Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

8 RADIO DAILY Monday. December 19, 1949 Labor Act To Benefit Industry— Doherty (Continued from Page 1) to performers, including announcers, on radio and television programs' are excluded from the average hourly earnings upon which overtime is based. Overtime Exclusions Listed "Section 7(D) as amended, also excludes from overtime calculations such forms of compensation as: (1) sums paid as gifts at Christmas time, or on other special occasions, as a reward for service; (2) payments for periods when no work is performed due to vacations, holidays, sickness, etc.; (3) payments made pursuant to a bona fide profit-sharing plan; (4) contributions made by employers to certain types of health and welfare funds; (5) extra compensation provided by a premium rate for work outside of an employee's regular working hours and for work on holidays or on the sixth and/or seventh day of the work week. "This process of specifically defining the terms, 'talent fees' and 'performers' is already under way. It is expected that the final definitions of the terms which will be handed down by the Wage and Hour Administration before the law becomes effective on January 25, 1950, will satisfactorily apply to the majority of broadcasters' overtime problems in so far as talent fees are concerned. If this objective is accomplished, it will be the first time since 1938 that broadcasters will have had a realistic application of wage-hour regulations to these overtime problems. "The Wage and Hour Administrator recently has issued tentative regulations which also afford substantially broader exemption coverage for broadcast personnel. Under these proposed yardsticks, the administrator would regard sportscasting, master of ceremonies work, man on the street interviewing, farm, fashion and home economics broadcasting, special events broadcasting and similar types of announcing, as professional work. This is especially true where the element of 'ad lib' or creative broadcasting is involved. "Also affecting some broadcasters, especially in rural areas, will be the new 75 cents per hour minimum which becomes effective on January 25, 1950. After this date, all nonexempt employees must be compensated at a rate not less than this statutory minimum. Furthermore, all non-exempt employees must continue to be paid overtime after 40 hours per week, at the rate of time and one half the regular rate of pay. Includes Part-Time Employees "This applies to all radio station personnel including part-time employees. The only exception involves messengers, learners and handicapped employees. But in regard to these classifications, they may be paid less than the statutory minimum only on receipt of a special California Commentary By ALLEN KUSHNER • • • Jack Bailey opens 1950 headlining three shows. "Comedy of Errors," which opens Christmas Eve on Mutual; a teevee version of "Queen for a Day," beginning a test run on Los Angeles' KTSL, January 5th, and his five-a-week Mutual "Queen" show. HollyWOOd. • • • Within two weeks CBS will audition an airshow created by Cy Howard and Parke Levy titled the Professor and Mrs. O'Reilly, starring Hans Conreid and Gloria Gordon. Howard will produce and Levy will direct and edit. . . . John Brown has been signed as a regular on the Fanny Brice show, playing Mr. Weemish. . . . Curt Massey, CBS singing star, may have his own teevee show shortly after the first of the year. He auditioned this week with Country Washburne's orchestra for one of the country's largest auto companies. . . . Carlton E. Morse's "One Man's Family" has been picked up for an additional stanza on NBC marking the 70th renewal of contract option since the airer made its debut on the network 17V2 years ago. Show is heard on the west coast every Sunday at 12 noon. . . . Jimmy Wakely plays the Coliseum, Fort Worth, New Year's Eve and on Jan. 1 will appear at the Sportsatorium at Dallas. Wakely will then leave on an Eastern good-will tour for Capital records during which he will appear at record stores and on disc jockey shows. . . . Frank DeVol and his orchestra will make a coast-to-coast vaaide and concert tour next summer, playing Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc. teeing off in Dallas in July. . . . Tommy Dorsey has gone back to New York to make records for RCA Victor and transcriptions for Standard before taking his annual Christmas vacation. His TV plans are very hush-hush. . . . Burl Ives is cutting a series of transcriptions for the January March of Dimes Campaign. . . . Teddy Hart is shopping for a big-name comedy femme to play opposite him in the domestic comedies television series he will produce. -Cr ft -Cr W • • • J. Carrol Naish, star of "Life With Liugi" is vacationing in Palm Springs while "Annie Get Your Gun," MGM picture is closed down due to the illness of Betty Hutton. Naish comes in to Hollywood on Tuesday when "Luigi" airs over CBS. . . . Bill Boyd "Hopalong Cassidy" and NBC have signed a television deal which saw a million dollars change hands, from NBC's coffers into Boyd's pocket. . . . Jack Carson, appearing in a benefit at Oakland, Calif., raised $28,000 for the Elks Charity Funds. . . . Despite seeming inactivity, there is great commotion behind the scenes between BS and Lum and Abner anent the latter pair's future in television. It now looks as through the rural comics will be first of Hollywood's major radio contingent to break over the traces and go TV in a big way. . . . Peter Potter's annual Popularity Poll is in full sway, and will continue throughout the month. Each year at this time, Pete asks his listeners to select the top band of the year, the most promising band, the top male vocalist, the top female vocalist, the top vocal group, and the top song. ft ft ft ft • • • One of the biggest teevee contracts yet drawn up has been signed, sealed and delivered for two motion picture stars. The contract calls for characterizations in 364 television films, 52 a year for seven years. The stars are Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo. Philip N. Krasne, motion picture producer of the Cisco Kid films for United Artists and John Simm of the Frederic Ziv Co., controlling the radio rights to the Cisco Kid stories, extended the contracts to Renaldo, who plays the role of the Cisco Kid, and to Carrillo, who plays the role of side-kick Pancho, on the screen. Trustee In Bankruptcy Factor In FCC Ruling (Continued from Page 1) broadcast license to a trustee in bankruptcy. In the Don Lee case the FCC must decide whether it can permit the licenses of several stations to be held by trustees. The question is one which has not yet been settled, and it may be that the Commission will find important differences between a trustee in bankruptcy and the trustees in the Don Lee case. In that case the trustees are administering the properties on behalf of the controlling stockholder, who is presently held to be incompetent to assume the responsibilities of a licensee. The action against KWIK was taken on the ground that important changes in the ownership of the station took place in the past without notice to the Commission as required by law. "There was one, if not two or more, transfers of control of that license prior to the time the license became bankrupt," the Commission said. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union was seeking the KWIK license and, according to the Commission explanation of its action, could still succeed in its application if, after hearing, the Commission decides the past offenses do not warrant revocation. certificate from the administrator or some other duly qualified authority. "NAB is currently preparing a guide manual for all members, covering the application of the new wage-hour provisions, and the new professional regulations of the administrator, to the common prevailing problems of broadcasters. This guide manual will be made available to NAB members during the month of January." Value Of Brand Names Stressed By Speaker Peoria, 111. — Brand identification and the practice of advertising were described as the "keynote supporting the whole free enterprise arch" by Henry E. Abt, president of Brand Names Foundation, Inc. at a meeting of the Peoria Advertising and Selling Club. "Without brand names," Abt continued, "a free, privately owned economic system cannot exist." He said Communists and fellow travelers seem "to see all this so much more clearly than some of you in the advertising field." "The job of buttressing the system of brands and the preservation of advertising is essential to the preservation of what is left of free enterprise," Abt said. The competition of brands "places competition on the basis of the merchant's service, his display, his good faith, energy and ambition." SESAC Adds Catalogues SECAC, Inc., of New York, has added three additional publishers to its roster of affiliates. One is J. M. Cerruti of New York City, and this catalog formerly was known as that of M. V. Cardilli. They publish many standard numbers as well as hundreds of Italian and Neapolitan folk songs with English text and also operatic compositions. The King Music Corporation of New York and I. Podgorski of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are also now included in the SESAC lineup.