Broadcasting (July - Dec 1943)

Gillin Hits ? Surrender' Plan For Settlement of Disc Strike WOW President Calls Rosenbaum Performance Fee Idea Wrong in Principle and Practice Gillin A PLEA TO the industry not to follow the "total and unconditional surrender" recommendation of Samuel R. Rosenbaum, president of WFIL, in settling the Petrillo recording ban, was made last week by ^|HW% John J. Gillin Jr., president and JV -4*.. A i general manager I of WOW Omaha. In a letter circulated to the industry Aug. 24 through the NAB, Mr. Gillin attacked the plan of paying a percentage of the industry's gross to musicians as wrong in principle and in practice. He took the battle to Mr. Rosenbaum, who earlier in the month reported for active duty as a lieutenant colonel in AMGOT. Col. Rosenbaum had suggested a plan of settlement based on royalties for the performance rights of the recording artists and predicted that the War Labor Board would wash its hands of the whole dispute when it gets the facts. Pointing out that he had differed with Mr. Rosenbaum last January when he originally circularized his views on the Petrillo situation, Mr. Gillin said that, since Mr. Rosenbaum had seen fit to restate them, he wished again to join issue. 'False Principle' "Basically," he said, "I do not see why any of us should accept Sam's counsel of total and unconditional surrender to a principle which is absolutely false. I know that Sam is really suggesting an extension of the 1937 plan for which he, as Chairman, was largely responsible. The plan of paying a percentage of the industry's gross to musicians was wrong in principle then and I think it has been proved wrong to the broadcasters, in practice, by subsequent events." Answering Col. Rosenbaum's contentions chronologically, Mr. Gillin said the Philadelphian based his letter on the contention that the musician who performs for records has a right to some kind of protection. The musician who actually renders service in recording is not asking for any protection, Mr. Gillin contended. "The only complaint comes from Mr. Petrillo, speaking, presumably, on behalf of the musicians who do not play for recordings or for the radio. Sam's proposal that broadcasters pay to the union a percentage of their gross income amounting to some ten million dollars a year is, presumably, for the benefit of those musicians whose services are not used by ra dio either in the form of recordings or in any other way." Mr. Gillin held that, if the right of the musician were recognized as proposed, there would be no end to calls for a percentage of the gross income from stations. The argument that radio and recordings have displaced musicians is "sheer buncombe". Jingles Not Important The record should be straight on "musical jingles on platters", emphasized by both Col. Rosenbaum and Joseph A. Padway, AFM counsel, as involved in the case before WLB. "It is understandable that Mr. Padway should wish to confuse the issue by acting as though all transcriptions were one-minute spots, in order to prove to the WLB that the ban on transcriptions in no way affects the war effort", Mr. Gillin said. "Sam knows that the musical jingles, to which he and Mr. Padway refer, are least dependent on instrumental music and that they have been practically unaffected by Mr. Petrillo's ban. "Sam knows, even if Mr. Padway does not, that the dispute before the WLB involves library transcription service and the 15-minute commer cial transcriptions — the very lifeblood of hundreds of broadcasting stations, particularly those in communities which cannot offer to the broadcaster the prosperity which Philadelphia offers to Sam's own station." If the demands of the musicians were met, it would be just as logical that radio pay a percentage of its gross for the benefit of singers, writers and actors, all of whom are "as worthy of being encouraged as the art of performing instrumental music", Mr. Gillin said. He said that if it were carried to its logical conclusion there would be no end to calls for a percentage of gross income from stations: "indeed, the radio industry would be taking a step toward its own dissolution. The alternative would be to take the money out of the pockets of our customers (if we could) so that Sam's proposal would then boil down to penalizing the citizens we serve for the use of the inventions which our industry was created to develop." 'Not Consistent' Even if it were true that recordings have displaced musicians, the royalty proposal would make neither "economic nor social sense, either for our industry or for the public", Mr. Gillin said. Contending that Col. Rosenbaum was not consistent in his correspondence, Mr. Gillin recalled that in the fall of 1942, the Philadelphian had criticized the industry for interesting itself in the fight, holding then that the musician's Gilbert W. Fuller New Industry Rep On WLB's Petrillo Disc Strike Panel THE WAR LABOR BOARD last wee,k appointed Gilbert Edmund Fuller, president of the RaymondWhitcomb Travel agency, as industry member of the tripartite panel to hold hearings beginning Sept. 6 in New York in the Petrillo-transcription case. Mr. Fuller was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Henry S. Woodbridge [Broadcasting, Aug. 23]. Mr. Fuller has had mediation experience on panels of the Regional WLB in Boston. He has been with Raymond-Whitcomb for more than 30 years, having served successively as vice-president, managing director, chairman of the board, and as president since 1931. The new member was born in Springfield, Mass., in 1882 and was graduated from Harvard in 1905. In the same year he joined the U. S. Mortgage and Trust Co. in New York, leaving in 1906 to enter the publicity firm of Michaelis and Ellsworth. In 1908 he became connected with the financial department of American Express Co. and in 1910 he joined the firm he now heads. Mr. Fuller is married and has a son and daughter. He is a member of various Boston and New York clubs and resides in Boston. Other members of the panel are Arthur S. Meyer, Chairman of the New York State Board of Mediation and an associate member of NWLB, who is Chairman and public representative, and Max Zaritsky, President of the United Hatters, Cap & Millinery Workers International Union, labor representative. While the panel is scheduled to meet September 6 (Labor Day), there were reports that a postponement might be sought because of the holiday. Union Changes CHARLES HURLBURT, studio engineer in New York of WHOM Jersey City, has resigned to become vice-president and executive head of Broadcast Local No. 1, A. C. A. union of engineers and announcers, with headquarters in Philadelphia. He succeeds Edgar T. Darlington, engineer of WFIL Philadelphia, who resigned his union activities to handle war work while retaining his station post. In addition, Dick Shipp, engineer of WPEN Philadelphia has been appointed temporary secretary of the union, succeeding Carol Roder, engineer of KYW Philadelphia who left to join the Army. ASCAP Members Favor Renewal of Agreement AMERICAN Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers reported last week that the proposal to extend the present membership agreements for an additional 15 years, or until Dec. 31, 1965, has been approved by about 85% of the writer-member group, figured on the basis of royalty distributions, and that most of the major publisher-members have also voiced their approvel, although the 80% mark of this group has not yet been reached. Practically no opposition has arisen against the proposal, ASCAP stated. Plan insures the continuance of the Society's present method of royalty distribution, with equal shares going to writers and publishers, and avoids the danger of a rupture which some members feared might result from a court decision in the BMI-Marks suit. This action, scheduled to come to trial this fall, asks the court to determine whether public performance rights to musical compositions are vested in the publisher or the composer, specifically citing four compositions published by Edward B. Marks Music Corp., which now licenses its music through BMI, but written by composers who have retained their membership in ASCAP. battle is not against radio primarily, "but principally against the juke box baron and the record manufacturers". Now, he pointed out, Col. Rosenbaum has come around to the way of thinking that the fight is directed primarily against radio since he stated in his latest letter: "The musicians have no just complaint against the record publishers and manufacturers or against the transcribers." Answering the Rosenbaum contention that Petrillo has not yet been defeated and that the industry should deal with him, Mr. Gillin cited published reports that the AFM members have already lost $4,000,000 in recording fees and have gained nothing through "Mr. Petrillo's unwise and uneconomic move to compensate for their loss of income". New Technique Mr. Gillin concluded: "Sam at least has come out in the open on one thing. His cure for the present strike is a proposal to the union that we should urge Congress to change the copyright law. In other words, we are not only to adopt a bad principle, but we are to adopt a new technique in lobbying, the putting of pressure on Congress to change the law by means of depriving the citizens of the benefit of inventions until Congress does the will of the union. "Perhaps I have devoted too much time to Sam's proposal because he, himself, points out how few are the people who agree with him. On the other hand, writing this letter affords me an opportunity of wishing Sam well in his military career, and this I do with all sincerity." Page 16 • August 30, 1943 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising