Variety (Mar 1936)

HI R A D I a VARIETY 45 Civic Pride in Tennessee Radio Salutes to Small Towns Brings Forth Old Time Oratorical Exaggeration Nashville, March 24. pure il's salute to Tennessee cities heard each Wednesday night over Radio Station WSM has be- come a contest in- fancy rhetoric on fa part of speakers from the towns signaled for recognition. Judge James D. Richardson, speaking for Murfreeshoro. first town saluted, started the bragging and claimed he had figures supplied !v Middle Tennessee State Teachers college to back : up A hls statements. "If all the cows needed to supply Ilk for Murfreesboro's creameries we re merged Into one large cow,' Wed! Judge Rutherford 'she could stand on bottom of the Atlantic Ocean Its greatest depth of six miles and. look down on the Empire State Building. And the Udder of this cow, if filled with milk would be large enough to float every battleship in United States navy.' „, A speaker from Lebanon, Tenn., claimed his town's cow would be able 'to stand with her hind legs in the Chicago Stockyards and her front legs'in New York harbor and would be tall enough to lick, salt from the hand of the Statue of Liberty.' The spokesman for Tullahoma, Tenn., on the next week's show put in a bid to supply the hide for the cows mentioned on the preceding broadcasts, claiming that enough leather came through the markets of his home town in one month to supply coverings for several such animals. Old-time .oratory, is not dead. Not in Tennessee,_ janyway. KPDN, PAMPA, STARTS Bob MacKenzie Manages New Texas Station NOW IT CAN BE TOLD R<?d (chols No Longer Whiskers on CBS ind Transcriptions Procter & Gamble, through the Blackman Co., have ordered 32 onc- minute disc announcements from World Broadcasting. Station list not set, and the product not indi- cated. Understood be P & G White Naptha, however. , "Writh folding of Kellogg Prom, series scheduled on April 17 Atlantic Family program is now free to give full air billing in Red Nichols' band on its Saturday night run over CBS. Due to NBC's exclusive usage of Nichols' label On a commercial, CBS program could not bill bands- man. Full identification begins this Saturday (28). Nichols' also ready- ing for one-night touring dates next month. Date for filming of James Mel- ton's. Pic 'Let's Pretend' (WB) has been set for the last of April with the folding of the Kellogg show. Texas Co. (Texaco gasoline), through. Hanff-Metzger, are sked- ding a disc Oamjaigri for a dozen southwest stations: Platters to run 15 minutes apiece, with Conquest Alliance on the cutting c:id. Cam- paign in its present stage is not completely mapped out, and all de- tails tentative. Goetz .Brewing Co. .(Goetz Coun- try Club beer in 'cap-sealed' cans) will soon release a series of 13 quarr ter-hour musical platters through the Potts-Turnbull agency of Kan- sas City, Mo. Intended to hit 25 stations in the midwest (mainly west of the Mississippi). Will start end. of this month.. Allen B. Russell is account exec with the agency, and World Broadcasting is doing the cutting in Chicago; NBC Draws Three Conclusions Analysis of 1,196 Advertising Accounts Basis of New Study G. ACE'S FORM ANSWERS FOR FAN MAIL Chevrolet is renewing its 'Musical Moments' platter series over 375 stations. Colgate-Palmolive • Peet (Colgate Dental Cream) is placing 52 quar- ter hour 'Jimmy Grier' discs over KGMBj Honolulu; with the starting date set for next week. Through Conquest Alliance. Pampa, Tex., March 24. KPDN, Owned, by the Pampa Dally News, skedded to hit the airwaves for the-flrst .time this week. . Open-,, ing ceremonies will include ad- dressed . by '.' local celebs, - including Governor-Alfred, and various special start fr.oli.es.' Manager, of the newcomer Is Bob MacKenzie,* formerly with WJAY, Cleveland. Several sponsors ported lined up, with the new-casts (10 daily) .completely signatured. Innovation in' the sale of these periods is selling 80 word insertions into them on a spot ad basis. Goodman Ace has evolved a sim-r plified system of handling fan mail through form letters. Rose Hallow of the Blackett-Sample-Hummert agency, who handles all his routine fan mail has six form letters to fit as many situations. Letters are along these lines: (1) . Routine thanks note for those who just write in to say they like program and offer no suggestions, criticisms or gags. (2) . Regret note for those who say they would like to. listen, but Amos 'n' Andy are on at same time. 'We are also Amos 'n' Andy fans,' writes Ace, 'and share your-feelings.' (3) . Denial note for those who want to know if Goodman and Jane Ace aren't really Jack Benny and Mary. Livingstone. (4) . Explanation note for those who suggest 'Easy Aces' should be on five times a week instead of three times. It's tough enough to think General Electric washers and Hot Point Ironers platters have been placed with various stations. A home laundry equipment campaign, sponsored by local dealers, is tied up.with 'old..timers discovery drive' in which $1,000 .'"of prize money will be awarded for ancient electrical equipment turned, up. Twice-weekly discs feature 'Edde and Ralph' and the Three Stars^ instrumentalists. NBC has Issued the second in a series of studies designed to ex- amine radio in the light of the ad- vertising. agency. New one is en- titled 'Straight Across the Board' and follows by about a year the initial 'Let's Look at Radio To- gether'.' In making the current study, NBC reports that it examined the media, records, of the leading 1,196 advertisers (who accounted for 80% of advertising in the three big media during 1934). Amidst a ple- thora of charts, graphs, and tabula- tions, the 65-page study comes to three main conclusions. First is that radio's big increase in the past five, years 'has come at the highest rate from those classes of products whose newspaper and mag expenditures were also on the upbeat. Conversely, newspapers and mags did best by way Of appropria- tions from big radio users. Second, radio's share of the ad- vertising appropriation for different classes of goods is high or low ac- cording to how the total appropria- tion for each class stacks up with the 1929 expenditure. Additionally, the closer the class comes to the 1929 expenditure, the bigger radio's share of the per dollar appropria tioh. The moral of this, from' the agency angle, according to. NBC, is that 'if recovery continues, more and more of the main groups of products may reasonably be ex- pected to come back closer to the level of their 1929 appropriations and the more nearly they approach their 1929 appropriations, the larger the share they may be expected to put into radio.' Third big conclusion is that there is no evidence to the contrary that radio will work as Well for one class of products as for another. HOLLAND-R'MANIA FAIL TO SETTLE WAVELENGTH The Hague, March 13. Intercontinental radio-conference at Paris ended without having settled controversy between Holland and Roumania. Both are on same long wave 1875 metres. Provisional talks were rather promising, but did not lead to a settlement. It is the intention to go into this matter shortly again,, as both King- doms suffer by present conditions.. CKAC, Montreal, reports the fol- lowing marital engagements: Yvon Bourassa, program, director; Roy Malouin, chief announcer; Roger Baulu, announcer; Bill Beaulieu, engineer, and Eileen Monty, steno. Bruce Wendell, another mikeman, recently hitched to Dolores Dupont, New York nitery warjbler. MARK! •With Station Tested Programs Many of the stations on the John Blair .list have outstanding sus- taining programs of proved sell- iftO ability which are now avail- able for sponsorship, locally Or nationally. Complete case his- tories and merchandising plans are also included.- These pro- grams have been, transcribed, and are ready for immediate audition. • With John Blair Service Agency men may With confidence call iri a John Blair man because »is experience iri the '-field of advertising and broadcasting en- ables him to make valuable and timely suggestions regarding the selection of stations, markets and Programs. Complete station pres- entations, including a reliable-map of the merchandisable coverage area,-, are but part of his ready information. Call him today! Chevrolet, starting with the week of April 19, is again renewing its 'Musical .Moments' platter series. This renewal drives the Chevy disc plugging into its second splid year, and continues to pile up the spon- sor's lead as one of the biggest wax buyers that's ever hit the ether. New schedule brings with it a fancier set of programs and a sta- tion list of 375, each to receive three 15-minute stanzas' per wtek for 13 weeks. Talent on the program in- cludes Rubinoff. and his orchestra; Jan Peer.cej Virginia Rea, and Graham McNamee. Later other gucstcrs- will, be added. World McGregor and Sollie reported moving headquarters from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Broadcasting cuts the disc for up plots for three programs' is the campbell-Ewald. gist-of this reply. (D). No-tickets-available note. This disposes of requests for ducats to watch program (which does not appear before an audience). (6). This-is-how-it-is note, which attempts to explain why in certain towns the program is on discs with the story two weeks behind the net- work original. Fan mail not- falling under these ■groupings or containing special ■complaints or other angles is answered directly by Ace. One of Commonest express skepticism that anybody could be as dumb as Jane Ace. &C0. .... ° NEW YORK fc ' 341 Madison: Atfe v Murray r)iH*2'-o084 v CHICAGO . 5.20 n, Michigan AVe., Superior 8660 ' .DETROIT ^ New Center Bldg., Maditon 788$. "''\.-SAN FRANCISCO " ^OOWss-BuTTdirig, Douglas 3188" March Snowstorm Crimps Buffalo Siunt Programs Buffalo, March 24. A record snowfall here which tied up traffic for five days caused postponement of an NBC broadcast to have originated at WBBN. Five hundred school children were to have broadcast on the 'Music and Youth' scries Sunday (22). Pro- gram called off because of transpor- tation dl cullies getting children to studio. Gulf-Jlygradc gasoline broad- cast and dance at 174th Armory on. Tuesday (17) drew nearly 10,000 people, despite 20-inch snowfall, no street car service, cabs tied up, pri- vate- cars stuck in drifts. Next day (18) part of the Armory roof col- lapsed from weight of snow. Had counted on 20,000-at show with Beetle, Bottle and Don Wilson but sponsors were satisfied with half under circumstances. WEBR here was first to go on the air with regular bulletins on weather conditions., street car serv- ice, etc. at 15-mlnulo intervals. WGR-WKHW set aside regular spots for announcement of cancel- lations an J postponement of club and'social activities dun to storm, Flood of phone queries suggested service. iri addition to three stations al- ready signatured on a previous oc- casion (AVGN, WFAA, and WTA11), Webster-Eisenlohr cigars, through N. W. Ayer, are now adding some more outlets to receive the 'Witch's Tale' platters. Are KOA, Denver, WOAT, San Antonio, and WHO, Des Moines. KOA skedded to broadcast the series on Thursdays, 10 to 10:30 p. m. WOAI gets the 9:30 to 10 p. m. niche on Fridays.- And WHO has two quarter hours, 9:45 to 10 p. m., Mondays and ^Wednesdays. Lord and Thomas last week of- fered Quest, the deodorant, to the Mutual network. The stations in- volved unanimously vetoed the ac- count. Moravian Easter on WBT! Winston-Salem, March 24. Broadcast of the Moravian Easter ! sunrise services 'Easter Sunday will be handled again this year by WS.JS feeding through WBT at i Charlotte.. Moravians,will furnish minister to give the historical back- ground for the service, which origi- nated in 1732 and have been held annually since. WSJS has been broadcasting for several years, but this is first year the broadcast will extend beyond tlio local station. Service attracts from 35,000 to 30,000 persons each year from all sections of the na- tion. Irving Orton, pianist with Victor Miller's Gang over WFBL, Syra-. cuse, has lefl to sail the briny with his own orchestra aboard "the S. S. Volendani of the Holland-American line, With him go William Stafford ; Robert ortcz. Charles Lumpbero, Charles Tlufllne, Raymond Ames, Gcurse Feary and Kenneth I'ropsl.