Variety (Dec 1939)

80 VARIETY RADIO Veduesday, December 13, I939 Wax Libraries Doomed? . Continued from page 25. meetings, the last on Monday, be- tween union ofHciaU ani transcrip- ] tion execs and the whole matter is in abeyance until Jan. 14' when the AFM board will take up the issue in New York. Rule won't be en- forced until then. In the realm of speculation there is the expressed fear o£ the con- cerned parties that the union strate- gists want to eliminate waxed li- braries altogether in the belief it would strengthen the case for live musicians. It is no secret that one bloc within unionism has always held that preserved music is the in- evitable rival of live music. This reverts to the continuous fight on mechanization. Conductors and recording com- panies were ambiguously informed by union spokesmen last week that there had been a 'misunderstanding' of existing transcription regulations and that the Musicians Union had not, until now, realized the nature of transcription library selections as distinct from regular quarter hour waxes. The need to 'readjust'-unidn rules sounded simple enough except that insiders found it hard to be- lieve the AFM was no', already inti- mately expert in every phase of music recording. Despite the in- scrutable politeness of the unionists. It all. sounded like preliminary spade •work for a funeral to many of the Involved personalities. They still won'; know until Jan. 14. If the union, declare disa manu- facturers, persist in enforcing- latest 'interpretation,' wages for recording musicians will be increased by at least 500%, which will leave the transcription companies but two al- ternatives, namely, either go out of business or take huge losses on their present contracts with stattoli oper- ators. Representatives of the NBC The- saurus, the World Broadcasting Sys- tem and Associates Music Publishers, Inc., have sought during the past week to discuss the situation with Joseph N. Weber, AFM prez, but the latter is temporarily, under orders of his doctor, refraining from goinR to his office or answering phone calls. One of Weber's aides declared Mon- day (11) that the transcription men were advised two months ago that they were violating the intent of the agreement and that he wasn't at all concerned with the economic hard- ships that his construction of the provision in question -would bring upon their industry. He added that he didn't care whether it led to an end of the transcription library busi- ness, .since he considered the latter was responsible for the unemploy- ment of many thousands of musi- cians all over the country. He de- nied, hovv^ever, that the enforcement ot the union's interpretation of the contract provision was a preliminary move in the federation's campaign to force the broadcasting industry to renew its general employmenl agree- ment with the AFM. Pre.sent cove- nant expires Jan. 17, and there is no concerted moveiment In tha Industry to negotiate another one. Selections Vs. Sessions Tha clause which has caused the uproar in the transcription field per- tains to the nature of recording that a musician nvay do during a quarter- hour session for which he collects $18. According to the AFM, such recording must be for a single, inte- grated program and not consist of various selections separated from one another by gaps or intermis- sions in the platter. The union also demands that if music is recorded for a dramatic show the transcrip- tion company must during thai 15- minute session coiifine the orchestra to music for tliat show and nothing else. But it is the ban on gaps or breaks in the transcription that chiefly con- cerns the transcribers. They have been accustomed to recording sev- eral separate selections during the 15-minute session and distributing such selections over two or more sides. Under this setup the sta- tion client is able to cull his se- lections from various records to make up what he considers a diver- sified program of music. The exist- ence of gaps also is essential for the insertion of local spot announce- ments. Under the procedure now demand- ed by the union, say the transcrip- tion makers, each tune between gaps would have to run 15 minutes, which would serve to multiply their costs by four or five times. Even if the increase, they state, ainounted to 50% the profit factor would be eliminated, and since they could not expect to get the stations to pay that much more for their library services, there Football Slightly Off Network football this year av- eraged 33.9 In listener popular- ity according to C.A.B. figures. This was tmder 1938, when the average was 35. C.A.B. tabula- tions were as follows this sea- son: Oct. 7 2.1.6 Oct, 21 37.3 Nov. 4 3.S.7 Nov. 18 3R.2 Dec. 2 3C.0 would be no other way out but to quit business. The new status of affairs was dra- matically brought l\ome to trans- cription companies last week when the New York musicians union (Lo- cal 802) stepped in on a session for which Reggie Childs' band had been scheduled by the NBC Thesaurus. Childs was suddenly informed that he couldn't do the job, because the local had not ratified his contract, and that there was a question as to whether the union would okay any such library engagements until the transcribers started 'living up' to the AFM's rule on confining each record- ing session to a single 15-minute pro- gram. Childs went through with the date after NBC had assured him that it would settle for the amount even- tually denwnded by the union. If the AFM stands by its position, the payroll for this date may come to $4,000", or four times as much as the price originally contracted for. Acting under.Instructions from the international, Local 802 is now re- quiring its member.<i to submit each week to the union a report of all OKLAHOMA CITYS WKY-ADVERTISED FOR 10 YEARS • Yellow Cab's first broadcast over WKY was presented in 1930. By early 1939, Yellow Cab had grown to the position of WKY's biggest local sponsor... and curi- ously enough, Yellow Cab has become tha biggest selling gasoline in Oklahoma City. All this happened in a market that has always been highly competitive...where price wars are the rule rather than the exception. In face of such conditions Yel- low Cab is the city's biggest selling gaso- line and at top prices for standard grade. Yet it is more than a coincidence that Yellow Cab's climb to top position among gasolines in its market has accompanied a constantly increasing use of WKY time. For a cross-section survey among 803 Oklahoma City homes in May, 1939, estab- lishes the fact that seven out of ten of those having radios prefer WKY...that station B is preferred by less than two out of each ten home* in Oklahoma City, Listeners in the Oklahoma City market like WKY's vitalized typ«of programming They show their appreciation with the kind of applause a sponsor Itkea to hear. WKY NBC AFFILIATE * 900 KILOCYCLES OwNBO AND OpcRATn) BY The Okuihoma Publishino Companyi * Th« Daily Oklahomah OkI;Ahoma City Times*The Fabmef-Stocbman *Mi3rLiioE Express *KVOR. Coloiwdo Sntmoe KLZ, Denver (Under AHIIimlad Manmttmfnt) * Rspresbntcd NATIONALLY By The Katz Aobncy. Ino. transcription recordings made b, them, the time consumed and th» amount received for the engagement* The report must show whether tht selections for each 15-mlnute session were used for a single, integrated program or distributed on more than one side of a record. There Is not much the transcrln tion companies can do if the unjoJ clouds up and rains all over them They do not even know how lo get a' sympathetic hearing for their point of view. There is very little col- laboration between the several com- petitivc services. Musicians union expre.sses no peev« toward the usual sponsored tran- scription, which is played once, ex- actly like a live broadcast, and then discarded. It is the library .service comprising in some cases 2,500 musi.! cal numbers (periodically weeded out), that seems to occasion the frowns on the theory that this is or at least superficially seems to be' part of that technological tendency to mechanization in music which the union consistently opposes. Libraries are important adjuncts to the transcription companies, which, on the whole, do not get enough or- ders for transcriptions from adver- tisers to build fixed income to a, profitable level. Rules limiting the • libraries, or attempting to prescribe how stations may use waxed music, would probably mean curtains. Some library discs are heavy on hillbillies. But others employ stand- ard music names, among them Ray Bloch, Dick Hlmber, Harry Horlick, Joe Rines, Glen Gray. It is the prac- tice of wax companies, to sup- ply mimeographed continuities lo as- sist stations in the use of the library, and also to distribute publicity photographs of the musical units for local purposes. Lawyers Told Herring Not FCC s Favorite Washington, Dec. 12. Good-natured chiding was handed radio lawyers by FCC Chairman • James L, Fly, crusading for more | directness and honesty on the part of industry fronts, at the annual Fed- eral Communications Bar Associa- tion dinner Friday (1). While tem- pering rebukes with many facetious and good-humored interpolations, Fly in effect admonished the prac- titioners to pay closer attention to the rules of procedure, slick to the facts, and stop striving for forensla effect. They'd do much better tell- ing an unvarnished story, givlni prompt and factual answers to ques- tions, instead of winding up for ora- torical demonstrations. In pleading for better cooperation from the barristers, Fly conceded that the Commish is not abovt criticism but promised that under his direction attempts will be made to improve the operating methods. More thorough study of the rules and the decisions will show that effort Is being made, he implied, to straighten out some of the difficul- ties, end confusion, and bring about greater uniformity. Charles Eatough and Arthur Wea- ver make the latest additions to ths sales staff of KLZ, Denver. Former ^ comes from the Rocky Mountain News, while Weaver was with th' Denver Packing Co. _ mtmi SuSimU itv'BatiUnoUt'