Radio daily (Feb-Mar 1937)

Friday, February 26, 1937 RADIO DAILY 5 HENRY M. NEELY (The Old Stager) is going in for candid camera work seriously. Current demand by mags for unusual shots also is making it a profitable pastime. Nelson Eddy is billed for an engagement at the Municipal Auditorium, San Antonio, April 28. Har field Weddin, formerly of KABC, San Antonio, is now on the announcing staff of KTSA, Columbia outlet. Dewey Long, sales manager of WBT, Charlotte, was recently officially inducted into the Lions Club. He has returned from a business trip to Atlanta. Jay Coffey is the newest addition to the announcing staff of WELI, New Haven. He takes the place of Ed Lush, who resigned for another connection. Coffey was one of the original Radio Robins, said to be the first vaudeville act to use a public address system. Bob Mayberry, heard many times on Seattle's KOMO-KJR programs, playing and singing his own compositions, which are of a satirical musical comedy nature, has displayed some more versatility. He has branched out as a writer. Mayberry has been added to the production department. William Gavin, announcer at KOMO-KJR, Seattle, recently became the father of a girl, Sally Jane. The youngster boasts of having three great-grandmothers living. Lewin S. Cassell has joined the commercial department of WIS as salesman. He was formerly affiliated with the display advertising department of the Columbia Record. Cassell replaces H. A. Deadwyler, who has accepted a position with the Nachman-Rhodes Advertising Agency of Augusta, Georgia. S. S. Fox, president and general manager of KDYL, Salt Lake City, and John M. Baldwin, Chief Engineer of KDYL, have left for the Pacific Coast on a business trip. Walt Lochman, KXBY sports announcer who for the third consecutive year will handle the Wheaties baseball broadcasts, is planning to leave Kansas City on March 14, for McAllen, Tex. to cover the spring training of the Kansas City Blues. In addition, he will follow the team on a tour of southern Texas and to Mexico City, broadcasting descriptions of exhibition games. During his absence Ivan Flanery will take over the mike for the nightly sports chat from this station. M. Leonard Matt, WDAS news commentator, slated for the City Controller post in the next Philadelphia election. STATIONS CT AMLI H V Highlights in the Development of Outstanding U. S. Radio Stations: No. 5 of a Series. KDKfl — Pittsburgh 50,000 Watts— 980 K.C. H. ft. UJOODflinn, Gen'l mgr. W. E. JflCKSOn, Sales mgr. JOHfl GIHOI), Program Director KDKA, the oldest broadcasting station in the world, is owned and operated by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. Established in 1920, KDKA is today one of the most powerful stations in the country, servicing unestimatable millions daily. Their broadcasting day begins at 7 a.m. and continues until 1 a.m. the next morning. KDKA is a basic station of the NBC-Blue network. Its studios are located in the Grant Building in Pittsburgh, and the transmitter is in Saxonburg, Pa. On Nov. 2, 1934, KDKA observed a two-fold celebration. New quarters were completed, at a cost of $150,000, and the station began its fifteenth year of consecutive daily broadcasting. The new studios are patterned after those now in use by NBC in Radio City, N. Y. Matter of fact, KDKA's studios were designed and constructed under the supervision of NBC engineers. 4 • ♦ ♦ THE station was the first to broadcast a complete presidential election report. Four years later, in 1924, every station then transmitting followed suit. In 1936, with Pittsburgh fighting a devastating flood, KDKA was the only station in that area to remain on the air with any degree of regularity. When normal power supply failed, an emergency plant was set up with batteries used to generate the power. IN addition to the regular programs originating at the station, KDKA carries a majority of the leading commercial shows aired over the NBC-Blue net. Listeners are afforded an unusual bill-of-fare which includes Lowell Thomas, Beatrice Lillie, Magic Key, a variety of daytime dramatic programs, the Tastyeast Jesters and many other shows of equal caliber. KDKA also maintains short-wave station W8XK. The master control board is equipped to feed a steady supply of programs constantly to both KDKA's and W8XK's transmitter at Saxonburg. Varied Viewpoints Radio — the New Deal In the Public Service RADIO naturally carries the burden of the pioneer, but radio can laugh at its critics, for radio has by service earned its place as the greatest of all public utitlities, by serving in the interest, for the convenience, and as the necessity of our masters, the American public. Public ownership of radio would defeat the very cause that it is so ably serving at present. Government control, or control by any organization with a particular axe to grind, would undoubtedly cause radio to lose the confidence of the American family in its neutrality, and in its sincerity, now guaranteed by the Federal Communications Commission. When the members of the American family can buy for as small a sum as ten dollars a receiving set that enables them to listen to the President of the United States addres them as "My Friends," and mean it, and take them into his confidence by discussing important governmental affairs, that is a new deal for the American citizens and a new opportunity for the Chief Executive. Radio in its present set-up pro vides the safe-guard for the people, and the defense for sincere and honest officials. The day of the demogogue has gone, the selection by a group of men, in a smoke-rilled roo n, in some convention city, of any man for high executive office has passed . . . unless that man has that necessary sincerity and honesty in his voice that carries to that radio in the American family living room. It's the new deal . . . and like it or not . . . radio did it! The humble broadcaster just cooperates. He is still a step-child to everybody. He comes down to h:s office and is afraid to take his hat off before he opens the mail, for he may find that some wild-eyed reformer, deformer, or what not, lias applied for his license to educate tha paralyzed Hottentots, or unwashed Siwash, or some other delirious dream of some impractical seeker of publicity. He's the man for the new deal . . . but afraid of a mis-deal. Col. Edney Ridge, Director WBIG, Greensboro, N. C. GWTTT-ING BOB PARRISH, who was to have appeared on Eddie Cantor's program last Sunday but was prevented by a throat illness, will be on that CBS 8:30-9 p.m. show this coming Sunday. HELEN MORGAN will head the list of Hammerstein Music Hall guest stars over CBS at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Del Casino and Lucielle Browning also will be on the bill. HUGH HERBERT and Judy Garland are scheduled for Jack Oakie's next Tuesday broadcast over CBS at 9:30-10:30 p.m. MARIO CHAMLEE, Met opera star, is to guest-star on Your Hit Parade and Sweepstakes over CBS tomorrow, 10-10:45 p.m. BERT LAHR goes on Leo Reisman's "Nine O'Clock Revue" over WOR at 9 p.m. Sunday. ESTELLE TAYLOR will be heard on the Jeff Sparks "Varities" bill Sunday at 3 p.m. over WOR. BUDD HULICK, of Stoopnagle and Budd, and Dorothy Jeffers, Cocoanut Grove dancer, will be guests of Jack Eigen on his WMCA "Broadway Newsreel" at 11:30 p.m. Monday. RAY SCHINDLER, president of the Adventurers' Club, is to be on the "Moments You Never Forget" show at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow via WOR. Drama Broadcasts Set The weekly broadcasts of the Front Page Drama will be aired over the following stations this week. Today: WGNY, WNEW, WCNW, WBRB, WFBG and WCAM. Tomorrow: WINS, WTEL, WVFW, WIP, WDAS, WMCA, WBAX, WATR, WTNJ. WWRL, WBNX, WCAP, and WFAS. On Sunday, show will be heard over WOV and WNLC. Broadcasts are aired simultaneously with the release of the drama nationally in a weekly syndicate. WNBZ Being Sold Syracuse, N. Y.— WNBZ at Saranac Lake, owned and operated by Earl J. Smith since 1927, will be sold to a Syracuse radio man, Smith announces. Smith refused to dislose the purchaser's name until the sale has been approved by the FCC, but did say that he is not connected with a Syracuse radio station. The station is a 100-watter. "BARON MUNCHAUSEN" JACK PEARL RALEIGH and KOOL CIGARETTES WJZ-930 P. M. E.S.T.— Mondays NBC Network Dir.: A. & S. LYONS, Inc.