Broadcasting (Oct - Dec 1950)

1931 (Continued from page 68) States by wire to any foreign station for rebroadcast without express Commission approval. This last recommendation was aimed at XER Villa Acuna, Mexico, 75 kw border station licensed to Dr. John R. Brinkley, whose license for KFKB Milford, Kan., had been deleted because of broadcasts held inimical to the public health. It was feared that this new station, more powerful than any in the United States, would cause interference with domestic stations, in addition to the suspicion that Dr. Brinkley was planning to resume from across the border the same type of programming which had lost him his Kansas station. The Commission granted 50 kw to nine stations, raising to 23 the number permitted to use this statutory maximum power, and 25 kw to six others, making nine in this category; the validity of this restrictive high power regulation being promptly challenged by the rejected applicants. Rev. Robert P. Shuler, crusading pastor, also appealed a Commission order deleting his station, KGEF Los Angeles, for operation not in the public interest. Davis Amendment Brings Station Deletions Among several station deletions ordered in compliance with the Davis Amendment was that of WIBO and WPCC Chicago, sharing time on 560 kc, in favor of WJKS Gary, Ind., Illinois then being 12.49 units over quota while Indiana was 2.08 units under quota. KYW, first station to be built in Chicago, under constant attack because its frequency, 1020 kc, was allocated to the Second Zone, was in December combatting the petition of Kunskv-Trendle Broadcast ing Corp., Detroit, for the frequency, Michigan and the Second Zone being under quota, Illinois and the Fourth Zone being over quota. Experimental TV Operations increase Radio Pictures and CBS both began experimental TV operations in New York during 1931 and RCA selected the Empire State Bldg., world's highest building, as the site for its video experiments in the ultia high frequency region. Philo T. Farnsworth was conducting experiments for Philco Corp., exclusive licensee of his cathode ray video T-i iu system, which Mr. Farnsworth • , ,• j j. had applied for an experimental telecasting license. Even then TV spectrum space was limited; RCA asked the Commission to keep Philco out of the 43-46 mc area of RCA's Camden experiments as the plants were only four miles apart and interference would have been certain. A review of the year's business revealed 21 national advertisers spending more for radio time in 1931 than in 1930, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. making the largest increase, from $166,468 to $1,235,336. A BBDO survey of transcriptions showed more than 75 regular weekly sponsored transcribed programs on the air the end of the year, 175% above the total for the same date two years earlier. Despite these and other overall indications of industry prosperity, more than half of the country stations were operating in the red, NAB President Shaw told the Commission. Robert F. Elder, assistant pro fessor of marketing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, surveyed the use of radio-advertised products, found radio homes used these biands 29.3% more than families without radios, the increase rising to 36.1% in homes whose radios were used more than three hours a day. To find out what stations people listened to and what they thought about what they heard, N. W. Ayer & Son mailed postcards to merchants, city officials, chambers of commerce, newspaper editors and other leading citizens in every town of 2,500 or more persons, foreshadowing the BMB technique by some 15 years. Also in 1931, WOV New York set an important legal precedent when the state court denied an attempt of the State Insurance Department to prevent the station from broadcasting programs for the Union Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Iowa, not licensed to do business in the state, the court holding that WOV was "advertising" the policies, not "soliciting" business. Wrigley Co. Starts 'Myrt & Marge' on CBS William Wrigley Jr. Co. had the temerity to start Myrt & Marge on CBS opposite Amos 'n' Andy, whose NBC broadcasts for Pepsodent were then by all odds the most popular serial on the air. The Matchabelli family sued Walter Winchell, NBC and American Tobacco Co. for slander. WABC New York began using a half-wave antenna, developed by CBS engineers at a cost of more than $100,000 with the aim of reducing sky-wave distortion. Sen. Capper of Kansas and Rep. Harold McGugin of Coffeyville, Kan., both transcribed weekly programs in Washington for broadcast to the voters at home. The American Bar Assn. condemned courtroom broadcasts as an "invasion of the sanctity" of the court and "interference with the administration of justice." A miniature electro-dynamic microphone was first used on the CBS Philco series of concerts by Leopold Stokowski's Philadelphia Orchestra. AT&T's improved cable facilities were providing better quality program transmission for network programs, with fewer interruptions. National Sugar Refining Co. reported success from its experiment to remove all sales talk from its Melody Moments program limiting commercials to a reference to its newspaper ads. Musicians' Strike Averted As Year Ends The year ended with a high note of good tidings from Chicago whose broadcasters, by presenting a united front, had successfully defied a New Year's Eve strike threat of the Chicago Federation of Musicians. Negotiations conducted by William S. Hedges, WMAQ, for the broadcasters, and James C. Petrillo, local president, and Joseph N. Weber, national president, for the union, averted the strike; rejected demands that the workweek for staff musicians be reduced from 35 to 30 hours, that all stations employ more musicians, that musicians "ride gain" in the control rooms and that no recorded commercial programs be allowed; and won for the broadcasters their first formal contract with the union, including an arbitration clause and improvements in the terms covering daytime only musicians. Sole concession on the part of the broadcasters was the agreement of Class A stations to raise their staffs minimum from 10 to 15 musicians, a paper concession only as they all were employing at least that many men already. THE DEPRESSION was the most important problem broadcasters, along with all other American businessmen, had to deal with in 1932. Broadcasting had just begun to develop into a full-fledged national advertising medium and so did not suffer losses in volume of business as did the older media, but from the beginning of the summer of 1932 on to the end of the year the networks reported monthly billings below those for the corresponding months of 1931. To counteract this adverse trend, the networks liberalized their advertising policies. NBC in July removed its ban on price mentions for all daytime programs, except on Sunday, and in September announced that prices could be mentioned on evening programs as well, with CBS shortly making the same concession. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. was the first advertiser to take advantage of the new policy and to announce product prices on its daytime NBC program; it was also the first advertiser to use prices on the network at night. The move was well received by both advertisers and agencies and at the end of the year NBC President M. H. Aylesworth reported: "We felt under existing economic conditions, prices had a definite interest for the listening public. The ready acceptance of this policy has justified the company's position." NBC Revises Fees For Sustaining Shows NBC also revised its charges to stations for sustaining programs from a unit basis to a blanket charge of $1,500 a month for unlimited sustaining service; by the end of 1931 75 stations, 86%o,'were operating under this flat fee plan. Despite the depression, NBC averaged 1,505 employees during 1932, compared with 1,367 in 1931. CBS in July cut its rates by about 37% and dropped the extra charges for tieing the Pacific Coast stations into its national chain. Stations also lowered their rates on a vnAe scale, some through flat rate card reductions, others through such plans as that used by KMBC Kansas City, which offered advertisers a 40% discount if they would place their business on a "run-of-schedule" basis instead of demanding a definite time period. This plan, which also included a two-week cancellation privilege, freeing clients from longterm contract restrictions, was a "depression special" that worked, KMBC reported. Home-Building Projects Prove Successful KSTP St. Paul reported on a business-getting plan it had tried out the previous summer when it had built a model home and reported its progress from blueprint to finished dwelling in 36 half -hour broadcasts, each sponsored by one of the firms involved in the building program. Similar home-building projects worked well for WBAL Baltimore and other stations. Many stations found providing merchandising services for their clients a good way to get and hold accounts, with WLW Cincinnati and KFH Wichita especially successful in this activity. WBSO Needham, Mass., broadcast a series of community programs, each hour-long program devoted to a single community and arranged in cooperation with the chamber of commerce or board of trade. Groups of merchants, usually 10, were permitted to sponsor these programs on a cooperative basis, each getting a 150-word commercial during the broadcast. In at least one instance the depression helped to promote business for radio: Lehn & Fink invested the complete advertising budget of Pebeco toothpaste for the year in radio in the belief. Page 72 • October 16, 1950 BROADCASTING • Telecasting