Variety (Jul 1937)

r. Wedncsaar, July 28, 1937 RADIO VARIETY 45 MUTUAL SEEKS NORTHWEST PASSAGE Lew Weiss of the Don Lee chain Is jn the Pacific northwest at pres- ent His mission is to canvas the ■ oossibiUties of an extension of Mu-' tuai service into the Portland-Seattle ^^Seattle with 500,000, and Poi-tland with 350,000, have between theni nearly a million mortals and a lot of wealth. Line carry from Cali- fornia, however, is an item to be reckoned with, with. • , • Should Weiss successfully conclude deal with stations in Oregon and : Washington^ Fred Weber, general manager of Mutual, may not have to make trip west in August as planned. HELLO, MOM'125 TIMES IN 15 MIN. PROGRAM ' Cleveland, July 27. Lakeside Biscuit Co., sponsors of the 'Sidewalk Interviews' prograih over. WTAM five days ,a week, was host.to 125 boys and girls of North- i em :Phio at a baseball party last \ we^^. Youngsters met at the station and were -lunched at Harry Prop- per's Mayfair Casino before being taken to the ball game by Tom Manning. Latter also set some sort of rec- ord by putting all 125 youngsters on the air during a 15-minute program- Wind Hits WBNS Tower Columbus, July 27. WBNS, local CBS outlet, off the air nearly two and a half hours Sunday (26) wheii a high wind blew over the top 20 feet of its 380-foot trans- fnitting antenna tower two miles east of here. Tower did not fall entirely to ground and was repaired and service resumed. Station went off air at 4:55 p.m.' (EST) and resumed at 7:28 p.m. land SUDDEN WEALTH for WOW Listeners • Sudden wealth of the harvest wiH soon tweep dovt/n on "the market basket of the nation." Millions of dollars will roll into the rich middlewestern grain coun- try known . as Nebriowa*. Prospects for corn and wheat crops in Nebriowa are •the best in many years. Crop money gratifies year- long desires . . . for farmers and city dwellers alike. Capitalize on it! Reach th9 spenders FIRST — through their favorite r^dio station, Wow. • NKHRIO«VA — The JiiiniviiNely w e ii I thy tmde territory nt fuKt- «ru MCIttttutkit. n-ftit- frn IOWA, and lior- tUtiiN u( Kuntuui, MIk- Hoiirl, MlnnrMitM. Hnd SoutU I) a k 4* t H . I4h buMtncMN caiiitHl in Omnliii. ItH radio capi- t«I Ih wow I 590 KC 5^000 Watte W 0 W OMAHA, NEBRASKA -lOHN r.IM.IV. Jr.. Mrr. On the NBC Red Net JOHK nr.AIR CO,. Repies«ntRtlve8 Chk-Hiro, ^ew York. Detroit, San FraiivlM-o 0\\n,d aiul Oiwratea l»y Ihti Wowl- »ieii of tlie Worlil f>lf« Innuruavo IJoclcty Coast Guard Stops Wrangle Fast; NBC Gets Short Straw; Hires Aeroplane CBS, NBC and Mutual are all cov-. ering the Newport yacht races be- tween Endeavor II and the Ranger, which commence Saturday (31). Since the Coast Guard convoy is so arranged that only two of the cut- ters will plow abreast of the sloops, the three networks at once got . into a row when negotiating with the Coast Guard to insure their cover- ages. Guard at once stopped the wran- gling by making reps from the webs draw straws for positions. CBS and Mutual were lucky, drawing the cut- ters which will flank the racers, on each side. NBC came but on the short end, and will have to be con- tent with getting its view from a cutter which will ride slightly astern of the contenders. To make up for its unfortunate po- sition, NBC will sling a mike aboard an anchored boat .at the finish line to make sure it will not be scooped on getting out the name of the sloop sweeping over the line first. A TWA pliane has also been hired to get a description of the race from the air as an amplification to the sea-view comment from the cutter. Though Mutual ^ is apparently do- ing the race, W.OR is actually paying all. of the expenses involved, which v/ill exceed $3,000. Line charges alone will top $2,000; Cameron King, who will alternate with WOR's spe- cial eventer Dave DriscoU on the descriptions, has been hired for $450 for the job, and four engineers are being sent up. JUDGE, CITY AHORNEY, ACTORS ON KVOD SHOW Denver, July 27. Municipal Judge Philip Gilliam and Assistant City Attorney Leon Ginsberg are carrying the leading roles in a series of dramatizations for safety being aired by KVOD, Denver. Dramatizes actual man- slaughter trials of persons accused of killing someone with an auto- mobile. . Judge Gilliam and Ginsberg hold a discussion on each case, and tell how the accidents might have been prevented. The series is called 'The Judge Tells His Story.' Harry Hill, KVOD news editor, with Gilliani and Ginsberg, picks the cases and writes the script. Jay Daniels directs the KVOD players, including Dorothy Mendelsohn, Vic- toria Doherty, C. Norman Lasky and Preston Frenzel. WOAFs Special Events San Antonio, July 27. WOAI, San Antonio, has contrived an effective piece of promotion on, the station's public events coverage and newscasting. It's a 24-page booklet, thickly studded with pic- tures showing every phase of the outlet's business of' news coverage during the past year. Booklet is split into several sec- tion, mainly dealing with 'Special Events,' Timely Interviews,' 'Hu- man Interest Editing,' 'Personalities* and 'Covering Local News.' ^ A sec- tion is also devoted to mail received on the events and news angle of the station's activities. Radio Ed on WCKY Cincinnati, July 27. Paul Kennedy, radio columnist on the Cincy, ■ Post, Scripps-Howard sheet,'today <Tuesday) commenced a series of bi-weekly evening chats over WCKY. Has carte blanche to criticize radio, music, performers and local night-living as he sees fit. WJR Visits C.C.C. Camps Detroit, July 27. , WJR is carrying its special events program to the CCC camps in Michi- gan, in a series of thrice-weekly stints. Series will cover camps with- in radius of 100 miles from Detroit, and will touch on boys', views on current topics. Planned to extend cross-section survey of state's youth to summer schools and other camps within this part of the state. Benford Hits for Heatter Charles Benford, formerly on WOL, Washington, is subbing for Gabriel Heatter as staff news com- mentator, while the latter is on a four weeks' vacation. Benford will have all but the Friday evening spot. This one will be filled by Raymond Gram Swing. Baseball at 2 A. M. Columbus, July 27. Night doubleheaders, bane of ball players in the American Association, are beginning to get into the hair of the radio announcers here. When the local team is on the road, night games don't start until 9 p.m. (Columbus tim6) and when two games are carded it; keeps broadcasters at the station until 'way after midnight, Last Friday night (23) Johnny Neblett, WBNS announcer, and his aide, Jim Blower, spent nearly five hours before the. mike bringing listeners a tele- graphic report of a double- header in Louisville. Came on with fii'st game at 9:15 p.m., then with about 8-minute inter- mission between games began broadcast of nightcap at 12:15 a.m. Second game, scheduled for seven innings, actually went eight, so' it was 2 a.m. before Neblett and Blower called it a night. Ward Byron Joins MCA As Consultant in L. A. Los Angeles, July 27. Ward Byron, producer of several programs in Sau Francisco for NBC, has resigned after 12 years to join the Music Corporation of-America here. Radio End of Pennsylvania State AccL Detached for Philadelphia Agency Philadelphia, July 27. Reported here that radio end of the State of Pennsylvania account held by Walker & Downing, Pitts- burgh agency, is slated to be tossed to Barnes & Aaron, Philly agency. Radio end, as figured at present, will run about $175,000. Although W & D is set to lose the radio portion of the account, it will retain the major portion, amounting to $325,000, to be spent chiefly for newspaper and magazine ads. Idea of the splurge is to boost Penna. as a travelers' mecca. Outlay of $500,- 000 was voted by recent session of the Penna. legislature at Harrisburg. Several factors are* believed to have dictated the agency switch in the radio account. One is the idea that the program, originating in WCAU, Philly, could. be handled more efficiently by an agency- on the spot. Another, reason, though not mentioned, is that politicians in the eastern end of the state were howling that part of the allotment should be spent in their bailiwicks. That is figured to have swung the deal, with each end of the state get- ting a share.. = Show, airing at 10:45 Saturday nights over the CBS network, has Anthony Candelori's orchestra, Ben Alley and Eleanor Bowers, with. Hugh Walton announcing. ' Gov. George H. Earle appeared briefly on last week's (24) debut show, but is understood not skeddied for more stints, at least for some time. Manie Sacks, of Music Corp., is producing the show with the WCAU stafl! and the agency. Present deal is for 13 weeks, with options. Current 15-minute sietup is likely to be doublied to run 30 min- utes. That question was set for de- cision yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon at Harrisburg. WLW Acts for Expo Cincinnati, July 27. Crosley's WLW-WSAI will supply guest artists for Radiolortd programs from the Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, Aug. 7 and 14. William Stoess, maestro of the Flying Dutch- men orchestra on the nation's sta- tion, will b'e guest- conductor the 14th. Other Crosley acts will be the Smoothies, Frim Sisters. Four Mo- dernaires and several vocal soloists as yet unselected. ■ Oistributors' and dealers' opin- ions about advertising are impor- tant. In selecting radio facilities for a spot campaign in Northern Ohio ask them what station will do the best job. The odds are high "on WTAM—the only station which reaches the buyers of the entire Cleveland Chamber of Commerce retail trading area, to say nothing of the many other communities in Northern Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. A Basic Red Network Station Completely Programmed by NBC