Broadcasting (July - Dec 1942)

HAROLD EVERETT FELLOWS HAROLD FELLOWS become an executive when he was 16. And he's still going strong as general manager of WE EI, Boston, CBS key for New England. Mr. Fellows began his career as a copywriter for a local shoe store when he was a high school student in Haverhill, Mass. After school and on Saturdays, he sold merchandise in the store. When the owner decided to expand by opening a store in Amesbury, Mass., the youngster was assigned to manage the new outlet. While he appreciated the fact that he had a job beyond his years, young Fellows realized that he had a lot to learn. He then did what few people would have the courage to do. He quit a good job and went to New York to enroll in a business administration course at NYU. Luck stayed with him. Before long, he was a district sales manager for the New York Tribune, arranging his college schedule to permit his attending night courses and working during the day. He was 17 at the time. But going to school at night and working hard during the day was more than one man could handle. So he resigned from the Tribune and returned to Haverhill, where he entered the beef business. Things then went along smoothly. He married Janet Edgerly June 10, 1919 and was all set to settle down. But he was not content to sit at a desk all day and do nothing else. He also had community spirit. He put the two to good use by producing shows for the town and staging informal gettogethers. And most important of all, he and two friends formed a singing trio. The trio was so well liked in Haverhill that its reputation soon spread throughout New England. Eventually, singing changed from an avocation to a vocation for the trio. They played vaudeville all over New England. After a success full turn at this. Fellows set out on his own as an m.c. and afterdinner speaker. He decided that if he could find a job that paid $75 a week he would give up vaudeville, which frequently netted him that much for a single appearance. He found that job — selling bonds. One evening Mr. and Mrs. Fellows were dinner guests of friends who had been urging him to try radio. He had not given much thought to it because he had always been too busy with his stage work. After dinner his hostess produced a clipping from a Boston paper which read: "Opportunity for a Broadcasting Career — Call at WEEI Wednesday, 3:30 p.m." Mr. Fellows followed up the advertisement, got himself interviewed, had an audition before a group of advertisers and was told he had the job. He was to be m.c. for a local paint manufacturer's broadcasts and was to receive $15 per show. He secured a list of the people who were to be on the show and some information about the sponsor's product. Then he wrote his first radio script. The clients must have like his first show because the following Tuesday morning he became Boston's first radio director when he joined the Harry M. Frost agency. That was in 1928. Fellows remained head of radio for Frost until 1931 when he switched to the Greenleaf Adv. Agency, Boston, in charge of copy plans*-and contact. In 1932, he became assistant general manager and commercial manager of WEEI. He held this position for five years. When CBS leased the station from the Boston Edison Company in 1936, he was appointed general manager. HaroM' Fellows is active in many Boston , civic organizations. He is chairman of the radio division of the Committee on National Defense NOTES CAPT. WAYNE RICHARDS, former assistant promotion director of KSL, Salt Lake City, has been appointed post adjutant at Mather Field, Cal. F. K. MITCHELL, formerly salesman of KMC, Tacoma. Wash., has joined the sales staff of KIRO, Seattle. CHARLES GODWIN, manager of W71NY, FM station of WOR, New YorK, became the father of a baby boy July 17. AL GAGE, NBC Hollywood revenue, accountant, is the father of a boy born July 17. ARTHUR E. McDonald, formerly sales manager of the now non-existent KEHE, Los Angeles, has joined KSFO, San Francisco, as account executive. BEVERLY HERBERT, son of Guy F. Herbert, manager of the Toronto otiice of All-Canada Radio Facilities, has joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. WALT DENNIS, sales promotion manager of KVOO, Tulsa, has been named Tulsa chairman for the Victory Salvage drive. EVANS PLUMMER has resigned as West Coast editor of Movie & Radio Guide. RAY BBTSINGER, formerly of the WPB, Washington, and prior to that vice-president in charge of sales, advertising and merchandising of Athe,y Truss Wheel Co., Chicago, has joined the sales staff of WLS, Chicago. ALEXANDER JOHN McDONALD, formerly supervisor of recorded programs at the Toronto studios of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., has arrived in Britain to join the CBC Overseas Unit. HAP POLITE, former assistant commercial manager of KPRO, Riverside, Cal., has been named commercial manager. HOMER J. BLISS, director of education at WHAM, Rochester, on .July 18 married Avis Brooks, also from Rochester. Mr. Bliss is on the reserve list and expects to enter the Signal Corps in .January. DONALD M. LAWTON, sales promotion manager of KPO, San Francisco, on Aug. 1 joins A. E. Nelson Co., headed by AI Nelson. MAURICE A. VROMAN, commercial manager of KFXM, San Bernardino, Cal., has been appointed general manager. He succeeds George A. Burns, who resigned to join the Army and is now in officers training. Burns had been with the station since 1934. of the Advertising Club of Boston, chairman of the public relations division of the City of Boston'^ Committee on Public Safety, member of the committee on meetings and member Luncheons of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, member of the communications section of the Massachusetts Committee on Public Safety, member of the blackout committee, member of the advisory board of Burdett College, member of the board of directors of the Ad Club. The Fellows' have two daughters — Jeanne, 18, and Barbara, 21 (Mrs. Walton W. Blunt Jr.). They live in Swampscott, Mass. J" J Mr. Gentling GREGORY P. GENTLING, 52, president and owner of KROC, Rochester, Minn., died July 17 following a protracted illness. Prominent in industry affairs as a local station operator, Mr. Gentling s e r ved as a director of the NAB. He was also identified with activities of National I n d ependent Broadcasters in its earlier stages. Gregory Phillip Gentling was born at Mankato, Minn., May 3, 1890. He was educated at Rochester High School and Tulane U. He purchased an interest in the Rochester Daily Bulletin, which he sold to enter Tulane to study medicine. He left college to serve in the Navy during World War I. In 1931 he founded the Olmsted County Journal published in Rochester. In 1935 Mr. Gentling entered radio as president and general manager of KROC. He was commander of the local (William T. McCoy) post of the American Legion in 1926 and 1927. Mr. Gentling is survived by a wife and four sons — David, in the Navy Air Corps; Phillip, dental student at Northwestern U; Allen, who was graduated from Tulane this year. The fourth son, Gordon, is 10 years old. Rita Murray RITA MURRAY, 42, Hollywood commentator, known in West Coast radio as the Voice of Friendship, died in Methodist hospital, Los Angeles, July 17, following a threeweek illness. Entering radio in 1929 Miss Murray was the investment counsellor of the air on CBS West Coast stations for several years. More recently she was commentator on the twice-weekly quarter-hour Voice of Friendship, sponsored by Breakfast Club Coffee Inc. on 3 CBS California stations. In 1930 she was given the award of the International Education Convention in Geneva, Switzerland, for the best feminine radio voice. Surviving is her mother, Mrs. Caroline Murray of Visalia, Cal. Mrs. Leola A. Brown MRS. LEOLA A. BROWN, 48, receptionist of WSB, Atlanta, died at her home June 20 after a lingering illness. At WSB since 1930 Mrs. Brown was widely known in radio and at one time was night manager of the station. For many years she wrote WSB's nightly signoff messages during her spare time. Surviving are a son. Jack, of the WSB promotion department, and two sisters. Sgt. James Godbehere SGT. JAMES GODBEHERE, RCAF observer, formerlv an assistant in the commercial department of CFCF, Montreal, was killed in air operations over Germany May 31. Previously he had been reported missing following operations. BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising July 27, 1942 • Page 33