Variety (Oct 1936)

34 VARIETY RADIO Wednesday, October .7, 1936 Democrats Coast KH ami Things Happen Fast; . NBC Stump Spiel Feeds CBS Link Los Angeles, Oct. 6. Democratic Rational Committee stirred up a mess on the Coast Tuesr day. (29) when it bought the entire NBC red network, .with the excep- tion of Earle C. Anthony's KFI, for President Roosevelt's speech out of Syracuse. Reason for' the slight was believed to be in retaliation for the station's recent refusal to take a fire- side chat by the president as a sus- taining, feature. All other red outlets •.. carried the talk, gratis, which An- thony claimed was purely, political and subject to commercial listing. First off, De'ms hot only snubbed KFI, but salted the wound by buy- ing time on KHJ, Columbia's L. A. outlet, to cover., the Southern Cali- fornia area. "When Anthony heard that a heretofore .untried technical 'feat was to be accomplished to swing the broadcast over to a CBS station on a feed from NBC, he hit the ceil- ing! . ' Anthony' charged an out-arid-out Violation of the web's contract with ' ••• KFI. It was pointed out that no NBC commercial out of the east can be aired by any spot other than the Anthony outlet without a waiver from the NBC affiliate. v Spokesmen for the oifended Station said that ■ they were not consulted in the mat- ■. 'ter..' • ' . How It Was Done :•• v . Trick of feeding broadcast to KHJ ' off the NBC net was achieved through ati Associated Oil Co. foot- , ball wire in San Francisco, which is • V connected with both network stations there. -The Lee' station/in Frisco, KFRCi, took the talk off KPO, NBC spot, arid sent it down the coast to j-i. ^ KHJ, It worked like a charm. y*? . *':. KHJ was accused of muffing a big opportunity to make friends just be- •'.fore the swing to Mutual by cutting - off " the president's speech! 90 seconds ■ ■ ' off the signoff. After the cut, sta- . . tioh put' on ' a coihm'erciai floater; '. Squawks were plentiful for'what is believed to -be the first time a chief executive had been blocked out for a local spot. Kf| switchboard, buzzed with beefs from listeners. With another paid commercial ■ contracted by the Derribs for-4he speech- from Pittsburgh,; the commit me'nt. going put to'both NBC (red) and" CBS stations, KFI Was once again omitted. But only for a time. -Day before, Anthony burned up the .wires, to New York and demanded .an explanation ... from President' , Lenox Lohr,'of.^IB.C. Anthony, de- clined to . issue, a statement of what v transpired on , the transcontinental . calls or ;what action he would take against the chain for .what was called a- -wilful .abrogation' of the • station's . agreement with the network,. Short- \. 1y after, noon of the ; dayof.the Syra- [: . ' use broadcast (29) a bare announce- " ; ment came out of local democratic .-'.■'.'■''■ headquarters, that the 'President's . , speech, would be heard On'both KHJ V" and KFI. Who Sent Out Dove? ;. . , Just ; whp bore the, olive branch is : the subject of- much speculation. |Best guess is that/NBC squared the rap and_ restored the Anthony sta- tions to" good standing with 'the Demos. Local NBC execs remained reticent throughout, saying the deed . was done by the traffic department in, New York.. They,also were kept in the dark on how toe sore spot was healed, by whom and with what. in the midst of the controversy a report reached town containing the then . startling.: information that WGAN iin :Portlarid, Me., was au- thorized by- FCC-tp proceed with ..construction of its 500. watter and operate on 640 kilocycles (KFI's clear channel). Harrison Holliway, KFI-KEC'A manager, discounted the _ import of the significance, pointing - - out that stations in Columbus, O., and Arties, la., have been using the V^ehannel with little or no effect. • Holliway left next day for Wash- ington to petition the commission to grant a 500 kw. license to KFI. Just how far into the good graces of the commish the Anthony stations have been returned by the patchup may be measured by the disposition of the commissioners when Holliway . makes his appeal. WTIC IN THE BLACK Hartford Station Drops Highbrow - Program Policy Hartford, Oct. 6. Station WTIC; long noted for its pretentious local production set-up, is now operated by P. W. Morericy and J. F. Clancy, with an' eye to showing a profit. Travelers Insur- ance Co. has tired of taking it on the financial chin in the name of prestige after some seven years, during which annual deficits ran as" high as $300,000. Under the new set-up the house orchestra has been eliminated arid numerous other program economies initiated. Station is now reported in the black, with business so good that local advertisers have little chance of getting evening spots. Station gets program service out of Boston from the Yankee network as well as from NBC. Audition Dementia Leader of a dance band which has been making rapid strides during the past year was audi* tioning his unit lor a prospec- tive client and the New York ad agenoy. Came time for the guest tenor to do his first num- ber. There was a long delay. Client got uneasy and wanted to know what was' the matter, Was told that arrangements had been made for an experi- enced conductor to handle the tenor's interludes, but. the fel- low had not showed up as yet. ANTI-WAX RULE ADOPTED IN S. A. Tex. Newspaper Flock of applications for new sta- tions are expected to hail from Texas within the next couple of months, and 95% of them will be from news- paper publishers in that State's tank towns. Reason for the impending deluge of small-wattage petitions .'is that advertisers have started to tell the papers in the Lone Star State that it's cheaper to use radio than the public prints. So the newspapers are expected to corral the radio situ- ation if they can. Texas is the biggest State in area, but its population is only about 23 to the square mile (whereas, say, New Jersey has 538 per sq. mile) This inakes newspaper distribution costs (arid rates) pretty • steep. Ra dio, on the other hand,'is regarded as a natural in this area, and the publishers are .figured as not ;being unaware of this, fact. For - .another thing, the Texas' crowd has its eyes on NBC's ma- neuvers to set up separate Red and Blue links in Dixie, and-are anxious to cash iri on such maneuver. Jack Moyle, announcer at KSFO, San Francisco, gets role in Hal Bur- dick's. "'Night Editor' programs over the NBC red web Sunday nights. He replaces'Frank Provo. FOR COMMUTERS ONLY Detroit, Ocj.- 6. . Correct time at one-inihute inter-' vals is the latest thing here. . . Regal" Finance has signatured with WJBK for giving of 'It's now ex- actly ,' every minute from 6 to 7:30 a. m, daily. Buenos Aires, Aug. 27. Recordings and transcriptions are on the way out on three leading stations here, Radio Belgrario (LR3), Radio Mitre' (LR6) and Radio El Mundo (LR1). Meanwhile bo'th Ar- gentina and Uruguay have already legislated against use of one. minute spot announcements on discs. Sim- ilar trends are seen ' in Peru and Chile. Argentine regulations stipu- late that two-thirds of entire broad- casting) time must be with live tal- ent. Radio- Belgrano and Radio El Mundo are both now operating 16 hours daily with use of live talent exclusively. Radio' Mitre switches when existing contracts have ex- pired. Move was decided on in 1935 by both Jaime YankeleVich and Uni- versal Publishing Service. Latter owns El Mundo. Radio Portena (LR4) and Radio Cultura (LR10),two other larger stations of Yankelevich, will continue with recordings for some time. Cost to advertisers is not increased with change. All talent is under contract to stations and is never cut in for additional money. Stations stagger their talent to suit them- selves. Artists never earn more than their regular- salary irrespective of the earnings the stations enjoy from their labors. And wages' are by American standards very low. Cost of talent here is virtually negligible. Further consideration must be given the fact that talent here is more plentiful than iri U. S. Nearly every Latin plays an instrument, sings or dances. Therefore the en- tertaining population, ori per capita basis, is acknowledged larger than in the America of Major Bowes.-: Serial Continuity Protected From Politicians' Palaver Chicago, Oct. 6. Wrigley's new show on Columbia will not start now until Nov. 4. At the last minute the gum company decided to wait until after the elec- tion before starting script serial. Figured the possibility of having the continuity of the serial shot to pieces by 'must' political broadcasts break- ing in. Choice still rests between" 'Peggy and Joe,' by William Hazlitt Upson, and 'Scattergood Brains' of Clarence Buddington Kelland. Summer Slump Licked N.A.B. Reports Show Only 9.4% Drop Be- tween June-July—Record Summer Washington, Oct. 5. Further proof that radio has chased the usual summer slump over the hills was provided last week in National Association of Broadcasters' monthly report, which revealed a drop of only 9;4% in broadcast ad- vertising between June and July. With revenues approximating $7,232,225, . the industry stood up much better than in previous years, N.A.B. statisticians reported. July was the second successive month when the seasonal decline was less than usual. In 1935 the hot weather dip amounted to 11.1%. Additional improvement over last year—in itself a record—was seen in the report, with July time sales bounding 23.4%. above July, 1935. All branches of the industry showed approximately the. same rate of in- crease. Only branch to record an actual rise in revenues between June and July was regional network group, which took in $8,000 more and lifted gross to $113,705. National web fig- ures were off $160,000 to $3,823,320; national non-chain $220,000 to $1,661,- 200; local $325,000 to $1,625,000. The seven months' total and' the continued improvement in curbing the summer slump removed all doubt about this being the industry's ban- ner year to date. At the end of July, gross revenues amounted to $58,034,404, in contrast to $50,923,97A at the same point last year. This is a gain of better than 10% over corresponding period of 1935. Only type of advertising which did not slump during the month was of national announcement category. Non-network outlay for transcrip- tions was off $180,000; live talent was down $318,000, and record was $11,000 less. Announcement expen- ditures, on the other hand, rose $47,000 in the national non-web field, although there was a drop of $90,000 in the local field. But every , class improved in comparison with 1935, with recent marked growth of trans- scrlption revenues in the national ■non-web field continuing unchecked. Ask Stations to Btiy G0P Discs at $2, Re-Sell'Em to local Politicians at $5 NO SOLO THUMBERS KDKA Set Up Audition Board of 8 —Catch-ss-Catch-Can Stuff Out Pittsburgh, Oct; 6. Policy of catch-as-catch-can with new talent has been eliminated by KDKA' with installation of audition board at station. In past individuals have turned thumbs , down .or up on applicants; now a committee of eight will have the final say. Board's composed of John Gihon, program "manager; Robert Saudek, continuity chief; Umberto Egizi, con- ductor of KDKA orchestra;. Glenn Riggs, chief announcer; Charles Urquhart, production manager; Al Egizi,' staff arranger, and . James McConnell, head of artists bureau. They've set aside' five periods a month to hea'r talent every Monday morning and first Friday night of each month. New Application Complicates That Jam in Brooklyn Washington, Oct. 0. Adding to the chop suey of Brooklyn applications for the 1,400. kilocycle frequency, ■ Kings Broad- casting Co., publisher of the Jewish newspaper, The Day,' last week pe- titioned the Federal. Communications Commission for permission to build a new station, halve hours of opera- tion .with. WLTH and WARD, and tak e ov er facilities of WBBC and WVFW. Admittedly the worst tangle ever faced by the commish, the 'Brooklyn cases' at present involve four appli- cations, for full time on 1,400 kc (Brooklyn Eagle, WBBC, WEVD, WVFW); an application filed by WLTH-WARD, asking . for • consoli- dation under control- of Kings Broadcasting Co.; a request by Kings Broadcasting for permission to buy WARD-WLTH and the newest- plea for. a new full-time station. - Present Status sees Brooklyn Eagle (WEGL) and WBBC sharing one-quarter time of the 1,400 kc-500 watt assignment, and WARD, WLTH and WVFW cut- ting up the. remaining three-quar- ters between them. In view of the fact that Kings Broadcasting's application for pur- chase of WARD and WLTH is pend- ing with the commish—while outfit's latest request asks . to share time with the same stations—the Broad- cast Division of the F.C^C., is doing some head^scratching to determine what it can do to straighten out the muddle. Meanwhile, WBBC and WVFW have shown no signs of pull- ing but of the free-for-all, and each is holding out for full time on the disputed, frequency, regardless . of KBC'S application for their facilities. Injection of WEVD, Debs station now operating on 1,30.0, kilocycles, thickens the plot but is more or less disregarded by the. growing trans- mitters already operating . on 1,400 kc. Commish Ducking: Commish has been ducking the evil day when 'the entire mess of Brooklynites will be jointly heard at the T.C.C. and has set no date, beyond hinting that the day of reck- oning will fall 'sonie time after the Oct. 5 engineering hearings.' Rumors that Arde Bulova, wealthy New York watchmaker, is dickering with WBBC on the q.t. persist, in spite of the fact that he has with- drawn his application for a berth on the crowded 1,400 kc frequency. Dopesters have long since thrown up the sponge, however, on figuring the outcome of the scramble. Indication of how the three mem- bers of the Broadcast Division feel about unsnarling things is seen in a recent announcement that the joint- hearings will be held before the full commission. Broadcasters with Landon leanings are wondering, how the Republican National Comtriittee came to be.sold on the idea of turning out five- minute transcriptions for placement at this stage of the radio season. Even if the committee were ready to buy this time direct, it would have difficulty getting facilities on any of the important stations. Business is too good for the better, stations to consider anything less than 15-min- ute periods particularly from po- litical sources, Mary Olds,' mikester on femme topics who is now with the speakers bureau of the Republican National Committee, has during the past week been, trying to get station reps to ,flnd out which of their clients will take five-minute discs, and, if so, what, periods they have available. The deal which she is offering is not a proposition that entails direct pay- merit from the Republican exchequer. Not Enthusiastic • ■ It is up to each station to buy the discs from the Republican commit- tee for $2 each and in turn try to get a local merchant not only to buy these transcriptions for $5 a piece but underwrite the time costs. Sta- tions reps compare the Idea to the methods used last year by the Town- sendites in getting- their propaganda over the air and, although they tteat the approach from Republican quar- ters with outward courtesy, they see no reason for lending themselves to the stunt. Literature sent out by the Repub- lican National Committee states that there are 21 of these five-minute transcriptions available and that the series is "being broadcast on a planned schedule with reiriarkable success on-two stations* throughout Pennsylvania. Representing show business in the list of recorded speakers are' Brock Pernberton, de- scribed as a personal friend and col- lege classmate of Governor Landon, and. Geraldine'Farrar. WALKEE-SKLAE WALK Holland (Dutch) Walker and Paul Sklar, associate editors of Tide, ad- vertising trade paper, have resigned. Both were identified with radio news, Sklar lately acting as radio ed. • They'll free lance as a writing team. $168,919 FOR MBS IN SEPT. September intake this year of Mutual Broadcasting totaled $168,919. Figure for September, 1935, was $82,907. . Percentage gain comes to 103.8%, and gives the first nine months of this year a total of $1,294,903. WJBK GETS UON GAMES; STOP CANADIAN CKLW Detroit, Oct. 6. WJBK, which led a battle to keep the Detroit Lions' pro football games off Canadian-owned CKLW, has now ' landed the tilts for itself. • Station carried its fight against CKLW to the FCC, which ruled, that it didn't want to start a precedent by. allowing foreign stations to. pick , up direct broadcasts from the U. S,' Games are sponsored by Standard.Oil of In- diana through McCann-Erickson. CKLW. has meantime voluntarily withdrawn from any further dispute over the matter. Besides WJBK, both home and out-of-town contests will also be aired by the Michigan web minus WXYZ, Detroit, and WOOD-WASH, Grand Rapids. Al- Nagler, WJBK sportscaster, and Harry Wismer, of WJR, wiU handle. BAKEB'S 3D WBITEB Phil Baker has issued a contract to Hal Block, putting him on his staff of writers with Sam Perrin and. Arthur Philips. Block last year was one of Baker's neophyte scribblers, not getting bill- ing at that time. ANNE DIRECTOE UPS Sari Francisco, Oct. 6. Anne Director, for four years as- sistant to Fred .H. Fidler in the local office of the J, Walter Thompson agency, has succeeded Fidler as head of the firm's radio department. Fidler recently, was transferred to St. Louis to manage the agency'* office there. 1