Radio daily (Feb-Mar 1937)

8 RADIO DAILY Monday, February 15, 1937 CkakJbu NBC JAN. BUSINESS AT RECORD HIGH MARK MPPA OFF-AIR LICENSE IS CLARIFIED BY PAINE (Continued from Page 1) of I he bi-monthly type have not seen the proposition in the right light and Paine is informing these papers that the main object in licensing the offthe-air reference recordings are for the sole purpose now of establishing and maintaining property rights. In the event that the copyright owners continue to allow the recordings to be made without payment of any kind, within a year or two it will be difficult to convince a court that free use of such music is not a "trade custom." To this end. the MPPA is out to take a small fee just to cover itself and members. Fees to be received from such recordings are not expected to be anything but small inconsequential sums, according to Paine. Practice of taking down commercial programs during rehearsal and from the air is now a regular part of most big commercial shows. Numerous errors, weak spots in talk or music are definitely found, etc. In some cases the agency, sponsor, artist or all three have them made for personal reference. Apart from the large recording outfits such as World Broadcasting System and RCA, and the networks, there are many independent concerns making such disks indiscriminately and there is no means of checking on them. License will enable the MPPA to keep its finger on the pulse of such practice. Text of the license agreement appears on this page. Intercity System Adds Station WGAL (Continued from Pane 1 ) 60,000. City is site of Franklin and Marshall colleges and a rich agricultural district. New link brings total up to nine stations in the Inter-City group, operating along the Atlantic Seaboard from Boston to Washington via permanent A. T. & T. wires. Others are WMCA, New York; WIP, Phila.; WCBM, Baltimore; WATR, Waterbury; WOL, Washington: WMEX. Boston; WPRO, Providence and WDEL, Wilmington. Civil Liberties Series Starts Feb. 22 on WABC "Let Freedom Ring", new series of weekly educational radio programs dramatizing the struggle of the human race to win civil liberties, will be presented by the Office of Education, U. S. Dept of the Interior, over the WABC-Columbia network starting Feb. 22 at 10:30 P.M. It will be a weekly affair, with 13 programs set. Radio script writers on the staff of the Educational Radio Project, are writing and editing the series. MARGIE ANN KNAPP, 12 yearold singing and dancing star, late of WGBF, Evansville, Ind., where she had a run of three years with a daily program sponsored for two-thirds of that time by SearsRoebuck, has been auditioned for "Babes in Arms," forthcoming Broadway musical production. Margie, in New York the past few months, attracted attention in appearances with Abe Lyman at the Hotel New Yorker, Vincent Lopez at the Hotel Astor, the Hollywood Restaurant and other Broadway spots. She also has done recording work and will shortly guest star on some of the major radio programs. Kenneth Deimnr. cnaructer actor heard on The March of Time. Columbia. Workshop, avd several other important network shoivs. replaces Ray Bramley in the character Bhutan on the Langlois and Wev.lworth Jungle Jim recorded series. This show is heard on more than 230 stations weekly from coast to coast. Bramley goes to Baltimore where a new stage production is opening. Gene Stafford, copy chief for Langlois and Wentworth, is the author of an article, "How To Write Decca-Crumit Action Adjourned to Feb. 23 Supreme Court action instituted by Decca Record Co., whereby the concern seeks to intervene in the suit filed against WHN by Frank Crumit and the National Association of Recording Artists, has been adjourned until Feb. 23. Crumit action against WHN is one of many filed by members of the NAPA in effort to halt indiscriminate playing of phonograph disks on the air. Decca intervened in the WHN suit on the ground that by virtue of its "own genius and creative work," the record is the property of Decca and Crumit as an artist, was merely an employee of Decca. Walter A. Socolow represents Crumit and Milton Diamond, Decca records. Socony Signs Series Syracuse. N. Y. — Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. has signed Nick Stemmler, WSYR sports reporter, for a new series of 15-minute news broadcasts starting tonight at 11 o'clock and running five nights a week. At 11:30 p. m. Stemmler will be back on the air again, giving a quarter-hour of bowling scores. Syracuse newspapers have barred the use on sports pages of commercial names of sponsors of bowling teams. Stemmler gives these names in his program, which is broadcast under a rotating sponsorship of firms having teams on the alleys. For Radio" in the current issue of Writer's monthly. Stafford writes "Front Page Drama," "Jungle Jim" and Columbia's recent "Treasure Adventures of Jack Masters" series. Arthur Boran. CBS mimic, now playing vaude dates, is practicing make-up ivith an eye to television. WMCA and Inter-City is going heavy on news, reviews and gossip of .the film field. New schedule will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8: 15 P.M., and Sunday ai 4 and 8:45 P.M., with Martin Starr as the commentator. Robert Simmons, member oj the Revelers Quartet, and Patti Pickens, of the NBC singing Pickens Sisters, have been receiving congratulations the past few days. They middleaisled it last week in Newburgh. N.Y. The baritone singing of Tom Thomas was so well liked when he was heard on the Beauty Box program with Jessica Dragonette last week that he has been requested to make a return appearance on that show. He will be heard with Miss Dragonette on the program for Wednesday. New Direction-Finder Demonstrated in Action A new-type radio direction finder and static-proof loop antenna will be demonstrated in actual operation in a broadcast from a plane in flight to the WABC-Columbia network tomorrow from 4:30 to 5 P.M. Scene of the broadcast is the TWA "Sky Chief" flying over the Mojave desert about 150 miles from Los Angeles with a load of passengers, mail and express from New York. Two-way conversation between occupants of the plane and persons in the KNX studios will be carried on throughout the broadcast. The music of Maurice and his orchestra, playing at the Hotel Biltmore in Los Angeles, will be tuned in from KNX to determine the position of the plane. "Flying Time" Returns "Flying Time," the NBC sustaining program, returns to the NBC-Red network on Monday, Feb. 11, 6:45-7 p. m.. on a five-a-week schedule. Program shifts its origination point back to Chicago and it is assumed Roscoe Turner will continue to play the lead. Network has no New York outlet, time being used by Sheffield Farms Co. KDKA Commercial Pittsburgh — KDKA started a twohour commercial Saturday night at 10. The show, known as "Cornfield Follies," features hillbilly talent piped direct from the stage of the Manos Theater in Ellwood City. (Continued from Paiie 1 ) department, or rather an oversight, the NBC gross was figured from the rate card. This would have included protected contracts on accounts running when the 10 per cent overall increase in rates went into effect. This oversight was caught by E. P. H. James, head of the sales promotion department, and consequently the NBC treasurer called for a recapitulation, which of course resulted in the figures being held up as originally tabulated. Monthly figures on unfilled orders on steel tonnage has nothing on the fuss attending the monthly gross billing of the networks. Webs have felt for a long time that they would like to get their business from out of the proverbial gold fish bowl, but trade and public interest apparently will not permit. As already printed in these columns. CBS January gross revenue was $2,360,740, an increase of 24.2 per cent over the same period a year ago. Mutual Broadcasting figures for January, the first that include the Coast to Coast setup, were $187,363, a jump of 12.5 per cent. Would Bar Newspapers From Owning Stations (Continued from Parte 1) for licenses from persons affiliated with newspapers. Wheeler also made public an opinion written by Hampson Gary, FCC general counsel, stating that legislation of the kind proposed by the senator should meet the constitutional requirements. The senator had asked an opinion from the commission on the constitutionality of legislation "denying the right of newspapers to obtain broadcasting licenses in the future and requiring them to divest themselves of existing rights within a reasonable length of time." Gary's opinion states: "The question is not free from doubt, and therefore the inquiry does not permit a categorical answer. I am of the opinion that the mutual ownership and control of newspapers and broadcast stations bear a reasonable relationship to, and have an effect on interstate commerce and, therefore, if the Congress enacted a law of the purport suggested it should meet the constitutional requirements." Martinelli on Ford Hour Giovanni Martinelli, world-famous tenor, will be guest soloist on the next Ford Sunday Evening Hour. The program, which will also feature music by the Ford Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Victor Kolar, will be broadcast from 9 to 10 p. m. over the CBS network. NBC Building Up Singer Carol Weyman, mezzo-soprano, has been signed by the NBC artist bureau and will receive a build-up via sustaining spots over the net.