Broadcasting (Jan - June 1940)

Progress of Radio Technical Unions IBEW Alone Claims to Have Organized 1 50 Stations By JOSEPH L. MILLER Director of Labor Relations National Assn. of Broadcasters SLOW BUT STEADY organization of engineers and technicians has been the outstanding development in broadcasting labor relations since the threatened musicians' strike was averted. The leading union in the field has been International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (A F L) with its affiliate, ■m^^ Associated Broad^/V^ji/^^B cast Technicians. -.^ ggj^ The IBEW says Mr. Miller 150 contracts with radio stations. American Communications Assn. (CIO) also has been active, but its organization efforts have been confined, for the most part, to the larger cities in the East. Efforts of the IBEW to enroll broadcasting's technical employes, on the other hand, have been nationwide. The AFL union has been able to reach into stations throughout the country because for many years it has had a local in almost every city. These locals take in all types of electrical workers. IBEW has staked a claim in AFL to all workers who make, install or operate electrical equipment. Recent Growth Under a plan adopted last year, however, all broadcasting employes in IBEW belong to Associated Broadcast Technicians, an affiliated union with the status of a local even though it is national in coverage. ABT is officially connected with IBEW only through the latter's national office. Thus an IBEW local has no control over the affairs of broadcasting station members in the local's territory. ABT's membership once was confined to employes of CBS. It had started to spread out, however, before it affiliated with IBEW. ABT has a long-term contract covering CBS technicians in all CBS-owned stations except KMOX, St. Louis. KMOX engineers are covered by a separate contract with IBEW. D. J. Dunlop of Chicago is business manager and chief full-time executive of ABT. His only su Peanut hKarked NOW ON THE AIR! A wide-awake station in a wide-awake market. Yours for bigger sales! GeneraZ Manager Fred L. Hart perior is Daniel Tracy, president of IBEW. Dunlop for many years was a broadcast technician and a radio engineering teacher in Chicago. Leaders of IBEW say they deplore strikes, and their record appears to bear them out. Only four times during the last 18 months have they called strikes. All of these were on the West Coast, and all resulted from disagreement on the terms of first contracts. All IBEW contracts stipulate that there shall be no strikes or lockouts during the life of the agreement, and call for arbitration of all disputes arising under the contract. Quick Settlements Two of the four IBEW strikes were settled in less than a day, the third after a few days. The fourth, started last October, is still in progress. Along with a no-strike clause, the usual IBEW contract calls for a 40-hour work week with time and one-half for overtime, vacations with pay, and compensation for travel on remote control as signments. The pay scale varies greatly. There are many clauses dealing with employment and discharge, a majority providing for a closed or preferential shop in employment. Some stations have retained complete freedom in hiring and firing, agreeing to compel all new technical employes to join the union. Jurisdictional Fights IBEW and ABT take in only technical employes, but they already have on their hands two jurisdictional scraps with other AFL unions. American Federation of Radio Artists claims the right to enroll "gain riders" when they do any announcing, and American Federation of Musicians claims the right to enroll them when they handle records or transcriptions. Unlike IBEW, the American Communications Assn., CIO union, takes in all broadcasting station employes except musicians and other artists. The American Newspaper Guild, another CIO union, also has a few contracts covering technical employes among others. HOME TALENT ON 'BARN DANCE' WLS Adds New Feature to Saturday Night Series As Community Shows Yield Hopefuls LPM FOLLOWING up its long policy of fostering development of home talent, WLS, Chicago, has added a half-hour Home Talent Bam Dance feature to its regular Saturday night Barn Dance show. The station also presents a special Saturday afternoon broadcast along the same lines, with talent drawn completely from neighboring towns. The new feature is the outgrowth of a plan started five years ago when the Prairie Farmer-WhS Community Service was incorporated as a non-profit organization to help local groups sponsor a community talent performance. The Barn Dance pattern was generally preferred and all present shows are modeled after it. Since then more than 2,000,000 have attended the 2,000-odd WLS home talent shows produced in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan communities. On the Big Show At least one act from each show is given the opportunity of appearing on the Saturday afternoon shows, on which a considerable number of professional careers have started, among them Rusty Gill, Bill Newcomb, Essie Martin, and "Little Alfalfa" of Our Gang comedies. Six acts from the afternoon show are used in the half -hour section of the big evening show. Four are chosen from a selected county in the WLS area, and a special tribute is paid the country through a prominent local citizen who is asked to appear on the show. Another feature of the home talent shows is an announcing contest, with the winner appearing on the WLS broadcast. The most popular act of the afternoon show also appears on the evening broadcast, along with a sixth act presenting regular WLS staff artists. The promotion provides the services of 15 experienced directors who give their full time to selecting, training and rehearsing acts, spending about two weeks in preparation for each community show. Both WLS and Prairie Farmer publicize the shows through announcements of dates and location of the performances, with the WLS publicity department furnishing news items to local papers before and after the show. Commenting on the benefits accruing from the non-profit project, WLS General Manager Glenn Snyder declared: "We really get a great deal. We have the satisfaction of rendering a specific and worthwhile service to a large group of our listeners which in turn builds listener interest and listener loyalty for WLS throughout our area. But above all, we feel that we are bringing farm and city people closer together, making them understand each other a little bit better and thus making them more neighborly." Executive Membership Picked for Committees Of NAB Sales Group COMPLETE executive personnel of the NAB Sales Managers Committee, under chairmanship of William R. Cline, commercial manager of WLS, Chicago, was formally announced March 8 by NAB President, Neville Miller. Members of the steering committee in addition to Chairman Cline, are Craig Lawrence, KSOKRNT, Des Moines; Ellis Atteberry, KCKN, Kansas City; Charles Calev, WMBD, Peoria; Barney Lavin, WDAY, Fargo; Owen Uridge, WJR, Detroit. District chairmen appointed by the NAB director in each of the 17 geographical areas into which the NAB is divided, are William Malo, WDRC, Hartford; Clifford M. Taylor, WBEN, Buffalo; Lester W. Lindow, WCAE, Pittsburgh; John H. Dodge, WRC, Washington; Maurice Coleman, WATL, Atlanta; Vernon Anderson, WJBO, Baton Rouge; Edward Y. Flanigan, WSPD, Toledo; Ford Billings, WO WO WGL, Fort Wayne; Charles Caley, WMBD, Peoria; Karl Koerper, KMBC, Kansas City; Barney Lavin, WDAY, Fargo; Ellis Atteberry, KCKN, Kansas City; Sam Bennett, KGKO, Fort Worth; W. E. Wagstaff, KDYL, Salt Lake City; Wilt Gunzendorfer, KSRO, Santa Rosa; Wilbur Eickelberg, KHJ. Los Angeles; Loren B. Stone, KIRO, Seattle. The steering committee will meet occasionally with Samuel J. Henry Jr., of the NAB staff, and other staff members to discuss industry sales matters and the work of the recently organized Bureau of Radio Advertising. NAB Names Carpenter H. K. CARPENTER, vice-president and general manager of WHKWCLE, Cleveland, March 1 was named chairman of the NAB Research Committee by President Neville Miller. Other members of the Committee are H. M. Beville, research director, NBC; Arthur B. Church, KMBC, Kansas City; James D. Shouse, WLW-WSAI, Cincinnati; Dr. Frank N. Stanton, CBS research director; Theodore C. Streibert, vice-president, WORMBS, and Scott Howe Bowen, WIBX, Utica. NEW subscribers to International News Service announced since midFebruary are WTCN, Minneapolis; WDAE, Tampa; WRJN, Racine; WGCM, Gulfport, Miss. BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertish March 15, 1940 • Page 75