Variety (Oct 1936)

36 VARIETY SPORTS R EPO Rf S TOMORROWS FOOTBALL to- night With Rush Hughes, Michael Fitz- Maurlce, Dave Broekman's orch. 30 Mins. Frl., 6 n.m. RAINIER BREWING CO, KFI,. Los Angeles' (Lord & Thomas) . This one is" a natural for Rush Hughes. Give him a football game to highlight or feenact and he's In his- element. ■ The Hughes personality motivates the half hour show and keeps it moving at a brisk clip.' Jack Runyon has built the production smartly around the narrator and .lets, him have his way. With a friendly voice that never* becomes raucous and. al- lows for .a diverting interlude of asides, Hughes gives the ^program enough persiflage'., to .balance., the heavy dramatics incidental to a re- enactment of- thrilling plays on the. grj<Br©ri. Musical section under Dave Broek- man's wand was a bit offside. Music at times was too-sweet for the na- ture of-, the : program^ A, tenor -was "used- where a- strong baritone or male :group,'would, be morein^tune with the.'occasion; Numbers 'in- the Broekman manner' were-wen turned' out, 'excelling in the trick arrange- ments-which identrfiestrie.maestro. Hughes -confined his' topical com- ments on the games ~to' be played following; day to the scores, of tor- ' mer ■ years and ' expressions ' iron* coaches of competing 'schools. He steered clear df making predictions* which is? 4 gotfd way to stay, out of trouble,' and- at- the same time keep' everyone on: the sponsor's side;: '■ Mike VFitzmaurice, with a heavy Celtic ^ brogufc paired off with Hughes,:'calling off the games that got the goirig .over. He was in a bit too often with the commercials, brief though "they vere.• . . . Good feature is the' Gallery Of Gridiiroiri: Greats. Mayers who dis- tinguished themselves the previous week end . aire, saluted,' . Rplnu' AUBURN vs. TULANE With Kelvin Israel ZENITH RADIO Saturday WBRC, Birmingham Down in this territory a pair of radio set makers-r-Zenith and RCA Victor—are tilting over football tilts. Keenest rivalry goes on fo* first ranking iu broadcasting: of the games, with the result that the fans ate getting: the,"best football'calling heard jn a long spell. Often two stations, each bankrolled by brie of the rivals, carry.play-byr-play of the same game. Melvin Israel is doing broadcasts at WBRC for Zenith. He's easily the find of the year in Dixie 'in, news-, casting , and sports! BfCA took Kim. early in summer, to' handle news, over WBRC as a'buildup'for foot- ball. He panped put' with the hews P but nqw is in'the rival bailiwick for. the . pigskin season. '. Although 'his', newscasting.was bette'r than his"foot-, ball, it's no; reflection on the latter; stint, which is still as good z. any-' thing, down here..' ... ' .] ' , 'Handling of" the. Aupurh-Tulane- game was exceptional, in view of .tHe feet that the distance 'of' tne!;g'ahie from this town necessitated. ,a ticker', report. Israel nonetheless turned, hi' a ^clear-cut' job,, and it- was. hard tp detect that it wasn't the real McCJoy. Sound effects, supplied by studio., Repetition of such- adjectives as' 'beautiful' were fewer this week than in previous two games handled by. him. At exciting points Israel NOTRE DAME With A! Heifer OHIO on* .... . ;■ Saturfaiya-' ^LW, Cincinnati v:(RyeT .nVBotoman) ; . ^, This is the second year for OruO Oil to tie in with major college foot- /hjJL blasting on. Crosley's super Uwatfer. • Last season this sponsor . commercially tagged the games of Ohio State* Switch;to-Notre:Dame was made oa the geHeral assumption that the South Bend contingent is tops in 'popularity throughout the U. S, Incidentally; Nofee'Dame does not charge for rights to its schedule*. Red Barber, who did a swell job- lor the oil outfit last year, was signed to encore this year. He missed out on Notre Dame's opener with Car- negie Tech, because of handling the World Series via NBC. Al Heifer resultantly was called in as under- . study;. Used to do football tor a Pittsburgh station before .joining WLW early this year, and during the baseball season assisted Barber in handling • the Reds'- games over • W6AI, Crosley's smallie sister-sta- tion to WLW-.' Because-WLW carried the series game Saturday (3); the Notre Dame' Carnegie tilt was in the second quar- ter before it got on the air.- In starting, out, Heifer had a lot of ground ' to "cover to 'get caught up with things, which made for allow- ances: ' He' was neglectful in popping off. with' the score; the natural point - of interest to dialers. Not for a couple of minutes,- in which he tried to detail line tips and rattle off de- scriptions, of field* weather condi- • tionk, etc., did he announce that, the ^As^fsn'.were out in front~7-0. Crowding- in too many words, > causing fast talking, incessantly, is a , Heifer etror that makes .it stiff for auditors. He likewise .missed tell-, ing tfye' main point of the- Carnegie . touchdown' in the "very .last part of . the' Second ' quarter, which made things close at that'points For too many seconds he told about things other^h'an the touchdown.. In Efelfer's fayor are his knowlr edge .of the g#me, allo'wing, for good descriptions of formations. And he was smart in quickly dishing out names of the players, which is a major achievement, what with Notre Dame.'s trick and tease handles. Judgment exercised s on commcr-. clal plugs, which were handled by another mikeihan< 'They were spot- ted in. non-play , periods and were 'riot unpleasant. .... Xoll.' % NORTHWESTERN U. With, Buss Hodges CHICAGO NORTHWESTERN R. R. Saturdays ' • •'. ' • YfSf>, Chicago {Capttit)- ' RuSjs!. Hodges has a .Midwest . rep for 'hj* ^play-by-play.' In /"baseball, footb&U; .hockey tod. pther sanies.' Style 1 , is. fofcefuL JuU,'{tf action and without the usyal' stumble? of .over- excited, spielpys. 'He-, his a nifty,, au- thori^tiYe Way- of describing plays, and everything sounds clear through the loudspeaker; . .' '.' ... •Co^ma>iei^^i^^h^dle4 '■without' any &]3rjig, a^d .arja , hot . worked In, ca^ua^^id/int^^^ .col^ pfl thfc Tdlie^^tfl^j^'o^M^.^d^qit •#c-.. waaonal *t£mfj &ij(L JPffiffc Wfr -tor, rau>oad >tl saitvieec, ana especially for the streamlined '400' tram. Gold. maintained pois^'although keeping" away from'matter-of-facme'ss. : Artd, of course, there Were rid errors; the ticker doesn't get nervous. '• ; / Commercials were handled by an- other mike mam They appeared \to. be longer than those oh the ^com-.. peting station and more frequent. ,"•'."' Brourh. ■ AL ABRAMS .' A/- . With* SM Dickler's «r«h. Jack Cradr v dock' Sporty Masle . 3«'Mins^ . .. ■-: ■ ,■ DUQUESNE BREWING! GO. < Fridays, 1 ?.n. EST WWSW» Pittsburgh ..Smoky. City, wife Its three" leges all. sporting grid teams, col- _ _ is a natural set-up for a-half hour T peri"6d' of this sort. What's, inorei buquesne suds have- corralled "a . journalist sports name to give the period lis- tener, appeal. For lasjt',few years*,. AI Abranis, under acadabra cognomen of La Marba (his. .name, spelled backwards) has' been picking the winners every week'end in his. -sheet, the Post-Gazette, and getting plenty : of .attention.:Last- season, he : was tops oh percentage, leading the- field with better than .850 on-wins and losses. ., Abrams. has a pleasant, -natural' speaking, voice and doesn't, try to jump-Ht up for. the air, which lends an even more authoritative^ signifi- cance to his predictions. He divides- his spiel into, three spots, first call- ing 'em on the contests here and in tri-state area, then taking up other' sections of the country. Sports writer is! led easily into his predictions, being- queried by Jack Craddock, •WWSW's sports announcer, as to what, he thinks. .From then on, Abrams tells why. Sid Didder's band fills in with Some Iistenable music, : going ■ in. chiefly for college tunes, but also allotting some time for pops. Com- mercial plugs are brought in .quietly and don't intrude .too much. Pro- gram's set for duration of football. season and looks like a buy for the brewery. Cohen. UCLA vs. MONTANA With- Tom Hanlon ASSOCIATED OIL KFAC, Lh Amgeles (.Lord & Thomas) Coast football fans are accustomed to two'distinct styles of airing games. One is the steady drone of plays as they are run oft—the experting from 1 the booth. Other is the hypo-style of gabbing. Locals .like. the. latter. What they want is. showmanship in the parlor. . , ' Tom Hanlon, who called 'em froth the Coliseum where the University of California at Los'Angeles came to grips with-the Montana bunch, belongs in the category of those who ladle it out straight. It's hard to get excited with Hanlon at the controls. But perhaps he might have,warmed up more to his subject had not the. game been so lopsided. UCLA buried the Grizzlies under' a vast score." . Hanlon is best known in these parts for his handling of bands from tjhe Cocoanut Grove, which he does smartly. But it's a far-cry from .the slick Grove floor ta the striped tuff- 9i .the Coliseum. It requires a flexible, personality, to fill both,.bills, and' Hanlon is not a turnaround batter. •. Associated Oil has the' Coast con- ference games sewed up. Paid $2:10,000 for broadcast rights'. Com- - pany picks its own announcers; paying from $50- to $250 per game. Don Wilson (Jack Benny's announ- cer) draws top coin; reputedly". He Handles some of the "games in this sector. Up north along ; the Coast is Ernie Srhith' at- the -mike.' Both .these boys have the McNamee enthusiasm, ° and never let the game down,, no matter what; the score. Not so'Han-. Ion. It's, all the same to him' whethejr they're digging . |n . under the goal posts or falling, asleep in midfield. - Associated throws in plugs at every , opportunity (and has exten- sive advertising: for the games in papers and on billboards). Time out periods are its- meat. H6wever r to. Associated's credit it never allows the ad matter to interfere with the actual game. At- the signoff there's the usual invite for mailed expres- sions. Plugs on the whole are slight- ly overboard, but so is every other sponsored, gndder around" here. ' On game caught, Hanlon 1 spieled '■ all the way- except at the half when he' rested while ah Associated rep brought in a few worthies of the op- posing camp to air their views. Oc- casionally control was switched- to the field, for a band pickup. There was something technically cockeyed here, for 1 it caime through badly messed. *• *• Bob Tonge, KFCA staff announcef, did the observing for Hanlon. . .-Helm. ' GEORGETOWN vs. DELAWARE Wttfc Herman. Rcttaes, J. Gorman Walsh ATLANTIC REFINING Saturday, 2:15 |a. EST - " WDEL, Wilmington ' ; (N. W. Aver) "- First, football; broadcast. (3,) went over in .okay , form with ' .perman Reitzes, station. sports conuneniatqr, capably handling " PITTSBURGH With Ed Spngue ATLANTIC REFINING Saturdays WCAE, Pittsburgh (N. W. Aw'er) . For broadcasts oif the Pitt home schedule, Atlantic Refining" has named Ed Sprague, veteran sports annoutifcer of KDKA and before that WWSW. Sprague is the straightfor- ward type of spieler. No fireworks. Everything unadulterated, uncolored, and without bias. ' Account ■ of the Pitt-West Virginia fray, which was as. good as a walk- away for the locals, was interrupted with calling 'substitutions on the field.' That wasn't Sprague's fault, however. It was, just that kind oi game,, He follows the ball quickly, spots -his players, and has few, if any, mistakes, tb'gloss over. . t Between' halves, nuke is switched to the. regular press bo'x, where Frank CSirver; sports publicity, dir rector', tor Pift, takes . charge^ He' puts on newspaper names, visiting coachesj scouts, and 'celebrities, and. varies the usual summaries that mark average broadcasts. /'"..• •v Commercial plugs are limited to beginning, end' and in-between, periods, 'None ' while ■ game is in progress. Sprague handles the. blurblng, too, and keeps it ahm£ Sensible, business-like lines, without sideshow leanings.'• Cohen.. RICHMOND ya. ROANOKE WORLD SERIES Baseball FORD WEAF, WJZ> WABC, WOR, WHN, New York , (N, W. Ayer). f .. Ford Motor Co. again captured the broadcasting of the annual baseball classic, paying $100,000 to the Na- tional- and- American Leagues and plenty, to the radio companies. When it is. figured that the description'of the games is 'being carried by nearly every major station in the country and almost, every network, then it is almost' impossible to figure the cost in radio tuiie; at least, until it's all over.-/ .''■••'■ ' Ford's arrangement with the radio . companies'(at least those which are being paid to carry the broadcasts) calls for one-hour dafly at card rates;' all time oyer an hour at the rate of so much per minute by special ar- rangement with the stations. ...As Iastyear, and. the year before" that, -N. W, Ay'er's handling of the. broadcasts, of the Giant T yankee se- ries fpr For4.is superb^ The com- inercialS are ihighl'y. dignifiedw. brief and Spaced so- far apart that.there cannot even be the slightest hint'of overstress?; Considering' the- terrific spot Ford is irjt to reach millions of - listeners daily the country , over, and chiefly .men^. then .Ford;, or N... W. - Ayer r or -both, must..be roundly praised for not takmg too much,ad- vantage of a .juicy, situation. ■>" . Handling of the games by the vari- ous announcers on the various sta- tions kr also commendable^ there be- ing no boners of any- consequence,-, ££%*Ll !U:lta6B ' ?* c6t ^ lei ^W "no guessing aiid no. misplace expert ATLANTIC*REFINING ^ - : , 1 ?t has-been. strMUr : a o« Virginia System with. WRY A, WDBJ' dling* the play-by-play. J. Gorman ' Wal6h, WDEL's No. 1 mikeman, took over the commercial and inter-period comment. Oii/at 2:15 and off at 5 pjn. with no breaks, or drags. Strong alumni fojlowing and big manner in which the Reitzes-Walsh combo functioned from the ' Wash- ington. D. C. press box got good phone reaction, which ought to hold for the,rest of the series in which WDEL will follow the teah% through the season. . ,Wilmington .reception' tops. ....... . ' Reitzes' description was ' graphic,, and exhibited knowledge of the game. Muffed here and there in. ex- citing spots, but' usually talked on top. of the cheering crescendos. Splotches in the airing could easily be ironed if Reitzes did a little more home work on players and their' careers before he stepped to the' mike. ... ... ; . . ' Combination of pnxfyi. restrained advertising, copy;: ; . and ; bunchy; de- lrteryYby Walsh, maqe;.uie. blurbing, effective., Walsh .shqw$d;ppi&e .and :assuran9e^ a,nd di^'hls-palavertWith enough ehthjjSiasm.'ta'tide.-'Qyeif. the ,}ntermfssioris N^.;e'aae J :( > _ '';'•'. ' Technically. thftiOfs ^Mjld 1 pe.Ijm;- pifpved .ir'the/ bo^^opdl^ei-m^rft <iaref ^M^}^ prm,«oop v •against outside .nol^fts. ■.-.Ra.okei marred At - "'—'- DUKE U. With Charles Crutchfield ATLANTIC REFINING Saturdays W9T, Charlotte . (Pf. W. Ayer) . ^Etherizing the Duke^South Caro- lina game, Charlie Crutchneld pulled through in A-l shape. . He was in- itiated to Dixie sport fans some-time ago through his broadcasts of the National American Legion" Junior baseball semi-finals and Little World Scries. '• Voice booms out loudly, but pleas- antly, and is one - of the most dis- tinct heard in these parts. Capable of Sagging without having listeners split a blood vessel, and auick on the trigger during emergencies. During game caught; fans messed up his field equipment so band wouldn't register, but Crutchneld. good- naturedly explained the incident and continued with splendid resume of highlights - anent players. Then topped improvised side-show with a voHey of Atlantic.pluas, and intro- duction of • 'my good friend' Gov. Olin D. Johnston. Latter came into the booth for a spiel Descriptions were all that-could be asked for. Plugs were brief, though pretty, frequent, ' and., not detriment'to game. . Atlantic will continue using WBT on- Saturdays-with-a mixed , schedule containing Duke, Nnrth . Carolina and South Carolina.. WFBC and WSPA, with Coca-Cola sponsoring, are the opposish. ■ Ndwes. tiH. W. Aper) Three observers, who- know foot- ball and .mike technique—yet don't makerthe most of it.. This tilt came ,ip half-and-half; poor at the start, good at .the, finish. The boys should iron out, their, work. Gommercials were 100% in placing and delivery. To handle this intercity classic, those in charge- chose Glenn Jack- son, WLVA's (Lynchburg) sports re- porter, for the running comment; Pecoe Gleason,, from Charlottesville's WCHV, for the pre-game dope and commercials, and Gene Wager, for- mer U. of Va. football ace, as ob- server. Jackson, who started in a high- pitched voice a la Clem McCarthy, got too enthusiastic when there Was no", reason for it oh the field.- This flaw was too evident to be missed. Trouble at the start, too, in naming .the players instantly. .However, as the fray. progressed, Jackson went into his natural voice, and things began., to flow more smoothly and impressively. Broadcast made a big improvement at'the finish. . Pre-game .comment had . Gleason reading from a script and ad hbtring. Former .came through like a class in catechism—including ajl. that an- cient history about, the invention of the flying wedge. Gleason's smooth ad libbing was a welcome relief,- and he ought- to stick to it 100%. It's his. forte, and he has plenty oh the ball- in this department. Com- mercials well-placed and read. Copy hot too. long, either. "Resembles to some degree, the policy of Ford's high-minded ether plugging (pro- duced by the same agency). . Kiss. HOLY CROSS vs. PROVIDENCE With Jack Ihgersoll ATLANTIC REFINING Saturday WMR, Providence. . ' (N. W: Ayer) . Good job, all things considered— and among the things to be' con- sidered are .Atlantic's bhirbs which are polite to the point of commenda- tion. Play'-l>y-play itself rates nice- ly, with, only one drawback. Once in a while it sounded as though it had been too carefully, rehearsed. But for general clarity, ariq effective- ness, no apologies. ..* < . Program got off' on the Trigjit -foot at the very start, when an announce- ment was made that the commercial palaver* wauld/be' limited to finish* of periods.. At that the'.^cPpy was boiled-into?terse packages^ except ..at" the end.of ^ffie -i*.-^- td e half When jit'^'anie. „. _—. 535 .w6r4^. 'CoiMjiSrjiials,' .while;- stipkiqg close.- tp ..the ./beaten, ^path.^ jyere- paswbie^pieW.sfe^ >. trated on quapt^;pt.\^te i Fl^6h,^s x ^ and dealer'service.*" GBORGIA U- With Marcus Bartleft, John Tiplman Lamhdin Kay. ATLANTIC REFINING Saturday^ 2:15 p.m. WSB, Atlanta (N. W. Ayer) Clash Saturday (3) between Geor- gia and.Fur man at Athens yiras. aired Creditably by Marcus Bartlett, erst- while musical director of WSB. Ex- cept tor 'a"penchant for pushing psiiedo-excitement into the clutohes and a tendency to give' the home boys the best of it, Bartlett's miking passed muster. Broadcasts . usually - commence at 2:15 p.m. CST, but with the- World Series on tap,- the -Furman-Georgia tilt had to wait until the'liprsehide was stowed away. This put Bartlett into, the hole, forcing him to broad- cast current play-by-play and also catch up with what had already hap- pened. Start was a little shaky, but to be expected in view of the un- usual assignment Bartlett's. style revealed a study. of the -game, al- though he never^. played, and- his voice is okay. ■ ' Commercials;' .handled hy John Tiplman, consisted of 30-second an- nouncements between periods, with about four • minutes, divided into equal sections! between halves. Plugs were , mainly for Atlantic's White Flash gasi with the final one being' an invite for' fans to tune' in on At- lantic's broadcast of Georgla-L.S.S. game at Batori' Rou'ge:. u '.'•; Betweeri, ; halves-'mike -vsjaS' turned over: to. 'Erne'st Rogers, in Atlanta,: who' gave brief resume' Of-flrst quaf 1 ter development 'at game between Georgia'. Tech and Se^ahe'e ,£n. At straight-reporting-oh' the part of all the commentators. "They've been im- partial in a? series which, because of' its, intra-city flavor, has been highly controversial; The-one thing the an- nouncers'could hot'prevent was. the super-suspense that ■ crops into the broadcasting of any sporting event; fans at the games- can see the plays as they happen, while those on the other- end of a loudspeaker have to depend on. the announcers, and some of the sithiatiohs can- become very, tense,'especially for a rabid fan. For NBC, tor both the blue and the red networks, Ty Tyson of/WWJ", De- troit; Red Barber, of WLW, Cincin- nati, and Warren Brown, of the Chi- cago' Herald-Examiner, divided the play-by-play ahnouncing, each taking three Minin gs- of each game. Tom. Manning, of WTAM, Cleveland, han- dled the commercials and color. Fox' Mutual Bob Elson. of WGN. Chicago, and Tony. Wakeman of WOL, Washington, broadcast.the ac- tion, while Gabriel Heatter delivered the color and commercials. CBS had-France L'aux of St. Louis and Bill Dwyer of WCAU, Philadel- phia, doing the action, commercials and color.. . WHN, the fourth station in New York carrying the "broadcasts of the games,-got it from Mutual, carrying, the same broadcast apd personnel as WOR. ' ' ■ There is little to choose from among the announcing staffs during any of the games played thus far, almost all of them being equally adept at calling plays and furnishing color. Best job of the series, of course, was done the opening day, Sept. 30, when most of the game was played in a downpour. But here again the wetness and misery of the crowd was deftly described by all the announcers, and all equally good. - All in all, this broadcast of the Series is a credit all around. 'Scho. High School EST- FOOTBALL FORUM With Skip Walls, ' Coaches Sustaining 15 Mins. Wethtesday; 7:45 pjn. WNEW, New York WNEW's stunt to catch high school students ! and make them WNEW- conscious. Got under way in rather ponderous fashion. Initial program, bringing high schools coaches in New York City and nearby New Jersey towns to the microphone was saved by the ingratiating personality of Skip Walls, former NA'.U. grid player, who- is handling football and other sports material at the station. .His line of questioning of the high r football mentors gave a fairly con- cise picture of prospects for the team involved. Little question that the material will appeal to ' student listeners of schools involved. Wear. IhgprsOll a ut5m^y(wr .A- ( _ 4;.t h ^8 a ^-.W,^m^.pla^ . r bler,^e,la|OWs Bis plgs^qn and Mr: .'a. radio,.station, he can't ■ taatcb it Cttft. 'easy to tollbw. More. with grid spieling. Luch. ALABAMA vs. CLEMSON WHlt Bill Mundsy RCA VICTOR Saturday WAFL BlrmiDgham •WAPI .went out of town tp get Bill Munday, former NBC. sports spieler' and erstwhile sports editor of the' Atlanta'Journal, tb.come over and jgiye- Melvin' Israel-of'WBRC sdme "'competish'.' .Muriday .'gained a rdp wherihe called the George Tech Rose.Bpwl ga.rne a few years'back.'. His past laurels, however, aren't going to* help him out much here" in view 6f his Opposition. ' ./White Muhday can turn''oh plenty of clarity, he makes . numerous 'errors; Once'he'thah'gfea hls'state- j rhen^ three times before crackaig" - — j:- ■umJl^'u^ ~>v..l. w^+xk, ^n-cpatter was 'somewhat superior .to % spell' flVtie^' 'dufW" Xay^TOicej^yfa;? ,toq hij (Continued on page 42\