Broadcasting (July - Dec 1940)

Summer Program Tests Featuring Name Artists Are Arranged by CBS FINAL arrangements have been settled for the summer sustaining series which CBS has been planning for the past several months [Broadcasting, May 15], the eightweek series titled Forecast now scheduled to start July 15, under the joint direction of George Faulkner, CBS producer in New York, and Charles Vanda, CBS West Coast program director. The series, to be heard Mondays at 9 p. m., will consist of 12 halfhour shows and two full-hour shows. On each of six nights, one production will come from New York for one half-hour, the other half originating in Hollywood. The full-hour programs will originate one on either coast. Each production will follow the basic pattern of the first broadcast on July 15, which will feature Frederic March and Florence Eldridge in an adaptation of Booth Tarkington's "The Gentleman From Indiana". Raymond Paige, Albert Spalding and Frankie Hyers. According to W. B. Lewis, CBS vice-president in charge of broadcasts, "Forecast is designed to offer an ambitious, provocative and impressive reply to characteristically American listener-demand for new radio shows, new radio ideas and new radio people." Brown Confirmation Deferred (Continued from page H) Films Supplement Radio FILM lectures will supplement radio lessons of CBS' American School of the Air series starting next fall, following conclusion of arrangements by Sterling Fisher. CBS director of education ; Donald Slesinger, executive director of the American Film Center, and the American Library Assn. The Film Center is selecting 16 and 35-mm. educational movies, many with sound, which picture the program material heard on School of the Air broadcasts, and during the coming school year will act as a clearing house through which schools may secure the pictures. All films are to be listed in the teacher's manual which CBS distributes free to school teachers, as supplemental reading lists have been in the past. Half-and-Half Uncertain AMERICAN TOBACCO Co.. New York, following the July 3 broadcasts of Ben Bernie's Musical Quiz program on CBS for Half-and-Half tobacco, will discontinue the series, after which the orchestra will go on tour for the summer. According to Young & Rubicam. New York, the agency, no substitute show has been set, nor is it decided whether the Bernie program will return to the air this fall. UISPH Sou^^ Caro/ma's FfKST/ ^SPARTAnBURGi Blanketing the rich Piedmont section of South Carolina, plus many counties in North Carolina . . . southern center of textile mills, cotton, peach orchards, railroad shops, timber processing plants, colleges. Sell this great market with WSPA. 1000 Watts • 920KC.I ^a£te/l S^UfWn, Gen'i.Mgr. men you would bring such transactions to the attention of authorities in charge of criminal prosecution?" he asked. Chairman Wheeler observed that CBS minority stockholders "undoubtedly" had a civil action to recover the losses resulting to them, and "probably" had a criminal case also. Character Angle Calling attention to the character requirements for applicants in the 1934 Communications Act, Chairman Wheeler declared the FCC should tell challenged applicants that "they've either got to get rid of officers who, as in the record before us, show themselves to be crooked, or not get a license". "There has been entirely too much of such racketeering in corporations, which has brought discredit on corporations in general and reflects on honest men as well as crooks," he stated, adding that the FCC ought to determine if officers of an applicant corporation are honest, going into individual characters as well as considering the integrity and character of the corporation as a whole. Regarding stock manipulation, Chairman Wheeler told Mr. Brown, "I think you owe it to the public and to Congress to inquire into such transactions, looking for fraud as well as whether someone is holding stock for some foreign group or groups." When Mr. Brown answered that the FCC had sought a $50,000 appropriation for an investigation "unit to carry on just such work, Chairman Wheeler commented that an investigation unit was not needed to find stockholders. Sen. Tobev pointed to the listed holding of 22,104 shares of CBS stock by Brown Bros., Harriman & Co., investment bankers, and asked Commissioner Brown for whom they were holding it — for themselves or someone else. The latter probably was the case, he added. Chairman Wheeler cautioned the FCC to be on the lookout for "dummies for the real owners", observing that "if the Commission doesn't do it, it's derelict in its duty". More Data Asked The requirement that stockholders be listed "don't mean a thing" Chairman Wheeler declared, emphasizing that a real examination into stockholdings is necessary. When Mr. Brown pointed to the statement in the report calling attention to the difficulty of tracing stockholdings beyond reports as listed on the market, Mr. Wheeler said individual stockholders should be contacted to find out about their holdings. Mr. Tobey observed that "William S. Paley and the whole damn Paley family" really control CBS. Commissioner Brown said it was true that "Paley and his associates" control CBS. Mr. Tobey asked for information on the recent sale of some of the CBS stock owned by William S. Paley, as requested at the previous hearing. Although Mr. Brown declared he understood the request to be only for information as to whether the recently sold stock amounted to a controlling interest, Mr. Tobey explained vehemently that his question was not that, but rather to whom the stock had been sold. Commissioner Brown said he did not know. At this Chairman Wheeler exclaimed, "Why in the name of God didn't you find out?" continuing that the nature of the request at the time it was put was "plain as the nose on your face". Going once again into the selling prices of specific stations. Sen. Tobey pointed to NBC's purchase in 1934 of the remaining half of WMAQ, Chicago, from the Chicago Daily News. The purchase price for the half-interest was $625,000, he said, while the actual physical value of the plant was only $44,726. He asked what he considered a reasonable "going concern value" for a station, asserting that at one time the Commissioner had said this value would be not more than 100%. Mr. Brown explained that no definite percentage could be set for this "going concern value", as it varied with cases and conditions. "Who pays for this 1400% increase in value?" asked Sen. Tobey. Answering himself, he explained that this "watered value" forces up rates, which are passed on to the advertiser, and in the end John Q. Public pays the bill by payingmore for the goods he buys. Night Club Incident Explaining that he was going into "the more personal side" of Commissioner Brown's situation, Mr. Tobey reviewed previous testimony on the FCC's disposal to rely on its own legal department for preliminary interpretations on "profane, obscene, indecent" matters. From this he worked into further review of Commissioner Brown's testimony on "a wild party in a New York hot spot". Commissioner Brown reaffirmed previous statements that although he and two other FCC members — Commissioners Case and Craven — had spent some time one evening about a year ago with Donald Flamm, operator of WMCA, New York, in the Diamond Horseshoe, a Gotham theatre restaurant, he knew nothing of alleged goings-on involving women or "drunken brawl". Under questioning by Sen. Tobey, Commissioner Brown stated that in January, 1939, the FCC had granted WMCA's application to double its power and that during an official trip about 10 weeks after this the meeting with Flamm took place. He heatedly declared he did not remember any such incident as having his glasses knocked off or twisting a lady's arm. Call for Craven Charging Mr. Brown with "playing ducks and drakes with the Committee", Sen. Tobey declared, "I know the facts and can substantiate them." He declared he had gathered the facts from witnesses. As he prepared to read into the record a transcript of the facts as he had heard them from the witness, Mr. Wheeler observed that no statements based purely on hearsay should be admitted in the record. At this Mr. Tobey asked that Commissioner Craven be called. As he became more and more outspoken in his accusations against Mr. Brown's personal character, the Commissioner beat with his fist on the table and exclaimed, "Mr. Chairman, I resent any such statement by this Senator!" Comdr. Craven explained the New York incident as "a very simple matter". He said the Diamond Horseshoe was "definitely not a hot spot", but a place to which he would take his "mother, sister, and daughter all at once". He explained that Commissioners Case, Brown and himself had gone there by themselves. Arriving, they found Mr. Flamm and his party at a table. He invited them to join them, but they took another table, meantime speaking with other friends who happened to be there. He stated that he had had "a drink" but didn't notice whether others in the party did, observing, "I don't mind taking a drink with friends". Nothing Immoral During the evening, he continued, Commissioner Brown had introduced him to a lady, presumably one of the Flamm party. At one time, he said, he heard a slap and saw Commissioner Brown holding a lady by the wrist "apparently to keep her from attacking him in some way". At the time Commissioner Brown's glasses were lying on the floor, he added, explaining that he saw nothing immoral or obscene in the whole incident. When he had concluded. Senator Tobey asked committee members to give it careful thought in judging the character of Commissioner Brown. Chairman Wheeler, rising from his chair was heard to say that such an idea was "pretty flimsy", but Mr. Tobey continued that it was "reprehensible" to allow such a person to judge in an | official capacity the standards of i profane, obscene or indecent mat ' ter. Continuing, he charged Mr. Brown with "false testimony beyond peradventure" and exclaimed that he was "guilty of conduct in a public place not becoming a gentleman, and certainly not a Government official". Atlanta Vote | As an anti-climax Senator Tobey ^ asked Mr. Brown if it were not true that the application of James M. Cox to purchase radio interests in Atlanta had not been granted unusually fast. Commissioner Brown said the grant was "speedier than usual". He corrected Mr. Tobey's observation that Commissioner Payne did not participate in the Cox proceeding, explaining that he did sit "and walked out as the vote was being taken". He also admitted, under Senator Tobey's questioning, that Mr. Cox, in 1920 Democratic LARGEST PUBLIC DOMAIN RECORDED LIBRARY in the WORLD LANG-WORTH FEATURE PROGRAMS 420 Madison Ave. New York Page 78 • July I, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising