Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

Wednesday. December 28, 1949 RADIO DAILY 5 TV Set Production Reaches New High (Continued from Page 1) probably shipping at least 20,000 sets per week. For the first 11 months of 1949, TV production by RMA count reached 2,121,836. Non-member companies are estimated to have turned out another 300,000 sets, with their rate of production constantly increasing. Total production since the end of the war is estimated by RMA to have reached 3,500,000. Turnout of sound radio sets also rose sharply, with nearly 200,000 units equipped for FM reception. These included 122,603 FM-AM and FM only sets and FM reception bands on 60,108 TV sets. A total of 787,533 AM-only sets brought the month's total of all types of sets to 1,324,359— the only time this year the total has exceeded the million set mark. The November total of AM-only sets was 200,000 above the highest previous mark for the vear. Beef Giveaway Prizes For WMGM's Pet Beefs Prizes of beef for expressing pet beefs are being offered over WMGM each Sunday on the Public Performance program sponsored by the Public National Kosher Meat Products. Peeves ranging from "cabdrivers who never have change when the fare is 65 cents" to the girl in the office who has nothing to do and roams about asking "How's it going?" have been expressed. Prizes of delicatessan are given on the show which also includes the songs of Seymour Rechtzeit and the Feder Sisters. Other gripes heard in recent weeks include the woman sports enthusiast who calls baseball players cute, wrestlers handsome brutes, and jockeys little boys and the guy at a party who always walks over the women and shouts "Let's play strip poker." Experimenting With FM For Wired Music Service Philadelphia — Experiments with FM radio as a replacement for leased telephone wires to transmit canned music are being conducted by the Muse Art Corporation, distributor of Muzak Wired Music Service in this area. Tests to obtain proof that FM can provide satisfactory service have been made in the past few months, according to John B. Kelly, president of the corporation. Engineers believe that with certain modifications. FM can replace the leased lines, Kelly says. However, he added, no decision will be made until final tests have been made. The tests have been conducted on WIBG-FM. Set Production Figures Below is a monlh-by-mcnlh tabulation of set production as reported by RMA: FM-AM TV and-FM AM only All Sets 121.238 1 A 7 711 14/,/ JO OO 1 ,9UU 830.871 118,938 98.969 49.831 716.538 March (five weeks) 182.361 71.216 607.570 861.147 166.536 17 ^C1 acq one 673.005 163.262 28.388 449.128 640,778 160.736 40.512 471.342 672.590 July 79.531 23.843 318.104 421.478 185.706 64.179 559.076 808.961 224.532 70.936 461.532 757.000 304.773 83.013 587.267 975.053 November (five weeks) 414.223 122.603 787.533 1.324.359 2.121.836 788.955 5.770.989 8.681.780 Blair Staff Expanding; Opening Dallas Office (Continued from Page 1 ) Texas with Clarke R. Brown, veteran time-buyer and salesman, in charge. Other Blair offices are located in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit and St. Louis. The new Dallas office will be located in the Rio Grande Building. Brown Will Be Manager iBrown, manager of the new Dallas office, was radio director of Lake-Spiro-Furman, Memphis agency, from 1938 to 1946. He handled the buying activities for the Plough, Inc. account. Later he was media director of the Harry B. Cohen ad agency in New York and following that was radio and TV director of the Gardner Advertising Agency, St. Louis. For the past year he has been general sales manager of the Texas State Network. He will continue to handle regional representation for the Texas web which is already represented nationally by the Blair firm. Mutual Programs Provide Xmas Gifts For Children A co-operative venture by Mutual network programs and MBS affiliated stations has resulted in the collection of more than one million gifts of toys and clothing for underprivileged or war-suffering children at home and abroad. Carleton Morse will distribute clothing and toy gifts to war-orphans at the San Michele Colony in Rome, Italy, on Christmas Day. In addition to the Morse distribution of gifts, more than 200,000 American underpriveledged children will receive Christmas mementos from the Salvation Army on Christmas Eve. The Salvation Army gifts were rounded-up by Tom Moore, emcee of "Ladies Fair." Each is hand made and home made. More than 675,000 children's gifts were contributed to "I Love A Mystery" and "The Bob Poole Show" by Mutual listeners. Both of the latter campaigns were conducted in co-operation with the Foster Parents' Plan for War Children, Inc. Five Pillsbury Programs Set For CBS Network Chicago — When Pillsbury Mills. Inc. of Minneapolis starts sponsorship of the 9:15 to 9:30 a.m. <CST> segment of Arthur Godfrey's show on April 10, 1950, the flour firm will be sponsoring five major programs on the CBS network. In addition to Godfrey, the other shows will be: "Pillsbury House Party," formerly heard on ABC, which switches to CBS, January 3rd; "Fun to be Young," a new show put together especially for Pillsbury's west coast subsidiary. Globe Mills, which starts January 7; "Grand Central Station," which has been sponsored by Pillsbury for five years; and Cedric Adams, newspaper columnist and commentator, whose daily five-minute program will follow "House Party." The complete revised schedule is as follows: Art Linkletter's "House Party," 2:30 to 2:55 p.m. (CST) CBS coast to coast and Cedric Adams, 2:55 to 3:00 p.m. (CST); Both shows are five days a week. "Grand Central Station," 11:30 to 12:00 p.m. noon on Saturdays; "Fun to be Young," audience participation show with Jay Stewart, one of the west coast's most popular emcees, Saturdays 11:30 to 12:00 noon (PST) on a Pacific Coast regional network which includes Salt Lake City; and the Arthur Godfrey show, which will be at 9: 15 to 9:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays one week and Tuesdays and Thursdays on alternating weeks. Labor-Management Series To Be Continued On ABC ABC will continue its Labor-Management broadcast series during 1950, it was announced yesterday. The broadcast procedure, however, will be reversed with the first 15minute time segment, 10:30 to 10:45 p.m. being devoted to management and the second segment, 10:45 to 11 p.m. being devoted to labor. New time arrangement bowed last night. Robert Nathan, the labor economist, will speak for the CIO and the NAM's "This is Your Business" will represent management during the first eight weeks of the series. P. R. Venture Rumor Denied By Gardner (Continued from Page 1) is no truth in any of the stuff that they print about it," Gardner said. "I am very happy — the sponsor is very happy — the writers are very happy and the only people who seem to be unhappy are the guys who don't understand the whole thing." Teodore Moscoso, Jr., presidentgeneral manager of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company, confirmed the comment of Gardner. "It has been forcefully brought to our attention," Moscoso said, "that Ed Gardner is bsing criticized for avoiding taxes because of his having moved his production activities to Puerto Rico. These accusations have been both unfair and untrue. "Must Qualify" "First of all, anyone who lives and works in Puerto Rico is not subject to Federal Income Taxes on income earned in Puerto Rico. In the case of Gardner, he first must qualify under the U. S. Internal Revenue Code regulations, as to Puerto Rican residence and income, before any exemptions apply to his earnings. Secondly, Gardner was definitely not granted exemption from Insular taxes solely on the basis of his radio recording activities. The certificate of qualification under our Insular laws was granted only because Gardner established a new, complete, independent production unit in Puerto Rico — to plan and film full length feature motion pictures as well as short subject films for television programs, in addition to his radio programs. "He's posted a bond of $250,000.00 of his own money — a business investment in good faith — and unless the film productions are forthcoming, local tax exemptions will not be operative." Short Wave Broadcast Hits Roumanian Market Sales of textiles, foodstuffs, cigarettes and other goods skyrocketed recently in Romania following a Voice of America broadcast about Romanian currency troubles. The broadcast increased fears among the Romanian populance that they faced another currency devaluation. Rumors of impending currency stabilization moves have been prevalent in Romania for some time but the buying spree really started following the broadcast which reported that the Bulgarian State Bank was refusing to change Romanian currency. A reliable source close to the Romanian State Bank said that the Bulgarian move was brought soley on by the growing Romanian currency balance there. He said that Bulgaria had temporarily halted from buying Romanian goods and exchanging Bulgarian money for Romanian monev