Broadcasting (Oct - Dec 1950)

musicians, were their experiences years and either 1939 (Continued from page 115) complained that the union had not supplied them with competent dissatisfied with of the past two did not reply or told the IRNA committee not to make any further commitments for them. Mr. Rosenbaum talked with Thurman Arnold, assistant U. S. Attorney General, who had recently stated that the Dept. of Justice would proceed against unions making "unreasonable demands" but reported it was merely an exploratory discussion. As the yeiar ended, AFM was waiting for some move from the broadcasters, stating that unless a settlein e n t were reached by Jan. 17 they would lose their musicians and the right to receive musical programs from networks and transcription companies. In February 1939 the United States District Court in North Carolina gave the first Federal Court recognition of the right of a pel-former in his recorded perform Mr. Rosenbaum ance by granting Fred Waring an injunction against WMFD Wilmington to restrain the station from using his records without permission. Bills sponsored by National Assn. of Performing Artists and by AFM to prohibit the use of records on the air without authority from the artists making them were introduced in Congress. A new twist was added in July by the Federal District Court in New York which, in the RCAWNEW-Whiteman case awarded the injunction restricting unauthorized broadcast use of phonograph records not to the artist but to the recording company, further enjoining the artist to refrain from claiming any right to restrict the use of his records unless his agreement with the recording company expressly gave that right to him. RCA followed the decision by offering stations blanket licenses to use Victor and Bluebird records at fees running from $100 to $300 a month, based on card rates, with $10 a month for non-commercial stations to cover accounting costs. At NAB's request RCA put off the starting date of the licenses until Dec. 1. Without waiting, WNEW took out the first such license and, in response to a request from Decca Records, stopped use of those discs pending authorization. AFM notified all members not to assign any rights in records to the recording companies under threat of loss of union membership ; music publishers warned broadcasters that right to record given a record company does not include the right to broadcast. Appeals Are Filed By WNEW, RCA, Whiteman Appeals from the court decision were filed by NAB in the name of WNEW, by NAPA for Mr. Whiteman and by RCA, which objected to granting restrictive rights to the artists. But RCA stuck by its decision to issue licenses Dec. 1 without waiting for the appeals to be heard, and reported that a number of stations, not specified nor identified, had taken out licenses in December. CBS in 1939 entered the recording business by purchase of American Record Corp. from Consolidated Film Industries for §700,000, gaining in the process ownership of Columbia Phonograph Co., then an ARC subsidiary, which in 1927 had set up Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System to compete with NBC in the network field. The word "Phonograph" was dropped from the name when the network organization was sold to Jerome Loucheim and Isaac and Leon Levy in November 1927. Edward Wallerstein, manager of RCA Victor re cording operations, was appointed president of ARC and the company's name changed to Columbia Recording Corp. Negotiations for CBS to acquire World Broadcasting System as well broke down at the last minute because of a cross-licensing agreement between World and Electrical Research Products Inc., developer of the system of recording used by World, which CBS feared would expose its television developments to this AT&T owned company. Following a breakdown in relations between the networks and Press Radio Bureau, AP in February began providing NBC with material for two five-minute sustaining newscasts a day similar to those formerly provided by the Bureau but now credited exclusively to AP. This service, supplied with no charge except the cost of transmission, was subsequently extended to several stations. In April, the AP membership reversed its previous prohibition on the sale of news to radio and a plan was devised whereby member papers could broadcast news locally by paying extra assessments to the association, 59f if the news was used sustaining, when AP was to get air credit, and 25% if it was sponsored, when AP was (Continued on page 118) WNAX The House of Gurney, Inc. YanKton, S.D. WNAX has a dominant coverage of Eastern South Dakota, Northwestern Iowa, Southwestern Minnesota, and Northeastern Nebraska. The audience of this territory depends upon WNAX; they prefer this station because of its consistent service and superior programs. Reach this rich responsive market through WNAX. ONLY WESTERN ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT IN SOUTH DAKOTA ONLY FULL TIME STATION IN THE STATE ONLY CBS STATION IN THE DAKOTAS AND NEBRASKA » » Western Electric Turntables « « 1000 Watts 570 Kilocycles Full Time JSoiemher i, 1931 • BROADCASTING Page 27 Page 116 • October 16, 1950 BROADCASTING • Telecasting