Radio today (Sept 1935-Dec 1936)

Mutual s merry-go-round * At a time when the go-round in Washington is specially merry and the place throbs with political intrigue, Mutual steps in and fixes a hook-up with listeners. Plans are not complete for the government feature but Drew Pearson and Robert Allen will be on the air October 1, with their famous low-down on capital developments. "Lamp Lighter" Jacob Tarshish will return to WOE, WLW, and WGN, four days a week, beginning October 1. The first part of the series of highbrow musical programs to be played by famous chamber music groups under the auspices of the Library of Congress Division of Music, will be heard exclusively over WOR and MBS beginning October 29, and running eight weeks. Topflight quartets and sextets, such as Kroll, Gordon, and Musical Art, will play Tuesday afternoons from 4 to 5. "Jeannine in Lilac Time" debuts with MBS on September 23, sponsored by Pinaud. The feature has a spotlight vocalist from the West as "Jeannine" and a low register orchestra with a male octette. Albert Payson Terhune's famous knack for telling engrossing dog stories will get a new medium on September 29, when original dramatizations of his tales will be heard over WOR, the Mutual System, and WNAC, Boston. The attraction was announced by Mutual on the 9th of August, and by NBC on the 12th. WITH THE BROADCASTERS National appetite for his chatter Radio Research Bureau * Mission of the infant Radio Research Bureau is described as similar to the position of ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) in publishing. However, the new radio bureau will have to decide on methods of counting radio circulation before it can begin work, as leaders in the project do not yet agree on a sound approach. RRB will doubtless begin with examination of current methods for determining the right number of sets in the country, then to tabulation of auto radios and so on to accurate totals in reachable sets. Means for measuring circulation will be expensive, and it is understood that broadcasters have financed the early activity of the new bureau. Meetings are being held now among the 15 gentlemen responsible for preliminary plans; Arthur B. Church, KMBC, Kansas City, is the key figure, and his first associates are John Benson, of American Association of Advertising Agencies, and Paul West, of Association of National Advertisers. Representing National Association of Broadcasters on the committee are Edgar Kobak, NBC; H. K. Boice. CBS ; A. J. McCosker, WOR, and J. 0. Maland, WHO, Des Moines. From ANA are M. H. Leister, D. P. Smelser, Harold B. Thomas, and Stuart Peabody. AAAA sends Fred Gamble, L. D. H. Weld, George Gallup, and Charles Gannon. Small dailies resent radio * For those who imagine that all is well in press-radio relations, recent surveys present somewhat upsetting proof that the view is slightly over-optimistic. One side or the other still digs an occasional trench in the war that was supposed to be settled by the Press Radio Bureau. Country-sides are strewn with publishers who consider radio a direct competitor in news and advertising, say the surveys, although the situation is more quiet among metropolitan sheets. One survey, made among the members of the Inland Daily Press Association, ended in the discovery that nearly 75 per cent of the publishers questioned consider "news casting" now a definite handicap to newspapers. It also revealed a decline in radio programs as paid advertising and disclosed that some editors are actually killing stories of speeches after they have been broadcast. The Inland publishers practically said that they were through giving radio news the breaks, and it was important to note that only six of them were mixed up in station ownership. Reveals public s listening habits * What the listening tastes of the public are can now be ascertained both as to time and station. The commercial value of such information is very great just now — it becomes possible for the broadcaster to know the coverage and the percentage of people in a given area who listen to his station; and the sponsor of a radio program can readily determine the popularity of his entertainment. The manufacturer can find out what kind of programs the public desires and design his receivers accordingly. In one form of listener analyzer a record of the hours the receiver was operated and the station to which the owner was listening, is obtained on a paper tape driven by a clock motor. The tape can be made of such a Love her forever September, 1935 19