Radio mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

were licensed in 1936 and the New Year finds 700 stations in the nation. Leading :he stampede are newspaper owners bent on acquiring their own stations as media for the dissemination of news and advertising. Chain newspaper publishers, such as Y\ llliam Randolph Hearst and the ScrippsHoward concern, already own many stations and seek others. Individual newspapers all over the country are effecting tie-ups with existing stations where they can't persuade the FCC to issue franchises for new ones. Thus Radio, the so-called Fifth Estate, cements the bonds which link it to the Fourth Estate — and it was only a short while ago the two were engaged in a bitter fight over the right of Radio to project mere news bulletins! * * * As radio and the newspapers are being drawn closer together, so are radio and the movies. Both results are inevitable because of the close kinship between the three. All have the same function to perform — serving the public with enlightenment and entertainment — and this they best perform working in close and harmonious relationship with one another. That's why radio and film magnates get together in joint commissions to achieve closer alliances, and not to curtail the activities of film stars as some groups of movie exhibitors are demanding. With television coming eventually, if not now. films will play even a more important role in the radio scheme of things. * * * THESE outstanding developments of ■ early 1937 are not only natural but RADIO MIRROR What's New on Radio Row (Continued from page 4) they also find a motivating force in the tact that radio has become one of the leading industries of the country It has just concluded its first 8100,000,000 year and newspaper owners and film moguls can t be blamed for wanting to get a piece of this juicy pie. Four coast-to-coast networks (counting the National Broadcasting Company with its Red and Blue outlets as separate chains) are now in existence and a fifth is in the making. Warner Brothers, who operate their own station on the Pacific Coast, are interested in this development with the Transamerican Broadcasting and Television Corporation, of which (ohn L. Clark, former general manager of the Cincinnati 500000-watt station, WLW, is the president. MEANWHILE the airwaves are so o V nttered up with advertisers that Radio Row is consuming aspirin by the carload trying to cure the headaches caused by inability to accommodate sponsors standing in line with bulging bankrolls. An illustration of how really serious is the situation is furnished by the experience of Coca Cola. For months the refreshment manufacturer has had a program all set to go but no place to go on either Columbia or NBC. He has a 45minute show, Gus Haenschen's "Song Shop," but neither web can provide a spot satisfactory to the sponsor. The hope is that with renewal time in January some advertiser will drop out and open up a place for Coca Cola. * * * ANOTHER TREND OF THE TIMES Local stations forge to the front as try ■iri*** out spots for artists and attractions aspiring for network recognition. The Columbia Broadcasting System through its ArJjsts Bureau begins feeding talent to WHN, independent New York City station operated by the Loew Circuit. This arrangement makes it possible for Columbia to get a definite line on entertainers who have successfully passed its audition board but whom it cannot accommodate on its own kilocycles because of business congestion. The merit of Octavus Roy Cohen's new program. The Personal Column of the Air was similarly established at local stationbefore being launched on the combined Red and Blue Networks of NBC. It was tested for five weeks in fourteen cities via transcriptions and the reaction was so favorable, the Procter and Gamble Company, largest users of air time in the world, grabbed it for national circulation. Speaking of the Procter and Gamble Company reminds us that that concern's earnings for the third quarter of 1936 reached 86,629,564, its high-water mark. In the same period the company spent 82,2/8,875 for time on the National Broadcasting Company's stations, which it uses exclusively with the exception of Columbia's St. Louis outlet, KMOX, engaged only for the new Personal Column of the Air program. And in case you are not familiar with the Procter and Gamble attractions, here they are: Captain Tim Healy: Five Star Jones; Pepper Young's Family; Home, Sweet Home; Vic and Sade; Edward MacHugh, the Gospel Singer; Ma Perkins; We/n» // 1 SOON HELEN HAD DATES &ALORE / T OH. SAY CANT gS 1 / SEE YOU BEFORE M NEXT WEEK ? M WM Yj$A SORRY. J/M. t'VE 3m & f PROMISED BOB : \ ; ^ J AND DAVE AND W j STEVE ALL MY 1 DATES TILL THEN! \ ^f BLF^i^V --■ '•/^sgsSg&t • 1' ''^« ■ i ONCE you get the Lux habit you need never worry about OFFENDING. Lux takes away perspiration odor completely — without cake-soap rubbing or the harmful alkali found in many ordinary soaps. Safe in water, safe in Lux. Removes perspiration odor — saves colors