Radio daily (Feb-Mar 1937)

6 RADIO DAILY Wednesday, February 24, 1937 THE Atlantic Seaboard spelling championship will be decided in the Chase & Sanborn National Spelling Bee over WMCA on Saturday, 78 p.m. The Spelling Bee, conducted by Dr. Harry Hagen, has been touring cities on the Inter-City network in recent weeks broadcasting "spelldown" contests from Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Wilmington, in addition to New ork. DALE T. MAYRS, recently production manager of WK.BN, Youngstown, and Thelma Gilson, formerly of WLW and WKBN, have started a new series of programs over WGAR, Cleveland, for Pocahontas Oil Corp. MARCELLE (Loretta Miller) goes on the air via KFKR, Oklahoma City, 4:45-5 p. m. daily, with Hollywood screen news. FELS NAPTHA SOAP now is sponsoring the "Yours Truly, Mr. Dooley" program broadcast over WOW, Omaha, at 5:15 p. m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The program also has become a two-man affair with the addition of Staff Announcer John K. Chapel to act as a foil for Dooley. LOCAL commercial announcements for the "Vic and Sade" program originating in Chicago have been taken over by Program Manager Harry Burke of WOW, Omaha. Saturday Night Record Claimed by Question Bee On the basis of the latest ClarkHooper survey, Uncle Jim's Question Bee, sponsored by G. W. Washington Coffee over WJZ on Saturdays, 7:30-8 p. m., has more listeners than any other Saturday night program. Audience percentage for the quiz is 39.8, compared with 38.8 for the Lucky Strike Hit Parade, 36 for Ed Wynn and 31 for Shell Chateau. * DOROTHY ALLEN is the new assistant to Evelyn Gardiner, who conducts the daily Home Forum broadcasts from KDKA. Lillian Norvell, feature writer and former radio commentator, has shifted to the advertising department of WWL, New Orleans. Jimmy Shouse, manager for station KMOX, St. Louis, is back from a business trip to New York. Peggy Duncan, first lady of the swing at KWK, St. Louis, is recuperating from a recent appendectomy. Charles Stookey, announcer for KWK, must remain in St. John's Hospital for another two weeks, while his fractured right arm and leg recover from the effects of an automobile crash. Tom Dailey, a brother announcer, and James Burke, chief engineer for KWK, injured in the same crash, have been released from the hospital. Additions to the KWK staff in St. Louis are Billy Mills and Norman Paule, vocalists, and Clarke Morgan, who accompanies Paule on the recently installed Hammond organ. Supervising New Network Odes Robinson, former chief engineer of station WIRE, Indianapolis, is the technical supervisor of the new West Virginia network that was started recently. The network will have for its key station WCHS of Charleston, W. Va. Robinson will have a crew of 20 radio technicians under his direct supervision. New Series on WNEW A new program consisting of a series of six broadcasts, featuring Larry Miers, cable editor of International News Service premieres Thursday, 8:45, over WNEW. Miers will pick a different country each week and interview a student from that country residing in the U. S. The Intercollegiate branch of the YMCA is behind the series. To Scranton for Benefit A troupe of radio headliners entrain for Scranton tomorrow to give an annual benefit performance in that city the same night. Among the artists making the trip are Arline Harris, Rex Chandler, Jack and Loretta Clemens, Willie Morris, Nick Lucas, Edith Holder, and Rielly Gray, who will emcee the show. Ivan R. Head at WBAP Ivan R. Head, for many years manager of Station KGFG, in Oklahoma City, is now on the announcing staff of WBAP, 50,000 watter in Fort Worth. Arthur Godfrey, CBS announcer, will appear with Prof. Quiz when the Kelvinator-Nash series begins on CBS, March 9, 8:30-9 p.m. Geyer, Cornell & Newell, the agency, also is negotiating for an NBC spot. George P. Marshall, sportsman who will have charge of the entertainment program for the Greater Texas and Pan-American Exposition, Dallas, next summer, arrives in Dallas on Monday to begin making plans. With plans for a radio program involving Gertrude Berg and Bobby Breen still distant, Sol Lesser yesterday signed Miss Berg to write an original story for Bobby's next venture in the films, tentatively titled "Happy Go Lucky." Cupid spends a lot of time around WSOC, Charlotte, N. C. Among those for whom wedding bells have chimed in the last several months are Bomar Lowrance, sports reporter; Paul Norris, program director; Charles Glenn Hicks, Jr., assistant program director, who wed Virginia Presnell, former office-manager of WPTF, Raleigh, and Dick Faulkner, newscaster and special events announcer. Radio Legal Department Fitelson & Mayers, law firm with considerable activity in the motion picture and music industries, on March 1 will extend its practice to include a department specializing in the radio field. Decisions on radio matters in every state in the country, as well as abroad, will be obtained by the office. Orlando Joins Souvaine Nic Orlando has joined the staff of Henry Souvaine, where he will work on some new musical and script ideas. Orlando for 18 years, was musical director of the Plaza Hotel. Fickett on Sick List Homer Fickett, co-director of "March of Time", is on the sick list with throat trouble. Pederson to Manage KOL West Coast Bureau, THE RADIO DAILY Los Angeles — Elmer D. Pederson, national sales manager for KNX, Columbia key, returned from his coast trip last week-end and announce his resignation here to manage Seattle's KOL, starting March 15. "Movie Man" on WINS "The Movie Man," dispensing film gossip and replies to dialers' questions, makes his radio debut tomorrow at 9:45 a. m. over WINS and the N. Y. State Broadcasting System. Program will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. PHIL GROGAN, control room engineer, and Frank Martin, announcer, from WKY, Oklahoma City, have formed a songwriting team and their first efforts are to be published soon by Exclusive Music. Martin is at present a senior in the Law school of the University of Oklahoma, while Grogan is in New York, having been heard on the CBS Tuesday Jamboree playing a swing ulelele. Titles of the new tunes coming out are: "My Date Book's Closed for the Season" and "Gazin' Into Space". Grogan, on the music, and Martin, on the lyrics, are now collaborating via airmail. Bert Block and His Orchestra, at the Hotel Syracuse, Syracuse, N. Y., have had their engagement extended to six months. Block now gets six shots weekly, instead of four, over WSYR, and his bell-music is making quite a hit in Central New York. The Landt trio have opened a song publishing office which will be operated in addition to the trio's regular radio work. In honor of the fourth member of the team who recently died, the new firm will be known as the LandtWhite, Inc. Carl Ravell and ork, making merry in The Blue Room of the Roosevelt, New Orleans, are airwaved via WWL. Tony Almerico, trumpeteering comic, waves the baton nightly at Prima's Shim Sham in New Orleans. He takes the ether over WDSU. Domenico Savino, arranger, composer and conductor, has returned from Italy, where he scored and directed an Italian film starring Tito Schipa. Vernon H. Pribble, manager of WTAM and anti-theme song crusader, will ask WTAM ork leaders playing non-commercials to shelve theme songs. This will apply to Cleveland bands WTAM picks up for NBC spots. Multi-Lingual Foreign tongues are being used to plug a brand of beer on KSTP, St. Paul, Twin Cities station. The cast opens with a foreigner, spieling in his native tongue, the merits of the beer. Then the announcer chimes in with "That's what everybody in America is saying, too, Ole (Oscar, Herman, Sin Loo, or whatever the case may be).. One man was found who could talk the language of native head-hunters of Africa, but sponsors turned him down, fearing that head-hunters didn't care much for beer, anyhow. Novel Prize Twist Weston Biscuit Co. (Crackerettes), airing over WOR every Sunday, 9:45-10 p.m.. is offering three prizes, $25. $15 and $10. to the writers that send in the best 30 word letter telling why they prefer the sponsor's product. Novel twist to the offer is that the week's winners are announced at the beginning of the program, and are told over the air that their prize will be delivered to them within the following 30 minutes. A Western Union messenger then appears at the designated time and presents the money.