Variety (Dec 1942)

Wedhesdajt December 9i 1942 RADIO 29 Too Hot for Daily, OK for Radio Boston, Dec, 8. Joe Dinneen, Boston Globe columnist, wrote a factual account of the Are hazards existing in local niteries that could repeat the Cocoanut Grove holocaust, but his newspaper termed it too hot to print. So Din- neen delivered it on his daily broadcast over WORL. Nightclub operators mentioned over the air threatened recourse through the courts, but their outbursts were suddenly stilled when the building department inspectors closed everyone of them until al- terations were made. From Radio to Modiste's, All Because of a Wife Buffalo, Dec. 8. Floyd Keesee has resigned as sports announcer of WBNY here to open a dress shop in Providence, R. I. He expects to l>e called for Army duty, so he's getting the shop set for his wife to take over, if and when. Keesee started a few years back on WMBO, Auburn, N. Y., where his father, Frederick L., is station man- ager. Arthur Perles Moyes Up Arthur Perles, formerly in charge of CBS shortwave publicity, has been appointed assistant publicity director of the network, under George Crandall, director. Before becoming press contact for the shortwave department, Perles was publicity copy editor for the network and previous to that was a newspaper man. Ifs right in his lap 1 he subject of the photograph is named John. He isvthe Average American. A very ««-average person he is. He and his wife and kids (in the service or not) are 'what makes America go'. He works for somebody or other—maybe himself, even—but he runs the country. Increasingly it becomes apparent to him that his responsibilities and those of his kids are not limited by our national boundaries. He runs the country.^ Yes. What is perhaps more urgent is that HE RUNS YOU. He's"got the major problems of the world squarely in his lap. He realizes that if he doesn't tackle and solve them he will have to take orders from who- ever tackles and solves them first. He is (/linking very hard these days. He doesn't like to sound off an opinion without plenty of facts to fortify his instincts. He relies on radio, enormously and increasingly, for the facts and impres- sions on which he bases his judgments. He and his family listen some 5 hours a: day. He is cagey as a fox about believing—or disbelieving—the information, argu- ment and emotion he gets from the air. But out of his weighing, accepting and rejecting of everything he hoars, he forms an opinion, and acts on it. This is called -public opinion. Radio public opinion is 31 million families strong. His personal opinion—no matter what the captains and the kings may say- will decide what happens to the USA in the factory, the military field, and the home. He is not to be trifled with, nor deceived—especially on the air. He is"open to argument", and In the long run he is just. He is grateful for a good time, bountiful in his generosity, scornful of fraud —and loyal to tried friends. He's worth taking up your case with. In 28 million homes he and hie family listen to CBS. After all, he's your boss. BS Compton Would Give Free Hand to Couple of Scrip* ters for Experimental Purposes — Departure From Package Program Policy TIRED OF A.K. IDEAS The Compton agency, which han- dles several daytime serials for Procter & Gamble, is scouting around for a couple writers with fresh points of view on daytime ra- dio dramatization who would be in- terested in doing some experimental work. The policy represents quite an innovation for this agency, since it has heretofore confined its day- time serial operation to package programs bought on the outside. The writers brought in would be given a free hand as far as plotting story and character forms, and they would, of course, receive the edi- torial aid and guidance of Compton production executives. If a script developed from such an inside col- laboration impresses Compton offi- cials as having possibilities, it will be recorded and tested on various stations, or given a try out with a live cast on some regional network. What prompted the agency to adopt the experimental project was the realization that few new writ- ers have cracked the daytime serial Seld in recent years. Clients and agencies have consequently had to lean on the same old coterie. These fall into three groups: (1) writers who have carved out a reputation and keep in the same groove year after year; (2) writers who swing from one program package produc- ing firm to another and (unction merely as assembly-line workers on pat program patterns, and (3) writ- ers whom the parade passed by long ago. The Compton idea is to recruit absolute beginners who have no pre- conceived notions and to give them full swing. From such newcomers might come a product that recog- nizes that the theme of all-out emo- tional frustration has in no small measure lo.st its effectiveness in day- time radio because of the fullfilment accorded listeners on that score by the war, and that the times call for a newer orientation of emotional concepts. CRAWFORD RENEWS ON WMCA FOR 4TH YR. Crawford Ciolhes renewed its schedule with WMCA. N. Y., for 52 weeks non-cancellable. Sponsor has over nine houn a week on the sta- tion, spread over everything but spot announcements, and has been a steady user of WMCA time for three years. Half of Crawford's schedule con- sists of news, with the balance in- cluding variety, record, quiz and sports shows, all in quarter or half- hour blocks. MacDonald New NBC V.P. John H. MacDonald, financial of- ficer of NBC, was last week elected v.p. MacDonald came into NBC in 1932 through Tradeways, Inc, which was doing a research and re- organization job for the network at the time. After the Tradeway as.-ignment had been completed, MacDonald became the NBC budget officer, served as business manager of the recording division. He worked on the various problems arising from the. separation of the Red and Blue networks.