Variety (Apr 1939)

Vcdnefiday, April 19. 1939 RADIO VARIETY 37 HoniUe Suspicion Groundless I St Paul, April 18. Vhen Irene's baby In "Valiant Lady,' General Mills' script show, was born Friday (7), NBC's Gotham headquarters four days later franti- cally wired Lloyd Griffin, radio director at Knox Reeves in Minne- apolis: 'NBC WILL NOT ACCEPT GIRL-MOTHER SITUATION IP BABY IS ACTUALLY ILLEGITIMATE. IRENE MUST HAVE BEEN MARRIED BEFORE BABY. WAS BORN. PLEASE WIRE ME AT ONCE mSlEDIATE CONFIRMATION. GORDON.' Even the program's listeners don't Icnow yet whether the new-born ' babe is an eyebrow-lifter, hence Griffs pronto explanation: 'IRENE'S BABY LEGITIMATE. CORDIALLY. GRIFF.' . Right now there's still a lotta mystery attached, but Lloyd is assur- ing everybody it'll all come out-all right in the script. Inside Stuff-Radio CBS challenges the system that ^C has been using in breaking down the letter's gross time income by red (WEAF) and blue (WJZ) links. NBC credits all billings on red supplementaries, regardless of the originating network, to the .red link's side of the ledger. Columbia holds that if an account uses such red supplementaries with the blue basic network the business- in toto should tie attributed to the blue trait This juggling, CBS estimates, gives the red an edge of about $100,000 a month on the breakdown, Columbia's interest in the way NBC treats these figures is actuated at this particularly by the fact that CBS's gross Is on the way to staging an appreciable comeback and this $100,000 dif- ference can mean much in the bid for monthly billings leadership between CB$ and the red link. CBS anticipates regaining this leadership by October. Radio, authorship has been added to the major subjects on the schedule for thiis summer's writers' conference sponsored by the University of Colo- rado, at Boulder, dok Norman Corwin, CBS. producer, will be in charge. Conference will extend from July. 24 to Aug. 11.. It wlU be the lOtb year for the confabs. . Other regular members of the staft will include Albert Maltz, drama; Eric Knight, novel; Edward Davison, poetry; Douglas Bement, short story, and Burges Johnson, miscellaneous prose. Additional leaders who wUl conduct special discussions will be Louis Bromfleld, Robert Morss Lovett and (tentative) Carl Van Doren. Sessions will consist of worlishop meet- ings, round-table discussions. Individual conferences and general meetings. About 120 writers of various classifications attended last summer's con- ference. Although George A. Richards has relinquished active charge over his three radio station?, WJR, WGAR and KMPT, it appears doubtful that hell turn over presidency of his Detroit Lions pro football team to WU- liam A. Alfs, vice-president Leo Fitzpatrick, general manager of WJR here, recently became executive v.-p. with active charge of WGAR, Cleve- land, and KMPC, Beverly Hills, in addition to station here. Rumors have flooded town that Walter O. Briggs, multi-millionaire owner of Detroit 'Tigers baseball team, would take over controlling inter- ests in Lions but that appears ill-founded. Richards, whose long illness has necessitated shifting of official duties, figures to return to active charge of the Lions, at least before next fall Third season is now «mder way for Ad Liberties, house mag published by Knox Reeves agency, Minneapolis, during each year's baseball Reason, especially' for benefit of radio announcers. Besides going to sportscasters, baseball club owners, league people, and sales divisions and reps of various broadcasting clients all get on the mailing list Co-sponsoring on ball game broadcasts are General Mills, Inc., B. F. Goodrich Co., Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and Coca Cola Co. Ad Liberties carries plx, merchandising tips, and disserta- tions on mike technique designed to prod goods from the shelves. Joint Committee on Radio Research, currently in a state of suspended animation, will not supervise the collecting or computation of data on the matter of set ownership in the United States as of Jan. 1, 1939. Members of the committee feel that there's not enough interest in such project nor has there been enough change in the past year to make a count worth while. It is possible that the National Association of Broadcasters might decide during the July convention that a compilation by states and coimtles ought to be made for this year. If so the joint committee wiU agree to serve as a clearing house for the figures. Breakdown for last year wasn't issued until June anyway. Kate Smith celebrates the beginning of her ninth straight year on the. air with the broadcast of May 4. She will repeat the tune lineup she did on her first broadcast 'By the River St Marie,' 'Dream a Little Dream of Me,' *I Surrender Dear' and 'Please Don't Talk About M« When I'm Gone' are listed. . , . Singer recently resumed making recordings for Victor, cutting her 'God Bless America' and 'Star Spangled Banner' several weeks ago and six pops In the last two weeks. Winifred Huntoon Heidt who won a special fellowship and a provisional contract for coming season of Met Opera through Met auditions over NBC, formerly sung with local radio stations, including WWJ and CKLW. A mezzo-soprapo, Mrs. Heldt Is wife of William Heidt, legal counsel for the Detroit Edison Co., and has sung in numerous concerts in Detroit More Santa Clausing with CBS stock by the Philadelphia Levy family. During February Isaac D. Levy gave away 125 shares of Columbia A paper, retaining 62,375 shares, according to report last week to Securities St Ex- change Commission. Recipient not revealed. Assemblyman James J. (Jerry) Wadswo'rth, a leader In the New York lower house, son of Congressman James W. Wadsworth, is said to be the 'Jerry Jordan' who warbles a 'Down Memory Lane' sustalner on WOKO, Albany; at 9:30 Tuesday mornings. It's a lark. WDRC's New Mt.-Top E^ierimeiit Starts May 1 Hartford, AprU 18. WDRC has set May 1 as tentative Mte for start of broadcasting acUvl- ties from the station's new experi- mental staUon, WIXPW, located on ■ top of Merlden laonntaln, Meriden, -Connr--The-statiott-is of the .fre- quency' modulated type Invented by Major Edwin H. Armstrong, profes- . »or of electrical engineering at Co- lumbia University. ^DRC is maintaining the staUon strictly from an experimental stand- . point Kenneth McCloud will be in charge. Was constructed by Italo MarUno, chief engineer and vice- pcesldent ol WDRC UNCLE DON KELLEY Be Beads Comics in WLS-Chlcago Times Tleap Cnilcago, April 18. Tieup between WLS and the Daily Times puts the tab's Sunday comics on the Prairie Farmer station. Don Keliey, "promotion chief of WUS, spYOUts'forth as an entertainer un- der the tag of Uncle Don. ■ Uncle Don will read the funnies. Some of th.em, however, will be dramatized and bulk of cast will be recniited from kid listeners and readers who clip coupons from the Times. For Its side of the bargain Times win publish weekly pictures of auditions, programs, etc. JUDGMENT CONFIRMED Involved Olspote Between KEEN and Byan CUrifled SeatUe, AprU 18. State supreme court has unani- mously affirmed the judgment which a lower court had granted Howard Ryan, agency head, in his suit against KEEN, local outlet, for breach of contract The judgment amounted to $12,600. Deal Involved two contracts. Under one Ryan was to. operate the station for three years, with a down payment of $4,500 and a rental of $450 monthly. Other contract gave him an option to buy the station for $49,500. In-the event the option was exercised the. down payment and rentals were to be deducted from the purchase price. When the FCC heard of the deid It advised KEEN either to ask for a transfer of tiie license to Ryan or to cancel the lease agreement Sta- tion subsequently barred Ryan from the premises and cancelled the con- tracts . on the groimd that he had defaulted in paying current bills. Ryan denied this in his suit PRESS RESISTS RADIO RIGHTS CLAIMS Washington, AprU 18. Battle over press vs. radio privi- leges in the sacred gaUeries of the U. S. Capitol, near settlement last weeli, .with radio commentators headed toward a permanent place on the scribblers' bench. One-man fight of Fulton IjOwIs, Jr., MBS news commentator and former Washington correspondent for Uni- versal Service and International News -Service, for radio representa- tion refereed by the House Rules Committee—with Lewish predicting Friday (14) a 'unanimous' committee vote favoring the granting of gaUery faculties to broadcast news experts. Similar proposal being weighed at the Senate. Struggle to resume his place in the press gaUery as a radio-newsman developed lliursday (13), when for- mer colleagues got wind of a com- mittee meeting and stormed the hear- ing room to protest against a resolu- tion which would give Lewis Ills old privileges. Stage had been set for a quiet okay, without hearing, but news correspondents broke up the meeting with, phone-calls, door- poundlngs and other interruptions and getting in on an open hearing next day. Two members of the Standing Com- mittee of Correspondents—compris- ing top-notch Washington corre- spondents who jealously guard the membership of the House press gal- le^ry—appeared in opposition to Lewis' ambitions. Paul McGahan, long-time correspondent for the PhUIy Inquirer, and Alfred ('Mike') Flynn, WaU Street Journal repre- sentative and chairman of the Stand- ing Committee, delivered the prin- cipal yelps of the Fourth Estate. (Most of the argument based on his- toric traditions which opened the House and Senate galleries to ac- credited members of the press, early In the 19th century—hence, radio is an Interloper.) Following hearings, Lewis cl&imed that the committee 'voted unani- mously that 'it is the sense of the Rules Committee' that radio be given equal news gathering facilities with the press in the galleries of the House of Representatives.' Special subcommittee, composed of Repre- sentatives John Dempsey, Dem., N. Mex.; Carl Mapes, Rep., Mich, and Howard W. Smith, Dem., Va., was appointed to work out physical ar- rangements, according to Lewis. Scribblers contended, iMwever, Lewis had not scored anything more than a moral victory. Dissemination of news by radio Is a distinct field by Itself, WaU Street Joumalite testified, but Lewis ar- gued that he is performing for radio exacUy the same duties he per- formed for 13 years as a newspaper- man. Only difference-Uie me(hed-of final deUvery to the public. Lewis, who was supported by Her- bert Moore, Tepresenting Transradio Press, also Is awaiting action from the Senate on a simUar resolution introduced in the Senate two weelis ago by Senators GiUette, Dem., la., and Barbour, Rep., N.- J. Senate measure would provide a niche for radio scribblers in the paddock set DonSliawofWMCA,N.Y.FailstoGet Oif-Web Wax Concessioii from Washington, AprU 18. Tiffing between the FCC and the Census Bureau over a national sur- vey of radio receivers in connection with the decennial population count Radio regulators want to find out exactly how many sets' are. in use and where they are located, instead of being forced to rely on trade esti- mates and inadequate sales. figures. National defense argument used to overcome Census Bureau imenthusir asm, with the FCC pointing out how valuable it would be in event of war to know how effective nationalistic propaganda oyer the air might be. The Census liosses maintain it wiU greatly Increase the cost besides de- laying the final check, to add numer- ous questions to the blanks which nose-counters must fiU in. But the Commish has countered with threat to seek money from the Treasury to make the poU itself, which..would cost materlaUy more as an independ- ent, enterprise. Early action on long-advocated factual study of the FCC, the Com- munications Act and the industry by Congress is predicted In cloak-room gossip at the CapitoL LUcely the Senate shortly wlU be asked to pass combination resolution,, embodying separate proposals of Senators Bur- ton K. 'Wheeler of Montana and Wallace R White Jr. of Maine, authorizing the Interstate Commerce Committee to go on the prowL Wheeler wants to head off any tele- graph company merger which would reduce the number of jobs in this field; 'White desires to scrutinize everything al>oUt radio from monop- olies to superpower and have a check on the FCC's chain-monopoly probe. Senator Wheeler probably 'wUl designate a suttcommittee to-re- frame the resoluUons In the near future. Test of strength between the mUl- tary and the civIUans over occu- pancy of the radio spectrum Is taking shape. Army readying broad 'tele- vision and facsimile experiments and may demand large segment of the bands now earmarked for private lise. Undercover, sldrmlshing has occurred frequently in past couple of years, with majority of the FCC feeling tiie warriors aire too greedy. Show-down at the White House may l>e necessary to see whether In peace-time the peaceful activities are to be subordinated to the am- bitions of the Army. Under the statute, all radio faculties'' can be commandeer^ by the President for government use in event of war, na- tional catastrophes, or threat of emergency. Painless Parker's Qoiz San Francisco, April 18. Recovered from a recent illness, Dr. Seth Maker (The Philistine) has resumed his semi-weekly broadcasts over KFRC under the Painless Parker (chain dentists) banner, shift- ing the point of origin to the Golden Gate International Exposition. Title of the program has been changed to 'Exposition Quiz.' Dorlich Brothers in Radio St Louis. AprU 18. Albert S. and Robert A. Dorlich, brothers, of St. Louis, have been granted a license by FCC to erect, maintain and operate a station at Se- dalla. Mo. The station will be oper- ated on 1.500 kc. full time with 250 watts in the daytime and 100 watts at night Robert will serve as gen- eral manager. Both men are employes of the American Sales Co., with Albert manager of the company's Smith- ton, Mo., office. The station is ex- pected to be in operation in 90 days. aside for newsmen In the Upper House. Berth In the Capitol press gal- leries is highly prized by nev.-smen as it entitles occupants to a ring- side seat for the annual perfor.-nance of Congress. PrlvUeged pencU- pushers are loath to make room for anybody who does not wire a daily story to one or more newspapers. Request for a revised off-the-alr recording scale for musicians, made by Don Shaw, of WMCA, N. Y., last week, was nixed by New York I<ocal 802 of the American Federation of Musicians. Scale is $18 per man extra for platters made from a broadcast Shaw wanted it reduced to about a third ot that Explanation of Shaw's request Is that it would enable him to- congeal tentative agreements with several backers of major network shows. In effect these plans were to take line cuttings of certain shows and rebroadcast them on WMCA later on the same evening of the live airing. However, the $18 tap, combined with time and sundry charges made it too costly to the prospective sponsor for only local N. Y. returns. Shaw claims to have had the if and when agreements with . Amer- ican Tobacco' for Its two Lucky Strike shows and several others. Idea is the .same as airing a broadcast locally to catch audiences which might have been elsewhere during the Uve airing. Fred AUen'a Wednesday night rebroadcast to the west is now aired locally in New York. ALLEN'S SHOWS AT MDNIGHT CONTINUE NBC wiU continue Its rebroadcastt of the Fred AUen-Bristol-Myers show over the blue (WJZ) link at midnight for another. seven weekst meanwhile taking.sample surveys ot Ustening percentages it goei ^ong. Network has begun to analyze some of these samples but none of the results so far suffice to show just what sort of an audience these midnight rebroadcasts in the metropoUtan area are getting, NBC's researchers expect- to be able to produce something concrete on this study within the coining two weeks. There have been six of these Wednesday rebroadcasts to date. SECONDARY PICKETING SUIT BY EMERSON CO. Emerson Radio & Television Corp. and Emerson New York, Inc., filed a N. Y. supreme court acUon Wed- nesday (12) against Radio 'Union Local B-lOlO, and WiUIam Beede, business agent of . the local, for an injunction. PlaintiC seeks to pre- vent the union from picketing their customers' stores and from issuing misleading statements about them. It Is stated that early in 1939 Emerson was approached by the union, which wanted to organize its shop. This was refused on the grounds that the employees were sat* isfled and wanted no imion. With- out taking the matter to the National Labor Relations Board, the union re- cently commenced the- picketing. Supreme . Court . .lustlce Isldor Wasservogel on Saturday (15) de- nied the application for a tempo- rary injunction against the union, but set trial date for AprU 27. Mo3y Rejoins Fibber Hollywood, AprU 18. Fibber McGee and MoUy (Mr. and Mrs. Jim Jordan) were reunited on tonight's (Tues.) Johnson wax program after being parted profes- sionally for year and a half due to illness of femme member of the com- edy team. Jordans are now making their home here permanently. Victor F. Campbell, from WGR, Buffalo, has joined WGY, Schenec- tady, staff as production man and an- noimcer. Succeeds Radcllffe Itell, shifted to NBC'i New York stalt Fred F. Laws was appointed M« day (14) assistant to the president (Stan Hubbard) of KSTP, 5t Paul.