Broadcasting (Jan - June 1940)

BUD SHERMAN, formerly of WBAP, Fort Worth, is to join the announcing staff of KWK, St. Louis, Jan. 15, replacing Earl Kalusche, who will join WLW, Cincinnati. Sue McCaslin, of the KWK continuity staff, received a broken nose and bruises when she was struck by an automobile late in December. DICK ROSS, program director of KMO, Tacoma, and Wanda Dyck of Seattle, were married late in December. MIKE FRANKOVITCH, KFAC, Los Angeles, sports announcer, and Binnie Barnes, British film actress, are to be married on Sept. 26. HELEN HOGUE, formerly in the executive offices of KFOX, Long Beach. Cal., has joined the office staff of KHJ, Los Angeles. ROY MASON, announcer of KGNF, North Platte, Neb., recently married Peggy Chace. RUSS WILLIAMS, announcer of WHK-WCLB, Cleveland, has resigned to travel in the Southwest. GORDON FLETCHER, program director of WLAK, Lakeland, Fla., on Dec. 30 married Mary Cason. HARRY BROWN, formerly of WGST, Atlanta, and John Barnes, new to radio, have joined the announcing staff of WHK-WCLE, Cleveland. Gooch to New KWBD C. S. GOOCH, who has sold controlling interest in KFDA, Amarillo, Tex., to J. Lindsey Nunn, has joined the new KWBD, Plainview, Tex., as general manager. The Plainview station, authorized for construction last July with 100 watts daytime on 1200 kc, will go on the air about March 1, according to Mr. Gooch. It will be equipped with an RCA transmitter, Wincharger tower and Western Electric transcription equipment. The station will be licensed to W. B. Dennis, radio sales and service man. Deems Taylor's Book DEEMS TAYLOR, noted composer, critic and program annotator on the CBS Sunday afternoon broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, is the author of a book of essays, titled The Well-Tempered Listener, to be published Jan. 25 by Simon & Schuster, New York ($2.50). The book is divided into three sections, in which Mr. Taylor gives his authoritative views on composers, performers and listeners. Hay Suit Settled ASSERTED breach of contract suit filed in Los Angeles many months ago by William H. Hay, announcer, against Chester Lauck and Norris Goff, known as Lum d Aimer and sponsored by General Foods Corp. ( Postum ) , on CBS, has been settled out of court for a figure reported to be $5,000. FOUR of the latest Alec Templeton tunes have been published by Leo Feist. The selections, written by the pianist-parodist star of Alec Templeton Time sponsored on NBC-Red by MUes Laboratories, Elkhart, Ind., and NevUle Fleeson include "Taj Mahal", "Let Me Dream On", "Mendelsohn Mows 'Em Down" and "Pardonnez Moi, Madame, But Can You Do the Rhumba?" LEWIE V. GILPIN, son of J. D. Gilpin, publisher of the Tracy (Minn.) Headlight-Herald, and for several years a Washington newspaper correspondent, has been appointed Washington correspondent of KSTP, St. Paul, by Stanley E. Hubbard, KSTP manager. He becomes the first member of the newly-established radio galleries of Congress to represent an individual Northwest station. Ridge Boomed MAJ. .EDNEY RIDGE, general manager of WBIG, Greensboro, N. C, is being boomed by newspapers of the State as a Democratic candidate for Congress at the forthcoming November elections. A candidate two years ago on a straight "New Deal" ticket, Maj. Ridge fell only a few hundred votes short of winning. Newspapers reported that many delegations have urged Maj. Ridge to run this year, and while one publication said he had "practically decided to do so", the broadcaster informed Broadcasting, Jan. 6, that he proposed to "stick to radio". ABOUT to drop everything and run for his weekly Rotary meeting in Kansas City, Arthur B. Church, president of KMBC, suddenly discovered he hadn't laid a blade to his chin for some 30 hours. KMBC's nosy publicity man caught him in the act of bringing the real Arthur Church to light, Schick in hand, leather case supporting the mirror purloined from his secretary. Vice Versa MARVIN FISHER, Hollywood writer of the weekly half-hour Signal Carnival, sponsored by Signal Oil Corp., Los Angeles, on 12 NBC-Paciftc Red stations, is beginning to believe that he ought to change his residence. Living in the same apartment building with him is a voice teacher named Fisher Marvin. Marvin Fisher can't sing, and Fisher Marvin admits he's no script writer. Both are baffled when telephone callers insist upon taking voice lessons from the writer and ask the singing teacher for dramatic skits. Stuart Ayers Joins CBS After Fellowship Tour STUART AYERS, who has been doing scripts for the CBS American School of the Air program independently for the past three years, has joined CBS as script writer in the education department, according to Sterling Fisher, CBS director of education. Mr. Ayers will continue to devote himself to that series, and in addition will prepare the Teachers' Manual, sent by CBS to 150,000 teachers throughout the United States twice each year. Last November Mr. Ayers returned from a six-month trip through South America, made on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship as part of a detailed study of radio's use for improving cultural relationships among the Americas. The material gathered will be used on the Friday section of the School of the Air series, titled This Living World. Mr. Ayers has been writing for radio for over 12 years and has worked also as producer and actor of many radio series. MRS. MARIE VANDERGRIFT, veteran station manager, who now heads the new WMAN, Mansfield, O., is writing a book to be titled "Manager Behind the Mike." /\fu/^ AND ^cUucafit HALE SPARKS, radio administrator for California U, on Jan. 5 celebrated his SOOth broadcast as The Universtiy Explorer. His first broadcast was in March, 1933 over KPO, San Francisco, where the program now originates. In the six years Sparks has gained a ranking as one of the nation's most popular educational broadcasters. A Los Angeles Times radio poll found the Explorer ranking with transcontinental features among the educational programs. In February, 1938, the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce voted him the "Young Man of the Month" for his public service. AFTER about two years preparation under direction of Dr. Arthur G. Crane, president of Wyoming U, the Rocky Mountain Radio Council got under way Jan. 1 as a clearing house for educational organizations of the Rocky Mountain regions to facilitate the handling of educational programs and improve their quality. Operating under a Rockefeller Institute grant, and directed by Robert B. Hudson, formerly executive secretary of the Adult Education Council of Denver, the organization has established offices with complete studio and recording equipment. First program series of the Council is the weekly J ourneys in the News, heard on KLZ, Denver, and KVOR, Colorado Springs. E. GORDON HUBBEL is directing development of a series of weekly halfhour educational transcriptions based on the activities of the Institute for Consumer Education, a project of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation being conducted at Stephens College, Columbia, Mo. Present plans include dramatizations of the problems facing the consumer in everday life, tentatively titled The Family Next Door and directed particularly to women. Mr. Hubbel, who is planning, writing and producing the series, formerly was with the Federal Radio Project of the Office of Education, NBC and the Rockefeller Research Project in school broadcasting at Wisconsin U. WESTERN Reserve U has started a new series of educational programs on WHK, Cleveland, dealing with "Industrial Democracy and the Wagner Act." M. J. Barloon, assistant professor of business and economics at the University, will be heard weekly. NEW JERSEY State Teachers College, Jersey City, is running a 36-week weekly series over WHOM, Jersey City, in which each faculty member makes a five-minute talk supplementing two student speakers and student music. The series is under the direction of Dr. Carroll Atkinson of the faculty. BASED on the radio series of the same name, a book titled How Oovernment Regulates Business was published Jan. 9 by the Dynamic Press, New York, incorporating the talks on Government regulation broadcast from Sept. 12 to Dec. 20, 1938, on WNYC, New York's municipal station. Educator Asks Lifting Of Commercial Control Over Child Programs CHARGING that "agencies" are technically unqualified to safeguard control of a child's education, John DeBoer of the Chicago Teacher's College, at the Western Section meeting. National Council of Teachers of English, held in Los Angeles City College in late December pleaded for a relaxing of the commercial hold on radio programs and as a solution suggested closer cooperation so that needs and interests of children are properly nourished. While admitting radio is an influential partner of the school in the business of education, he urged the development of attitudes needed in today's complex social environment. Mr. DeBoer said that the average child spends around three hours daily listening to radio programs. Viewing with "apprehension" the fact that the majority of radio programs are commercially conducted, Mr. DeBoer said "that the welfare of children is necessarily considered secondarily, if at all. One need not be accused of fault-finding if he points out that the safety of society is inadequately safeguarded when the control of so large a part of children's education is in the hands of an agency which is technically unqualified for the work". As a solution he urged a "system of cooperation between experts in radio entertainment and those on the needs and interests of children." "We don't expect radio to teach children facts of history, geography or such subject matter, but rather to develop attitudes needed in today's complex social environment. Programs, if intelligently written, can relieve rather than intensify the tensions and conflicts which result in maladjustment. Further, radio drama can help children to solve problems in their personal relations. It is in the constructive use of radio drama that the chief educational challenge to broadcasters lies." PRESENTED under auspices of the Division of Adult & Continuation Education, California State Department of Education, a new weekly quarter-hour feature, Lifelong Planning, started Jan. 7 on NBC-Pacific Red network, Sunday, 6:15-6:30 p.m. Originating from Hollywood and arranged for the purpose of providing vocational guidance especially for adults, the series outlines work opportunities and means of preparing for them, with discussion sessions and dramatic presentations under direction of Tipton L. Wood, supervisor of counseling & guidance for the Los Angeles area. Washington and Oregon State departments of education are cooperating. Bob Hall, formerly NBC New York announcer and now associated with the California State Dept. of Education, Los Angeles, announces the series. EDUCATIONAL dramatizations depicting characteristic points in the lives of great composers constitute the pattern of the new Up and Down the Scale series broadcast on WKBN, Youngstown, O., by local Junior League members and their friends. The weekly programs, directed by Wilfred Foley, present in addition to the dramatic interludes Elva Myerovich playing on the piano the best known works of the various composers. The program has been recommended to local school children by Supt. Pliny H. Powers. Page 56 • January 15, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising