Broadcasting (July - Dec 1942)

WDRC CONNECTICUT'S PIONEER BROAOCASTER More Impressive Role for Radio Seen By La Roche in Analyzing Year Ahead 9,218 FAMILIES TELL ALL ABOUT LISTENING HABITS Get latest survey — no cost! Here's liuw to gel next to the billiondollar Iowa market! New, impartial, allinclusive ^^Summers-Whan** Iowa Radio Survey covers all 99 counties, discloses 5-year trends in listening habits and preferences as to stations and programs. Maps and facts on Iowa listeners in various age groups and educational levels^—city, small-town and farm. You need it to do a good job in Iowa. Get it today I No cost, no obligation. Central Broadcasting Co., 91 2 Walnut St., Des Moines, Iowa Nat. Rep.: The Walker Company Boston: Bertha Bannan WFBG ALTOONA, PA. • NBC RED • BLUE NETWORK • 250 WATTS • FULL TIME OPERATION • RAILROAD SHOPS ON FULL TIME SCHEDULE WFBG provides the only foil coverage of the Altoona trading area. By CHESTER J. LaROCHE Chairman, The Advertising Mr. LaRoche CAST AS a major weapon in the nation's psychological arsenal, radio has, during the past year, fulfilled its highest responsibilities of public service. Networks, indiV i d u a 1 stations and local, as well as national radio advertiser have given freely of their talents and facilities to carry home to the nation the story of total war. The volume of sustaining time contributed for war themes is indeed impressive; a recent analysis indicated that the four major networks alone have devoted over 3,000 broadcast hours to war information — the equivalent of more than 125 solid, round-theclock blocks of time, or approximately three full hours of time every day in the year. Add to this other thousands of war programs and spot announcements contributed by local stations. Allocation Plan From its inception. The Advertising Council, which was originated to marshall the forces of advertising in behalf of the war effort, has been keenly aware of the manner in which radio, along with other major media, has converted its thinking and planning to the needs of a nation at war. The Council is proud of its participation in the development of the radio allocation plan, which transformed into an orderly pattern a set of circumstances that might otherwise have led to Frequency Shift Plea Is Dismissed by FCC DISMISSAL, without prejudice, of the applications of WBT, Charlotte; WBBM, Chicago; KFAB, Lincoln, Neb., and WJAG, Norfolk, Neb., looking toward a frequency shift which would give WBBM full clear-channel status without nighttime synchronization on 780 ks., was authorized by the FCC last Wednesday upon petition of all the parties. Inability to procure the necessary equipment to permit the type of operation proposted, because of war freezes, resulted in the joint plea. The applications, pending for the last two years, contemplated duplicated operation of WBT, now on 1110 kc. with KFAB, leaving the 780 kc. frequency to WBBM. KFAB would increase power to 50,000 watts. WJAG, now operating limited time on 1090 kc, would shift to 780 kc. daytime. The shift would be in conformity with the Havana Treaty. TAKINfi its tit)e seriously, Civilians <it War. regular feature of W.TSV, AVasliiiigtou, written by Lew SholIcnlx'rKcr. i)resente(l 100 War Dept. I'lnpldycs in a siiecial program of Christmas Carols. The choral group was chosen to represent the thousands of Government workers in Washington who are aiding the war effort. confusion and inefficient use of radio's tremendous resources. The Council's Agency Radio Advisory Committee has been an active force in developing this pattern in conjunction with the OWI's Radio Division. The degree to which radio plays an important part in the Council's activities was further enunciated only recently when a special committee of leading users of network time was set up to work with the agency group. One of the most striking uses of radio geared to the prosecution of the war is the drug and cosmetic industries' space and time pool, by means of which important sponsored network programs are being used to promote the sale of war bonds. In total war there are no bystanders. In total war all the people have to be called on for various extraordinary actions or restrictions of actions. It is necessary to ask them to do things they are not used to do — and to do without things they are accustomed to having. In total war everybody must buy abnormally, give abnormally and live abnormally. Selling ideas to masses of people is advertising's forte. As our armed forces intensify their victory tempo, it will be necessary for us to step up the pace of our information activities on the home front. Rationing, salvage, conservation, bonds and more bonds — these and other appeals will be continuously hammered home. As a major medium of mass communication, radio is slated to play an even more impressive role during 1943 than in the months since Pearl Harbor. Gen. Foods Shifts GENERAL FOODS Corp., New York, on Jan. 1 is giving up the five-weekly broadcast on NBC of the serial Young Dr. Malone, for Post Bran Flakes, 10:45-11 a.m. on 15 stations. The serial continues on 87 CBS stations, Monday through Friday 2-2:15 p.m., according to Benton & Bowles, New York. The company is discontinuing sponsorship of Don Winslow of the Navy on the BLUE five-weekly 6-6:15 p.m. for the same product. No replacement has been set. It is understood Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, has taken an option on the 10:45 morning period on NBC. Cardinal, Brown Games On KXOK for Brewery MAJOR LEAGUE home games of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, except Sundays and holidays, will be broadcast on KXOK, St. Louis, sponsored by Hyde Park Breweries Inc., that city, Clarence G. Cosby, KXOK sales manager, announced last week. France Laux, veteran World Series announcer, will handle the announcing for the third successive year over KXOK and the Hyde Park Radio Network, which last year comprised seven stations in Missouri and Illinois. Contract was negotiated bv Gene Gordon for Hyde Park, Cosby for KXOK, E. F. Haskell and C. O. Husting for Young & Rubicam, agency handling the account. Progress in Music Forseen for Year BMI Plans to Continue Its Competition with ASCAP ASSERTING that Broadcast Music Inc., has saved the industry approximately $1,000,000 annually from the sum paid in 1940 to ASCAP, M. E. Tompkins, BMI general manager said in his year end statement that his organization "enters 1943 by embarking on a campaign of increased service" to give further assurance against "attack by any monopolistic aggressor in the field of copyrighted music." Mr. Tompkins wrote that 1942 saw BMI pass from a purely emergency phase to "an aggressive and permanent organization." He described BMI activities as: building stocks of popular phonograph records, issuing the country's top tunes, clarifying license provisions of the ASCAP consent decree, and arranging conferences with station program directors. Original Aim When it began two years ago, he explained, BMI "geared its operations to the sole purpose of supplying the broadcasting industry with enough music to enable it to continue its service to the public without interruption during the time that the music licensed by ASCAP was unavailable." "As a result of the success of BMI," Mr. Tompkins said, "broadcasters were offered a new ASCAP license on a much more equitable basis than they had even hoped for. BMI was then in a position to realign its organization for its permanent function of maintaining competition in the music licensing field so that the American broadcasters would never again find themselves at the mercy of a single dominating music licensing organization." He said BMI now has licensed nearly 900 stations — 804 in the United States and 88 in Canada, as well as major and regional networks. "With this support," he declared, "BMI's financial position is assured beyond question." The End of the Rainbow Let WAIR guide yoa to that evasive pot of gold. Winston-Salem workers are ^ell paid, sure u£ ttieir jobs, easy to sell when you use the right medium. In this great market, the right medium is~— WAIR Winston-Salem, North Carolina Page 54 • December 28, 1942 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising