy Lombardo ; variety: Chase & Sanborn Hour; quiz: Information Please; commentator: Lowell Thomas : educational : U of Chicago Roundtable; kid's show: Pinnochio. Runners-up : Alec Templeton, One Man's Family. Bing Crosby, Richard Crooks, Margaret Speaks, Kenny Baker, Frances Langford, Edgar Bergen, Orson Welles, Those We Love, Toscanini, American Album of Familiar Music, Kay Kyser, Good News, Doctor I. Q., Kaltenborn, Dr. Walter Damrosch. Let's Pretend, Show horses : Bing Crosby, Information Please, Clifton Fadiman, Lawrence Tibbett, Jessica Dragonette. Frank Munn, Connie Boswell, Bop Hope, Big Town, Vic & Sade, N. Y. Philharmonic, Cities Service Concert, Wayne King, Prof. Quiz, American Town Meeting, and Orphan Annie. Gulf Oil Corp. Renews Screen Guild 16 Weeks GULF OIL Corp., Pittsburgh (oil products), has renewed its weekly half-hour Screen Guild Theatre on 65 CBS stations for an additional 16 weeks, effective Jan. 1, Sun., 7:30-8 p.m. At expiration of the extended period Motion Picture Relief Fund will have received a total of $500,000 from the sponsor for the erection of a home for indigent workers in the film industry. Actual construction of the home will start when the $500,000 mark is reached. With talent, directors and writers donating their services to the weekly program. Gulf Oil Corp. contributes $10,000 a week to the Fund. Joe Hill continues as agency producer on the show with Austin Petersen as assistant. Writers are Charles Tazewell, Sam Perrin and Jess Oppenheimer. Roger Pryor continues as m.c, with John Conte announcing. Oscar Bradley has the orchestra. Young & Rubicam, New York, is agency. Renewal contract was signed in Hollywood by Jean Hersholt, representing the MPRF; Ralph Morgan, Screen Actors Guild; Walter Wanger, Producers Assn., Conrad Nagel and representatives of the oil corporation and the agency. DEPRECIATIOJS LIST FOR TAXES REVISED ,i ANSWERING a request of the NAB for specific information on I changes in depreciation allowances j as applied to broadcasting companies, the Treasury Department ] on Dec. 1 sent the NAB a revised i list of "group lives" applicable in 1 filing income tax returns. ' Timothy C. Mooney, Deputy Commissioner, and E. L. Lindsey, assistant head of Division, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, signed the letter sent to the NAB. They reminded that "the lives stated < above are averages built up on the I experience available for the equip ( ment of all companies for which ; data could be obtained and may not be applicable to the assets of a particular company whose experience may indicate shorter or longer lives." In making public the letter, the NAB explained that "allowance for depreciation cannot be predicted upon a general average. Each broadcaster should produce all the facts pertinent to his own case and press for a decision thereon without reliance upon general practices." The Revenue Bureau's group lives follow: Transmitter equipment, 10 years; studio control ' equipment, 10 years; speech input equipment; 10 years; antenna equipment, 12 years; towers, 15 years; buildings, 20 years; studio furniture and fixtures, 7 years; ! office furniture and fixtures, 15 years; pipe organs, pianos, etc., 10 '■■ years; television equipment, 4 I years; facsimile equipment, 5 years. j P & G Tests Serial PROCTER & GAMBLE Co., Cincinnati (White Naptha), has started Little Cross Roads Store, five-weekly quarter-hour live program, on KWTO, Springfield, Mo., for 52 weeks. It is understood the series may be expanded to other markets. The program was developed by the staff of KWTO and has been on the air for the last five years. Quaker Oats sponsored the show last year and prior to that time it was sponsored locally. George Earle Wilson, production director of KWTO, vsTites and produces Little Cross Roads Store. Actors include Al Stone and Bill Ring, KWTO announcers; Catherine McKee, bookkeeper of KWTO; Gloyd Thrailkill, of the KWTO continuity department. Theme of the dramatic serial is the philosophical attitude of an aged store keener. Compton Adv., New York, handles the account. New Campana Series CAMPANA SALES Co., Batavia, 111., on Jan. 7 will start Grand Hotel, dramatic program sponsored by. the company in 1937 on NBC-Blue, on 30 CBS stations, Sunday, 1:35-2 p. m., on behalf of Campana Hand Cream, Italian Balm, Dreskin, Collies and D.D.D. Campana also sponsors the weekly First Nighter program on CBS. Aubrey, Moore & Wallace, Chicago, is the agency in charge. NBC, MBS and CBS wiU broadcast the address by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the annual Jackson Day dinner given Jan. 8 by the Democratic Party at the Hotel Mayflower, Washington. Page 28 • December 15, 1939 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising ,