Broadcasting (Jan - June 1940)

Consumer Trends Basis for Debate At AAA A Meeting Radio Charged With Helping Anti-Advertising Movement RADIO executives were given special mention for their part in unwittingly promoting the consumer movement by Colston E. Warne, president of the Consumers' Union, during a discussion of the topic, "To What Extent Should Advertising Be Controlled and by Whom?" at the May 17 open session of the 23d annual convention of the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies, at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York. Mr. Warne, who with Donald E. Montgomery, consumers' counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, spoke for the "Critics" in a Town Hall Meeting type of debate, began by placing with the advertising fraternity the responsibility for the birth and growth of the American consumer movement. "We of the consumer movement," he continued, "should acknowledge special debts of gratitude. First, let us give a medal for distinguished service to the radio network executives. Their new invasion of the home with resonant baritone voices blending real and specious appeals for action has done more to accelerate consumer revolt than the handiwork of their more sober and restrained inkwielding competitors. Through long years, efforts of consumers, of government and of the industry itself have to some extent checked undue exuberance in print. Voice Appeal "Now the seductive power of the dramatized human voice peddles, in successive minutes, romance-yielding allures, power-yielding gasolines, and quick-acting headache powders. The patent insincerity of much of the procedure has caused a substantial and significant number of listeners to call down a plague on the house of advertising. Don't think for a moment that the consumer revolt of today emerged from Moscow. You built it, and consumers are in the future going to have much to say as to advertising practices." Answering the arguments of Messrs. Warne and Montgomery for further control of advertising by both consumer and government as well as by the industry itself, Stanley High, author and editor, and Fulton Oursler, editor of Liberty Magazine, acted as "Defenders" of advertising from regulation from without. Decrying the overzealous regulatory activities of governmental officials, Mr. Oursler gave special mention to the FCC. "A crowning example of a certain kind of idiocy that now prevails came in news dispatches a few days ago," he stated. "I refer to the recent attempt to interfere with competition and progress by the FCC. It held up the free distribution and advertising of television sets. For the first time in our history, a government bui'eaucracy sought to protect the American people from enjoying the fruits of research, experimentation and human advancement. And all this in the name of saving the consumer from buying a commodity which in EMPLOYER REPORTS To 10,000 Employes by Using Single Broadcast Midgley Wins Promotion FRED ALLEN CASTS NEW TEXACO SHOW USE of a half-hour on a local station to explain an annual report to employes proved successful, according to B. C. Heacock, president of Caterpillar Tractor Co., Peoria, 111., writing in the Executives Service Bulletin of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Mr. Heacock explains that details in the report, which otherwise might not have been read or ■understood by many employes, were made clear in the program. Improved relations with its 10, 000 employes resulted from the broadcast, it was indicated, with Mr. Heacock explaining effect of sales on employment and describing in detail how various branches of the organization dovetail. evitably will be better five years from now than it is today. What would our present radios be like, 1 wonder, if in the early days of the crystal sets we had sat around and waited for perfection to dawn! Stalin and Hitler could not have done any worse." Officers and Board At the annual election May 16, Atherton W. Hobler, president, Benton & Bowles, New York, was elected chairman of the board of the AAAA for the coming year. John Benson was reelected president for a four-year term. Other officers, all elected for one year, are: Vice-president, Guy C. Smith, executive vice-president, Brooke, Smith & French, Detroit; secretary, David M. Botsford, president, Botsford, Constantine & Gardner, San Francisco; treasurer, E. DeWitt Hill (reelected), vice-president, McCann-Erickson, New York. Elected as members-at-large of the executive board for three-year terms ai'e: Ernest V. Alley, Alley & Richards Co., Boston; Allen L. Billingsley, president, Fuller & Smith & Ross, Cleveland; Don Francisco, president. Lord & Thomas, New York. Of the six members-at-large continuing on the board, three have terms expiring next year and three in two years. Board members representing Mr. Midgley C. E. MIDGLEY, Jr., in charge of radio time-buying for BBDO, New York, has been appointed business inanager of the agency's radio department, according to Arthur Pryor Jr., vicepresident in charge of radio. A graduate of the Wharton School of the _U of Pennsylvania, Midgley spent a year in editorial work before joini n g BBDO in 1928. The year following he entered the agency's radio department, where he later became timebuyer, handling both network and spot campaigns. In addition to his new duties, which will entail the supervision of all contracts for both time and talent of the agency's clients, Midgley will also continue to supervise the work of the staff he has heretofore actively headed. councils, elected for one year, are: New York, F. B. Ryan Jr., vicepresident, Ruthrauff & Ryan; New England, Harold Cabot, president, Harold Cabot & Co., Boston; Atlantic, M. E. Goldman, partner, Aitken-Kynett Co., Philadelphia; Central, Arthur E. Tatham, vicepresident, Young & Rubicam, Chicago; Pacific, W. H. Horsley, president. Pacific National Adv. Agency, Seattle. F. R. Gamble continues as executive secretary. On May 16 the convention witnessed a demonstration of frequency modulation, arranged by FM Broadcasters Inc.. in cooperation with Stromberg-Carlson, who installed a combination FM and standard broadcast receiver in the convention rooms. The regular demonstration of musical selections and sound effects used by FM proponents to show the ability of this method of radio transmission to reproduce faithfully at the receiver whatever sound goes into the microphone was topped on this occasion by a severe electrical storm which broke reception via normal broadcasting band with violent static crashes, but left unimpaired the FM reception. ALMOST ANYWHERE except in North Carolina, airing of the anniversary celebration of a metropolitan newspaper would not be news. In the Tar Heel State, however, there are still recalcitrant publishers who regard radio as a gadget and won't print programs or other radio news. Recently, however, WPTF, Raleigh, and Ambassador Josephus Daniels, 75-year-old News & Observer buried the hatchet. On May 18 WPTF handled a three-point pickup from the newspaper's building observing its 75th anniversary. Shown (1 to r) Pohnathan Daniels, editor; Josephus Daniels Jr., business manager; Frank Daniels, treasurer; Ambassador Daniels; Ralph Burgin, WPTF; Miss Mary H. Horton, vice-president of the paper; Wesley Wallace, WPTF; Will X. Coley, circulation manager. Relations between the newspaper and station were cemented recently by a series of community ventures undertaken jointly between newspaper and station, evolved by Frank Daniels and Richard H. Mason, WPTF manager. FOLLOWING the announcement last month that Bristol-Myers Co. is replacing Fred Allen this fall with Eddie Cantor in its Wednesday 9-10 p.m. period on NBC [Broadcasting, May 15], Texas Co., New York, has announced the signing of Fred Allen as the star of The Texaco Star Theatre, Wednesdays, 9-10 p.m. on CBS, starting Oct. 2. The Texas Co. will replace the current Star Theatre with a halfhour musical show for the summer months, effective June 26. Summer series will utilize the first half of the hour, with CBS occupying the second 30 minutes with a sustaining feature for 13 weeks. Kenny Baker, featured vocalist on Star Theatre, and David Broekman's orchestra have been signed for the summer replacement. Frances Langford, vocalist, will also be featured. Baker has a 52 week contract and will join Fred Allen in New York when he stai'ts his new show Oct. 2. Jack Runyon, radio director of Buchanan & Co., agency servicing the account, and producer of the Hollywood half of the current Texaco Star Theatre, will remain in that capacity for the summer series. Although full details of the new fall Texaco program have not been revealed, it was announced that Al Goodman's orchestra has been signed for the series. Although neither Bristol-Myers Co. nor Young & Rubicam, its agency, will confirm the report that Eddie Cantor will be paid according to the CAB rating of his program, it is generally understood that Cantor will receive a base salary of $10,000 per week, plus $200 for each point over a base rating of 20 points, not exceeding a maximum of 30 points during the 39week contract. Thus Cantor, if he maintains a 30-point rating, can receive as much as $78,000 extra for the season, or a 20% bonus. Although talent and whole programs have been hired or discontinued in the past because of their high or low CAB ratings, this arrangement seems to be the first artist-sponsor contract to be signed on a popularity basis. Recruiting Continuities Offered Stations by Army BROADCAST stations, along with newspapers and magazines, are being solicited by the Ai-my, through recruiting districts, to cooperate in the nationwide movement to encourage Army enlistments, it was learned at the War Department May 21. Stations are being asked to use announcements employing this language: "We favor adequate preparedness for national defense and recommend enlistments in the U. S. Army to eligible young men." The Department also stated that newspapers and magazines are being asked to carry display space, including picture posters, to encourage enlistments. While question has been raised in some quarters regarding the advisability of stations using such announcements, since they might be regarded as supporting a "controversial issue", the general industry view appears to be that they do not fall within the controversial category, constituting what amounts to national policy. Page 46 • June 1, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising