Radio daily (Feb-Mar 1937)

Thursday, February 25. 1937 RADIO DAILY 5 /CLLING THE JTATICN . . . Merchandising * Showmanship * Exploitation WITH THE ft WCMEN # ^= By ADELE ALLERHAND yJ^DD REGGIE SCHUEBEL. in charge of Biow radio department to the roster of radio iemme execs. . . .She buys time for Bulova. . . .her pet account. .. .which makes her most consistent purchaser of time in radio. . . .Reggie reverses the usual reactions .... She adores the business phases of her job.... says they're not routine or boring. . . .but oh — those temperamental radio arlistes Nadine Connor. Nelson Eddy's barbarous coast discovery — she's from California — is in town for at least a month which she'll devote to study. He's due here today or tomorrow .... Newspaper sensation of yesteryear, Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, is aired today over WMCA in an interview with "The Roving Reporter" Hollywoodnymph Sally O'Neill will guest-star it on same program .... ▼ ▼ Rita Hudson will draw Nancy Hatch ....figure stylist. .. .out on the subject of woman's chief concern. . . .and how to whittle it down. . . .today . . . . Cast addenda. .. .Doris Rich has joined "Rich Man's Darling" as "Rosa Davenpont" ... .Jimmy Dean and Maura Martin added to "Modern Cinderella" ... .Elizabeth Reller, back from Horace Greelyland, relieving Sister Gretchen who subbed for her in "Betty and Bob".... A deer (quadruped) at the Sports Show liked Frances Adair ... .Russ Morgan soloist .... so well he ruffled her coiffure ... .Quin-medico Dr. Dafoe still bedside broadcasting from Toronto General Hospital. .. .Teddy Salzburg of WOR's program department is taking a winter vacation .... Eleanor Hennessy of the same organization... .who's been less pleasantly occupied ... .having her appendix abrogated is getting better fast.... T ▼ Tobe. . . .wafted back from foreign parts on the Queen Mary Monday will go psychic over the ether about what the gals will wear for Easter and the Coronation today .... At the end of the broadcast several representative femmes will ask clothes questions and get expert answers Estelle Taylor who reneged last week. . . .has been captured for "Varieties" this Sunday at 3. . . .When Martha Raye finishes "Waikiki Wedding" for Paramount she'll rush right into "Mountain Music" .... And now it seems Gracie Allen's initials were G. A. B. all the time .... WOR's Winter Racing Season contest proved that gals gamble. . . . 10,434 of the 43,369 contestants were women .... Working Up Kid Interest ESPECIALLY designed to capture the interest of public school children and their parents, are the two series of regular weekly programs broadcast by WROK, the Rockford, 111., radio station. WROK officials, headed by Lloyd C. Thomas, veteran radio and newspaperman, are firm in their belief that the so-called younger generation is a vital factor in a radio listening audience, and accordingly have intensified their connection with the local public school system. Early last winter an arrangement was made with the Rockford senior high school dramatic department, headed by Edna Youngquist, whereby students in her dramatic classes were to produce and present a series of 15-minute programs featuring thumbnail dramatic sketches of school life. Called "The Camera Catches Rockford High," the broadcasts were staged at 9 o'clock each Sunday evening and immediately proved a popular attraction with school students, their families, and relatives. So successful has been the dramatic program venture, that a new series of broadcasts has been inaugurated, featuring the work of the various musical organizations and departments in the junior and senior high schools. The broadcasts are presented during a half -hour period at 7: 30 p.m. every Wednesday under the direction of Miss Astrid Gustafson, public school music supervisor. Nearly 800 students will participate in the Wednesday evening broadcasts, which are designed to demonstrate the variety of musical instruction available to students in the city schools. Boys and girls glee clubs, choral groups, quartets, orchestras, bands, and music students receiving private instruction will have their place on individual programs. On the Sunday evening dramatic broadcasts, the 15-minute programs are each devoted to three sketches of true-to-life representations of actual happenings at the senior high school, with students doing all the work in connection with the presentation. Typical of one program was an opening sketch depicting an unusual class room incident in which students displayed a remarkable initiative and interest in their work during the absence of their teacher. In the second sketch the senior class elections were portrayed. Listeners were taken to a portion of the senior class meeting as it had been held and were shown the manner in which votes were tabulated. The closing incident dealt with a review of the season's sport activity and included an incident which occurred during a practice session of a game, the actual conversation of players during the course of a game, and a description of the event as seen by the spectators. Various phases of student activity in school shops, publications department, various curricular divisions, and extra curricular interests are dramatized during the programs. WPTF Promotion Dep't When a sponsor signs with WPTF, on Raleigh, for time on the air in order to present his message to the public, he is assured every possible assistance in exploiting his program before it is presented. WPTF maintains a Sales Promotion Department to contact local dealers in station territory, keep these dealers informed of programs in their interests, and make regular reports to the sponsor on the effect his program has on business. Then, WPTF's publicity efforts assure each sponsor of adequate news releases relative to his program. The station publishes its own News Bulletin each week, wnich it distributes to agencies and stations throughout the nation, and has agreements with other media of publicity for printing its news. Promotional Series KSTP, St. Paul and Minneapolis, has started a new promotional series of broadcasts which will include description of manufacturing processes in the plants of some of the station's advertisers. Station announcers will visit Twin Cities factories with a mobile short-wave transmitter. The short-wave signal will be picked up by the station and re-broadcast on the regular band (1460 kilocycles). The story of crackers and cookies will be broadcast direct from the Griggs, Cooper plant, St. Paul, makers of "Minuet Wafers," at 3:05 p. m. (C.S.T.) Thursday, Feb. 25. A later broadcast will originate in the Ford Motor company's glass plant, St. Paul. No charge will be made against the advertisers for these broadcasts, and trade names will not be used on the programs. The short-wave truck to be used in the series is the san.e machine which originated a flood broadcast from the Cairo, 111., region Jan. 31 on the Magic Key program. The KSTP truck was in the flood area for about a week. Time Not Expanding Reports that Time Inc., New York (Time & Life magazines), was planning to extend its present "March of Time" series on CBS from a halfhour once weekly to a quarter-hour five times a week, were denied yesterday by Time's agency, Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, Inc., New York. Mona Pape on Vacation Sheboygan, Wis. — Mona Pape, program director of WHBL, is on a vacation trip of several weeks through Central and South America. She is accompanied by Mrs. Peter Reiss of this city. * "Quotes"* DICK BALLOU: "Directing an orchestra and aranging for it is a haven of refuge for any aspiring bandleader. There can be no discrepancies with other bands who may, by a coincidence, have the same arrangement of the same tune handed to them. To my way of thinking, a man who can sing and whistle has that much more to offer a fickle public." LENNIE HAYTON: "Broadcasting swing music is a menace to music publishing. If swing continues to feature counter melodic playing, and swinging out by soloists submerging the original melody, the public cannot recognize the song, and therefore does not buy it. Publishers spend huge sums to plug their songs, but swing music engulfs them in trick arrangements." DON VORHEES: "Trying to make a band of more than 30 pieces sound intimate over the air is as impossible as attempting to hold a tetea-tete in Grand Central station. Not long ago 16 pieces were all that a mike would assimilate. Today 30 is the limit, but there's not much sense in using all thirty. Eleven will sound almost as well unless a concert hall effect is desired." ED WYNN: "Am I excited? My son, Keenan, opens in a Broadway play this spring, 'Hey, Diddle, Diddle,' and I'm more jittery than I've ever been in my entire professional career!" For Electrical Lighting Equipment of Any Kind ♦ MOTION PICTURE LIGHTING AND EQUIPMENT CORP. 244-250 West 49th St. New York Tel. CHic. 4-2074