Broadcasting (Oct - Dec 1950)

1933 THE year 1933 was one of change for the country as a whole and the broadcasting industry was no exception. It brought a new President whose inspired use of radio reawakened broadcasters to the power of the medium they controlled. It brought a New Deal and a National Eecovery Administration under whose auspices the national economy began towards the end of the year to pull itself out of the morass of depression in which it was so deeply mired as the year began. It brought government administered code of standards for broadcasting that made pointless any attempt by the industry to carry out the ambitious program of self -reorganization that had been planned by the 1932 NAB convention. It brought, in April, the return of beer and in December the repeal of the 18th Amendment, raising new problems of advertising policy for broadcasters. And it brought a radio boycott by newspaper publishers which, almost against its will, forced radio to discover and develop its own potentialities for providing news as well as entertainment for the listening public. The first major news story covered by radio in 1933 was the attempted assassination of President-elect Roosevelt following a speech in Miami late in February. E. K. Cohan, technical director of CBS, vacationing .in Miami Beach, was listening to the talk on WQAM and, hearing the shots and confusion at the end of the address, rushed to the station and telephoned the news to New York in time for its inclusion in Edwin C. Hill's 10:30 p.m. program. Mr. Cohan ordered a circuit set up and at midnight he went on the network from Miami, introducing Fred Mizer, manager and chief announcer of WQAM, who gave the CBS audience an eye-witness account of the shooting, which had started as he was unhooking Mr. Roosevelt's lapel mike. Norman McKay, WQAM program director, reported that he had just come from Mr. Roosevelt who had asked him to assure the public that he was unhurt. In New York, CBS reported on Mrs. Roosevelt's reception of the news. All in all, it was a fine piece of fast reporting. The inaugural ceremonies, covered by both NBC and CBS in more than eight hours of continuous broadcasting, with pick-ups from dozens of Washington points and shortwaved for rebroadcasting abroad, were followed by the hectic period of the banking crifis, cli Pagc 82 • October 16, 1950 Mr. Cohan maxed with the President's announcement, broadcast March 12 over the combined networks of CBS and NBC to what was probably the largest audience in radio history to that time, that the banks were to reopen. But radio did more than report the crisis. NAB President Alfred McCosker (WOR Newark) had advised stations to cooperate with national and local leaders in steering the public away from fear and panic. "As we radiate calm, confidence and good humor in our attitude and in our broadcasts," he wrote, "so will the listening public — 60 million of our citizens — become infused with the same spirit. Radio's stake is the country's stake." Sales Continue As Credit Is Extended Following through on this suggestion, the nation's broadcasters extended credit freely during the moneyless period and pushed sales and merchandising with their usual vigor. They also checked their newscasts carefully in line with the warning from Philip G. Loucks, NAB general manager, to cut out "all statements which may reflect inaccurately on the position of financial institutions or give currency to rumors which may have disastrous effects both for the public and for your station." Stations in Southern California received a second opportunity to combine news coverage and public service late in March when an earthquake shook things up so severely that KHJ and KFI Los Angeles were thrown off the air for brief periods and the studio building of KFOX Long Beach, in the center of the quake zone, was almost demolished, its walls crumbling and its roof collapsing. The KFOX transmitter kept operating, however, and the station's staff stayed on the job. Off the air when the Navy Dirigible Akron crashed off the New Jersey coast in the early morning hours of April 4, the networks opened with bujletins and used them throughout the day, interrupting programs to report the news as fast as it was received. NBC by setting up a remote unit in the Navy Department offices, broadcast an exclusive interview with Secretary of Navy Claude A. Swanson; CBS aired an eye-witness account of the sinking of J -3, Lakehurst blimp, which crashed while searching for the Akron wreckage; both networks had the Akron's sole surviving officer, Lt. Comdr. H. V. Wiley, on the air that evening. Following a Federal District Court decision upholding the property rights of the Associated Press in its news by issuing a permanent injunction restraining KSOO Sioux Falls from using AP news without permission, the AP membership on April 24 voted not to supply any more news to the networks. Local broadcasts of AP news were restricted to 30-word bulletins on events of major importance, for which both AP and its local member paper were to receive broadcast credit, broadcast on sustaining programs only. The board was authorized to set up extra assessments on member papers supplying news for use on the air, with papers not doing so to receive prorata reductions in their assessments. (The extra fee was set at 2.5% of a paper's general charges for one period of 15 minutes or less a week, 5% for two or more periods, effective Jan. 1, 1934.) The AP ban had little effect as the networks had received no news from AP, UP or INS since the November elections. The more than 100 newspaper-owned stations and the many more with newspaper tieups kept on with their newscasts as before, the chief difference being a preference for UP or INS news because of AP's 30-word limitation. More disturbing was the resolution adopted April 26 by the convention of American Newspaper Publishers Assn. that program listings were "nothing more nor less than advertising" and should be published only if "paid for as other advertising is paid for." But wherever newspapers attempted to drop their program logs the flood of reader protests usually led to their early reinstatement. Chief reason for this flare-up against radio was economic. An ANPA analysis of the national advertising dollar showed that newspapers had gotten 45o' in 1930, and 46.4( in both 1931 and 1932, while network radio's share had risen from 5.3?^ in 1930 to 8.1^ in 1931 and 11.3^ in 1932. Broadcasters Begin Own News Staffs The chief effect of this newspaper antagonism was to encourage broadcasters to organize their own news staffs, which a number of stations did. In the fall, CBS took Paul White from his post as network publicity chief to establish and operate a nationwide news service. Columbia News Service Inc. was soon providing news to the network's commentators and was also compiling material for two five-minute news periods a day, broadcast on the network under sponsorship of General Mills. A request of Columbia News for press gallery privileges for reporters covering Congress was denied, but Western Union and Postal Telegraph allowed radio newsmen to file their copy at press rates. The year opened with the future uncertain. Businessmen were in no mood to spend more than the bare minimum for advertising and broadcasters had to use every bit of ingenuity to get enough business to meet their payrolls and stay on the air. KOIL Omaha, for example, devised a plan of trade association advertising which cost individual members less than $10 a week and promoted it so assiduously that in February the station was broadcasting these group programs for garages, florists, cleaners, barbers, beauticians, grocers and druggists. As network billings month by month totaled less than for the same period of 1932, stringent economy moves were made. NBC in April put through a 10% salary cut for all employes making more than $1,000 a year, following a similar cut the previous fall. The NBC-KPO "Gold" Pacific Coast Network was discontinued to save the cost of lines; the "Orange" Network fed by KGO handled Blue as well as Red Network programs. CBS Introduces 'Transition' Rate CBS reduced the cost of 6-6:30 p.m. to two-thirds of the evening scale by introducing a new "transition" (from day to evening) rate. NBC applied daytime rates to the hour from 11 p.m. to midnight. The turn came in October, first 1933 month the combined network billings topped the $3 million mark and first month to show an increase (7%) over the same month of 1932. In November the increase over 1932 was 13%, in December 23%. For the full year network time sales were 19.4% below the 1932 total, but the tide had turned. Both networks raised rates on certain metropolitan stations. CBS reported that in October it had 11 afternoon advertisers using 44 15-minute periods, against six using 17 quarter-hours the previous October. NBC in November restored its spring payroll cut. Station business increased by 11.8% during 1933, according to estimates made by Dr. Herman Hettinger, U. of Pennsylvania, engaged as NAB research advisor to compile data on industry income and expenses. The industry total gross time sales were $57 million, down 7.9% from the 1932 total. The legalization of 3.2% beer on April 7, hailed by CBS in a midnight broadcast with pick-ups from breweries in Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis, was one reason the 1933 record was no worse than it was, breweries spending $348,000 for network time and about $200,000 for spot. The end of prohibition Dec. 5, which CBS also covered with pickups from the state capitals of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Utah whose signatures put into effect the repeal of the 18th Amendment, opened up new sources (Continued on page 8i) BROADCASTING • Telecasting