Sponsor (Nov 1947-Oct 1948)

Record Details:

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tVn woiiflorfiil Hroa€l€*asl advert ii«^r»« liiok alioa«l l4ft iliroc vosir^ <»f labor iraiic|iiililv on the air over-ail TV, FM, and AM are now musically on a par — in so far as labor relations are concerned. This is what, in brief, the agreement between James C. Petrillo for the American Federation of Musicians, and the four networks, means to the sponsors of commercial programs. While there are a few "ifs" that rise to disturb the carping, the relief that is seen in the eyes of advertising agency radio men is genuine. Not even the reminder by George Heller, executive secretary of the American Federation of Radio Actors, that performers cannot be both heard on sound broadcasting and seen on the visual air at the same time without their being paid extra, inspires more than a momentaiy frown. No one feels that Heller will do anything to cut down available work for his members, many of whom have been finding it tough sledding during the past few months. AFRA is out to create new jobs more than it is to increase payments to the few who are working. Heller's preferential contract with WLW (Cincinnati) is an indication of this. AFRA, Directors Guild, IBEW, lATSE and all the other unions may raise future disturbances. They can't, however, disturb the sleep of agency, network, and station executives in the manner that the head of the musicians has been doing for the past few months. Most advertising men, being natural cynics, felt that Petrillo's permission to FM affiliates of AM stations to duplicate the latter's musical programs for an interim period of 60 days, while the networks and the union were arriving at a new contract, was a gesture calculated to lull suspicious minds. Apparently they were wrong. The head of the AFM seems to have been convinced that broadcasting at the moment can't afford a higher rate of pay for musical talent. He seems also to have been convinced that it would not be politic at this time to force the networks to employ more men. The networks as such have not been making the huge Wliat Potrillo-4 >of\vork a|a(rooin«'iit ini^ans Scale Musicians' employmeni Program Co-op duplication | programs AM unchanged dS is yes yes FM nothing extra as is yes yes TV fluid maximum possible yes yes DISKS not covered in the network ag reement sums that they are thought to have been making. Best example of how difficult it is to operate a national network without other income than that produced by network commercial transmissions is seen in the uphill battle that the Mutual Broadcasting S>stem has been making to come of age financially. Only the MBS cooperative program department has contributed something extra to the network's income and helped it keep the wolves from tearing the Mutual RedRiding Hood to tiny bits. With music now okayed for cooperative broadcasts the missing program factor in network service for local sponsors is no longer missing. Networks can serve their stations and local and regional advertisers with shows just as well produced and just as well rounded as the programs they produce for regular web airing. Transcription producers declare that availability of music on co-ops puts them at a disadvantage, since they are constantly called upon to sell advertisers in competition with cooperative programs. An appeal on this is scheduled to be made to the union. It is known that Petrillo is perfectlj willing to reach an agreement on transcriptions if the producing organization will certify that they will be used only once per station. Such use would in his mind be little different from a network broadcast except that "it might be as big as all four networks combined and thus could justify a slightly higher scale than a network performance." The new Petrillo-network agreement looks upon all broadcasting as part of one great medium, be it FM, TV, or AM. In the case of TV, the president of the AFM is not ready to agree to a scale as yet. For the time being, every telecast will be (Please turn to page 99) 44 SPONSOR