Variety (Mar 1942)

i 'J6 BADIO Wednesday, March 4, 1942 [lodges Restrain FCC Until May, I See No Injury to Public If Status Quo Awaits Final Appeal ': The Federal Communications Com- :inlssion has been barred from en- torcliig Its new -ules on chain broad- i castlng until the U. S. supreme court ! has passed on an appeal by NBC and "CBS. The same federal statutory leourt In New York, which had the ' week before refused by a two-to- ''«ne decision to issue a restraining drder, last Monday (2) granted the ' networks' application for a stay. ' This stay is effective until May 1. • Imposition of any further term of ' restraint will be up to the supreme court Under Monday's (2) order of the '^etatutory court NBC artd C8S are !: required to file the record in appeal ; within 40 days and post the usual i^bond of $750 each. In issuing the I delay the court agreed with, the net- ' works' contention that irreparable • damage could accrue If the FCC ien- '■ forced its rules Immediately and the i highest tribunal later found that the I statutory court did have jurisdiction i; over the case. j' The special court also held that a 1^ delay of two months would not create Injury to the public com- jnensurate with the harm to the I; broadcasting companies and that It ii could not see where a delay in- l] volved the public interest. The court ~. further remarked that, 'We must as- l| sume that we may be mistaken, I certainly a not unreasonable assump- I tion In view of Judge Bright's dis- j sent We should use our discretion I in the plaintiff's ^favor to stay en- I forcement of tjie ^regulations.' The three-man court involved con- ; sists of Justice Learned Hand, of the : t7. S. circuit court of appeals, and I Federal judges Henry W. Goddard I and John Bright During last Frl- ' day's (27) hearing Justice Hand re- i narked that he could not xmderstand : why FCC counsel should oppose the I petitioned stay. The impression left j by Justice Hand was that he favored I granting a stay through the spring I term of the U. S. supreme court and that it would be up to the Itater tribunal to decide whether a longer Stay should be forthcoming. Bnghes' Views Charles Evans Hughes, Jr., attor- ney for CBS, was the first to speak, (Continued on page 33) Rockefellers Use Tact, Drop Radio Program In Deference to British The Rockefellers have dropped their plans for sponsoring a radio series to ballyhoo their WilliamS' burg, Va., development. Intention Is to revive the Idea after the war, Beason for dropping the scheme at this time is that most of Williams burg's early history deals with •vents of the {{evolutionary War period and it's felt that raking of such material would be tactless in- view of America's present alliance with Great Britain. ' Heiiry Fisk Carlton spent several months gathering material and out lining scripts for the series. He was on full ^salary during the pre- liminary period. 64 Serials Per Day Cleveland, March 3. A survey of afternoon enter- tainment over Cleveland's four stations showed 64. soap opera programs between O' a.m. 'and 6 p.m. WTAM leads with 30; WGAp 22; WHK, nine and WCLE, three. BENNY-SMITH SWAP PRODUCTS When Jtick Benny returns to his Sunday night inning in NBC next fall he will be associated with a different product General Foods, bis sponsor for the past seven -years, will substltue Grape-Nuts for Jell-O. Kate Smith will be involved in the switch. In place of Grape-Nuts her program will plug Jell-O. . Reason for the exchange is that by the fall Jell-O's output will be so limited as to make the cost of Beiiny too heavy. The limitation will be due to sugar priorities. The com- position of Jell-O is 60% . sugar. There is no limit to the amount of Grape-Nuts that can be produced. The Benny show will cost General Foods $22,000 a week, whereas the talent budget on the Smith program will be $10,000 a week. Helen Replogle Producer For KDKA's F-M Annex Pittsburgh, March 3. Mrs. Helen Replogle, radio and lit- tle theatre producer, has been named production director for KDKA's new FM affiliate, Westinghouse station W75P, which is scheduled to make its debut March 15. Transmitter has already been installed in same build- ing which houses KDKA's 50,000 watt e^ipment Station will be on the air 14 hours daily. Ufarch of Tnne' Heard on WTAM, CMand Because Of WHK (Bhe) Refusal •MaKh of Time' is being cleared over WTAM, NBC's Cleveland re- lease, as a delayed broadcast Friday nights as the Tesult of the-refusal of WHK, the Blue's local outlet, to take the show. The airing to Cleveland listening comes at 10:30 p.m., an hour after the original, and from a re- cording. Reason that WHK gave for turn- ing down the oTder was that the show ran but 25 minutes. Same station has Mutual's 'Spotlight Bands' (Coco-Cola) at 9:30-45 p.m. "Time* is also without broadcast representation In the Providence and Bridgeport, Clonn., areas because of like circumstances. Series of Facts-Figures Conferences Seeks Harmony Between Bureaus And Radio For War Stimulus The Holiday Spirit Milwaukee, March 3. All good station men put a ring around holidays as occasions for special events. This Is the per- sonal holiday record of C. G. Lanphier, mianager of WEMP: July 4, 1939—Father of a son. St Patrick's Day, 1940—Anoth- er son bom. St Valentine's Day, 1941— Daughter bom. WILL THOSE REEFER PEDDLERS miHElRS! KDKA House Orchestra Sold For Twice Nighdy Broadcasts By Armstrong Pittsburgh, March 3. Big local pact between KDKA and Duquesne Brewing Co. is a 26-week deal calling for staff orchestra. With Bernie Armstrong as director. It'll be a twice-nightly broadcast on a six-day per week schedul e, us ing both local station and WWVA, Wheeling, W. Va. A quarter-hour show at 7:30 p.m. will be fed to WWVA, same program being re- peated for KDKA at 11:05. Buzz Aston will be the vocalist Every Friday, a half-hour show will be carried by KDKA at 7:30, the first half of which will be fed to WWVA. For this program, orches- tra will be enlarged t,o 20 men and will, use singers Reed Kennedy, Madelyn Ward and Howard Price. Pierre Paulln will announce. 'Judy and Jane' serial on WOR, New York (via recordings for Heck- er's) has been plotted lately around a gang of peddlers of marajuana. Reference to dream-weeds have usually been verboten on the webs, Program auspices guarantees that the gangsters will meet a terrible end in the serial and that it is made abundantly clear that those who sell reefers are bad, bad fellows and those who smoke 'em are sad, sad cases. A telephone call was reported re- cently to WOR from an Interested listener who inquired what chain of drug stores sold, marajuana. |1UNT0UL TALKS TO BLUE r FOR WSRR, STAMFORD WSRR, Stamford, Conn, Is being considered by the Blue network as an optional station with WJ.*^, N. Y. The Stamford outlet is owned and operated by Steve RintouL Sponsor 'EonBewiTf;s Kews' San Antonio, March 8. The 'Housewives' News Parade,' daily quarter hour at 8:30 ajn. over KTSA, is sponsored by Falr-Mald Bread and Handy-Andy Food Stores on alternate days. Both accounts handled by Pitluk agency. Peter PanI, Inc., has taken over the 6:30 p.nL news three days a week on WHO, Des Moines, Iowa, starting March 3. The company recently re- newed its contract for the B pjn. newscasts on the same days,. McNaughton-WUson Show With Larry Binyon Orch Harry McNaughton and Ward Wil' son have made a wax audition of a new 'Teatime Revue' which the Na, tlonal Concert & Artists Corp. is representing. It's proposed for after noon' spotting as a quarter-hour. Also Includes Kay Lorraine and orchestra directed by Larry Binyon, brother of screen vrriter Claude Bin yon. Max Ehrlloh'a Afslgnments Max S. Ehrllch has joined the writing staff for Bill Stem's sports show Saturday nights on NBC-Red, (WEAF) for Colgate shave cream. He is also the auHior of "The Story of Tommy Donovan,' tomorrow night's (Thursday) stanza on 'Big Town' on CBS for Rinso (Lever Bros.). TBEO'NEIILS' OFF FOR P&G •The O'Neills,' late-afternoon serial on CBS for Ivory soap, is being dropped by Procter t Gamble as of the March 27 broadcast It has been sponsored by the account since October, 1039. Show is produced by Ed Wolf Associates. Jane West is the regular author, but Herbert Little, Jr., and David Victor have been scripting during her illness. Chick Vincent is director. Compton Is the agency. P. & G. Is not retaining the time. McKay Sends Pobficity Staffers on Road Calls To Meet NBC Affiliates Beginning April 1 N. Y. members of the NBC publicity department un der John McKay will make road trips at the rate of two a week. Idea is to familiarize the web's press agents with the problems of NBC's local affiliates' own publicists and to meet radio columnists around the country. Each journey will be of one week's duration and upon return the traveller will meet his coUeaguts at .a staff breakfast to pass on im- pressions. Plan, as okayed by Frank Mullen, will send New Yorkers west as far as Ohio, also south. Bill Ray's staff in Chicago will scout the midwestern zone, and Hal Bock will reconnoiter the Pacific area. This plan differs from CBS system of having one traveller, George Cran dall, continuously on tour. NBC is especially Interested In ob talning angles for publicity breaks on wartime morale programs pro duced by the network. Another McKay innovation is a $10 weekly bonus for beist publicity re- lease written by pny staffer.^ Bill Norrls left the NeWT^k staff last week. Phoebe Mink will prob' ably transfer to the Blue web. How NBC's ^AssemblyLine'Picks Up Actors, Music, Scripts and Sanctions Washington, March 3. Ideas about more effective and profitable use of radio for the war effort particularly, and for govern- ment purposes in general, will be jelled at a series of huddles where agency and network production peo- ple and representative broadcasters will talk things out with officials of miscellaneous Federal units under uspices of the Office of Facts and Figures. Nothing has crystallized yet—It's three or four weeks too soon—re- garding closer links between com- mercial programs and the ideas the Roosevelt Administration wants to get "STer to the American people. Such as the need for greater indus- trial production, inevitability of per- sonal sacrifices, what we're fighting for, etc. Or about curtailing Federal microphoned information and prop- aganda that has no direct relation to beating the Axis. First I'lSssions were held in Wash- ington when the two advisory groups put heads together at separate ses- sion with the O.F.F. and the War Production Board. Subsequent par- leys were with Army, Navy, and Treasury people. Then with Office of Civilian Defense, General Securi- ty Agency, and Department of Agri- culture. All others—Interior, hous- ing units, wage-hour division, etc.— will be in for a concluding jamboree. Industry people and government people are getting a better under- standing of each other's desires and problems, with distrust and petty animosities dissolving, as a result of the liaison established via O.F.F., in the eyes of William B. Lewis, former CBS exec now directing the agency's operations division and steering the radio bookings. Talking things out inevitably will lend to more profit- able use of radio for all concerned, Lewis is convinced after the initial confabs, at which practical problems, such as use of transcriptions, time available, reaching the right segment of the audience, and so forth, were weighed and described. It's too early to frame any concrete plans for rescheduling Federal pro- grams or changing their tone and character, Lewis commented this week, but eventual result should be less muttering on both, sides and more sympathetic relations. Bambean Beppiog WHIN WMIN, St Paul, has named the WHliam G. Rambeau Co. as its na- tional sales rep. Appointment becomes effective im- Baedlately. Workmen are busily disentangling the production departments of the Blue network from NBC proper at Radio City, New York. Under the reorganizations, the second floor will divide at the elevators, the Blue program staff being strewn to the left and NBC to the right, or south. Clarence L. Menser, program chief of NBC, has had one over-all Idea in mind with regard to the layout of NBC. It Is to concentrate offices in their proper sequence so that, theoretically, the 'draw material' of broadcasts flows along a l>elt-llne loosely comparable to a factory as- sembly line. .This begins quite naturally with an outer waiting room for actors, the pool from which NBC draws talent _Next comes two big offices, one headqqarters for nine producers, or unit foremen, the next containing six more. These 15 NBC producers are: Lester O'Keefe, Anton Leader, Lester Vail, Daniel Sutter, llieodore Corday, William WUgus, Jack Meakin, Bruce Kamman, Lee Jopes, William Sweets, Edward L. Dunham, Van Fleming, Joe Daly, Paul Du- mont, James Haupt The flrst production process Is in the next office, where the NBC script editor and director, Lewis Titterton, Is situated with a series of succeeding offices (again the as- sembly line analogy) dealing with material for broadcast. First his two secretaries. Misses Lane and Kern, then script routing super- visors Frederick Heider and Doro- thy McBrlde, then checking for 'rights' by Stockton Helfrich and Marlon Noyes. As a prospective radio script, whether originated Inside or outside NBC, goes down the line It Is ex- amined for flaws, Imperfections or indigo by a series of literary In- spectors. Arthur Zipser, as 'idea man,', searches primarily for qual- ity. Barbara Frank reads plays. Eileen Donahue personifies the cor- poration policies and scans for de- partures from specifications. The writers, or designers, are In two sections. They include Edward Bhrnbryer, Ronald MacDougall, Richard MacDonagh, Neal Hopkins, David Hall. Two music researchers also are stationed along the line, which then passes into the music section, where H. Leopold Spltalriy and his as- sistant, Frank VagnonI, add their part and have their own staffs. There, too, the sound effects are welded by Ray Kelley and the pro- gram, with its script checked for a dozen considerations, and with ac- tors, directors, writers, music, time, musicians, studio and budget set, leaves the assembly line to be pack- aged; I. e., broadcast The finale is, of course, the scrijpt 'file room, where all little radio pro- grams, good or bad, eventually go. New setup should be functioning some time In April, Nichols, Agency Owner, Head of KEVR, Seattle; Stays KOMO, KJR, KHIO Seattle, March 3. Robert S. Nichols has taken over the management of KEVR, 250 wet- ter at 1090 kc, having been named manager after Bob McCaw and Dick Downey, co-managers, entered the Navy. Nichols thereby completed a 22-year cycle from 250 watts back to 250 watts, as he first started In radio In February, 1922, singing over KFC, old Seattle P. I. sUtlon. KEVR is a member of the Ever- green Broadcasting System, a web of seven small stations In Washing- ton and Oregon, and it also has a reciprocal agreement for. the use of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programs which are fed througji CPR, Vancouver. ^S*^ The Robert S. Nichols advertising agency will continue under the same name. He will also retain his 'Radio Parade,' for Bartell Drugs which airs five times a week over KOMO, KJR and KIRO. Coleman Quits MCA, Returns to CBS, N. Y. Merritt Coleman has resigned from the Music Corp. of America to rejoin CBS as assistant to Law- rence W. Lowman, v.p. in charge of operations. He was legal advisor in MCA's N. Y. office. .J Coleman left CBS at the time the Columbia Artists Bureau was sold to MCA. Dorothy Boberts to Blackett Chicago, March 3. Dorothy Roberts leaving the J. Walter Thompson agency to Join Blackett - Sample - Hummert agency here on research. Was assistant time buyer at JWT.