Broadcasting (Jan - June 1940)

HORSES AND GUNS and hobbies and experts are here illustrated. At left Maj. Lenox R. Lohr, NBC president, a man of many and varied hobbies, talks over his recent New York exhibition of ancient guns with Nathaniel Spear, head of the department store displaying them. The Lohr collection traces the history of U. S. military rifles from earliest times to the present. At right Duncan Moore, special events man and news commentator of WJR, Detroit, is pictured astride one of his three jumpers. His hobby is the training of colts. This one, we are told, took the halter without dissent after only a week of companionship and now leads with the halter strap loosely across Moore's hand, no mean feat in the equestrian art. Affiliates of NBC-Red Gross Time Sales by Major Networks Continue to Pass All Previous Records Discuss Proposal for Added Optional Hours WHILE a "generally favorable reaction" by affiliates of the Red Network to NBC's suggestion that the period between 7:30 and 8 p. m. be changed from station to network optional time was reported at NBC, no definite decision has yet been reached on the change, it was reported following a meeting of affiliates with network officials. A number of affiliates, on the other hand, are understood to hold that the station time is necessary to accommodate local public sei'vice and national spot needs. NBC offered increased compensation to the stations for network use of the period if the transfer is effected. Exact amount of the compensation was not revealed but it was understood to exceed the 37%% maximum now received by stations in the higher bracket, which classification includes most of the Red affiliates. The figure was reported roughly as 50% of the hour rate, rather than the 37%% unit rate scale. The proposal was made at a luncheon meeting in New York May 1 by Niles Trammell, NBC executive vice-president. It was argued by NBC that the competitive program situation made the move both desirable and necessary. Removal of the period would leave the hours before 10 a. m., 12 noon to 3 p. m., 6 to 7 p. m., and after 11 p. m. for the stations to use for local and national spot programs during weekdays. The network already has reserved the 7:30-8 p. m. half hour in its Sunday schedule, which gives the stations first call on the time before 1 p. m., between 4 and 5, between 6 and 7, and after 11 p. m. INDIVIDUALLY and collectively, the four nationwide networks last month had the biggest gross time sales for any April in network history and all four likewise report record-breaking cumulative time sales for the January-to-April period. Combined gross time sales of the networks for April 1940 total $7,724,154, an increase of 15.7% from the $6,677,636 reported for April 1939. For the four month period, combined time sales grossed $32,031,724 this year as compared to $27,671,025 last year, a gain of 15.8%. CBS in April again led the field in gross time sales, as it has done every month in 1940, establishing new all-time highs for each month for a single network. For the fourmonth period, total CBS time sales were $13,742,432, up 25% from the $10,995,309 total for the first four months of 1939. Twice during the four months, in January and again in March, CBS has passed the $3,500,000 mark which no other individual network has ever achieved. Second honors for April and for the four-month stretch as well go to NBC-Red, which from January to April had gross time sales totaling $13,190,501, an increase of ONE of the 10 champion retrieving dogs in America, Freehaven Joy of Chicago, owned and handled by James L. Free, president of Free & Peters, national station representative organization, won first award May 5 in the annual spring trial of the Minnesota Field Trial Assn. held at White Bear Lake, Minn. Two weeks before the dog won the Mississippi Valley Club field trial held at Peruque, Mo, Times Square Chimes NBC's famous chimes, which have been the network' s trade mark on programs for years, have been installed in electronic form in the huge Gillette clock in Times Square, New York, to strike every quarter-hour. Invented by J. L. Hathaway, NBC engineer, at the suggestion of E. P. H. James, NBC advertising manager, the notes heard are produced through the vibrations of electrons in a series of radio tubes, and are actuated by a small master clock in Radio City which trips a control, starting the chimes. 6.7% over the $12,363,982 Red gross for the same period of 1939. Cumulative Blue total of $3,692,653, a gain of 17.2% over last year's $3,150,449, brings the combined NBC gross time sales figure for the four months to $16,883,154, up 8.8% over last year's $15,514,431 for the same time a year ago. NBC combined billings in April totaled $4,041,518, a rise of 13.5% from the combined total of $3,560,984 for April 1939. Mutual, with the largest percentage gain for the month as compared to the same month a year previous (37.1%), is second only to CBS in its percentage gain for the four months. MBS billings for 1940 to date are $1,406,138, up 21.1% over 1939's $1,161,285 for the comparable period. Gross Monthly Time Sales % Gain 19J,0 over 19S9 19S9 NBCRed Jan. $3,496,393 8.9% $3,211,161 Feb. 3,226,983 8.5 2,976,268 Mar. 3,338,440 1.2 3,297.992 April 3,128,685 8.7 2,879,571 NBC-Blue Jan. 908.816 10.» 822,789 Feb. 906,101 17.0 778,487 Mar. 965,904 10.7 872,860 April 912,833 34.0 681,413 CBS Jan. 3,588,989 34.2 2,674,067 Feb. 3,830,627 31.0 2,641,642 Mar. 3,513,170 20.1 2,925,684 April 3,322,689 16.4 2,854,026 MBS Jan. 317,729 0.8 316,078 Feb. 337,649 22.1 276.606 Mar. 390,813 27.3 306,976 April 359,947 37.1 262,626 Radio Theme for Film A RADIO program theme song to open and close the motion picture "Dreaming Out Loud", which features Chester Lauck and Norris Goff as Ltim & Ahner. will be used by Voco Productions, Hollywood. Sybil Chism. organist, and wife of Hal Bock, NBC western division publicity director, who played the theme song "Eleanor" when the Lum & Atner series was sponsored on CBS by General Foods Corp. (Postum), has the film assignment. Hedges and Damm Argue Station Network Rights To Station Break Time PERENNIAL argument between networks and their affiliates over control of the 20-second period at the end of a quarter-hour program broke out afresh recently with Walter J. Damm, managing director of WTMJ, Milwaukee, and William S. Hedges, NBC, vice-president in charge of stations, as the principals. Following the arguments presented by the Independent Radio Network Affiliates executive committee in its recent letter advising members that this time belongs to the station and that the network has no right to include it in a package sale of a half-hour period to an advertiser for the broadcast of two 15-minute programs with an extra commercial inserted between the two [Broadcasting, April 15], Mr. Damm informed Mr. Hedges that if NBC continued this practice WTMJ would delete any such announcements. Mr. Hedges replied that while there is no question about the 20second periods at the half -hour and hour being reserved for station identification, no such announcement is necessary at the 15-minute and 45-minute spots, that the network has every right to sell an advertiser an uninterrupted halfhour, and that the advertiser can put whatever he wishes into that half-hour as long as he does not violate the network's rules on copy, adding that if WTMJ deleted any part of a period purchased from NBC by an advertiser NBC would deduct from its payment to WTMJ the amount of its rebate to the advertiser for such deletion. Philip Morris Quiz PHILIP MORRIS & Co., New York (cigarettes), which shifted its series Breezin' Along May 5 from NBC to CBS, Sundays, 8:30-8:55 p. m., has changed the format of the program, now titled Swing-Go, and introduced a double contest with both radio and studio audiences participating. Listeners are invited to send in a four-line rhyme or jingle to Johnny Green, orchestra leader featured on the series, the last line containing the name of a popular song. Green repeats the first three lines on the program and a studio audience contestant attempts to supply the missing line with the correct song title. Biow Co., New York, handles the account. New Wise. Station RECONSIDERING its action of last October designating the application for hearing, the FCC on May 8 authorized William F. Huffman, publisher of the Wisconsin Rapids (Wis.) Tribune to erect a new broadcasting station in that community. It was assigned 100 watts night and 250 day on 1310 kc. Wisconsin Rapids is situated in the center of the State near Stevens Point and about 25 miles South of Wausau, and the 1930 census listed its population at about 9,000. PRIME MFG. Co., Milwaukee (Prime electric fence controllers), has started participation in John Thorpe's early morning farm program, R.F.D. 1020, on KYW, Philadelphia. Hoffman & York Advertising, Milwaukee, handles the account. Page 44 • May 15, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising