Radio daily (July-Sept 1937)

3 RADIO DAILY Tuesday, August 17, 1937 KWK AND KSTP AMONG WLW LINE PROSPECTS {Continued from Page 1) link unconfirmed is the future Transamerican alliance with the Iowa network and Cowles interests. However, according to Transamerican policy, the phone companies will not be made rich through useless wire charges that do not pay for themselves and if any business develops along certain midwestern fronts, more station affiliations will be made. Transamerican business now for the WLW Line is reported definitely at between seven and eight hours of time actually sold to date. Father Coughlin business is also being placed by Transamerican and between 30 and 35 outlets will be used, not only on the WLW Line but additional stations, some of which have always had the account in the past, such as WOR and its affiliates, on Mutual. Book Prizes Interest in the literary program 'Literature on Parade" on KFOX, Long Beach, Cal., is being stimulated by the offering of ten leather bound classics to listeners who write in the best explanations to the question: "What ten books would you choose to take with you if you were sentenced to live by yourself on a South Sea Island for the rest of your life, and why?" Program is sponsored by Brown's book and stationery store. Brewster Morgan to M-G-M West Coast Bureau, RADIO DAILY Los Angeles — Brewster Morgan, CBS producer who has been handling the Shakespearean cycle, has been signed by M-G-M in a production capacity. Will move into the new berth following production o f "Twelfth Night," last of the series, being done in New York three weeks hence. Cesare Sodero in WOR Duo Cesare Sodero will return to WOR on Thursday for a special series of two broadcasts. Programs will be heard at 8-8:30 p.m. and will feature Genevieve Rowe, soprano, Raoul Nadeau, baritone and Willard Amison, tenor. CNE MINUTE INTERVIEW BERNHARD LEVITOW "Fads in music are due chiefly to orchestra leaders being misled by the response of a small minority, usually the so-called younger generation which goes in for noise and commotion more than for genuine music. But these fads are short-lived. Genuine music is appreciated today in the same form that it was appreciated ten, twenty or fifty years ago. Band leaders should not stray too far from that kind of music." BOB SNOW, announcer, has returned to the staff of KFVS, Cape Girardeau, Mo., after a brief period at KGDE, Fergus Falls, Minn. He brought back a bride. Michel Gusikoff, concert master of the Firestone Symphony Orchestra, will be soloist of "The Voice of Firestone" next Monday over NBC-Red at 8:30 p.m. Margaret Speaks, program's soloist, returns from vacation Aug. 30. WTMV, East St. Louis, 111.: Alois Gerard, symphony commentator and director of the Polish Hour, was married recently to Albina Kelton of Chicago . . . Paul Wills, sports announcer, is currently handling playby-play night baseball from Belleville Park, sponsored by Sears-Roebuck . . . Paul Godt is back from vacation and again handling the Community Sing from Majestic Theater . . . Lieut. Alfred Lee Bergtold of the control panels has returned from two weeks of Naval Reserve duty. "Meet the Staff," WPTF-Raleigh series presented under direction of J. B. Clark, has become so popular that it will be continued into the fall and winter. Engineering and production departments will be included. KFJZ, Fort Worth: Gene Cagle, announcer for past four years, made commercial manager under Harry Hutchison, new general manager . . . Herb Witherspoon, who resigned recently as manager to join Universal Mills, is now a benedict . . . Zack Hurt, Frank Parker, Bob Duren and Truett Kimzey are back from vacation. Jim McCulla, pilot of "Merry-GoRound" over WCPO, Cincinnati, is back on the job. Colonel Jack Major, "The Colonel from Kentucky" who is spending the summer up in the Thousand Islands, commuting to New York weekly for his CBS program, is proving his fish stories by inviting everybody he knows to join him in eating the catches. KSD, St. Louis: Robert W. Nickles and Lawrence Trembly have joined the engineering staff . . . Grace Daily y. 8. AND BRITISH IDEAS is vacationing in California and Canada. Bill Bivens, Caldwell Cline. Lee Kirby and Charles Crutchfield, announcers at WBT, Charlotte, put over quite a novel broadcast last Friday the thirteenth. They trotted out all the "bad luck" signs, including a black cat, mirrors for breaking, etc., and did a street stunt in which passers were invited to defy superstition. Not many were brave enough. Marion Reynolds is subbing for Charlie Wright as WELI's (New Haven) program director, and Bill Farley is pinch-miking for the station's holidaying announcers. Howard S. Keefe. senior announcer, WSPR, Springfield. Mass., is on half of his vacation now. He will take the other week in September. Jimmy Wagner, singer over WRJN, Racine, Wis., has returned from a two-month vacation in northern Wisconsin. Uncle Don and his kids had quite a visit with Governor Lehman at the State House in Albany, and the Governor got a great kick out of it. Lynn Chalmers and Lon Saxon, singers discovered by Harold Stokes, dance maestro on WGN, will be heard on Mutual network tomorrow at 8:309 p.m. EDST. Chaz Chase, eccentric comedian who appeared with the Al Pearce show in its personal appearances, has been signed to do a picture with Columbia. The picture is "College Hero," starring Jimmy Durante and Gertrude Niesen. Since the picture is already in production, a part is being written in for Chaz. Other producers are said to be decidedly interested in the talkative Arlene Harris and Tizzie Lish, the glamour girl. Roy Collins. WOR page boy who has been emulating a number of the artists for whom he sets up studios by composing a few tunes in his spare time, will return to Ed Fitzgerald's variety program today at 10-11 a.m. INS is now operating on a 24-hour basis, following the combining of Universal Service with International News Service. Maureen O'Connor Extended Maureen O'Connor, juvenile singing star of the CBS Texaco summer series who was signed on a programto-program basis, has received a contract for the duration of the present summer programs. Eddie Cantor and the regular cast return Sept. 12. ET Series for Australasia West Coast Bureau, RADIO DAILY Los Angeles — Irving Fogel Productions report sale of "The Inlaws" to Pepsodent Co. for release in Australasia. Total of 260 transcriptions, with starting date in October. Frank F. Moore of the Conquest Alliance Co.. Chicago, handled the deal for the local firm. (Continued from Page 1) bination of the British and American plans, inasmuch as a group of "A" stations are Government controlled and function along the same lines as BBC, while the "B" stations are privately owned and as frankly commercial as our own — even more so, since there is little or no censorship or restrictions. Patent nostrums and quack doctors are liberal time buyers and they can and do claim that their remedies cure everything "from chillblains to cancer," according to Stiver. Receiving sets are licensed as in Great Britain and Canada, and the 24 shillings per set is the sole revenue of the Government owned "A" stations. However 800,000 licenses at six bucks per totes up to the not insignificant amount of $4,800,000 — which isn't exactly hay either in Australia or the good old U.S.A. The two most popular programs :urrently being broadcast are the "Kraft Music Hall" and a "Dave and Dan" confection for Wrigley's gum, both J. Walter Thompson accounts. The production formula for Kraft in Sydney consists of taking required numbers from a transcription musical library, dovetailing in specialty acts as available, plus commercials. The live acts and commercials are then waxed and the disks forwarded to other stations with a "script" speifying musical selections Nos. 7-1144, since the libraries are standardized. Australia is a country larger in area than the U. S., with important renters as widely separated as New York and Los Angeles, with similar time changes, and with mountain barriers to reception. The development of radio names is retarded by the fact that programs are hardly more than local in coverage, and the Australian listener, like his American cousin, prefers to tune in a recorded Bing Crosby or English Gracie Fields rather than mediocre live talent. Despite all handicaps, however, Stiver reports that the Thompson agency has upped the sales of Ameri:an products by as much as 135 per cent in twelve months through use of radio as the sole medium. Greetings from Radio Daily August 17 George Howard Fredda Gibson