Radio stars (Oct 1938)

RADIO STARS SO YOU'D LIKE TO PLAY IN A BAND? (Continued from page 25) those transcriptions for radio broadcasts, the scale is $24 a half-hour and $6 for rive minutes or less overtime. The same rate applies for music recorded for movies. He's saved radio programs until last. A good musician, he's heard, can make top money out of radio. Trying to discover the best approach, he also remembers he has been told that Mark YVarnow hires as many musicians as any maestro in radio. Arrived at the CBS building on Madison Avenue, an elevator shoots him up to the YVarnow office. Mark is in, working on the music for one of his shows. Johnny meets him and is impressed with the considerate, unassuming personality of the conductor. Mark is glad to talk to Johnny and says he'll arrange for Cy Washburn, his contractor, to interview the young job-hunter. Then Johnny learns who and what a contractor is : A busy conductor has no time to bother with the details of obtaining the men he needs for every varied type program, of arranging salary details, of making out the payroll. For these things he needs a contractor. A contractor is a union member, usually an active musician, who has collected a complete tile index of every competent available radio musician. If Mark wants a trombone player who can double on bassoon, he tells Washburn, who will deliver the man. A contractor like Cy has probably the best job any musician can hope to get — excepting bandleading, of course. Whenever he signs contracts with musicians for a conductor, he is paid, according to the union rate, double scale price on the job. (A bandleader, too. must be paid double scale. That is a minimum — if he's worth his salt, it's usually much more.) Washburn also plays tuba or bass on the jobs he's contracted and sometimes on other programs. Now he is contractor for all the commercial programs of both Warnow and Harry Salter. Mark calls Cy, gives Johnny the Washburn home address and Johnny goes over to see him. He was a little surprised to realize that Cy had no office, but he soon understands that all a contractor really needs is a complete card index and a telephone. "Radio, too," says Cy, "is divided into A, B, C, groups. Actually, we never worry about any but the A class which includes WABC, WJZ, WEAF, IVOR— the key stations of the networks. The smaller local New York stations are listed in the B group, and I'm afraid I don't know just what the C class includes. "A musician working on a commercial on an A station is paid $12 an hour — or fraction of an hour — for the actual broadcast. He is paid $6 an hour — or fraction — for rehearsal. "In many cases the network uses its own contractor and supplies the men needed for commercial programs. But Mark gets permission to use his own contractor and own men. "Most of the networks have their own house band. For example, Mark uses the CBS house band for his summer Blue Velvet sustaining program. The union has set up a scale of prices for house band members. They are paid $100 for a twentyfive-hour, five-day week for sustaining programs. When they work on a combination sustaining-commercial week, they get $140. There is also a twenty-hour combination week for which the rate is $100. What's more, the musicians who work on the five-day week are not allowed to take any kind of engagement on their days off. That helps spread the work and gives everybody a break. "If a musician is called into an audition for a radio show or a transcription, he is paid $4 an hour for both the rehearsal and the actual audition. "There is hardly ever a question of a man's being paid below scale on any radio job. The majority of the men are glad to work for that. Some few — a talented concert-meister or a soloist much in demand— are usually paid above scale. In the old days, not many musicians could break into radio. Those in the inner circle could demand $25 or $30 an hour and get it. But those days are gone. Now, though, a good radio musician who, keeps busy can average between $7,500 and $10,000 a year The peak for a top man is $300 a week. A few years ago he could hit an average of $700 to $1,500 a week. "Of course, a musician has good and Solid-form Mascara, brilliant gold -colored metal vanity. • Eyebrow Pencil sum. Black. Brown, Blue. • Eyt • '.ray. Brown. Green or Violet. Why Let Pale Lashes and Brows Spoil IjouA. Charm Do you carefully powder and rouge, and then allow pale, scanty lashes and scraggly brows to mar what should be your most expressive feature — your eyes? You will be amazed at the added loveliness that can be yours, so easily, with Maybclline Eye Beauty Aids. 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