Broadcasting (July - Dec 1940)

357-FOOT ANTENNA of WIND, Gary, Ind., was gone with the 65mile-per-hour wind, the worse to hit the Midwest since 1898, on Nov. 11. Located five miles west of Gary, the antenna was one of three erected a number of years ago. The station was off the air for only 35 minutes, auxiliary equipment coming to the rescue. Razed by Gales ANTENNAS of at least three midwestern broadcast stations were toppled by the winter's first storm which whipped through the middle west November 11, according to advices reaching the FCC. The 733-foot tower of WJR, Detroit, was demolished, while WIND, Gary, Ind., and WKZO, Kalamazoo, Mich., also reported damage to vertical radiators. After the WJR accident, WMBC, Detroit local, carried the station's CBS programs while two temporary telephone poles were erected, pending restoration of the steel structure. WIND and WKZO obtained FCC permission to broadcast temporarily with only one antenna of their respective directional arrays until repairs were completed. ASCAP Deletions KFI-KECA, Los Angeles, on Nov. 1 eliminated all ASCAP music from sustaining programs. Broadcast Music Inc., and public domain music are being used. Policy was instituted at this time, according to Harrison Holliway, general manager, to avoid last minute confusion should the breach between broadcasters and ASCAP be carried over past the first of next year, when current contracts with stations expire. KFI KECA are the first West Coast stations to institute this policy in favor of BMI. A Dec. 1 deadline on elimination of ASCAP music from sustainings has been adopted by BMI membership generally. WIP. Philadelphia, started Nov. 8 to restrict to 50% the ASCAP music to be played on the station, the ruling affecting the playing of records and transcriiations in addition to the studio orchestra and dance remote programs. BMI and public domain music comprises the other 50%. Cornell's 'Network' AFFILIATING with Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, the Cornell U Radio Guild has started CRG, a miniature station serving campus dormitories and other buildings. The station, operating under sanction of Cornell's board of trustees and the FCC, has purchased new equipment and installed studios in Willard Straight Hall, the university union. In addition to a reg'ular four-hour daily program schedule, dance music is carried Saturday nights. Programs are sent over telenhone lines to oscillator units in dormitories and fraternities or rooming houses, with listeners paying a rental charge and installation fee for the oscillator. Programs are tuned on an ordinary radio. Students operate the station under a five-department setup. MAN BITES DOG Owners of Safford Station Start Newspaper Fire Destroys Station FIRE completely destroyed the studios, ti'ansmitter and all equipment of KAWM, Gallup, N. M., Oct. 27, and reconstruction of the station is now awaiting FCC action on an application to transfer its ownership to A. W. Barnes, publisher of the Gallup Independent. If the application is granted, Mr. Barnes contemplates rebuilding the entire plant, using Gates American equipment throughout, according to Eugene Colley, commercial manager. A. W. Mills, local electrical contractor, is the present licensee. AFTER little more than two years of operation of KGLU, Safford, Ariz., its owners decided that the little community, boasting only a weekly newspaper, should have a daily. Accordingly, on Nov. 10 they inaugurated the Safford Daily Neivs with full leased-wire facilities of UP. Needless to say, the newspaper will work in close collaboration with the station, which is an affiliate of the Arizona Broadcasting Co. network keyed from KTAR, Phoenix, and which recently became an NBC supplementary outlet. Owners of the newspaper are the same as the owners of KGLU, in which Louis F. Long, local theatre owner, holds 70% interest; Joseph W. Greenhalgh, insurance and realty man, 10%, and Spencer W. Kimball, also an insurance and realty man, 10%. While there are nearly 300 broadcasting stations owned in whole or part by newspapers interests, there have been few cases where radio station owners have established or acquired newspapers. One instance is the Clay Center Sun, which is owned by Herb Hollister and Don Searle, owners of KMMJ, Grand Island, Neb. KMMJ until about a year ago was located in Clay Center. Standard Station Gutted THE BUREAU of Standards station at Beltsville, Md., WWV, was destroyed by fire Nov. 6 but will soon be replaced. The station was used to transmit standard frequencies by which radio stations could calibrate their own transmissions. It was automatic and unattended except for maintenance, and the equipment was eight years old. COMMENTARIES by Johannes Steele, noted commentator and analyst, are being syndicated via transcription by Radio Attractions, New York, for presentation by subscribing stations as a quarter-hour five times weekly series. NBC Radio-Recording Division records Mr. Steele's daily broadcasts on WMCA, New York, each evening and ships the discs via air express to subscribers. Local distributors of the General Tire Co. have signed for the programs on WBNS, Columbus, and WTRY. Troy, and other sponsors a^e being lined up. BACK ON THE AIR only 12 hours after its 733-foot steel antenna tower had collapsed in a 78-mile gale Nov. 11, WJR, Detroit, was using this wooden pole setup, erected amid the wreckage of the giant tower. Within an hour after the collapse at 4:45 p.m. WJR programs were back on the air on the WMBC transmitter, and by 5:30 the next morning WJR was ready to resume operations under its own power, using the temporary setup, rushed to completion in a biting gale with the aid of Detroit Edison Co. linemen. WJR also made temporary use of WXYZ's auxiliary transmitter while engineers were getting the bugs out of the emergency installation, but before the day was out the station was back on the air on almost full 50 kw. power and Engineer M. R. Mitchell was getting congratulatory telegrams from all over the country. Although rebuilding of the antenna presents unusual problems, arising out of the steel situation because of defense construction. Manager Leo Fitzpatrick indicated that work could be completed within 60 days. Third Dimension Effect on Films RCA's Fantasound Process Gives Realistic Result NEW technique in reproducing sound-on-film named "Fantasound" was demonstrated Nov. 13 with the New York premiere of Walt Disney's "Fantasia" at the Broadway Theatre. The system, developed after three years of work by Disney and engineers of RCA Mfg. Co., projects a complete third-dimensional effect of sound and music throughout the specially-equipped theatre. The realistic effect of sound actually moving with all action on the screen is accomplished by the use of strategically located loudspeakers in the theatre and special sound control tracks. When, for example, a bee buzzes into the scene to circle around the screen and off again, loudspeakers automatically cut off and on to follow its proggress, giving the impression that the bee is traveling all around the theatre. Prior Tests A part of the new system, described as "multiple channel recording", was first used by RCA engineers in the 1937 production of the picture "One Hundred Men and A Girl", in which Leopold Stokowski conducted the music as he does in "Fantasia". Early in 1938 Disney decided to do a similar job in the pictorial interpretation of Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", with RCA handling the recording work. After production, the film proved so interesting it was decided to include other musical compositions and make it a full-length feature, incorporating the sound control track idea; More than 420,000 feet of music by the Philadelphia Orchestra was recorded, with 18,000 feet finally selected. RCA engineers simplified the system to the point where only four tracks were necessary, three ^ for sound and one for control, ml which through the employment of "I different frequencies are combined into one. In reproduction, they are separated by filters. RCA also constructed a special optical enlarging pointer, which records the four sound and control tracks simultaneously on the same strip of film, and a special reproducer for use with the sound tracks. "Fantasound" is not to be restricted to the Broadway Theatre in New York, RCA reports, as 12 reproduction machines have been constructed for the road performances of "Fantasia" in the nation's 76 largest cities. ♦ Purity Bakeries PURITY BAKERIES Corp., Chicago, for Taystee Bread is testing a thrice-weekly quarter-hour radio version of the well-known comic strip "Mandrake the Magician" on three stations, KWK, St. Louis; WOR, Newark, and WLAC, Memphis. If the test, which started Nov. 11, proves successful, more markets will be added later in the year. Arrangements with King Features Syndicate for the sale of the strip to Campbell-Ewald Co. of New York, the Purity agency, were made by Henry Souvaine, New Yoi'k program producer. Page 40 • November 15, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising