Variety (Sep 1942)

Wffdneaday, September 2, 1942 RADIO 39 Delousing Central Europe 'Broadcasting for Democracy' by Otto Frledmann has been pub- lished in England by Allen & Unwin. It seems not to be generally available in the United States. A review of it recently in the Christian Science Monitor excited considerable radio and public relations in- terest. It recommends an Allied General Council for Propaganda. The necessity for re-educating the Nazis (after they lose) Is also emphasized because somebody must delouse Central Europe after the Nazis. 11DX Transmitters, Now Frozen, W31 Give U.S. Heaviest PropagandaWeapon Washington, Sept. 1. Some 11 additional shortwave transmitters for the U. S. are in prospect. They'll supplement the 14 now in operation, giving this country the facilities for the most intensive barrage of DX propaganda of any nation in the world. The transmitters are complete and have been in warehouses for months. They were built before the war for the British government by U. S. manufacturers. Stop-order went in after Dec. 8 on export of all such material «nd the equipment has been in storage ever since. Office of War Information and the Coordinator of Inter-American Af- fairs, the two outfits concerned with foreign broadcasting, have about de- termined to requisition the idle transmitters and put them to use. Only catch is that there is consid- erable supplementary equipment still to be built and priorities on materials probably will cause quite a hitch. New transmitters will be Govern- ment-operated, as the present 14 soon will be. Reps of the OWI and CIAA, accompanied by a Govern- ment attorney, are currently on a tour of the stations making deals to take them over. A variety of pro- posals are being considered, but it is generally believed that actual technical operation will remain with the present owners and the two Government propaganda agencies will only program them. OWI, which is concerned with pumping the U. S. viewpoint to Eu- rofie, Asia, Africa and points in be- tween, will control 16 hours daily of the stations' time, while the Inter- American Affairs Office, which deals only with the western hemisphere, will have the other eight hours. Divvy of time roughly wiU be mid- night to 4 p.m. each day for the OWI and 4 p.m. to midnight for ■the CIAA. CIAA has opposed taking over operation of the stations. It has been pushed into it, however, by the OWI's insistence and the necessity of the two Government agencies presenting a united front to the broadcasters. To Monitor DX In Sonth America Washington, Sept. 1. Varying reports on quality of shortwave reception in Latin Amer- lea during the past couple of years has determined the Office of Co- ordinator of Inter-American Af- fairs to set up its own monitoring unlU throughout the continent. It will have, for the first time, an ac- curate check on how well the 14 U.S. DXers are being received and the comparative strength of reception of Axis transmitters. CIAA plans to set up monitors at lime points. They will be provided w^th tape recording equipment and be capable of picking up two or three frequencies at once. In most cases the Coordinator's office won't operate the monitor units itself, but will work in cooperation with estab- lished outfits. CIAA WiU provide the equipment, however, and pay any added help required. International Telephone & Tele- graph Co. will operate the monitors in Buenos Aires, Rio, Recife and Santjago. AU-Amerlcan Cable & Radio will operate monitors at Bogota, San Juan and Lima. Venezuelan Posts and Telegraphs Department will handle that at Caracas', and the Director General of Telegraphs in Mexico that at Mexico City. Incidentally, as engineers continue fiddle with KWID, San Francisco, Mary Dnnleavy With R.&R. Mary Dunleavy has joined the Ruthraufl St Ryan agency as assist- ant to Ted Fisher, time buyer. She was formerly with Erwin, Wasey & Co. POUTICS MAKE STRANGE BED FELLOE Politics will make the Blue Net- work and Columbia bedfellows In a limited way. It will be just their N. Y. State hookups. Thomas E. Dewey, Republican candidate for Governor, will do a Monday evening chat for four weeks starting Oct. S over, every CBS and Blue station in the state simultaneously (7:1S- 7-30). The broadcasts will originate in a CBS studio in N. Y. and the Blue ha;'< agreed to accept Columbia's feed. Duane Jones was the agency that negotiated the time purchase. TED COLLINS HONORED FOR HIS AMERICANISM 'For his efforts through his radio program to inspire the American public with the will to win the war' Ted Collins will be awarded a scroll signifying the honor by the Hon. James J. Gerard, former am- bassador to Germany and Honorary Chairman of the 'We Will Win Com- mittee' of the American War Heroes Foundation, Inc. This was an- nounced by George Fecke, national director of the Committee, at na- tional headquarters of the American War Heroes Foundation in N. Y. Collins is the first American citi- zen to be so honored. As result of the dally and weekly Kate Smith broadcasta produced by Collins, Fecke said millions of Americans are being filled with an indomitable will to win the war. The 'We Will Win Committee' is a citizen's organiza- tion obtaining 30,000,000 signatures to be forwarded to the President as a token of America's determination for victory. New Blue AffiUate KGHI, Little Rock, Ark., joins the Blue Network Jan. 12 as a part of the South Central group. The web's list of affiliates now adds up to 132. reports of signal strength through- out the world Improve. KWID, Government-financed, Is the nation's newest transmitter. It's a 100,000- watter, but Is still In the shakedown period and hasn't reached full strength. Robert Hndson, director of Rocky Mountain Radio Council, Denver, put his annual report to press this week. NO FILM CUESTS ON Y&R SCHEDULE Leading Night - Time Pro- gram Agency, Once One of the Most Active on Coast, Without a Single Exclusively H'wood Show 2 'THEATRES' OUT Young & Rubicam will again this fall have more night-time network programs than any other agency, but for the first time in seven years the list will not contain a show whose policy calls for the regular guesting of film names. Last season the agency had two programs of such classification, 'Silver Theatre' and 'Screen Guild Theatre.' Edward Mur- row, the news commentator from London, will continue for the In' ternational Silver Co. and the 'Sil- ver Theatre' goes on the shelf for the duration, while 'We, the People' remains with Gulf Oil for the fall and winter. Gulf had sponsored 'Screen Guild' for three successive seasons. Next to J. Walter Thompson, Y & R was for years the most active ad agency In Hollywood. As things now stand, it hasn't a single show that has to originate from the west coast exclusively. When there are no picture commitments to inter' vene, Jack Benny and Eddie Cantor frequently broadcast from the east C-PP DROPPING TWO SERIALS •Bachelor's Children' and 'Story of Bess Johnson,* airrently on WEAF- NBC, will be dropped by Colgate- Palmolive-Peet with their Sept. 25 broadcasts. However, 'Bachelor's Children' will be taken over imme- tliately by Continental. Mills for Wonder Bread. Latter account now sponsors "Maudie's Diary' on CBS, but is dropping it with the Sept. 24 episode. Ted Bates is the agency for Continental Mills and will suc- ceed Ward Wheelock on the 'Bach- elor's Children' serial, which will moye to the 10:45-11 a.m. spot on CBS with the change of sponsor- ship. Esty is the agency on the 'Bess Johnson' stanza. Bates has also bought another se- rial, "The O'Neills,' for Standard Brands (Royal desserts) to start Oct. 5 in the 10:15-10:30 a.m. spot on a 126-station hookup on WEAF-NBC. It's packaged by Ed Wolf Associates and was last sponsored by Procter 6 Gamble. ■ Other Bates shows which continue are 'Hobby Lobby' for Colgate and 'Inner Sanctum' for Carter's. CONRAD NAGE TOPS 'READER'S DIGESr SHOW Conrad Nagel will be narrator-lead on the new 'Reader's Digest' program which Transamerican will produce for Campbell's soup 9-0:30 p.m. Sun- days on CBS, starting Sept. 13. Lyn Murray will do the score and supply the chorus on the show, which will consist of short dramatized spots and use guest names. Henry Heyward is directing and William Spier, of the CBS staff, is working with Transamerican on the script. Wheelock is the agency. New MBS Addition Station CKCL, Toronto, join'ed the Mutual network yesterday (Tues- day). Addition brings the number of Mutual affiliates to 207. D. C. Interest Softens M-G s Radio Stance, So Lionel Barrymore Goes Into 'Mayor of Our Town for Lever Central Control Washington, Sept. 1. By orders of Director William B. Lewis of the Office of War Information Radio Bureau, of- ficial spokesman concerning all matters relating to Government use of radio for domestic war propaganda is Douglas Meser- vey, deputy chief. Henceforth, others on Lewis' rapidly expanding staff (which now numbers over 60) cannot talk with the press without Meservey's permission. All queries must be 'channelized' through the former NBC of- ficial. RUPPEL QUITS CBS FOR MAG EXEC BERTH Lou Ruppel, CBS publicity direc- tor, has resigned as of Oct 1 to be- come executive assistant to Thomas Beck, president of Crowell-CoUier Publishing Co. According to report, Frank Stanton, CBS research and sales promotion head. Is to be given the added duties of publicity chief and elected to a vice-presidency of the company. The action is expect- ed at today's (Wednesday) meeting of the CBS board of directors. In' announcing Ruppel's resigna tion yesterday (Tuesday), Columbia stated that George Crandell, Rup pel's assistant, would be acting pub- licity director pending the appoint- ment of a permanent successor. At Crowell-Colller It was stated that Ruppel's duties as assistant to Beck, would be of a general executive nature. Ruppel, former managing editor of the Chicago Times, has been ru mored ' as' leaving^ to take various other jobs on several occasions since he joined CBS more than three years ago. One of the most recent such reports was to the effect that he would become assistant to Elmer Davis, head of the Office of War Information. PHIL BAKER Wni TAKE QUIZ SHOW TO COAST Phil Baker lakes his Eversharp 'Double-or-Nothing' radio show to Hollywood for Coast emanation in a couple of months. Co-star of 'Priorities,' which opens In Philadelphia next week for a fortnight, will travel to Baltiniore and Pittsburgh with the vaude revue, but Baker drops out thereafter to emcee the radio commercial from the West Vic Knight producer for Milton Blow on the airshow, goes West with it. New Texas Sponsors San Antonio, Sept 1. Texas Maid Shortening will spon- sor three quarter-hour newscasts per week by KTSA newscaster, Charles C. Shaw, each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings, beginning today (Tuesday). Besides the news by air. a big cash consumer contest is also being staged. Universal Mills of Fort Worth will sponsor a series of three quarter- hour news programs per week over station KTSA each Monday, Wednes- day and Friday. Airings will fea- ture Charles C. Shaw. Lionel Barrymore debuts in the 7-7:30 p.m. period on NBC this Sun- day (6) for Rinso without any strings being tied to his service as far as the M-G-M studio Is con- cerned. It's a regular 39-week agreement with options for two years and the closing of the deal by the Ruthrauff it Ryan agency for Lever marks a sharp reversal of a long-held Metro policy. M-G-M, re- acting to exhibitor sentiments, did not previously fancy the idea of ita contract stars appearing on a regu- lar radio series. R.&R., in this case, received no little assistance from Washington, since the Barrymore se- ries, 'Mayor of Our Town,' will con- cern itself in a major way with war. time civilian problems and morals. In striving to break down Metro's opposition, the R & R agency was working against time. It was anxious to get a replacement as quickly as possible for "The Remarkable Miss Crandair series. The latter program started out as "The Remarkable Miss Tuttle' nine weeks ago and after its second week ran Into a snag when the star, Edna Mae Oliver, was forced to retire because of illness. Mary Boland was substituted, but Lever and the agency, after several weeks, were of the opinion that the original characterization as devised by the scriptists, Howard Harris and Martin Gosch, fitted Miss Oliver much more than it did Miss Boland. Jack Benny Is due back in the Sunday' 7 o'clock spot for General Foods Oct 7, so that after four weeks of it in that time Barrymore will take up In the Wednesday 0:30-10 p.m. segment which Lever has re- served on CBS. The previous half- hour will be filled by another Lever name. Bob Burns. After R & R learned that Barry- more was available, it found that Metro would not permit the star to take a long-term contract, but would restrict him to 13-week period with the right to renew being chiefly in- vested in the studio. SWAIfS DOUBLE LAUGH RATIONS Swan Soap (Lever Bros.) will have two comedy programs. Burns and Allen and Tommy Riggs, on the air this fall. Rlggs, who has been pinch- hitting for B & A this summer, will have the Friday 7:30-8 p.m. spot on NBC starting Sept II. Bums and Allen will have the Tuesday 0-9:30 period on CBS. STORER QUITS BLUE FOR OWN PRODUCTIONS Douglas F. Storer has resigned as commercial program head of the Blue network to devote full time to his outside program production of- fice. He continued the latter activity during his association with the Blue. Henry Carlton Into Army Henry Fisk Carlton, president of the Radio Writers Guild and mem- ber of the Writers War Board, is leaving shortly for a commission In the Army. Paul Gallico and Jack Goodman, of Simon & Schuster, are new mem- bers of Writers War Board.