Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

March, 1931 RADIO DOINGS Page Nineteen /. T^ewton Yates KFVD United Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Expands Satisfying all rumors as to expansion plans of the United Broadcasting Company, Ltd., an announcement was released on February 27th by Louis L. Davis, Jr., chairman of the board of directors, that the new Pacific Coast chain of radio stations had acquired additional outlets which will make the United the most powerful network on the West Coast. Under the new arrangement just completed the UBC, The Silver J<[etwor\ of the Golden West, will comprise the following eleven radio stations: KGB, San Diego, Calif.'; KGER, Long Beach, Calif.; KFWB, Los Angeles, Calif.; KYA, San Francisco, Calif.; KMED, Medford, Ore.; KORE, Eugene, Ore.; KEX, Portland, Ore.; KJR, Seattle, Wash.; KVOS, Bellingham, Wash.; KPQ, Wenatchee, Wash.; KGA, Spokane, Wash. Officials of the United Broadcasting Company are: Louis L. Davis, Jr., chairman of the board; Maurice Cleary, president; Fred C. Dahlquist, vice-president and general manager; Lyndol L. Young, secretary, and Rush Hughes, production manager. "Bringing into the network the four Northwest stations which are among the most outstanding in importance and power in the country, and the San Francisco station KYA, places the United network in the possession of more power than that of the other two existing chains combined," said Mr. Davis. "The entire Pacific slope will be indisputably blanketed thoroughly from Mexico to Canada." Headquarters of the chain are located at 2614 W. 7th street, Los Angeles. That much beloved San Francisco contralto, Hazel Warner, long known to the West through the Blue Monday Jamboree and other KFRC programs is now a member of the KHJ staff. San Francisco can still hear its favorite contralto voice croon the simple melodies of today and yesterday; while Hazel herself can shake the fog of the Bay City from her hair and enjoy some sun-kissed life in the wide open air pockets of Southern California. Glen Eaton, KJR's popular tenor, came out of the East in a covered wagon and one of his greatest talents is to relate in a fascinating way the adventures which beset his family on the trail. During his years of singing over KJR, Glen has accumulated thousands of fan letters and his duet work with Marjone Robillard has made the Eaton-Robillard team one of the most popular fixtures on the air. J. Newton Yates, capable young organist of KFVD, is a local product, having studied here in Los Angeles since early boyhood. Mr. Yates came to KFVD after a series of successful engagements in Chicago and other eastern cities. His playing is characterized by a splendid technique, and real feeling for the type of music suitable to the organ. If you can stay awake until 12:00 midnight, you will en' joy Mr. Yate's organ recital immensely. * * * And what more can be said about Tom Breneman? He's getting to be like Amos V Andy. We have exhausted all our superlatives and will be short out for a month or so. But maybe you didn't know that the creator of Tom and Wash, a noon-day feature over KFWB was so nice looking! Dr. Ralph L Power, radio editor for the Los Angeles Record and the Long Beach Sun, and western editorial representative for Radio Digest magazine, again picks out an All-Southern California radio team. His choice for 1930, arrived at with the help of a committee of three, follows: Announcer: Bob Swan, KHJ. Continuities: Tom Breneman, KFWB. Violinist: Calmon Luboviski, KNX. Bands: Long Beach Municipal, KGER. Sports announcers: Zeph Fitzgerald, KGER-KFW'B Speakers: most scholarly, Rabbi Edgar Magnin, KHJ; most sincere, Rev. Charles E. Fuller, KGER; most inspirational, Burr Mcintosh, KFWB; most popular, Hugh Dobbs, NBC. Vocalists: soprano, Virginia Flohri, KFI; tenor, Carl Omeron, KHJ; contralto, Claire Van Nostrand, KHJ: baritone, Arthur Lang, KFI; crooner, Ted White, KHJ; ballads, Helen Guest, KECA; quartet, Hallelujah Quartet. Pianist: Claire Mellomno, KNX. 'Cellist: Misha Gegna, KMPC. Humorist: John P. Medbury, KHJ. Drama: Georgia Fifield, KNX. Organist: Dick Dixon, KGER. Old-Time music: Original Hill Billies. Orchestra: Concert, Raymond Paige's, KHJ; dance, Gus Arnheim's, KFWB: philharmonic, Los Angeles, KFI. * * * Robert Hurd, Recovered, Promises Quick Return Still very pale and decidedly thin, but with a freshened spirit and mischievious smile, Robert Hurd, program director and featured tenor of KFI-KECA, Los Angeles, has returned to his office after a long siege in the hospital, where his death was averted by an operation to relieve a mastoiditis. Hurd will resume his microphone appearances within a fortnight, it is assured by physicians. Details of the operation, graphically described by the patient, include following: "They had to cut my ear off and paste it back on, you know. I'm the only tenor living who has bit his own ear." * * * Lily Pons, latest sensation in the world of music, who in two months has made operatic history at the Metropolitan Opera House and who will go down in the annals of that famous institution as the most significant operatic "find" of the decade, will make her radio debut on Easter Sunday. The dazzling new coloratura will bring her voice to an NBC network, including KGW, KGO, KHQ, KFI, KFSD and KTAR, Sunday, April 5, during a program sponsored by the Victor division of the RCA-Victor Company. The broadcast will be he from 4:30 to 5:00 o'clock. One afternoon less than two months ago Pons sang "Lucia di Lammermoor" at New York's Metropolitan. Box-holders and galleryites liked her better than any newcomer in years and Pons left the stage that day famous. Still little was known about her. Metropolitan debuts have been dull lately; coloraturas seemed out of vogue. Newspapermen had not thought investigation of this one worth while. Pons in "Lucia" changed their minds. Glen Eaton KJR