Broadcasting (July - Sep 1950)

RADIO'S WAR DUTIES Sbouse Cites Problems By JAMES D. SHOUSE * CHAIRMAN OF BOARD, CROSLEY BROADCASTING CORP. NAB DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE FOR LARGE STATIONS ONCE AGAIN our industry is facing grave problems — and in view of the recent FCC report on color, the television operators seem to be in fori more than their fair share. Actually, I have sometimes thought that in the past the broadcasting industry, like the old maid looking under the bed, has been predisposed t 0 a r d finding trouble and perhaps a little restless and disappointed when it does not. And while it seems that our troubles are always with us, the potentiality of the trouble today is so far-reaching that it makes some of the issues of the fairly immediate past seem picayune indeed. Such grave problems of the past as whether network programs ought ever to be transcribed, or whether transcribed spot announcements should be labeled as such, seem like the schoolboy irritations of the past, remembered by an adult facing appalling and thoroughly significant problems in the Mr. Shouse future. I don't suppose any of us can forget for very long the very real perplexities presented to the broadcasting business with the mushroom growth of television. But there are problems on a scale vaster by far than even the television colossus, and they are being worked out this very day on mountain roads and rice paddies 10,000 miles from the Terrace Plaza. It may be, and none of us is ignoring this possibility while hoping with all our hearts it won't come true, that the next time the 7th District has a meeting this country could be at war with Russia. The impossible sometimes has a hideous way of becoming the plausible and finally the commonplace fact in our life, and if the monstrous threat ever becomes the monstrous reality, broadcasting will be called on as it never was even in the last war, as the last best hope for healing the shattered bones of continents and the men who try to dwell on them. Radio proved its vast power in the last war in our own country. Radio recruited men, sold bonds and brought news of the conflict into the mass consciousness of those at home. In countries occupied by another enemy, it was the voice not only of hope but of the underground which was doing a military job. To soldiers, this radio, with all the old familiar programs transplanted thousands of miles, was the biggest link with home, and the Jack Bennys and Fibber McGees, incredibly enough, could be heard within the sound of machine gun fire and crumping mortar shells. 'Voice of Truth' At this very moment, this radio is the insistent voice of truth penetrating the Iron Curtain where all else has failed, and what it may be tomorrow no man can be audacious enough to predict. Whatever the task imposed on it, this proved and powerful giant of communications will respond. It is certainly no cowardice to hope that the task will never be put on our shoulders. Sometimes we in broadcasting EXPRESSING their pleasure over the recent debut of Memo from Molly on Columbia Pacific Network are (I to r): John Harvey, advertising manager. Lucerne Milk Co., division of Safe < way Stores, sponsor of program; Merle I S. Jones, general manager, CPN and KNX Hollywood; Ole Morby, assistant soles manager, CPN. wonder why we support a trade association. But on sober reflection we find it is often the intangibles and the imponderables that most specifically justify an association. WLW Cincinnati has paid more than $100,000 in supporting the NAB over a period of years. I know this — that today WLW is still able to pay its dues and will continue to so; that it is a free radio station in our economy, just as your stations are free. DISTRICT 7 MEET stresses NAB, BAB Support * Text of opening remarks at NAB District 7 meeting in Cincinnati. CALL on non-members to join NAB and support of the plan for a greatly enlarged Broadcast Advertising Bureau were voiced at the NAB District 7 meeting, held Monday-Tuesday at the Terrace SET OUTPUT FM Tuners at High Peak, RTMA Reports PRODUCTION of radio and TV receivers containing FM tuners has reached the highest ratio in more than a year, according to July production figures of Radio-Television Mfrs. Assn. Total July radio and TV set output hit the lowest point of the year, due to the annual RTMA shutdown ★ during the first two weeks of July. This shutdown delayed collection of RTMA production figures nearly a month. Total television production of RTMA members in July was only 253,457 sets but it is known that in late August the total .industry output of members and non-members was near 200,000 per week. Production of radios by RTMA members totaled 423,003 sets in July. This compared to 1,054,456 radio sets turned out by members in June, a record figure for the year. Of the July radio sets nearly 25% — 102,037 receivers — contained FM or FM-AM tuning. In the case of TV sets, 45,284 out of the 253,457 produced — 18% — contained FM tuners. In all, RTMA members have produced 641,889 FM and AM-FM radios in seven months of 1950 plus another 270,957 TV sets with FM, a total of 912,846 sets containing FM tuning. Breakdown of radio and TV production by RTMA members for the first seven months of 1950 follows: TV Home Radio Sets (Incl. Portables) Automobile Sets All Sets January i February ! March (five weeks) April May June July 335,588 367,065 525,277 420,026 376,227 388.962 253,457 470.715 529.254 724,691 648,352 693,592 784,108 332,748 189,480 221,139 255,673 234,354 206,464 270,348 90.255 995,783 1,117.458 1.505.641 1.302.732 1.276.283 1.443,418 676.460 2.666.602 4.183,460 1.467.713 8,317,775 Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati. James D. Shouse, WLW Cincinnati, NAB director-at-large for large stations, presided Monday at the opening of the two-day meeting in absence of the District 7 director, Gilmore Nunn, WLAP Lexington, Ky. Mr. Nunn presided at the Tuesday sessions. Detailed portrayal of NAB functions for the membership and industry as a whole was given the 100 delegates by Robert K. Richards, NAB director of public affairs. In a resolution, District 7 called on non-members "to join with us in membership in an association which shall speak for all broadcasters in a strong and united voice that shall insure the strength of our own industry in our search for improved economic and social goals, convinced that at the same time this service will most greatly advance each individual member." Other resolutions thanked associate members for their part in association affairs; thanked Ralph H. Jones Adv. Agency for a cocktail party given delegates; praised planning of the meeting by Mr. Shouse and the WLW staff and also praised service of Mr. Nunn as district director; voiced appreciation of the BAB presentation by Allen M. Woodall, WDAK Columbus, Ga., NAB District 5 director and member of the NAB board's BAB Committee; congratulated John Patt, WGAR Cleveland, on his elevation to presidency of the G. A. Richards stations; lauded partici BROADCASTING • Telecasting pation of NAB President Justin Miller and other staff members in the two-day meeting; called for support of BMI. Demand for immediate clarification of Ohio's sales tax law with respect to broadcasters was voiced at the Tuesday session. Robert Fehlman, WHBC Canton, said some Ohio stations have been visited by state tax officials "who claim that the stations have been lax in fulfilling all provisions of the state's sales tax law." Requests Clarification "Since these laws and our responsibility to them have never been fully explained, we request an immediate clarification of this legislation," he said. Following a conference of Ohio station executives, Carl George, WGAR Cleveland, named a committee to urge further action and a study of the tax question. President Miller, in his speech explaining NAB operations and policies, referred to dynamiting of the Voice of America tower at Bethany, Ohio, citing the importance of international broadcasting in the present world crisis (see story page 44). Others who took part in the meeting included Charles A. Baison. NAB television director; Lee Hart. BAB assistant director: Robert Burton, BMI vice president; Richard P. Doherty, NAB employe-employer relations director. September 25, 1950 • Page 23