Broadcasting (Oct - Dec 1950)

H-R GETS TRANSIT RADIO ^m^ NEW members Frank E. Pellegrin and Carlin S. French chant, secretary of New York Air Brake Co., director; are welcomed by the board of H-R Representatives Inc. Mr. French, new vice president; Paul R. Weeks, vice L to r: Mr. Pellegrin, new vice president and secretary; president; Dwight S. Reed, executive vice president of Frank M. Headley, president and treasurer; George Mer the organization. * ^ * j FIRST major expansion of H-R T Representatives Inc. since its forjj raation last February will material,\ ize Nov. 1, when Frank E. Pellegrin, il vice president of Transit Radio jj Inc. in charge of sales, and Carlin i' S. French, Transit Radio western ;j sales manager, join H-R as vice si presidents and directors, Frank M. ,11 Headley, H-R president, announced I Friday [Closed Circuit, Oct. 16]. J Concurrently with the addition I of these two new executives, H-R I will assume the national sales repj resentation of Transit Radio's 19 ; FM stations, Mr. Headley said. ,j Allan W. Kerr, now a member of i| the New York sales staff of Tran•it sit Radio and formerly with CBS, r Free & Peters and WPIX (TV) New York, will join H-R as an i account executive on Nov. 1. Mr. Pellegrin has a background of 18 years in radio, including a I seven-year term as director of the NAB broadcast advertising department from 1940 to 1947. His service there was interrupted by a three-year wartime hiatus during which he was officer in charge of the planning section of the radio division of the War Dept.'s Bureau of Public Relations. He served overseas for 19 months and made three D-Day landings, going on inactive status in 1945 with the ' rank of lieutenant colonel. I Pellegrin KSTL Founder ■ In 1948 Mr. Pellegrin founded ■ KSTL St. Louis, putting it on the • air in three months and "in the black" in five. He is vice presi' dent of that station's operatingcompany; secretary-treasurer of WATO Oak Ridge, and a stockholder of Hamtramck Radio Corp., applicant for a station in Hamtramck, Mich. He was re-elected sales vice president of Transit Radio at its last board meeting Oct. j 12 in Cincinnati, i Mr. French entered radio after i 15 years as a promotion and advertising executive of Hearst newsI papers in New York and Chicago. He was owner-operator of WTMV East St. Louis, general manager of the radio department of Lorenzen & Thompson, newspaper and 1 station representative, and is now western sales manager of Transit Radio with headquarters in Chicago. He will be associated with I Dwight S. Reed, H-R executive vice ; president, in Chicago, after Nov. 1. Mr. French also is part owner of WATO and of KXEO Mexico, Mo. H-R Representatives Inc. was organized early this year after its principals had res^'gned from Headley-Reed Co., station representative firm of which Mr. Headley had been president and Mr. Reed vice president [Broadcasting, Feb. 20]. H-R currently represents K M P C Los Angeles, WROK Rockford, WFBG Altoona, WJIM-AM-TV Lansing, WGFG Kalamazoo, WONS Hartford, KXXX Colby, Kan., and WMAY Springfield, 111. WJW Cleveland will join the H-R station list on Jan. 1. C. L. Thomas, president of Transit Radio, said he felt the move was a definite step forward for the ATTORNEY GENERAL Thomas E. Fairchild of Wisconsin declared Thursday that seven radio and television programs aired in Milwaukee are lotteries. Some of the programs cited already had been dropped voluntarily by the stations involved. Stop The Music, both AM and TV, was among those listed. The attorney general had been asked last July by District Attorney William J. McCauley of Milwaukee County for an opinion on the legality of the programs. Shortly before this request was made, WMAW Milwaukee was ordered to take its giveaway program Lucky Social Secunty Numbers off the air. Thursday's decision is believed to have resulted from an investigation of all Milwaukee radio and television giveaway shows, made at the urging of WMAW's General Manager Jack Bundy. Programs cited are: Stop The Music, (ABC network), WMAW and WTMJ-TV; Jackpot Quiz, WTMJ; Tello-Test, WISN; Bread Quiz No. 1, WISN, Bread Quiz No. 2, WISN; Radio Auction, WMIL (off the air) ; Food for Thought, WTMJ-TV (off the air). Although signed by Attorney General Fairchild, the opinion was written by William A. Platz, an assistant attorney general of the state, who said that all of the programs contained the three elements Transit group. He pointed out that the connection with H-R would give them five regional offices instead of the two they have had until now and would materially increase the number of salesmen selling for the firm. H-R maintains headquarters in necessary to a lottery under Wisconsin Law — prize, chance and consideration. Mr. Platz disclosed he used wire recordings, scripts and descriptions of programs contained in advertisements in arriving at his decision. The Journal Co. immediately cancelled its two programs — Jackpot Quiz on WTMJ and Stop the Music on WTMJ-TV— "as of Thursday without awaiting any district attorney's complaints," Walter Damm, general manager of the stations, told Broadcasting. Other stations reportedly had taken no action. 'No Comment' Louis G. Cowan, president of the firm which produces Stop the Music, had "no comment until I have time to study the facts," and ABC was awaiting official notification from the Wisconsin attorney general's office. NAB was not prepared to issue a statement. Broadcasting learned that Deputy District Attorney Joseph E. Tierney of Milwaukee Court and Mr. Bundy conferred with the attorney general in Madison last July, shortly before the probe of Milwaukee giveaways was started. At this meeting, Mr. Tierney was asked to prepare a list of programs which might be in violation of the state's lottery laws. Stations cited in the opinion were those on Mr. Tierney's New York's Chrysler Bldg. and territorial offices in Chicago and San Francisco. Plans call for the establishment of new regional offices in Los Angeles and Atlanta after the first of the year and also for expanded space in New York and Chicago. original list as submitted to the assistant attorney general for further study. In his opinion, Mr. Platz said consideration did not necessarily have to involve money, that merely entering a store to obtain information about a lottery, or a coupon, would be sufficient grounds. "The enticement of an audience for a radio program under the inducement of winning a prize by chance is consideration accruing to the station and to the sponsors," he said. "That Stop The Music is a lottery within the principles heretofore stated is too clear to require further comment. In the Jackpot Quiz, the listener is required to find out the name of a bread salesman in his neighborhood, and his attempt to get the name is of great value to the sponsoi"," he noted. Bread Quiz No. 1 was described as requiring a person to listen hear a question, then to go to the stores, and look at ads, to obtain clues to answers. Bread Quiz No. 2 required listening to a program to get a question, the answer to which listener must find. Tello-Test is a program designed "to increase the radio audience," Mr. Platz noted, and Radio Auction involves auctioning of articles for which pay was in stage money "obtained from mer(Continued on page 78) 'BADGER' LAW? wis, cites 'Letter/ Shows BROADCASTING • Telecasting October 23, 1950 • Page 23