Radio digest (1922)

64 r I ■ 7 H A featured item on WSM'S Golden Art Hour at Nashville, Tenn., is this fifteen-piece orchestra known as the Golden Artists who, every Wednesday evening at nine present a series of the latest dance numbers. It is said that this orchestra is so up-to-date that the dance pieces heard over it frequently are heard for the first time by the listening world. By Marigold Cassin mg ONCE again the old story about "hiding your light under a bushel" has been revived. Radio is a great little field for that sort of thing, you know. Consider the things checked against us in the way of saxophone players, mouthharp blowers, and sopranos; not to mention the spinsters who are telling mothers everywhere how to raise their children. All of which has nothing to do with Paul Feddersen. W'OC found him in Belle Plaine, Iowa. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Feddersen of that city, and probably did the usual things when he was a youngster. He went to Iowa University and to Northwestern, and all that sort of thing, and had the idea that he was going to be a jeweler, once upon a time. But all of that is changed now. W hen the Central Broadcastitig Company a-sumed the ownership and operation of WHO at Des Moines, and our own W'OC here in Davenport, it became necessary to add various members to our staff. That's where this chap Feddersen came into the picture. And the best part is that he was really hired to announce, and nobody knew he could do anything else. W e realized that he had a most pleasing baritone speaking voice, and promptly let it go at that. He'd been with us for about three weeks, perhaps, when a letter commenting on some program or other, found its way to the head office, by virtue of a paragraph which read, 'if that is the Paul Feddersen from Belle Plaine, why doesn't he SING?" That seemed worth investigating, and What a lot that investigation disclosed! Here, in our midst we were harboring a future celebrity, if we were to judge from things he had already done. For that baritone voice not only speaks, but it sings! The interview brought to light the fact that this most modest young man had been seriously studying voice for about eight years, first with one of Iowa's veteran teachers, Ernest A. Leo. and now with one of the most sought after instructors at the American Conservatory in Chicago, Elaine DeSellem. In the Xational Federation of Music Clubs Sesqui-Centennial National Contest in Philadelphia, in 1920, he walked off with third place in the baritone class . . . quite a victory for a youngster only twenty years old, competing with singers from all over the country. In 1927 and '28 he won first place in the Iowa State Paul Feddersen, who sings as well as announces. Atwater Kent Audition. In 1929 ht sailed out and came back with first place for Iowa in the National Federation o! Music Clubs "Young Artists Contest Land knows what he'll do in 1930! Be that as it may, that's probablj enough about what he's done. It's whai he is DOING that probably concern* him more, right now. That sympathetic quality he has in his voice has made hin popular with our elderly fans, who dot< on having a boy whom they can "adopt' into their homes. And, as you can gues: from the photo, there are reasons win he should be equally popular with th( 3rounger set! "The Memory Book," broadcast a 3:45 CST on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, features Mr. Feddersen'; pleasing baritone, and you are most cor dially invited to tune in. and meet him Instructs Announcers VOICE quality may prove the key t< success, in the opinion of Virgini; Sanderson, head of the speech arts de partment of the California state teacher college in San Jose and part-time instructor in speech at NBC, San Francisco. "We all know that personality plays a large part in the winning of success," Miss Sanderson points out. "After all. voice is no mean part of personality and to it we can lay man' failures as well as successes." Virginia Sanderson has undertake! the instruction of Radio announcers o the National Broadcasting company staf in San Francisco. Each week Miss San derson devotes 45 minutes to the NBC announcers, giving them instruction ii speech with stress laid especially upoi diction, pronunciation and tone. "Radio is shaping the speech of Amer ica," Miss Sanderson insists. "It is til medium which will give us a universa American tongue replacing colloquia English. That is my chief reason fci becoming interested in Radio." * * * One of the most popular year 'rounr featured programs from KNX is th< Sunday afternoon concert sponsored bj the Los Angeles Park board.