Variety (Dec 1942)

30 RADIO Wednead»y, December 23, 1912 Some Radio Execs See Threat to Biz In Plans for Standard Victory' Label Some radio executives were con- siderably peituibed last week over the activities of several of the larycr advertisers who have been in Washington attcm|>ting to solicit support (or a 'Virtory Brand' label. Their plan is to stabilize grades and quality and use the one brand-label lor Ihc duration. Thu.s they expect to solve the transportation problems which .are plaguing their current existence. Great Britain solved il.~ di.siribu- tion and transportation problem by zoning the marketing of manufac- tured materials. Thus a biscuit maker in the north of England re- stricts distribution to the region around his plant, with the rest of the country t>eing covered by other biscuit bakers. Competition is tacit, but advertising is sustained since bi-and names arc kept alive by the exchange of labels. A domestic example might have Del Monte, whidh cans on the Coast, distribute some of its products with the latMl of White Rose, which cans in the east. And White Rose wouW do the same with Del Monte labels. Thus, although each would distribute both be aidiiig in the survival of valuable brand names. The efficacy of this system so far as advertising is concerned is patent, since without advertising the media of communication and information would either fold or require Govern- ment subsidies. Gear Chan^ Group Pirotests WNYCIWinie Washington, Dec 23. The Clear Channel Broadcasting Service, acting on behaU of 15 Clear Channel stations, filed ■ petition with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday (Monday) for rehearing and leave to intovene In the application of the city of New York municipal hroadcaathig system for night-time operation of station WNYC, which was granted by the FCC on December 1. Station WNYC operates on the same frequency as station WCCO in Minneapolis, a Clear Channel sta- tion. Prior to the FCC's granting of the application for special service au- thorization; the N. Y. station had to sign oer at sunset in Minneapolis. By its Dec. I order, the Commission extended WNYC's operating hours, with the provi.sion that.it use a di- rectional antenna in broadcasting during the extra time. The CTear Channel group's petition a.^l;cd that the FCC reconsider and vacate its Dec. 1 order granting WNYC's application, and either deny i\M application or designate it for hcaring. Louis G. Ca'dwell i,. the attorney fir the petitioners. Allan B. Miller, director, signed the petition for the Clear Channel Broadcasting Serv- ice. BLUE CLEARS ISm SLOTFORGRAOE FIELDS The Blue Network ha.s cleared the new time .schedule ordered by Pall Mall cigarets for Gracie Fields. Starlini; Jan. 11 she will have the 10.1.1-10.30 period Monday through Friday. Tlie program that had been in the w;.> was Hall Bros." 'Here Comes the Navy." fiUIng the Friday 10-10.30 p. m. slot. The latter account has a;;recd to take the 8.30-9 of the same evening. Freedom House Put the Lie to Rumors Ted Byron Back in U. S. Ted Byron, radio writer-director, has just returned to the U. S. after a year in South America as adver tising manager for Sterling Products In Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. He has joined the radio stafT of the Office of War Information. Freedom House will follow its 'Voice of Freedom' program on WMCA. N. Y.. with a 'rumor clinic' show. New program will use a board staffed by lawmen and representa- tives of the various governmental agencies interested in combating rumors. Slated to tee off early in February, it will be a weekly quarter-hour on Thursday evenings. Ralph Kirbery, who was billed in radio as The Dream Singer.' has just passed his flying test with the Army training force at Berry Field, Nashville. Ink-Poisoniog Some workers in the radio vineyard are beginning to won- der whether the Twenty-Year Club," composed of 'ploneerfi' in broadcasting, may not turn out one of those originally good ideas which went haywire because of an unrestrained surge for publicity. One of the wisecracks around the trade is that it won't be long before the club will welcome any one who came in contact with a crystal set 20 years ago, or wrote a postalcard to sta- tion telling of the good recep- tion he got the night before, Carter's to Conceitrate On Larger Markets Carter's Little Liver Pills is drop- ping out of the supplementary mar- kets it now patronizes and will use the money thus saved to increase its schedules in the larger markets. The expansion will be from five to seven announcements a week. Mosical Xmas Facbge Sterling Subbing Special 60-Mi]>. Songfest Fri. (25) in Place of 4 Serials Sterling Products has cancelled the Christmas (Friday) broadcasts of its four serials in the 4-S p.m. block on NBO and will substitute a special 60-minute musical show, 'Christmas BeU»—U5.A.' Stanza will have Frank Munn, Vivien deUa Chiesa, Conrad Thibault, Evelyn MacGregor, Marian McManus and Denis Ryan as soloists, with Victor A r d e n batoning the orchestra. They're all from the account's two Sunday night musical programs. 'Manhattan Merry-Co-Round' and American Album of Familiar Music' There will be about 40 numbers heard on the show, including stand- ard Christmas music of the U. S. and other United Nations. With so many selections to be crowded into the single hour, most of them will be merely capsuled. There will be no commercial copy on the stanzo, but the sponsor is getting the air credit via advance mentions on the four serials being replaced for the broadcast. Air Features, producing the spe- cial program, also produces the four serials. 'Backstage Wife,* 'Stella Dallas.' 'Lorenzo Jones' and 'Young Widder Brown,' for the Blackelt- Sample-Hummert agency, New York. Geo. Roosen Moves Up At WBBM; Continuity Head Chicago, Dec. 22. George Roosen, formerly a WBBM producer, became head of the sta- tion's continuity department recent- ly, succeeding Ward Caille. Caille joined the J. Walter Thomp- son agency here as assistant to Buckingham Gunn, radio head. and we take it ourselves! "Ketp advertising. Keep Vin reiuemberlng.'* That's bem tlie BLUE Network's wartime prescription for American business. It's a much needed prescription. Because it prevents loos of memory by cusIoiimts in these days.. .wlien so many products ara off tha market... and when there *h so much g<Hng on to make folks forget to buy. Has rationing or war prodnction left you with "notliing to sill"? Tiien tak<- a tip from several successful BLUE sponsors. Tell the public how to make y<Hir product go farther. Tell them what you're doing for \i«-lory. "Keep Vm rememlx'r- itig". . . reinembfriug your name . . . rememlM-riiig llir product yoiri) want to 8«-ll again ia post war da^s. Or, if you still have a product to market.. . tlieti Ifi ilie HLl K. broaflcast your ■ales message. "Keep 'em remembering"' to buy, now ! That's the BLUK prescription. And we lake it oiirscKi-s. That's why we're here now, to keep roK remembering llieRc imporlaiil fa< u alicmt llic K: — 37 new stations added to the BLUK in 1912. Total, 146 si a- tions, not counting extra stations available. 561 counties that count The BLUE delivers iH iirr than 96% coverage of tlie .S6l roimtie« that do tiO% of S. retail buviiijr. 35 new sponsors That's mora than any other notwork signed in 1942.. .even without in- cluding our special Vic« torj Program aponsors. Listenership bonus New programs, plus aggres- sive audience promotion, have built BLUE Kstener- sliip far ahead of rates.