Radio daily (Feb-Mar 1937)

Monday, March 29, 1937 RADIO DAILY 3 KLS Radio Village All Set for Opening Oakland, Cal. — An innovation in radio showmanship, Warner Radio Village, will be thrown open to the public on Thursday when KLS officially begins 24-hour operation on its new frequency, 1280 kc. Located in what was formerly a second floor garage, the Radio Village combines the studios and transmitter of KLS with nine branch salesrooms designed for rental to local advertisers. Eight have already been leased. Resembling small cottages, the salesrooms are faced with imitation stone, each different, grouped around a central court. With 25,000 square feet of space available, ample room for visitors is assured. Along the ramp leading from the street ten display windows have been constructed, most of which are already rented. Studio facilities include a large studio capable of seating 200 persons and another with room for 40 persons. Reception courtyard with lighted fountain faces the control room. The Radio Village was conceived by S. W. and E. N. Warner, station owners. KLS is a 250-watter with ether fare of discs and foreign language programs. Chicago Mummers on WGN Chicago — The Chicago Mummers Theater Inc. will go on the air for the first time on the Bowman Fireside Theater this Wednesday night 9:30-10, over WGN. Mummers was started at Crane Junior College six years ago and reorganized when Crane was discontinued. They will present Arch Oboler's •'The Luck of Mark Street." Mark Street will be played by Milton Kanter, advertising manager of Precision Scientific Co. and member of Chicago Comic Opera's Gilbert and Sullivan group. Other roles taken by Al Short, paper salesman and sports referee and coach; Bernice Rea, manager of a South Side apartment hotel and one-time professional dancer for Balaban & Katz; Gertrude Berman, San Statland and Sam Malen. Heidt Switches Product Alemite program, heard over CBS net Mondays, 8-8:30 p.m. and featuring Horace Heidt and his band, will plug Stewart Warner radios effective April 5. Hayes McFarland Advertising agency, Chicago, has the account. AGENCIES CARL E. WIDNEY, recently with the Ralph H. Jones agency and previously with J. Sterling Getchell and Lord & Thomas, has joined the staff of Arthur Kudner Inc. in an executive capacity. J. C. BURTON, formerly with Young & Rubicam, has joined the copy staff of Arthur Kudner Inc. McCANN-ERICKSON'S Cleveland office is handling the Gruen Watch radio program. NEW PROGRAMS -IDEA/ PROGRAM IDEAS BLOOM "The Boners Court" Denver — Wesley Battersea, KLZ production manager, presents one of the most popular shows in the Rocky Mt. region. "The Boners Court." It moves fast, is very clever and entertaining. All announcers face the court once a week and are fined 10 cents per boner, with the court proceedings aired. Program Director Arthur Wuth wears the robe of Justice and bangs the gavel for this increasingly popular studio show. Listeners sending in the best or juiciest boner for the week receive two free theater tickets. These tickets are financed from the fund of 10 cent fines. Hizzonor, Judge Art Wuth, listens to no alibis and any offender who takes exception to his rulings receives an additional fine for contempt of court. WMT "Fireside Phantasy" What is believed to be an entirely revolutionary program idea in the middle-west, hits the air every Sunday afternoon over WMT, Cedar Rapids-Waterloo, with local furniture store sponsoring the show. Program is known as "Fireside Phantasy" and features Allan McKee as the "day dreamer." Dramatic bits from listeners favorite poems are dramatized against an organ background. Poem is read at the conclusion of each skit. Show is proving itself to be one of the most popular programs heard over WMT. Radio Baseball Contest Joplin, Mo. — The question and answer type program which has become so popular is being used by WMBH in a Radio Baseball League with teams sponsored by 8 business concerns in a 28-game schedule, games being played four nights a week. It is a 30-minute program for each game. The announcer is the pitcher all the time. He draws questions from a box and reads them, one at a time, to the various batters. The questions are answered and the answers are graded as outs, singles, doubles, triples or home runs, according to the relative difficulty. Talks on AAA Benefits A series of short talks to farm folk explaining the benefits to be derived through the AAA has been arranged by KDKA, Pittsburgh. The speaker will be Henry Jarrett of the Department of Agriculture, and the broadcasts are scheduled for April 3 at 12:23 p.m. and April 6 and 8 at 6:38 a.m. Ascap Blames Bills On Small Stations (Continued from Page 1) banquet table, among those who addressed the gathering being Gene Buck, president; Gustave Schirmer, treasurer, and E. C. Mills, general manager. Others who spoke, not including annual reports, etc., were Deems Taylor, Otto Harbach, Billy Hill, Irving Caesar, L. Wolfe Gilbert, John G. Paine, Walter Douglass, Charles Schwartz, general counsel and Mrs. Ethelbert Nevins. Buck touched on the availability angle, stating that it was difficult to classify a composer's worth merely through a performance and place evaluation on same. He mentioned the work of the committees seeking to classify writers and publishers so that their dividend would be commensurate with their value and that the work of these committees was an outstanding honest and painstaking job. Mills mentioned his trip across the country and the many state bills pending and passed which are intended to cripple Ascap activity. A precedent would soon be established, he hoped, which would curtail the anti-activity in many other states. Independent radio men and not the networks were active in this respect, in the opinion of Mills. Duffy measure was also discussed. Paine, chairman of the board of the Music Publishers Protective Association, spoke on the necessity of adapting the industry and individuals in it to the new era which seemed to be swallowing the individ ual in favor of groups. Group activity was the order of the day, such as the sit-down strikes and growing disregard for property rights. Since property rights was the main stock in trade of the copyright owners, songwriter and publisher, it behooved the music men more than ever to act as a group and strengthen their respective organizations, Paine said. Gilbert gave the Hollywood lowdown and items from the film writing colony. Committee was selected to study the grand rights situation, the group being headed by Deems Taylor, chairman, and including Leopold Godowsky, Lazar Saminsky, Henry Hadley, George Fischer and Carl Engle. Consensus of opinion was that Ascap would come through the legislation tangle all right, but before the eventual quiet-down there would be considerable disturbance and extra costs for attorneys, etc. Advance Games on WWJD Chicago — John Harrington is flying to Arizona to broadcast the pre-season baseball games between Chicago's White Sox and Cubs starting April 2. Kellogg Co. is sponsor and the broadcasts will be heard over WWJD. Harrington will also give the playby-play for the regular season. JAMES MADISON for many years one of America's outstanding authors, has returned to New York, and invites the attention of those requiring top-notch radio gags and continuities. Permanent residence, Hotel Taft. Raleigh, N. C. — At a recent production conference, called by WPTF executives to discuss program ideas for an interested sponsor, ideas for five new shows were evolved. One proposal called for a program to be known as "The Musical Switchboard," which briefly had to do with a typical telephone operator receiving calls early in the morning, connecting certain plugs for requested tunes, and connecting others for brief commercials. Then it was suggested that a program known as "How's Your I.Q.?" might not be amiss, with a master of ceremonies staging a question-and-answer contest in the studio with participating teams selected from civic clubs in this section. Still others suggested weekly broadcasts direct from the homes of prominent citizens of Raleigh, who had been designated the outstanding citizen of the week; broadcasts from hotel lobbies in Raleigh known as "Mr. and Mrs. Tourist"; "Today," mentioning every important fact, name and event of this day in history, and "Around the Parlor Lamp," a friendly resume of the day's happenings, as seen in the eyes of a typical small-town family. Production Department members offer additional suggestions for each idea and soon a composite whole is ready for program-building and sponsorship. Starts Coronation Talks Sir Gerald Campbell, British consul general in New York, on Thursday will start NBC's list of programs on the Coronation. He will speak at 8:30-8:45 on the NBC-Blue net. Two Coronation authorities. Blevins Davis of the Yale drama department, and Howard Marshall, British journalist and radio observer, have been signed by NBC for its coronation coverage. William H. Green represented Davis in the NBC deal. Durelle Alexander Signed Durelle Alexander, formerly a featured vocalist with Paul Whiteman. has been signed to a two-year contract by Columbia Artists, Inc. Singer has already been set for a Thursday spot over CBS and will be heard from 3-3:30 p.m. James Appell set deal. "BARON MUNCHAUSEN" JACK PEARL RALEIGH and KOOL CIGARETTES WJZ-10 P. M. E.S.T.— Friday NBC Network Dir.: A. & S. LYONS, Inc.