Broadcasting (Apr - June 1950)

WBIG Est. 1926 'The Prestige Station of the Carolinas" WBIG dominates "The Magic Circle"* haying more of the 20 top Nielsen-rated programs than all other stations combined within a 50 mile radius of Greensboro. % 5,000 watts unlimited CBS affiliate gilbert m. hutchison general manager Represented by Hollingbery * the richest and most populous area of North Carolina, the South's wealthiest and most progressive state. 7eatute ofi the Week A ONE-MAN campaign to eliminate sub-standard living conditions in Norristown, Pa., has partially paid off after one solid year of almost daily effort. The man who conducted the campaign had a real, uphill battle before it turned in his favor. That's what J. Arthur Lazell, director of news and special events at WNAR Norristown, Pa., said after conducting over a 12-month period a commentary called Something To Think About, using an annual "clean-up" campaign as the starter story series. Mr. Lazell said it was not until this month that a housing and living condition survey in Norristown — a town of 40,000 people on the outskirts of Philadelphia — showed that he did not exaggerate one bit when he described the condition of parts of Norristown. Covering 376 houses and 472 families, the survey revealed, according to Mr. Lazell, that 108 families still have outside toilets, 153 families were without baths, eight were without electricity, 169 are without modern heating, 11 had no heating facilities whatsoever, 158 had only cold water, 13 had no water and 151 houses were in "poor" repair requiring major repairs. Mr. Lazell said he encountered "inertia, outspoken opposition, charges of being a rabble-rousing outsider, anti-this and anti-that." He pointed out that the sole newspaper in town "has turned its back on the housing and living conditions through all these years. Even now it has (to date) refused to publish the survey results." The real estate committee, he said, gave a clean bill of health to the borough after conducting a highly publicized "outside" examination of borough homes. A copy of Mr. LazelPs survey, made possible through the joint effort of the area's AFL and CIO unions which supplied four paid workers, has been given to the Norristown borough council and is now in its building and zoning committee's hands for action. Over 150 copies of the survey, and the letter to the borough council, have been sent to mothers' clubs, civic, fraternal and service organizations, council of churches, he said. The unions made the survey after Mr. LazelPs week-to-week reports on the actual conditions he discovered. On -Oil -Accounts AMONG its long established institutions, Hawaii has its u Mauna Loa, Waikiki, Diamond Head, pineapples, luaus and leis. Almost as much an institution as any one of these is the man whose voice is heard each Saturday night on Hawaii Calls, shortwaved weekly from Waikiki to MBS. In radio at least half of his 43 years, Jim Wahl takes second place to none in island broadcasting. As announcer and associate producer of Hawaii Calls, Jim is given much of the credit for the program's recent Hooperating of fifth place among sustainers on all networks. His duties, however, are far from being confined to the show. In fact, his main job these days is radio director for the Honolulu advertising firm of Hoist & Cummings Ltd., which is associated with BBDO and National Export Advertising Service Inc., of New York. In this capacity, Jim over a score of accounts which represent leading island firms. These include: Alexander & Baldwin Ltd., Bank of Hawaii, Canada Dry Bottling Co. Ltd., Castle & Cooke Ltd., Theo. H. Davies Co. Ltd., Hawaii Employers Council, Hawaii Statehood Commission, Hawaii Visitors Bureau, Hawaiian Airlines Ltd., Hawaiian Dredging Co. Ltd., The Hawaiian Electric Co. Ltd., Hawaiian Property Management Co. Ltd., Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Assn., Hawaiian Tuna Packers Ltd., Honolulu Motors Ltd., Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. Also, Kodak Hawaii Ltd., Lewers & Cooke Ltd., Matson Navigation Co., Standard Oil Co. of California, and The Von Hamm-Young Co. Ltd. When Jim Wahl arrived in Hawaii in 1932, hoping to get on the air, he soon found himself underground breathing a mixture of air and gas instead. As Jim tells it himself, there were only two stations in Honolulu then and neither was exactly waiting to hand Jim a vicepresidency. While looking around for some kind of work, and feeling hunger contractions in his opu (stomach), he stood under a tree JIM until a coconut fell, handles Fortunately, he stated, coconuts are plentiful in Hawaii. Before the coconut diet went too far, the local gas company gave him a sorely-needed if none-toofragrant job. For the next six months he dug gas main ditches in (Continued on page 16) Page 14 • May 15, 1950 BROADCASTING • Telecasting