Radio daily (Feb-Mar 1937)

8 RADIO DAILY Thursday. March 11, 1937 NUMBER of schools having programs on the air is well in the plural, according to communications reaching Radio Daily since publication of an item in which a New England high school said it was "probably the only one with a regular broadcast." The Benson Polytechnic School, Portland, Ore., holds some kind of a record, having operated KBPS for 14 years as a non-commercial station, on the air three and a half hours each school day. W. D. Allingham is manager of the station. WMFJ, Daytona Beach, Fla., where Arnold C. Ewert is program director, has had the Thespian Club of the Seabreeze High School, Daytona Beach, doing a 15-minute broadcast ever Thursday evening for the past five months. Birtcherd's Dairy again has signed with WTAR, Norfolk, for 13 weeks with Aunt Jane's Safety Club. Show lias been running continuously under this sponsorship for over two years and now brags about 6.000 members, who are fed ice cream on their 6,000 birthdays yearly. Also get membership buttons, participations in the programs and told to "Think First." A master at disguise is one of the six thousand kids who can get by with getting two helpings of birthday ice cream from Aunt Jane in a single year. Alfredo and his merry crew, with Erna and Earl as soloists, will be heard on a new WICC schedule direct from the Schnitzelbank Restaurant in Bridgeport every Wednesday and Friday evening at 7:45 p.m., commencing tomorrow. The program will be presented in the interests of the William Peter Brewing Co. of New Jersey and will feature a quarter hour of Bavarian folk and dance tunes. Utopia St. Louis — The half-hour dramatic programs put on by KMOX for Union Electric Light & Power Co. each Sunday at 6:30 are produced without the sponsor injecting ideas or whims. The company just told lames D. Shouse, general manager of the station, to provide a high caliber program for it. Title is "The Land We Live In," presenting episodes about St. Louis history, with C. G. Renier and Arthur Casey directing the large dramatic cast. Bradford Simpson supervises the script and Howard Barlow conducts the orchestra. /CLLING THE STATION . . . Merchandising * Showmanship * Exploitation Prizes Aid Comics Feature "Your Funnies and Mine" is gathering impetus over WTAR, Norfolk with the help of one-dollar prizes to the boy and girl writers of the best letters each week. Feature consists of staff announcer reading the comics to the kids from the Norfolk LedgerDispatch nightly at six o'clock. If mail continues to build up, feature probably will be offered commercially in April. New Business Signed j Circus Animals to Get By Boston Stations Radio Psychology Test Boston — New business acquired recently by local and New England stations includes: Waitt & Bond, Inc., Newark (Blackstone Cigars), 12 participations in Yankee Network Service 6 p.m. newscast, through B. B. D. & O., New York. I. J. Fox Furriers, 12 ET announcements four times weekly over WNAC. Sherwin-Williams, Cleveland, 30 participations in Gretchen McMullen Household program on Yankee Net, through T. J. Maloney, Inc., New York. Lever Bros., Cambridge, Mass. (Spry), 62 announcements over WNAC, through Ruthrauff & Ryan, New York. Albany Carpet Cleaning Co., New York, 78 announcements, WNAC. Penn Tobacco Co., Wilkes-Barre, Pa., 144 daily 15-minute programs over WNAC, WTIC, WEAN, WTAG, WICC. WCSH, WLBZ, WNBH, through Ruthrauff & Ryan. Chevrolet, Detroit, 26 fifteen-minute ET "Musical Moments," through Campbell-Ewald Co., Detroit. Broadcasting Advertising, Inc., Boston, 104 half -hour programs, "Marjorie Mills Hour," WNAC, WTIC, WEAN, WTAG, WICC, WCSH. First National Stores, Boston, eight half-hour programs over WNAC, WTIC, WEAN, WICC, WCSH, WFEA, WSAR, WNBH, WLIH, WLNH, WRDO, through Badger & Browning, Inc., Boston. Gruen Watch Co., Cincinnati, 91 time signals over WNAC, through McCann-Erickson. Kane Furniture Co., Boston, 78 fifteen minute programs, WAAB, through Salinger & Publicover, Boston. Central Shoe Co., St. Louis, 26 fifteen minute programs, "Magic Island" over WAAB, through Kelley & Stuhlman, Inc., St. Louis. KWK Promotions St. Louis — Allan C. Anthony, chief announcer for KWK. has been definitely set as the evening newscaster. John Conrad, formerly on the announcing staff, has been promoted to director of public relations, embracing news, promotion and publicity. Ray Dady has left the news commentator ranks to head the station's planning bureau. Martin Bowin, formerly program NBC news and special events department in cooperation with Dr. Raymond Ditmars, curator of the Bronx Zoo, and Carol D. Stryker, director of the Staten Island Zoo, and Clyde Beatty, the lion trainer, will stage an animal psychology test by radio on the NBC-Red next Wednesday, 7:30-7:45 p.m. Beatty will be in the NBC studios and will broadcast his orders to the animals over wires to the Hippodrome where the Cole Bros. Clyde Beatty circus is performing. Through four loud speakers located around the iron arena the lions and tigers will hear Beatty's voice. Scientists are interested in determining whether Beatty's physical presence is necessary before the animals will perform. Dr. Ditmars is acting as NBC's adviser in the broadcast. Directory Opens N. Y. Office Seiter, Carver & Livingston Publishers, Inc., of Hollywood. London and Paris, have established a New York office at 425 Fifth Ave. for their new quarterly publication, The International Blue Book, the Who's Who of the Screen, Stage, Radio and Television. It will be off the press about June 1 for exclusive trade consumption. This book is intended as a casting directory. It also contains an index of commentators, cameramen and others. Howard H. Seiter, president, is a brother of William A. Seiter, Hollywood director. Alexander B. Carver, Treasurer and secretary, is a financier, formerly a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and a director in the Ingersoll-Waterbury Clock Co. John H. Livingston Jr. is advertising executive. director at WHK, Cleveland, is doing a good job with several news spots daily at KWK. Bob Enoch is observing the fourth anniversary of his rapid ad program. He directs the similar feature at WWVA, Wheeling, W. Va. Jimmy Burke, chief engineer, is back on the job after recovering from auto injuries. Wright Esser, feature writer, and Bill Cook, announcer, recently joined the staff. L. WOLFE GILBERT, head of the coast music publishing firm bearing his name, leaves Hollywood tomorrow for New York for the chief purpose of seeking new song numbers and also to renew old friendships. He will stop off in Chicago for a visit with his representative there, arriving in Gotham about the end of next week. Abner Silver and Alex Hyde have placed "At a Cuban Cabaret" with Exclusive Publications. Maestro Isham Jones' composition, "Just to Remind Me of You," is in the hands of Donaldson, Douglas & Gumble. Andre Kostelanetz and his sixteen instrumentalists will present the musical bone of contention, "The Bee" on the Wednesday, March 17 airing, despite threats from Jack "Hatfield" Benny and Fred "McCoy" Allen. Maestro Benny has declared his intention to attend the broadcast, violin in hand. Emery Deutsch, celebrated maestro, will play "Play, Fiddle, Play," his own musical brain-child, for Marian Cole on her March 16 program. He'll discourse on his hobby, pipe and old violin string hoarding. Ernie Cooper, WBAL organist has authored "It's No Sin to Love," which will premiere over WBAL on the El & Ernie program Wednesday. Schapiro-Bernstein are the publishers. A musical preview of "Shall We Dance" will be offered by Fred Astaire on his March 16 NBC Red Network broadcast. In addition to Francia White, Charles Butterworth, Conrad Thibault. Trudy Wood and the Johnny Green Orchestra, four new Gershwin tunes will adorn the program. Virginia Verrill and Ed Wynn will sing the blues on the March 20 "Perfect Fool" airing. The musicocomic offers a love aria in swing time from an original burlesque opera called "Romeo Meets Juliet." Response Rochester, Minn. — A response of 980 letters was received from Southeastern Minnesota by KROC after a recent half-hour dramatic show entitled "Josh Whitcomb and Four Corners," written and produced by the station's dramatic director, Peter Lyman, and sponsored by the Self Serve Stores, which have a 52-week contract with KROC. The main count, according to Vice-President Gregory Gentling of KROC. is unusual for a half-hour dramatic show on a 100watt station.