Broadcasting (Jan - June 1940)

KSAL, Salina, Kan., in latter March moved from local status on 1500 kc. to its recently authorized regional assignment of 500 watts night and 1,000 day on 1120 ke. Formal changeover was marked by appropriate ceremonies arranged by R. J. Laubengayer, owner. KSAL is now a member of the Kansas Network, which is affiliated with MBS. DOROTHY DEERE, conductor of the "Rob Reel" column in the (Jhicago HeraldAmerican, has started a new series of Hollywood movie programs on WJJD, Chicago. Arrangements have been made with Hollywood studio press departments to flash latest material by wire each morning for Miss Deere's exclusive use. WMMN, Fairmont, W. Va., has established its own artists bureau service under direction of N. L. Royster. The new bureau will have charge of all bookings of various WMMN units, with station talent reclassified into three large units available for broadcasts or entertainments. WTAR, Norfolk, Va., late in March carried a salute to the Esso Reporter news program, marking the fourth year of the feature on the station and reenacting the signing of a new 52-week contract. Among participants were F. H. Skehan, of Standard Oil C'o., Harry Marschalk, president of Marschalk & Pratt, N. Y., and Webb Artz UP radio manager. BOTH the New Jersey House and Senate passed a concurrent resolution April 1 "acknowledging the meritorious services" of the You d Your Government program, heard weekly on WNEAV, New York, for the past six years during the winter. South Carolina's ONLY Regional CBS Station wcsc Charleston, S. C. 1000 watts Free & Peters, Representatives WHEN the weekly Richland County Home Demonstration program recently celebrated its fourth birthday on WIS, Columbia, S. C, General Manager G. Richard Shafto got a special birthday cake, baked by Mrs. Fred Rush, blue ribbon cake baker at the 1939 South Carolina State Fair. The presentation was made by Winnie Belle Holden (right), county agent who conducts the farm women's program, and Mrs. Bessie Harper (center), district agent. WEBC, Duluth, was forced to use its auxiliary transmitter for 2% days when a severe storm struck April 3, causing extensive damage to communications lines. Telephone and power lines to WEBC's transmitter on the outskirts of Superior, Wis., were down during this period, but using the auxiliary transmitter in downtown Superior and the station's new FM transmitter, WEBC restored its NBC service, after stringing an emergency power line, by rebroadcasting the signal of KSTP, St. Paul. The FM broadcast was picked up. downtown and fed into the auxiliary transmitter until regular wire service was restored. WEBC's Arrowhead stations on the Minnesota Iron Range were isolated longer, but maintained their CBS programs by rebroadcasting WCCO. KLPM, Minot, N. D., recently awarded gold basketballs to 10 players picked for their showing in games broadcast by the station during the 1939-40 season. Selections were made by Floyd J. Wynne, KLPM sports announcer, in collaboration with R. J. Schmidt and Leslie E. Maupin, of the special events department. During the season KLPM carried 67 games, including various tournaments. CBS has reorganized its trade news department under the supervision of Victor M. Ratner, CBS director of sales promotion, to emphasize special articles and services rather than general news releases. Herbert Bayard Swope Jr. continues as trade news editor, assisted by Robert S. Gerdy. WIBC, Indianapolis, has started a weekly quarter-hour promoting a drivers' safet.y contest conducted under auspices of the local Lion's Club. The contest is open to commercial drivers of local firms. THE STATION 'IN THE HEART of the MOTOR INDUSTRY' 1000 Streamlined WATTS Announces ^he (Appointment of RADIO ADVERTISING CORPORATION NEW YORK CHICAGO CLEVELAND National "^Representatives CFRB, Toronto, has started a series of five-weekly 10-minute programs incorporating a safety club under sponsorship of Walter M. Lowney Co., Montreal chocolate manufacturer. The five programs each week include two programs devoted to safety plays by 'teen-age actors, a sports celebrity interview, and two dramatizations of safety episodes in which young people were heroes. Membership cards are offered through grocers and confectioners selling Lowney products. The program is directed and account handled by Harry Foster, Toronto. KWY'O, Sheridan, Wyo., on Easter Sunday carried a special remote broadcast of the sunrise services from Mammoth Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Starting at 6 :47 a. m., the 4.5-minute program featured a 100-voice chorus and organ music, along with descriptions of the scene. The special events crew traveled about 300 miles to cover the event. WWAE, Hammond, Ind., presented a blow-by-blow rebroadeast of the recent Louis-Paycheck fight in Polish, sponsored for the benefit of Polishspeaking listeners by the local Davis Fur Co. AFTER a successful 19-week run as a local show on WCMI. Ashland. Ky., Wheeler Products Co. has extended its Naiorhood NoUege quiz show to WLAP, Lexington. The half-hour program has been retitled Kentucky Kollege of Nahorhood NoUege. SERIES OF 14 broadcasts dealing with women's place in the advertising field started April 6 on WCAU, Philadelphia, under auspices of the Philadelphia Club of Advertising Women. Divided into a spring and fall series, six broadcasts will be carried from April 6 to May 11, with the remaining eight in the fall series, for which no starting date has been announced. Under the title Advertising Careers for Women, each broadcast will deal with a specific story on the part women play in the different fields of advertising. CBS and its international shortwave stations, WCBX and WCAB. will broadcast a series of Salutes to the Americas to the 1940 New York World's Fair. Twelve broadcasts, all originating from Latin American countries, will be heard via shortwave Sunday afternoons at 2 p. m. and will feature national and folk music of the various countries supplemented with speeches by government officials. Opening salute was from Bi'azil April 7. THE NBC Athletic Association Chess Club of San Francisco has started a weekly news bulletin. "Black and White", written by Frank Nelson and Gene Clark. The group plans a correspondence chess match with the Chicago NBC studios. Shut His Eyes ALTHOUGH it happened in the Fable Room of a Modesto (Cal.) hotel, Wayne Berthold, engineer of KTRB, that city, swears his most embarrassing moment was no fable. Assigned to cover a fashion show during a convention of women students from California colleges, he set Up equipment in a small room adjoining the auditorium. Called out and detained until broadcast time, Berthold rushed back to find the room had been transformed into a dressing room by models, who were in various stages of undress. As he barged in, the models shrieked and women students stared, but Berthold gave all attention, he says, to the equipment, remembering that "the show must go on". SABOTAGE is hinted in the cutting April 6 of a two-inch lead-encase(l conduit from the CJRC, Winnipeg, studios to the transmitter outside the city limits. Service from CJRC was stopped for an hour. Police are investigating, and it is thought to have been someone acquainted with the electrical plan. The conduit was cut by a heavy instrument. A clue was seen in a telephone caller who that same evening repeatedly impersonated the Canadian Pacific telegraph office to give inaccurate scores on the Ed [ monton-Winnipeg hockey finals played that night in Edmonton. MBS on April 22 will start a series of half-hour weekly dramatic programs, titled Mystery Hall, with David Cheskin's orchestra and originating from Mutual's Buffalo affiliate, WGR. TOTAL of 106,620 persons attended commercial and sustaining broadcasts at the WOR-MBS Playhouse in New York during 1939, according to a report by the WOR guest relations department. The peak month was November with 1,458 individual ticket requests, which does not include attendance at other WOR shows outside WOR .studios. The greatest number of current requests are for the Laff '»' Swing Club programs. THROUGH special arrangement with the British United Press, CKAC, Montreal, will have its own European representative. He is James Crandall, veteran newspaper correspondent. CKAC, affiliated with the Montreal La Pres.ie, North America's largest French language newspaper, specializes in news coverage. TO LEARN what school children actually get out of its educational broadcasts, AVLS, Chicago, recently sent recording equipment to a typical classroom while the children were participating in Let's Sing, the Monday program on the WLS School Time series. At the same time an off-the-air recording of the broadcast itself was made in the studio. AN original idea in auditioning announcers was used recently by Manning OstrofE, production manager of KFWB, Hollywood. When the station announced an audition, 32 announcers applied for the post and Ostroff had them state their qualifications on an acetate recording. OstrofE wants records of voices, not letters for files, he said. KGNO, Dodge City, Kan., has inaugurated a full-hour Saturday evening frolic, Wagon Wheels, composed of comedy skits. Western and old-time music and a quiz section. Each week ten wagon wheels (silver dollars) are added to a pot which goes to members of the studio audience best informed on local history. Tickets to the studio party are distributed by four local commercial organizations. HAWAIIAN Broadcasting System, Honolulu, is to spend $150,000 in the construction of a new RCA transmitter, 330-foot vertical radiator and new studios for KGMB. The studios will be completely air conditioned and modern. Construction of the transmitter plant and tower started April 8. When completed KGMB will have the finest broadcasting plant in the Hawaiian Islands, it is claimed by the station management. FOR the second consecutive 52-week period, Meyers Interiors Furnishers has renewed over WGL, Fort Wayne, Ind. A quarter-hour weekly is used for talks on home decorating and transcribed music. Spot announcements only will be used throughout the summer, reverting to the original program in the fall. KEN L. ROBINSON, continuity editor of NBC-Chicago, has inaugurated a script coaching school for employes. Purely clinical in nature, Robinson will meet with members of the guide staff and others interested in radio writing each Thursday evening at which time he will comment on scripts submitted by embryo writers. Lynn Brandt, staff announcer, continues to conduct the announcers' school each Saturday morning. Page 78 • April 15, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising