Broadcasting (Jan - June 1940)

NO LESS a personage than Frank E. Gannett, candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, newspaper publisher and broadcast station owner was on hand May 20 to congratulate Sol Paul, of Broadcasting News Service, on the inauguration of a new series of programs titled Your Washingto7i Correspondent which began May 20 on WHEC, Rochester. Rochester Gas & Electric Co. is sponsoring the weekly series which embraces interviews with Rochester people in Washington public life. Left to right are Mr. Paul; Harry P. Somerville, manager of the Willard Hotel, a Rochester man; Susan B. Anthony, grand niece of the suffrage leader, and Mr. Gannett. Interviewed in the first transcription, in addition to Mr. Somerville and Miss Anthony, were Congressman O'Brien, and former Rep. Meyer Jacobstein, now of Brookings Institution. Adam Hats to Use NBC's Short wave Waldorf Astoria Hotel Also Buys International Hookup THIRD series of commercial shortwave broadcasts to Latin America was contracted May 24 by Adam Hats, New York, which will shortwave all outstanding prize fights staged by Mike Jacobs and Madison Square Garden during the next year over the combined beams of NBC's two Latin American stations, WRCA and WNBL Second sponsor was signed a few days earlier when New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel contracted for a half -hour musical program, 10:1510:45 p. m., Tuesdays, with a Spanish announcer. The Waldorf is the first hotel to buy foreign time on NBC and is doing so to attract Latin American tourists in this country, it is understood. Prominent Latin Americans who are present during the broadcast, for instance, will be introduced or named on the program. The Adam Hats broadcasts will be announced in Spanish by Buck Canel and Alfredo Barrett, of NBC. First fight will be shortwaved June 6 when Valentin Campolo of Argentina and Buddy Baer meet in Madison Square Garden. At least 22 fights will be broadcast in the series. Adam Hats has been sponsoring fights on NBC for three years, during which time it has increased its retail outlets from 250 to 2,500. Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey sponsored the Louis-Godoy heavyweight championship fight last February and United Fruit Co. currently sponsors 15-minute newscasts in Spanish, seven nights a week. After the Louis-Godoy bout was shortwaved to Latin America, NBC received over 24,000 letters in Spanish from scattered Latin American points. According to Lloyd P. Yandell, director of NBC's international commercial broadcasting service, NBC is negotiating for a daily shortwave program to be sponsored by various film companies interested in the Latin American market. Plans call for a half-hour program seven times weekly for 52 weeks, with some devoted to general Hollywood shows with institutional advertising and others featuring major film releases. It is understood the program material would originate in Hollywood, be transcribed and shipped East for broadcast, and later sent to South American stations for local release. Mr. Yandell stated that details of the programs had not been arranged and that nothing further would be divulged before a general meeting in mid-June. UP-INS Invoke War Clauses UNITED PRESS and International News Service have invoked the war clauses in their contracts with newspaper and radio subscribers, levying assessments of 15% over base rates to help defray greatly increased expenditures for war coverage. Last fall UP added a 12%% assessment, but rescinded it after a few weeks when the war entered its "quiet" stage. INS, which last October levied a 15% assessment on its subscribers but later reduced this fee to 7%%. has now restored it to the original figure. Mounds, 20 Grand Buy West Coast News Series PETER PAUL Inc., Naugatuck, Conn., (Mounds candy bars and Ten Crown gum), a heavy user of Pacific Coast spot radio, through Brisacher, Davis & Staff, San Francisco, on July 15 starts for 52 weeks sponsoring Bob Garred Reporting, on three CBS California stations (KNX KARM KSFO), Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 4:45-4:55 p.m. (PST). Starting Oct. 3, a Thursday broadcast will be added to the schedule. This is said to be the heaviest radio advertising schedule undertaken in recent years on the West Coast by a confectionery manufacturer. Axton-Fisher Tobacco Co., Louisville (20 Grand cigarettes), through McDougall & Weiss, Chicago, on May 20 started, for 18 weeks, sponsoring the night edition of Boh Garred Reporting, on five CBS Pacific Coast stations (KNX KARM KSFO KIRO KVI), Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:459:55 p.m. Knox Gelatine Co., Johnstown, N. Y. (Knox gelatin), through Kenyon & Eckhardt, New York, continues to sponsor the morning edition of the news program on CBS Pacific Coast stations (KNX KARM KSFO KOIN KIRO KVI KFPY), Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 7:30-7:45 a.m. Bathasweet Corp., New York, through H. M. Kiesewetter Adv. Agency, that city, is sponsoring the broadcasts on the same stations, Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30-7:45 a. m. Truck Group's Project AMERICAN TRUCKING ASSN., New York, in line with its augmented public relations campaign, has appointed Blow Co., New York, to handle its advertising. The agency, most of whose accounts use radio to a large extent, stated that radio would probably be used for ATA, but that no plans will be made until extensive surveys and pieliminary conferences with ATA officials are held. Castleberry's Hookup USING a special 16-station Southern hookup, Castleberry's Food Co., Augusta, Ga., has started sponsoring the weekly variety hour. Castleberry Capers, originated by WGST, Atlanta. Placed through NachmanRhodes Agency, Augusta, the show is written and produced by Don Naylor, of WGST. Built around a weekly jingle contest, with nine radios or watches as prizes, talent includes an orchestra, two hillbilly bands, and songs by Frances Miller, Dan Hornsby and Naylor, with Frank Gaither as m.c. The four-state hookup, carrying the feature Saturdays, 9-10 a.m., includes WGST, Atlanta; WGAU, Athens; WRDW, Augusta; WRBL, Columbus; WMAZ, Macon; WKEU, Griffin; WIS, Columbia; WTMA, Charleston; WFBC, Greenville; WOLS, Florence; WISE, Asheville; V/SOC, Charlotte; WBIG, Greensboro; WPTF, Raleigh; WBRC, Birmingham; WSFA, Montgomery. Tydol's GE Shortwave TIDE WATER ASSOCIATED OIL Co., New York, to promote foreign distribution of its industrial lubricants, is sponsoring two quarter-hour programs weekly for 26 weeks on the General Electric Co.'s shortwave station WGEO. According to the G. M. Basford Co., New York agency handling Tide Water's foreign advertising, the programs, heard Wednesdays and Sundays at 7:45 p.m., are shortwaved to South America, and also rebroadcast on some Latin American stations. The Wednesday program features Xavier Cugat's Orchestra and the Sunday Musical Moments program presents music by Rosario Bourbon's Orchestra. The oil company is understood to be the first advertiser, outside of General Electric itself, to use WGEO commercially. KROD in El Paso Debuts, Joins CBS ITS STAFF completed, the new KROD, El Paso, was to join CBS on the day of its inauguration June 1, affiliating with that network's Mountain Group and becoming its 119th outlet. In a letter to the trade, William C. Gittinger, CBS sales vice-president, announced the affiliation and stated that KROD will be offered at a base evening rate of $125 per hour. The station, 250 watts fulltime on 1500 kc, is licensed to Dorrance D. Roderick, publisher of the El Paso Times, and has been housed in a modern building of its own [Broadcasting, May 15]. It uses RCA equipment and 334-foot Truscon radiator. The entire plant represented an outlay of $100,000. Mr. Roderick, long prominent in Texas newspaper circles, who also is business manager of the ScrippsHoward newspaper interests in El Paso, publishing the El Paso Herald-Post from the same plant as his Times, will be general supervisor of operations. He has appointed Merle H. Tucker as general manager. Mr. Tucker has worked on the KROD project since last Jan. 1, before which he was manager of KSAL, Salina, Kan. He is a native of Fort Worth, where he started in radio with WBAP, later working successively for WLW, Cincinnati; WLAP, Lexington, Ky.; WAVE, Louisville, and, before going to KSAL, as radio director of the 1936 Texas Centennial and the Frontier Fiesta in Fort Worth. Dow Ben Roush, recently manager of KTUC, Tucson, is commercial manager; Edward P. Talbot, former chief engineer of KOB, Albuquerque, and recently handling radio installations at Fort Bliss for the War Dept., chief engineer; H. Arthur Brown, director of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra since 1930, musical director; William Jolesch, recently with WBAP, Fort Worth, continuity editor and publicity director; Woody Fagette, native of London and former newspaper advertising salesman, salesman; Raymond L. Kerrick, of Phoenix, salesman; Al Kiersey, formerly with KTHS, Hot Springs, KWFT, Wichita Falls, and WAPO, Chattanooga announcer and newscaster; J. Morrison Qualtrough, of El Paso, announcer; Mrs. John Fairley, secretary. Mr. Brown was to direct the El Paso Symphony in an inaugural broadcast June 1 with a half-hour scheduled on CBS. Taystee Campaign PURITY BAKERIES Corp., Chicago (Taystee bread), has started a campaign of 23 quarter-hours weekly on WHN, New York. Contract for 36 weeks schedules six broadcasts weekly on each of three participation programs, Byron Hour, Houseivives Prom, Early Bird Hour, and a transcribed serial, Toby's Corntussel News, heard Monday through Friday. Deal was set by Hal Makelim, Chicago manager of WHN, through CampbellMithun, Minneapolis agency. HOLLAND'S international shortwave stations at Hilversum. PCJ and PCJ2. noted particularly for the voice of Edward Startz, man of many languages, and broadcasting regularly towards the United States, have been silent since May 7 due to the Nazi invasion. Startz's fate is unreported Page 30 • June J, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising