Broadcasting (July - Sep 1949)

OVERTIME ^"^^^ Would Exempt Special Announcers ANNOUNCERS doing specialized work are not entitled to overtime pay, being classified as "exempt," under a preliminary report issued by the Dept. of Labor. First revision in wage-hour rules since 1940, the new standards will not be put into effect before mid-October pending possible objections by interested parties. NAB last week had not yet decided whether to file objections to the report. The association had asked that all announcers be classified as professional employes under the law rather than announcers doing creative work such as ad-lib assignment, master of ceremonies and similar assignments. William R. McComb, Wage-Hour Administrator, said the revisions do not jnaterially change the number of white-collar v^orkers affected by the law— about 2,500,000 employes. Effect on the broadcasting industry, however, is important, according to the NAB Dept. of Employe-Employer Relations which had taken part in wage-hour hear COST OF DST Networks Spend Half-Million THE FOUR major networks spent more than half a million dollars during the summer to operate delayed broadcast schedules in accommodation of Daylight Saving Time, Broadcasting learned last week. A survey of the four networks showed they spent a total of $583,000 to organize and operate their systems of recorded repeats to insure the arrival of programs at accustomed hours despite the hodge-podge of summer time zones. All four used repeat broadcasts for the bulk of their programming, each setting up several central points where broadcasts were recorded and then played back to Standard Time zone areas. The estimated cost covered equipment, line charges and salaries of personnel involved in the repeat operations. The costs were borne by the networks and not passed on the sponsors. Reinsch Operation J. LEONARD REINSCH, managing director of the James M. Cox stations and former Presidential radio advisor, entered Emory U. Hospital, Atlanta, last week for an emergency appendectomy on Monday. He was reported to be recovering very well and was to return to his home in Atlanta over the weekend where he will rest for one or two weeks. The Cox stations include WSB Atlanta, WIOD Miami and WHIO Dayton, Ohio. ings on the subject [Broadcasting, Jan. 12, 1948]. In general, the regulations would exempt from overtime pay all radio employes functioning as "masters of ceremonies; playing dramatic, comedy or straight parts in a program; interviewing; conducting farm, fashion and home economics programs; covering public events such as sports programs in which the announcers may be required to 'ad lib' and describe current changing events; and acting as narrator and commentator." Under the Fair Labor Standards Act certain types of employes such as executive, administrative, professional and outside selling employes, have been exempt from overtime provisions. The new proposals redefine and clarify the job content of these exemptions. Richard P. Doherty, director, NAB Employe-Employer Relations Dept., had appeared before the Wage-Hour Div., flanked by Robert T. Mason, WMRN Marion, Ohio; Merrill Lindsay, WSOY Decatur, 111.; J. Allen Brown, former NAB small markets director, and Ivar H. Peterson, former NAB attorney. It was stated at NAB that the report accepts the principle that many types of special announcing are professional. A sportscaster or farm director apparently will be exempt so long as his duties conform to those usually ascribed to such employes and as long as he fulfills the other administrative requirements. The proposed rules contain another feature of interest to broadcasters. This is the req^^irement that an employe must receive at least $75 a week before being eligible for classification as exempt, compared to the former $200 per month salary. This readjustment in minimum salary also applies to administrative employes. The minimum for executive or supervisory personnel is raised from $30 to $55 per week. In its report, the Labor Dept. noted: The determination of the exempt or nonexempt status of radio announcers as professional employes has been relatively diflHcult because the radio broadcasting industry is comparatively new in the field of entertainment and because of the merging of the artistic aspects of the job with the commercial. The problem has been complicated also by the novel system of payment for work performed by radio announcers. This is the "talent fee' basis of payment under which sponsors of radio programs pay special fees for the services of announcers whose special announcing talents they particularly desire. . . . Work such as giving station identification and time signals, announcing the names of programs, and similar routine work is nonexempt work. In the field of radio entertainment as in other fields of artistic endeavor, the status of an employe as a bona fide professional under the regulations is in large part dependent upon whether his duties are original and creative in character, and whether they require invention, imagination or talent. The testimony indicated quite clearly that no general conclusion could be reached that all announcers are exempt, or that all are nonexempt. It is apparent that there is considerable variation in the type of work performed by various radio announcers, ranging from predominantly routine to predominantly exempt work. The wide variation in earnings as between individual radio announcers, from the highly paid 'name' announcer on a national network who is greatly in demand by sponsors to the staff announcers paid a comparatively small salary in a small station, indicates not only great differences in personality, voice and manner, but also in some inherent special ability or talent which, while extremely difficult to define is nevertheless real. The determination of whether a particular announcer is exempt as a professional employe must be based upon his individual duties and the amount of exempt and nonexempt work performed, as well as his special compensation. U.S. PROBES COPY Rhodes, Dolcin Involved A TWO-and-a-half million dollar advertising campaign by Rhodes Pharmacal Co., pushing its medicinal preparation, Imdrin, through radio and other media, is currently coming under the watchful eye of certain government agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission. The company, with headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, had authorized its agency, O'Neil, Larson & McMahon, to prepare a series of radio interviews dealing with rheumatism and arthritis. The interviews conclude with statements by local announcers directing listeners to local drugstores for purchase of Imdrin, described as an aspirin product with buffer. Early this month the agency wrote drugstore managers that they could ring up "the fastest, greatest drugstore profits the trade has ever seen" through the exclusive radio tie-in with Imdrin's "unprecedented" campaign. It reported a sale of $5 million in ten months. One druggist in each community would be offered the radio tie-in, paying only 50 V( of the Drawn for Broadcasting by Sid Hix 'Twice a year the traffic department gets that patented 'daylight time change' look." local rate, with Rhodes Pharmacal paying the balance. The complaining agencies, in addition to FTC, are the U. S. Post Office Dept. and the Food & Drug Administration, though the Post Office declines to divulge details until final action is taken. Hearing was set by the FTC for Sept. 30 in Washington. FTC charged misrepresentation in broadcast and published advertisement by Rhodes Pharmacal Co. of the therapeutic properties and effectiveness of Imdrin. Sales during the last quarter of 1948 totaled over $250,000, according to the complaint directed at J. Sanford Rose and Jerome H. Rose, officers of the firm. Broadcast continuities were placed by the agency prior to Sept. 1, 1948, on a number of stations including: WJJD Chicago; WHN (now WMGM), WPIX (TV), WOV, all New York; KWTO Springfield, Mo.; KWKH Shreveport. La., and WWVA Wheeling, W. Va. Meanwhile the Post Office Dept. is known to have issued a complaint charging Imdrin with using the mails for coupons, urging users to purchase Imdrin from drugstores or send coupons to certain chain stores. Food & Drug Administration has entered the picture on grounds label advertising was misleading. FTC also lodged a complaint against the Dolcin Corp., New York, charging false and misleading advertising of another medicinal preparation, Dolcin. Broadcasts cited were those appearing on Don Lee Network: WOR New York; WFIL and WPEN Philadelphia; WGN Chicago; WTAC Worcester, Mass.; WOL Washington; WIND Gary, Ind. ; KMA Shenandoah, Iowa; WTCN Minneapolis, WJR Detroit. Page 30 • September 26, 1949 BROADCASTING • Telecasting