Radio daily (Feb-Mar 1937)

RADIO DAILY Thursday, February 25, 1937 GUEJT-ING LANNY ROSS will have Amelia Earhart on his Show Boat program March 4, 9-10 p. m., NBC-Red net. CHARLES WINNINGER, Richard Arlen and Sally Eilers are booked for the March 1 Radio Theater show from Hollywood, 9-10 p. m. EST, over CBS. GEORGE BURNS, Gracie Allen, Warden Lawes of Sing Sing, Victor McLaglen, June Lang and Peter Lorre are to be on the Hollywood Hotel program over CBS, March 5, 9-10 p. m. There will be scenes from the 20th Century-Fox film, "Nancy Steele Is Missing." Lawes will speak Crom New York. MAURICE EVANS, noted English actor now appearing on Broadway, and Jessie Matthews, British stage and screen star, will be on Sunday's Magic Key program over NBC-Blue net, 2-3 p. m. Miss Matthews will be heard from London. Bidu Sayao, Brazilian soprano; Henri Deering, pianist, and Rufe Davis, comic, also will appear. HOWARD BARNES, Herald-Tribune film critic, will be guest speaker on Saturday's WOR-Herald-Tribune Radio League, 10:15-10:30 a. m. EARL HARPER'S "Inquiring Mike" will present Alfred E. Smith and two M-G-M beauty contest winners from the top of the Empire btate Building at 12:45 noon tomorrow. Promotional House Organ WOAI, San Antonio, has issued what it believes to be a new format for radio station promotional materia1 by presenting the March issue of its house organ, WOAI Newscast, through a Roto-Gravure style. The new Newscast presents pictures of outstanding artists at WOAI as well as a complete list of 1936 advertisers and several testimonials. This Newscast has been sent to advertisers and agencies throughout the country. So many requests have been received for copies of WOAI's 1936 booklet on its news department, which was proclaimed both colorful and unusual as well as authentic, that it will soon issue a new enlarged 1937 edition devoted to a complete description with many photographs of the News, Sports and Women's departments of WOAI. Standard Market Data, a three-color promotional piece issued by WOAI and Edward Petry & Co. is available for distribution to agencies and advertisers. This brochure gives complete market data, personnel, and a new coverage map of WOAI. Countess Albani Set Countess Olga Albani. who returned to radio last Friday after a year's absence as guest in Rex Chandler's "Universal Rhythm" broadcast, will continue indefinitely with the NBC-Blue network show. Varied Viewpoints Owning Radio Station Helps Small Newspaper OUR station, KRNR (K-Roseburg News-Review) has been operating 2 months. Although we elected to get it firmly established and with favorable public acceptance before attempting to make a systematic effort to sell radio advertising, we have made a modest profit with the station every month thus far. We have received numerous inquiries from newspaper publishers. They seem to ask pretty much the same questions. They ask, in fact, the same things we would have liked to ask someone when we were contemplating the venture. Question number one always seems to be: What does it cost to install a radio station? This is the toughest question to answer so it will be disposed of first. Apparently $10,000 is minimum, at least at the present time, but this figure should not be accepted as one on which to base a decision. Where a station is installed, when it is installed, and how it is installed are factors that have a lot to do with cost. The Federal Communications Commission has been tightening up on equipment standards. The fact that someone who you may know built a station a few years ago for very low cost means nothing. It could not be done now. "Does your radio station take advertising revenue that otherwise would go to the newspaper?" we are asked. No doubt a few of the dollars now going to the radio department would have found their way to the newspaper cash register, but not enough to be concerned about. Our newspaper advertisers now using radio too have not noticeably decreased their newspaper budgets. A substantial amount of the radio station business comes from accounts which never were newspaper advertising accounts. Another question is: Do you sell newspaper and radio advertising on a combination rate? We do not. We endeavor to keep the radio station business entirely separate from the newspaper in every possible way. In fact there is a spirit of friendly competition between the News-Review advertising manager and the commercial manager of KRNR. We have found this policy to be entirely satisfactory and see no reason for changing it. Some ask, "When you give news on the radio doesn't it take away from the importance of the News-Review?" We have not found it so. The point is that when news is broadcast on KRNR (and we give very liberal news broadcasts) it is always the News-Review giving the news. Furthermore listeners are always told that the News-Review carries the complete story. We feel if the station were independently owned and presented news broadcasts, though it would not seriously affect the business or circulation of the newspaper, it would take something from the prestige the News-Review enjoys as the only daily news medium in our area. When the News-Review gives news on the radio it is a supplementary service rendered by the newspaper to its subscribers. Does the radio station do the NewsReview any good — that is, do you use it to promote the newspaper? That question is often asked. Our answer, borne out by our circulation records, is that the radio station is a decided aid in building circulation. Almost from the very moment we began using a consistent plan of circulation promotion on KRNR, and without using any other type of selling or promotion, our circulation began to climb. That was six months ago. In those six months our circulation has increased 20 per cent and is still climbing. This is the first time in 10 years that the circulation of the News-Review has climbed during the summer months. Usually temporary vacation stops offset the normal gain and the circulation curve remains about level. This summer it climbed at a sharp angle. Did the radio promotion do it? We think so because there is no other good reason for the increase. One newspaper publisher wrote us, asking among other things, "What have been your headaches with the station, if any?" Naturally we have had some minor difficulties — about comparable to the troubles involved in beginning the operation of a new typesetting machine or a new press. But on the whole our experience with owning and operating a radio station thus far has been pleasant and satisfactory. HARRIS ELLSWORTH, Publisher, News-Review, Roseburg, Ore., in Editor & Publisher. Untrained Performers Find Field in Radio XJADIO is one of the few major fields of endeavor which holds fame and success for the untrained performer. Most of the "name" singers in radio never studied music and reached the top on the strength of natural gifts and the magic of personality. Consider Bing Crosby, Kate Smith (who trained to be a nurse), Morton Downey (who was a "news butcher" on trains) , Virginia Verrill, Mary Small and Mildred Bailey, none of whom was trained for singing careers. To this day, Kate Smith cannot read a note and learns her songs by having the orchestra play it over and over until she knows it. Helen Morgan worked as a candymaker and manicurist. Ethel Merman and Ethel Waters, heard on the air from time to time in addition to their stage activities, never studied music. The latter still can't read a note, while Miss Merman started her business career as a typist. It is encouraging to know that radio will reward natural talent and charm. A good example of this is Mary Small, who already has won fame with her lovely voice. With its doors wide open, radio is thus able to attract and develop inherently gifted performers.— GEORGE HALL AGENCIES 1AWRENCE WITTE, N. W. Ayer & 4 Son, radio publicity man in the Philadelphia office, will air a sustaining show every Saturday over station WPG. Witte, a former newspaper columnist, will devote his fifteen minute periods to radio personalities. HANFF-METZGER ad agency, Chicago, readying 15-minute transcription musicals to be used in an extensive spot campaign for ABC Washing Machine Co. To run once weekly for an indefinite period. BOZELLE & JACOBS, Omaha radio agency, has announced the opening of a new radio department in its Chicago branch. Firm handles public utilities chiefly at present, with branches in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Houston and headquarters in Omaha. CLEVELAND WGAR's latest showmanship bid is a Sunday evening series of half hours staged from the auditorium of Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, O., near Cleveland. College puts on the shows, which include music and drama by both students and faculty before a visual audience. Tom Waring is not with Brother Fred's outfit which recently played the Palace here. It's said Tom is now writing spirituals and giving recitals on his own. He may go to Hollywood, however, to appear in the Waring talkie which gets going in April. WTAM has been offering a late show pointed at Canadian dialers across the lake. Wally Pooler, veteran broadcaster, who does "Joe Peno," only French-Canadian comic on radio, heads the broadcast. Program Director Hal Metzger is all warm over show's prospects, even believing he has another "One Man's Family." Fan letters will tell. Ben Bernie's brother, Harry, is song-plugging in this territory. Harry once played a sax in the Bernie Band. Jack Carstairs, one of the town's former broadcasters who did dramatic bits on radio shows out of New York for some time has returned to his merry England. Carstairs recently did a bit in a Marlene Dietrich picture there and expects BBC to use him as one of its coronation announcers. Radio Chess Fostoria, O. — An unusual longrange chess game will be played via short wave radio by Prof. C. A. Ward. Fostoria, and Victor Alderson. Mansfield, over W8-CVZ, Fostoria, and W8-JIM. Mansfield. Both have played long-range games before, using the mails and sometimes taking six months to complete.