Radio daily (Apr-June 1937)

6 RADIO DAILY: Wednesday, June 30, 1937 PHILLIPS LORD is combing Chicago for scripts for his "Gang Busters" series. Frank Bishop, KFEL, Denver, paused here on way to New York on business. Sheila Barrett is playing at the Palace theater. Morey Amsterdam reports his wife Mable Todd, has signed for several pictures, one with Benny Goodman Jack Pierce, WGN engineer, bought a 30 foot cruiser in Detroit and is spending vacation bringing it back to Chicago via Lake Huron and Mich igan — a 700 mile trip. "Varady of Vienna" with Ted Weems ork on Mutual folded Sunday but will return in September, according to present plans. Mary Ruth Milan, dancer and singer, has replaced Marge Morin in the Morin Sisters trio. Marge recently married Bob Casey of the King's Jesters. Henry Coffey is added piano player with group. Don Thornburgh, CBS vice-president, Hollywood, back home on visit. Dick Chindblom, WBBM assistant program director, vacationing in Canadian Rockies. Merrill Fugit of "Kaltenmeyer's Kindergarten" back from Arizona dude ranch rest-up. 1^ ^oa^to-Coa^ ^ LANNY ROSS and Mary Eastman ^ will present a condensed version of "Dearest Enemy", the Richard Rodgers operetta, on "Show Boat" tomorrow night over the NBC-Red network at 9-10 p.m. Regular cast, including Thomas L. Thomas, Margaret McCrae, Molasses 'n' January, Modern Choir and Al Goodman's orchestra, will be on hand. BOSTON After a three-week try-out on WEEI, the "Neal O'Hara Radio Gazette" moves into a New England CBS network spot. Still to be heard on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., the program will also be aired over WLBZ, Bangor; WMAS, Springfield; WDRC, Hartford; WORC, Worcester, and WPRO, Providence. O'Hara is assisted by Joe Toye, Boston Traveler editor, Edson B. Smith, as financial editor, and Jay Wesley, sports announcer. Exclusive broadcast rights to the running of the Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs track in East Boston has been signed for the next three years by WBZ. Deal was made by Arthur Feldman of WBZ. Joe Rines returned to the hometown to play at a wedding over the week-end. This is the third wedding in the same family in six years for which Joe has furnished the music. WEEI notes . . . Norman Young, control operator, vacationing in Maine . . . Jack Beauvais and his "Mrs." leave for Cape Cod this week . . . Lloyd Morse, production man, had a table holding several hundred pounds of transcription cabinets collapse on his leg. He's now wearing a cane . . . Dorothy Franklin filling in for Caroline Cabot on her WEEI Shopping service as Caroline takes her vacation in weekends and days ofT. Les Lindow of the sales staff of WCAE, Pittsburgh, plans to fly west when his vacation starts next week. Raymond Ramsey, sports commentator and program director of KOMA, Oklahoma City, covered the broadcasting of the Oklahoma State Amateur Golf Tournament last week. The State Open Tennis Tournament will be aired for the first time by KOMA. Dolly Mitchell, young songstress of Norwalk, Conn., will be heard 07i the Mutual network starting July 4. She has been on WICC, Bridgeport. Henry W. Roberts, radio editor of Aero Digest, has an article on "Flying the Radio Ranges" in the July issue of that publication. He discusses the navigation of airplanes by the use of radio range signals, and explains why the actual results are not always in accordance with paper theories. Lewis E. Mclntyre's "News of the Road", on WCAE, Pittsburgh for more than five years, is now in a new Friday night spot at 5-5: 15 o'clock. Charles McCarthy (the announcer, not the dummy) replaces Russ Clancy on the Early Bird show heard every morning at 7:30 via WHN. When the British freighter Sandgate Castle sent out its SOS last Saturday afternoon, the Brooklyn Navy Yard phoned WMCA requesting that the station go off the air until the danger was cleared. Station signed off at 3:28 p.m. and stayed off for 45 minutes. Shutdown came within the General Mills "Grandstand and Bandstand" afternoon show which meant a credit slip for General Mills. Close proximity of the station's frequency to the 600-meter band was responsible for the Navy department requesting the sign-off. So far as known, no other station in the Metropolitan area was asked to close down. KYOS, Merced, Cal., disproved the contention held in some quarters that broadcasting of sports events is injurious to gate receipts. KYOS recently an7iounced the airing of the Central California League games on a Friday and Saturday. Next day, Sunday, paid attendance at the park was more than double the highest previous record. DON WILSON will do his first real screen acting in a new Universal picture for which he has been signed. Pix is "Behind the Mike", but Wilson's part will be more than a mere portrayal of an announcer, with opportunities for building up a characterization. Wilson also doing Sports Shorts for RKO. Cecil Underwood, former producer of the Jolson show for RuthraufT & Ryan, and more recently with the Fibber McGee and Molly airings from the Coast, is returning East with Fibber & Co. Jacques Renard will celebrate his twelfth anniversary on the air on the Cantor program airing of July 11. A double-barrelled program with both volleys aimed at the community interest target was presented on KCKN last Sunday, when the regular American Legion Auxiliary program featured an interview with the director of safety for Kansas City, Kans. A studio party is planned over WTAR, Norfolk, between 7 and 8 a.m. on the moryiing of July 9. Occasioji IS the launching of the fourth consecutive year of Musical Calendar orograms, heard over the station daily and sponsored by the Peoples Service Drug Store in the Tidewater Section. Show will feature all of ihe announcers available who have acted as m.c, as well as managers from the various stores, who will make their debut to the air audience. On the morning of July 12, WB/G, Greensboro, N. C, will broadcast by remote control the dedication of the new half-million dollar post office in Burlington. Postmaster General Farley, and Assistant Postmaster General Branch, as well as other notables, will be present. In the past couple of years WBIG has broadcast the dedication of a number of fine new government buildings in this area, notably the Gree^isboro post office and the Reidsville post office. Wilson A. Baniford, assistant engineer with WBNX Broadcasting Corp. of Springfield, Vt., was married recently. John New, WTAR (Norfolk) sales manager, spent the week-end as guest of Ovelton Maxey, general manager of WRTD, Richmond. 'Street Forum", WMCA's man-inthe-street interviews, conducted by Roving Reporters Frankie Basch and Martin Starr, will now be broadcast on Mondays and Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and Fridays at 1:30 p.m. "Uncle Len" of the Happy Hours Show heard each Saturday morning over WRJN, Racine, Wis., is vacationing in California. WLBL, Madison, Wis., has increased its power from 2,500 to 5,000 watts. WRJN, Racine Wis., through its short-wave transmitter station W9XLC, will broadcast an eye-witness account of the city's Fourth of July celebration from a Ryaii cabin monoplane flying over the city. Blatz Brewing Co. and its Racine distribjitor, Louis Matagrano, is sponsoring the broadcast. KANSAS CITY Fran Heyser, KMBC production head, and Barbara Winthrop, continuity writer handling the scripts for "Phenomenon," the new electric utilities show developed by Arthur Church, are back from the coast with 65 platters of the series completed. They will return to California sometime in the fall to supervise the recording of another 13-week series. Parke Carroll, sports editor of the Journal-Post, goes on the air this week via WHB with a series of 10minute sports chats. The programs, five times weekly, will be written by Carroll and sponsored by the Hamm-Singer Corp., distributors of Hamm beer. The Texas Rangers, KMBC's cowboy instrumental and vocal unit, has returned from a two-week vacation in California and resumed daily broadcasts this week. For the first time in Kansas City, a polo match was aired when KMBC last week broadcast 15 minutes of the final match of meeting of the Kansas City Country Club team and a team from New Mexico Military Institute on the Country Club field, here. Jack Starr, KMBC sports announcer, did the mike work. KXBY has sold the North Alaska Fur Co. a series of 5-minute transcription shows to be aired before each of the daily baseball broadcasts. KXBY is also airing two 100-word spots daily for the operators of a new night spot, the Nightingale Ballroom. WTAR Technical Staff Addition Norfolk — Dan Smith, formerly instructor at Norfolk College, is the latest technician to be added to the WTAR staff. New schedule for the WTAR ops includes two men on duty for the full operating day at the new transmitter in Glen Rock. Reason is to insure perfect operation (• and observation of the new directional antenna juiced last week. V