Variety (May 1935)

56 VARIETY RADIO Wednesday, May 8, 1935 RADIO SHOWMANSHIP (Stunts, Tie-Ups, Program Novelties) Outstanding Stunts $9 SALES SLIP ESSAY SELBY SHOES SPRING TALENT FESTIVAL WGR-WKBW, BUFFALO 35,000 Good Spellers Chicago. Se.lby Shoes, which sponsored Mrs. F. D. R.'s teacup tales over CBS for 10 weeks, struck a new In- telligentsia high for class femme radio listener response in Its essay contest, netting approximately 35,- 000 entries, all Including a shoe sales slip for not less than ?9. Re- turns from this purchase clause alone made It a successful commer- cial venture. Practically all letters were from school marms, students, matrons, etc., well fortified finan- cially In life. First Lady's name spelt magic and lent Itself profitably all the way around. Contest was conducted by Prof. Lloyd H; Herrold, advertising In- structor at Northwestern U. who runs a contest factory as a sideline In Chi. He started two years ago with Blsquick and now has a regu- lar corps of assistants. 'Why I Prefer the Selby Slenderized Arch Preserve Shoe' was the essay mon- icker. Replies were to be limited to 60 words or less. Mrs. Margaret Spencer, Dallas Texas high school teacher did well by her education and penned a note ■which won first prize of JIO.OOO berries. Next went to Mrs. P. H. Seflendall, St. Louis, who gets six pairs of tootsies every year for the remainder of her natural existence. Iiots of other trick shoe gags worked Into the other awards, which were announced Monday (6). General calibre of entrant much loftier thaii usual letter-writers and elimination was tough as all could Bpell and write clever sales copy. Spring Talent Festival Buffalo. WGR-WKBW spring and sum- iner schedules bring a dozen new shows with 75 new radio actors, actresses and musicians. Prelim- inary showing was held Tuesday evening (April 80) in a 'spring tal- ent' festival for salesmen. Acts Include routine -stuff, a cir- cus program for the kids, a mystery thriller, a comedy act patterned on the 'Goldbergs' and a musical ex- travaganza with a 16-volce chorus and orchestra. Herbert C. Rice, former producer of the Bobby Ben- eon series for CBS, is in charge of assembling: talent and placing the new shows in actual production on the air. transmitter (18 miles from down- town Minneapolis) more than an hour later. All three clrculta from WCCO to the Anoka transmitter were out, the emergency circuit blowing at 6 p. m. With Ted.Hedlger announcing be- tween playing discs and the Bob O'Llnks' vocalizing, station filled gaps nicely until 10 p. m., when en- ineers managed to pick up KMOX'e CBS programs from St. Louis and relay 'em out from Anoka. One Minneapolis mayoralty candidate drove out to the suburb and did his spouting from there. More than 20 villagers watched the goings-on at the transmitter and Earl Gammons liked the carni- val spirit so much he drove into the village for some eats for the whole crowd, only to find the cafe Jam- packed with yokels wlio ' liked the Impromptu broadcasting much bet- ter than the station's usual fare, and told Earl so emphatically. Next day mail poured in from all over, lauding the clever guy who had em- bellished the disc playing with run- ing chatter. KSTP likewise did its stuff from its -out-of-town transmitter, using records during most of the' late afternoon and evening. This U Hovt^ It's Done Miami, Fla. One of the most unusual broad- <easts In these parts, combining an oia-fashloned Southern barbecue Borved to the local advertising club In the sttidioB and an Illustrated talk on broadcasting activities, was staged by WQAM. Resulted In fa- vorable comment around town for ■WQAM and good-will with the liuslness men who attended. Entire meeting:, lasting an hour and a half, waa broadcast and the highlight was the talk of Norman MacKay, program director of WQAM, and ad club member. He demonstrated every phase of broad casting, using remote controls to tho Weather Bureau, the Police Court, a church, and a downtown etreet corner, to bring greetings from prominent officials and civic leaders to tho club while at lunch •on. Transradio News Service and Western Union Baseball scores ^'ere audibly demonstrated. B. T. discs were passed around for inspection, Sound effects, spot announcements, an advertising pro- gram and control room operationi were all made clear with audible examples. A showmanship finish that brought the ad club memhers to their feet with' applause was the final demonstration of Norman Mackay's talk. He broadcast a transcription of the opening of the meeting to close the meeting, and tho members heard their own voices rnlscd in song and conducting the ad club business. Recording was made by a down town music store, the Chalmers Mu^5lc Company, and rushed to the suidlo by Western Union mes soiigpr. New Station's First Big Day Shreveport, La. Practically all of Lake Charles, down in the southern- end of Louisi- ana, turned out last Friday for the formal dedication of their new 100- watt radio station, KPLC (Kum to Port Lake Charles). Dedicatory exercises started early in the morning and continued throughout the day and late into the night. In the morning all ministers of the city participated and each had a kindly word for the station ofllcials and extended their grati- tude for the program offers which have already been tendered. In the afternoon presidents of all the women clubs In the city arrived at the studio and each of these women were high in their praise of their 'own' station. Later on, the high schools presented a program of music and entertainment. Many of the commercial concerns of the city Joined In for the Lake Charles on parade program welcoming the sta- tion. And so it continued until the big ceremony of the evening. For this affair the entire main dining rooni of the. Majestic hotel, in which the studios are located, was set aside. With Johnnie Mim's orchestra fur- nishing the music, about three hours of laudatory speeches inter- spersed with entertainment were of- fered to those present and to the listeners who were unable to attend. Members of the studio staff who greeted all visitors and who handled the dedicatory programs were W. C. Porter, station manager; Frank Car- roll, commercial manager, and "V. A. Coker, engineer and announcer. Pass the Ketchup, Your Honor Davenport, la, Mayor elect of Rock Island, Mo- llne and East Moline were tossed a 'victory night' feed in one of WOC's studios by Col. B. J. Palmer, owner of the station, and the event broadcast from a mike placed on tho table. Fourth guest of WOC's head was Mayor Merle F. Wells of Davenport, whose term has another year to go 100-Watter's Big Show Daytona Beach, Fla. After only four weeks on the air brand-new station WMFJ' (100 watts) staged a program in a local auditorium using 50 persons under sponsorship of a local ice cream firm. Station is operating from 8 a.m. to midnight. Station staff now includes: Russ Brinkley, chief announcer and di- rector of continuity; Roger Skelton, dramatic director; Duke Brewer, commercial manager; Mrs. J. B. Pope, office manager; -Joseph Gard- berg, chief engineer; B. B. Esch, program director, and Donald Hood, remote technician. Fun at a Blizzard St. Paul, Freakiest snowstorm since 1894 hit here May 1 and 2, crippling all radio stations hereabouts and neces- sitating some yeomnn work from the engineering staffs. With 44 telephone poles down In one nine-mile stretch. Earl Gam- mons of WCCO set out with K. W. Husted, Ted Hedlger and Bob OlJnka at 8:00 p. m. Wednesday C), flniving at the station's Anoka WFBE's Multiple Tie-Up Cincinnati. By linking in with the Times- Star on a motoring feature and with the Post on a Junior Avia- tors' club, WFBE has tie-ups with Cincinnati's three dallies. The En- quirer contact is a Sunday morning reading of the funnies by Robert Bentley, as Uncle Bob. Pleasant Week Ends Is title of travel program, offered Thursday mornings for 15 minutes. It gives routes and highlights of points to be visited on a Sat.-Sun. holiday, with talks by Burt L. Thompson of the Cincinnati Automobile Club's travel bureau. Maps of. the trips appear in tho Times-Star. Stunt is given added plugs b"V cards In gas stations. For the Post Junior Aviators, the .station has a line for remotes from Lunkon Airport, where members of the club visit Saturday mornings. There are. several thousand mem- bers, divided into groups for peri- odical Inspections of planes and ono'pnmnt al ttir landing flrld. The STATION PORTRAIT KNX, HOII.YWOOD KNX prides Itself on being the station of the 'average American family.' Claims more listeners than any station In the-11 western states and has 600,000 pieces of mall received In the last 10 months to prove it. Average Amferican family means to KNX—the rural pop- ulation, with KNX's 50,000 watts reaching all parts of the western terrain and being more popular in sonie spots hundreds of miles-from its base than are the locals. Strictly a merchandising sta- tion. Doesn't want any adver- tiser unless by tie-up can prove its mall garnering power. Goes heavy into research and can prove that 50% of its listeners earn more than $100 a month; 20% more than $200 a month; that 66% own their homes and 76% own automobiles. 'Station has 88 artists, on its payroll, mostly directed to the KNX policy that the average American wants to listen to news, songs of the range, hymns, homely comedy and old time songs. Sophistication is a word unknown here. Station has been in Dutch with the newspapers because of its in- dependent stand on news re- ports—in fact, the Transra- dio- news got its Inception here, under the guiding hand of the station's president, Guy Earl, former newspaper owner. Lat- ter spells his independence In bold face caps. Sending out nightly weather reports might be simple rou- tine in the east. One of KNX'a big assets is Its listener power it has brought through this'feature—the tipping off to the orange orchardlst when and where to expect frost. Report was delayed one night when a fuse blew at the station. Tele- phone service in two towns was Immediately put on the fritz, BO many calling to ask why, KNX Is heavy on script BhowB. It's 'Watanabe and Archie' has been on the same spot six nights a week for more than four years, selling shirts. Currently 65% of its time Is paid for, mainly meds and food accounts. Latter is Increasing. Kids go for the station heavy. In the late afternoon runs five consecutive disc programs, ad- vertising breakfast foods and similar product, all appealing to the youngsters. KNX home- ly policy 1b that if the kids are listening so are the adults. Station runs five regular news periods daily and recent- ly organized an additional one at 11:45 p.m. for Hawaii and points west. News department, claiming correspondents every- where, run strictly as a. news- paper office, with good Job be- Ing done by Les Wawhinney In charge, Naylor Rogers is v.p. and manager. Everyone at the sta- tion calls him 'Pop'. That de- scribes the spirit of the whole of KNX, thoritles, and when securing okays, play a program before the kids after classes. It's extra-duty, but it seems to be forging results. Have also commenced a contest they devised themselves for air pe- riods, and are working out several other wrinkles to bring In mall from listeners. All pointing tb Interest potential advertisers. Quartet's Marathon Shreveport, La. From the Municipal auditorium KRMD broadcast the proceedings of the annual Tri-State Singing Con- vention on Sunday afternoon (April 28) when more than 5,000' peTsotid Jammed the huge structure.- Quar>-- tets from 15 states were present and entertained. Quartet singing was interspersed with choral numbers by the entire house. WHN's Fast Hello Girls New York City. WHN has ordered an exti-a' corps of telephone operators for its' So-; phie Tucker Music Hall spread on Thursday nights now. First pro- gram last week resulted in over 1,600 calls in less than 30 minutes, so that the switch-board Jammed. Listeners were to phone In their opinion of various performers arid they began buzzing within five min- utes after thS"8fartlng gong. Station does the same -stunt - on Its amateur night, so that the staff Is to be swelled to at least 10 fast- operators on Soph's series. Shirley Temple Dish Schen(5cta:dy, N. T. General Mills, which gives, and gives and gives; on the air, recently has been offering, on the 'Betty and Bob' disked serial,-, a sapphire blue glass 'special occasion' dish, with the picture and autograph of Shirley Temple pressed into the bottom by a special process. Backs up magazine and store win- dow campaign. To obtain the candy, etc. holder, dialers must grocery-store purchase two packages of Wheaties. Latter get a 'mum-mum-they're-good' en- dorsement from Miss Temple. Early Morning Sports Philadelphia. Although Philly has always had an overdose of sports resumes and flve-minute commentators, with usually two to a studio, WCAU is first station to bring out the same dope for early morning consump- tion. Beginning last week, station started a daily 8 a.m. IS-minute series, that Includes resume of pre- ceeding day's activities in major ball leagues with scores of teams, res'ults from other sporting fields and calendar of coming events for the day. Highlights of the review also features dramatized highspots. Stan Lee Broza, WCAU program chief, said, 'This new series of aport programs will open a new field for the radio listener. We feel that with this type of morning program we are creating another series away from the average, since, up to the- present, stations have devoted the early morning hours to music and household topics. This will be an additional service that has been overlooked In the post.' Constant Reminder Tulsa, Okla. KTUL ballyhoocd its boost to 1,- 000 watts days and 500 watts night- time the day it went into effect. May 1, with a continuous station identification reading, 'This is KTUL, Tulsa, now operating on 1,- 000 watts. Outlet went on tlie air In Jan- uary, 1934, with a grant of 500 watts d.ays and 250 watts nighttime. stay-aways listen In for proceedings of their weekly 'business' meetings at the airport. Private line is also used for interviews of celebs on planes of American Airlines en rout^ through Cincy. Prizes for Error-Catching New York City. WNEW starts a Comedy of Er- rors series thrice weekly, with Mar- tin Block making the erroneous an- nouncements. Prizes go to listen- ers sending in the correct list of mistakes made on WENW's spon- sored plugs. Idea Is to get radio audiences to listen In more attentively on the commercial blabs. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 4 to 4:46 p.m., EDST, Hustling Performers Baltimore. Comedy act of Snooge and Snaily (George Rackensperger and Joseph Wleber) sustaining on WFBR is pulling lotsa stunts on own to at- tract possible sponsorship. They suggested to station that they'd like to dress up for their parts and play programs before a studio audience; suggestion waa followed. Period Is now one of few Balto ones that air,- before guests. Another thing the team has done to help build its popularity Is to go around to school and church halls and put in personal appearances In effort to popularize the aot. Boys started it without tho station's knowledge. They contact school au- WIBM's 473-Hour Record Jackson, Mich. WIBM topped oft its record of 473 hours of continuous broadcast- ing with a Jubilee program. Station stEtrted broadcasting at 7:39 a. m. April 11 and kept Its transmitter going without a letup until 12:30 a.m., April 30. ' C. A. Hill, manager of the outlet, had originally set 300 hours as the objective. Station would have gone boyond April 30 with its test had It not been for reps of the Federal Comriiunications Commission, who held that the stunt would interfere with their monthly check of radio frequencies, particularly that of other stations on the same channel. Women Adventurers New York City. Henrlette Harrison, radio director of New York Y. M. C. A., begins a series over WNEW, New York today (8) at 5:30 p.m. EDST, entitled Adventurous Careers for Women Margaret Bourke-White, trick pho- tographer, is first glamorous bread- winner on the run. Florence and Hattle Rogge of Radio City Music Hall staff on later. Backstage Interviews Omaha. Radio station KOIL, Omaha and Council Bluffs, with Its passion for ii"ws on the air and especially per sonal interviews Inaugurated a tie up with the. Paramount theatre that started out as a clever innovation but which got nipped in the bud by the closing of the theatre. Stunt was to roam backstage of thp the.ntro between stnpo shows us- ing a portable microphone to get dressing room Interviews with th» vaude headlinera of the stage show Started week Roscoe Ates and Roy Smeck held forth, and ended same week, A good Idea, anyway. Chain Letter Tie-Ins Tulsa, Okla. KTUL garnered substantial tak- ings from local printing concerns that have horned in on the chain letter gag by putting out form let- ters for the dime senders. Station's sales department started doing a spot announcement business from this source after Ervln Lewis, its Yie\Vb' ■ f-feiDbtter; ' broadcast a story about a small print shop that had gone in for the- form letter and the printer Involved had sold 9,000 let- ters, the first day. Sta.tipn accepted all printer comers alfter it had checked up on tlie local postmaster's attitude to- ward the dime idea. WKBW's Charitable Deed Buffalo. Wallace Bradley, Buffalo young- ster with an 'upside down' stomach,' goes to Dr. Truesdale in Fall River, Mass., this weelc with funds col- lected by sports announcer Roger Baker. Daily baseball broadcasts through WKBW give Baker a chance to plug the plight of the boy who was hit several years ago .by a hit-and-run driver. First two mall collections received contained better than $300 in contributions varying from 25c to $10. Highlight of Baker's one-man campaign to give the boy medical care came when a young fan sent in two bits with explanation he had been saying pennies to buy a baseball but would contribute it in- stead to the fund. Bison Ball team collectively autographed a ball for the kid and sent it with their com- pliments., Have a Hamburger on WEEII Boston. When WAAB, Boston, sent out in- dividual birthday cakes to radio ed- itors and ad men ■ in celebration of the station's, fourth birthday, they started a free lunch fracas in the bean town. Front line of the food giveaway 'putsch' is In Chicago where WEEI, Boston, got In some licks through its Chl representative, Neal Weed, When Weed lamped the free cakes from WAAB being delivered by messenger from the rival Boston station he rolled up his sleeves and met the WAAB grub onslaught with like thunder. His answer to the cakey gag was a mess of hamburg- ers rushed to the same radio ad men with this inscription embroidered thereon in onions: 'You may get In- digestion, but you never get sick of WEEI.' WTMJ-WISN After Legits Milwaukee. Two local stations, WTMJ and WISN put on a battle royal for tho use of stage stars the past few weeks. Trouble started after WISN signed Robert Henderson to bring his 'drama festival' stars from the Pabst theatre for pre-show air de- buts. When WTMJ put in a b'd, they were told that WISN had the talent. Then bickering started with the result that the Pabst, to gain fre& publicity on both airlanes placated stations by promising to divide talent. As an opener the stations got Helen Hayes who arrived here one week prior to opening of drama festival. Her play, 'Mary of Scot- land,' was tied fn with festival. WKRC's River Boat Picnic Cincinnati. Staff artists of WKRC, local CBS outlet, will mingle with their ad- mirers Thursday (9) when the sta-- tlon holds its third annual .moon- light dance excursion aboard the Ohio River boat. Island Queen. Last year's event drew 1,800. The gate lis 75c. A mike program will be offered by Irene Righter, Ellis Frakes, the Ohio Balladiers, Greer Sisters and the Fiddlln' Farmers. Ballyhoo 'High Fidelity' Buffalo. WGR-WKBW are currently run- ning paid advertising space in newspapers and special programs to ballyhoo wide range electrical tran- scriptions furnished by World Broadcasting System. Stations.hold exclusive on World for Buffalo area differentiate wide range from or- dinary transcriptions by use of the term 'high fidelity.' Idea that phrase 'high fidelity' is a guarantee of quality Is being plugged in the newspaper and radio blurbs. WGR-WKBW execs figure to break down listener aversion to transcribed programs through the campaign without endowing tran- scriptions In general. Beauty, Home and Hollywood Milwaukee. New woman's show over WTMJ 1» known as the Linda Marsh Radio Household Magazine. Miss Mareh. Helen Atwater, beauty expert; Mar- Jorle Lee, household adviser, and Jerry Wilson, film gossiper, divide time. Replaces the "Woman's Point of View' hour. Miss Marsh formerly over WIBO, Chicago, and WtF.A Madison.