Broadcasting (July - Dec 1940)

Buck Asks Advertisers' Aid (Continued from page 20) German Ban on Pickups Of Reich Broadcasts By Mutual Is Rescinded RELATIONS between the German Government and the Mutual Broadcasting System have returned to normal and MBS is once more broadcasting the reports of Sigrid Schultz from Berlin each Sunday evening. Dr. Otto Dietrich, Hitler's personal press representative, had cancelled all service to MBS from German territory following the action of the Don Lee group in drnnning the MBS broadcast of Hitler's speech to the Reichstag on July 19 before its completion, announcing at the time that "Hitler should not be permitted to use our American facilities to justify his crimes against civilization itself" [Broadcasting, Aug. 1]. The ban was in force for about a week, cancelling the July 21 broadcast of Miss Schultz, but permitting her return to the air on July 28. Resumption of service was announced by Fred Weber, MBS general manager, as follows: "The arrangement was effected with the German broadcasting authorities to maintain Mutual's policy of making available all world wide news and program material for acceptance or rejection by the members and affiliated stations comprising the MutuaL network of radio stations." Weiss Explains MR. WEISS said Aug. 12 that only the Don Lee segment of MBS was refusing the German programs. He said the remainder of MBS and the other major networks, as far as he was aware, are continuing the broadcasts and have not been denied this authority bv the German government. Mr. Weiss declared the Don Lee policy is to deny time for all such broadcasts, including Communist as well as Nazi. Declaring a tremendous response has been received from all parts of the world to his July 19 action. Mr. Weiss said it was 20 to 1 in favor of the action. Some threatening letters have been received and some of the opposition was directed against purported encroachment upon free speech. Mr. Weiss said that in his opinion Nazi propagandists have no more right to claim the privilege of free speech than Nazi parachute troops would have the right to claim the privilege of free assembly. they could, destroy ASCAP, even though radio was ruined in the process of doing it. "We are amazed at the manifestation of a degree of censorious conceit such as would prompt these two great and overpowering radio groups to believe for a moment that they are going to tell Damrosch, Whiteman, Waring, Lombardo, or Black what music to play. By what process of loose reasoning do these radio rajahs deduce that they will tell Lucky Strike, Cities Service, Maxwell House Coffee, or their advertising agencies, who have purchased "time on the air", of what musical content their programs shall be made? Whence derives a belief that in their might they are going to determine what will be the musical fare of the more than 50 million people who they claim listen nightly to radio? By what specious argument are they going to support the arrogance with which they now determine v^a.t music shall or shall not be heard on radio, or to boycott much of the world's best music? 'Forgotten Dust' "Of course, it is all an absurdity. It amounts to grovra men shadowboxing, making faces at each other, and whistling in the dark. Nothing of the sort is going to happen. ASCAP music will be on the air just as frequently as it is now, when every man who is presently discussing this controversy has become forgotten dust. "In the meantime, great harm may be done. It will be interesting to observe the development of this controversy. Assuming the Government is equally as interested in violations of the law by others as if alleged to be by ASCAP, what will it think of a conspiracy by the broadcasters, advertising agencies, and performing artists, in a concerted action to boycott the music of the ASCAP repertoire? We think the Government may be intensely interested to note this effort to prohibit the performance of such music by corporations which own booking offices, phonograph record factories, and motion picture producing units." Despite Mr. Buck's assurance 'that reports of pressure on agencies or artists from the broadcasters "will be held in strict and inviolable confidence," the suspicion has been voiced that his request for such information is not altogether disassociated from his interest in Government handling of the ASCAP case [Broadcasting, Aug. 1]. Elsewhere in his massive document, Mr. Buck mentions the folly of instructing "orchestra leaders and others that they must abandon their musical signatures or themes, if in the ASCAP repertoire, on Jan. 1." "Does anyone suppose that Whiteman will abandon 'Rhapsody in Blue' — his musical trade-mark?" he states. In answer to that question it has been pointed out that in 1936, when the Warner Bros, catalogs were withdrawn from ASCAP, Whiteman abandoned "Rhapsody in Blue", using another theme until such time as this number was reinstated into the ASCAP catalog. * ❖ Calls for 'Open Market' An open market for music, permitting advertisers and broadcasters alike to purchase the music they want on a competitive basis rather than being forced to buy and popularize the music of a single monopolistic source, is the ultimate goal of the radio industry in its organization of Broadcast Music Inc., Sydney Kaye, vicepresident and general counsel of BMI, told a score of agency executives at a BMI luncheon July 31, in the Waldorf-Astoria, New York. Pointing out that the proposed ASCAP contracts call for payments by broadcasters of approximately $9,000,000 annually, or $45,000,000 for the five-year term, a sum he said is 80 times as large a percentage of radio's total income as ASCAP now receives from any other industry, Mr. Kaye stated that "it is manifestly impossible for the industry to absorb such exorbitant demands. "It is obviously in the interest of the advertiser and advertising agency to protect themselves from an exorbitant increase in costs and to protect their programs from sudden change by substituting now the music which radio vdll be licensed to play after Jan. 1, 1941, and in opening the door to creative talent struggling for an opportunity to be heard on the air." Indemnities Promised Urging them to call on BMI to assist in solving their musical problems, Mr. Kaye said that BMI will grant full indemnity to any advertising agency, advertiser or performer using numbers from its catalog, differing from the ASCAP contract which grants a limited indemnity to the broadcaster and none at all to advertiser or agency. Present at the luncheon were: John Benson and Frederic Gamble, AAA A; A. W. Lehman, ANA; William Tieman, Atherton & Cur rier; Arthur J. Daley, N. W. Ayer & Son; Robert W. Hersey, J. L. Badger, Badger and Browning & Hersey; C. E. Midgely, Herbert Sanford, BBDO; John R. Latham, Benton & Bowles; George C. Castleman, Bermingham, Castleman & Pierce; Regina Sehuebel, Biow Co.; George Tormey, James Sauter, Blackett Sample Hummert; Mort Heineman, Franklin Bruck Adv. Corp.; Robert Salter,, Buchanan & Co.; I. W. Clements, Clements Co.; John McMillin, Compton Adv.; Edward J. Fitzgerald, Erwin, Wasey & Co.; William Holcomb, Wm. Esty & Co.; R. G. Pratt, Chas. W. Hoyt Co.; Herman Kastor, H. W. Kastor & Sons; Louis Dean, Arthur Kudner; Jay Clark, Lennen & Mitchell; Norman Morrell, Carl Stanton, Lord & Thomas; Joseph Bonime, Frank Conrad, McCannErickson; George V. Carhart, C. L. Miller Co.; Emil Mogul, Emil Mogul Adv. Co.; Edgar Sisson, Lawrence Shenfield, Pedlar & Ryan; Guy W. Pierce, Roche, Williams & Cunnyngham; Peter Barnum, Ruthrauff & Ryan; R. A. Porter, StackGoble Adv. Agency; A. L. Reinitz, Chas. M. Storm Co.; Cal Kuhl, Frank O'Connor, J. Walter Thompson Co.; C. M. Rohrabaugh, Ward Wheelock Co.; Preston Pumphrey, Warwick & Legler; Frederic W. Wile and Frank Coulter, Young & Rubicam. ELEANOR BBESON has been appointed director of publicity and public relations for W. I. Tracy, New York. She takes with her the clients she formerly serviced as an independent publicity expert. Daily transcriptions on the register of Washington's Finest Hotel heralds the arrived of the nation's leading broadcostersc. 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