Radio daily (Feb-Mar 1937)

RADIO DAILY: Monday, March 29. 1937 WTMV Renews Efforts For Phone Interviews (Continued from Page 1) views, with people picked at random from the telephone book. In the broadcasts, the listener heard the central's "Number, please," the buzz of the phone as it rang, and the answering "Hello" of the person called. Then the "Telechat" announcer would interview the subscriber as if he were face to face, and exhort him to have the rest of the family tune WTMV if they wanted to hear his voice. Telephone company ruled against this use of their facilities on the ground that such service was not provided for in their contract with the broadcaster. Goodman Leading in Poll Benny Goodman is leading in the radio orchestra popularity poll being conducted by Martin Block on the WNEW "Make Believe Ballroom program. Poll started last Thursday and will run for six weeks. Last year Shep Fields was the winner and a total of 90,000 votes were cast. Rename Television School Kansas City — Name of the recently organized Television Institute of America has been changed to Mid land Television, Inc., according to announcement by G. L. Taylor, president. Taylor has been working for several months on a t^* book to be used in the school whi^h this organization expects to open early in the summer. Following conferences with Arthur B. Church, president of the Midland Broadcasting Co.. and a director of Midland Television, Inc.. Taylor left Friday for New York where he will visit several eastern television plants and make arrangements for the pur chase of equipment for the school here. ANNOUNCERS ALOIS HAVRILLA was selected, after a long series of auditions in whice nine announcers participated, to announce the new guest star program sponsored by Cycle Trades of America. Show will be heard over the NBC-Blue net at 7:15 p.m. starting Thursday, with Frank Parker as guest. Ruth Etting and Jean Ellington will appear later. JACK PLUMLEY of WPEN has replaced Lynn Willis at WIP, Philadelphia, during the latter's one-month vacation. JERRY STONE and Harold Davis of WDAS and Uncle Wip of WIP are among those already booked by Nixon Theater, Philly, in its new policy of having radio announcers emcee stage shows. BILLY HINDS of KDKA, Pittsburgh, is directing a show at Perry High School there on Thursday. Glenn Riggs and Ed Schaughency, also of the KDKA announcing staff, will be in the show. "MILLSTONES AND MILESTONES" (Eugen Boissevain) Sustaining NBC-Blue, Thursdays, 7:45-8 p.m. LIMITED APPEAL COMMENT ON RANDOM SUBJECTS ABOVE AVERAGE MIND. Switched to this evening spot a recent afternoon shot, Eugen Boissevain competes with another commentator, the daily stinter, Boake Carter, and suffers by contrast. For Boissevain, with his pronounced foreign accent, talks at random and mostly about matters of no particular news timeliness, whereas Carter is direct and up to the minute. Discussing wives, husbands, domestic and other events, with an apparent partiality for the woman's viewpoint, Boissevain's appeal is almost wholly to the small erudite class who care for polite one-way conversation. His main fault, judging from his material thus far. is that he seems to be commenting for his own pleasure rather than from the listener's viewpoint. "A NIGHT AT THE INN" Victor Brewing Co. WCAE. Pittsburgh, Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. Earl Bothwell agency GOOD DRAMATIC PROGRAM OF OLD NEW ENGLAND LEGEND WITH APPROPRIATE MUSICAL SUPPLEMENT. Authored by program manager Ed Harvey, this half-hour is well-balanced and interesting entertainment. Mystery hovering over old taverns and inns forms basis for dramatic suspense while singers and Earl Truxell's orchestra supplement with semi-classical music. Sponsor cashes in on angle of principals' frequent references to a "tankard of ale", etc. Program is rich but serious and might do better on a later spot. For a local coverage, it is expensively outfitted with talent and gets plenty comment from the radio scribes. Substance offers questionable appeal for sponsoring product. Mirror also spoke on the send-off program, along with Burt McMurtrie and Gcraldine Garrick, authors and producers of the series. Initial skit opened with an incident of a garage fire in which one man lost his life and another was badly burned because the shop was equipped with ineffective fire extinguishers bought from a stray salesman. This was followed by exposes of several other types of rackets, notably a bead-stringing racket conducted via mail order from the lower cast side of New York and in which suckers are induced to send in a $2 "deposit" for a "sample." Listeners who have been victims of frauds are asked to send in details. Carl Fenton's orchestra will appear in the broadcasts. Open Special WWL Studios Gulfport, Miss. — New special studios of WWL in the Hewes building here were opened last week. New studios run a direct line from here to the WWL transmitter near New Orleans for a broadcast sponsored by Mississippi-Gulfcoast Advertising Ass'n. Pan-Amer. Syndicating "Charm School" Program (Continued from I'agc 1) WJAY, Cleveland. Charts and other literature are sent to the listener free, and the call from feature editors of newspapers around the country also decided Pan American to syndicate a series for feature page use. In some towns tie-up may be arranged between the newspaper and stations. Recent publicity in local and national magazines, calling attention to the charm schools and the $7,000,000 spent annually by women for such courses prompted Pan American to follow up and sound out stations on possibility of buying the courses for local use. Stations believe free charm stuff will pull for the sponsor in question. In the event that the "Charm School" program now on WMCA goes network for a national advertiser, syndication of the series will be restricted to territory not covered by the network. High school students and teachers are particularly interested also. Bob Crosby to Give Benefit Bob Crosby and his orchestra will give a swing concert at the Congress Hotel in Chicago on April 18, proceeds of which are to be turned over to Joe Sullivan, tubercular pianist at one time associated with the Crosby band. Bing Crosby is expected to fly to Chicago to help put the concert over. JOHN EBERSON "WARNING SIGNALS" Sustaining WMCA-Intercity Network, Tuesdays, 9-9: 30 p.m. GOOD DRAMATIC PROGRAM COMBINING MELODRAMATIC INCIDENTS AND PUBLIC SERVICE. Exposing swindles and rackets that are flourishing today, this program provides acceptable entertainment in a melodramatic vein and at the same time does an excellent public service in warning the public against the prevalent frauds. The series is produced with the cooperation of the Better Business Bureau, whose representatives were heard on last Friday's preview program at 10-10:30 p.m. President Donald Flamm of WMCA and Nick Kenny of the Daily STUDIO ARCHITECT □ ACOUSTIC CONSULTANT 1560 BROADWAY NEW YORK CITY