Variety (January 1944)

Wednesday* Januaity 26, RADIO Chicago, Jan. 25. Returr.ed overseas personnel' is so much in demand that'every availahle patieht at both the Percy Jones and Gardiner General hospitals here,' able to speak and appear before the public of niicrophone, has been ' booked solid tor the duration of the Chin'ent Fourth War Loan Drive. . The Percy Jgncs hospital has fur- nished 75Q patients in .the' last '.six months' of .1943; .and, approximately: '■ 300 soldiers each month are now be- ing used fro.m ■ the two ho.spitals, : mostly oh radio programs to further the buying of bonds and war stamps. Only soldiers who have served over- seas are used,. as they can impress on a radio audience’s mind the need for supplies. Convalescing soldiers ate eager to. appear on radio pro- grams so they can drive this point .. home. Blue Net to Set Up In Central Division ■ ,, ' Chicago, Jan. 25. Final plans lor a separate Blue ITet’iyork. musical staff in the central division have been drafted with Rex Klaupin,- former NBC conductor, scheduled to head the new depart- ment. Network execs figure on 30-35 staffers at the start, \yith the num-, ber to be increased later. Maupin will be the conductor on the late afternoon and. nighttime shows wilh Harry Kogan slated to handle the music on the “Breakfast Club’’ and the rest of the morning shows re- quiring music. ;i 'i: ' . Actual spliiup of the present' ar- rangement of NBC and the Blue where the same men service both networks is held up pending a hudiUe ; in New York between ; James C« Petrillo and the top execs of the four major networks on the overail terms for a renewal of- network con- tracts. V : ■ : Meeting, which is expected to be held this week, i.s a continuation of a preliminary session held in New Innocent Victim J. Walter Thompson agency, i which handles the Lever Bros, account on the Vimm.s-Frank Si- , natra v Wednesday night CBS show, took the rap for a pan re- view op its,pwft' account in a let- ter received by the agency last week from a Sinatra fan in Dallas. ;'Letter,' addressed to “Mr. J. i. Walter Tiiompson. care ‘Variety,’ . New York City,” credited the "Mr. Thompson” with writing the A. "Variety”■ review on, the intro- ductory Sinatra broadcast, and in no uncertain terms expressed tii.'gu.st over the opinions ex- pressed. Missive obviously was the result of its author mistaking the italicized credit line lag on ', the review for a byline, hence ■■ the Tliompson-‘'Va.riety” address. Yorjt Christmas week. When and if the ■ union and network presidents reach an agreement on basic terms for the'new contracts, Petrillo is,ex- pected to lift hi.s order of last sum- mer restraining the locals from ne- gotiating new network contracts. Details can then be worked out locally in each city. ' The new Energine show, replacing "Battle of the Sexes” in the 8:30-9 p.mi spot Wednesdays on WJZ-Blue, ■■Will: be called "My Best .Girls.” It.is tentatively slated to start Feb. 9, with Wes McKee directing for the Young & Rubicam agency. It will be a continuing dramatic story. ■ Writer and cast are not set. ' Engineers of Mutual’s ; Key Stations to Meet Engineers of Mutual's key stations will meet at the Ambassador hotel, N. Y., tomorrow (27.) to' discuss' new developments in their field. Jack Poppele, chief , engineer of WOR, N.Y., will chairman the event. , y R. MacFarland, of American Tel &'Tel, will be guest speaker. : Wa.shington, Jan. 25. Foreign language radio program* 'have taken a terrific licking'under the, impact of the ■war,, a ne.wly-,com- pleted FCC study discloses. Chief reason is that the local statfon* throughout the country handling the programs can make more money : selling the time for English language ' shows, due to the flood of advertising cash now looking for a place to; be spent. Numerous stations, have ; sloughed the .'.lihguai .shows in. recent months '•with ..more of the same due to come. . The .'linguals,like' the , foreign Ian-., guage press, depend upon a steady flow of immigration for circulation. Under the, policy in effect in tnli I country in recent years, virtually all I of them wbuld pass out of the pic- ture cyenlually anyhow, since sec-: ond and , third generation , citizens never follow up with the mother tongue of the immigrants. The new war policy has merely accentuated . the situafi’pn.'''.: Chief hope for a restoration of the linguals on the large scale, observers hero believe, would be a lowering of the immigration bars after the war to help the victims in Europe whose homes and livelihoods have been wiped out. If, on the other hand. Congress refuses to change its pres- ent policy of. a very limited immi- gration, there appears little chance that lingual broadcasting will boom again. An FCC .survey in December, 1941, .showed 400 stations broadcasting a total of k.'iSO foreign language hours a week. A later survey in, April,.. 1943. showed only 199 stations broad- casting 1,460 foreign language hours weekly; Thc.se were in 26 difterent, tongues, with Spanish, Italian and Polish in the lead for time. ■; At present, FCC estimate-s, only about; 125 stations are carrying lingual programs, with the number expected Ip drop steadily. In addi- tion to the clamor for air time by English language advertisers, the fol- lowing' reasons for the drop ar“ given: recent network affiliations by many : former independent foreign language stations; and the added war costs of hiring monitors and censors in accordance with Office of Censor- ship regulations. ; Among the stations which have shaken loose from the “lingual field in receht months are WPEN in Phil- adelphia, which cancelled all foreign language’ time Jan. 1; New Haven’s Blue; outlet, WELI, which cancelled: alii mostly ItaUah and Polish, Oct. ,17 last; WBRE, in Wilkes. Barre, Pa., which cut them out last May; WBNYi Buffalo, which recently . dropped its Italian programs; andki.H Texas, KONO, San Antonio; KRIS, Corpus Christi; and KABC, San An- tonio, which have wiped out-their Spanish-language programs. Two small Pennsylvania stations, WAZL and WARM, are also reported getting ready to ;;ditCh the lingual field. BABB RBIQIS NCAC, John Babb, with National Concert & Artists Corp., has resigned and is understood planning to set up his oWn management .office. Among his clienU are Elaine Sterne Carrington, i author of the "Pepper Young” and "When a Girl Marries” serials; Ed: Ea.st and Polly, who conduct the "Ladies; Be Seated" audience par- ticipation series on WJZ-Blue, and Hanson W. Baldwin,, military analyst of the N, Y Times. Before joining NCAC in 1927, Babb was with American Tobacco and American Piano. . Brewery Sponsor Drops Fulton Lewis on WABY Albany. Jan. 25. , Beverwyck 'Brewing Co. of Albany, Which for more than a year had been sponsoring Fulton Lewis, Jr., on ai:. participation basis for the Washing- ton commentator’s broadcasts over Mutual, through WABY, dropped him last .week and :sub5tltuted .Gep^ O’Haire in a nightly news roundup. O’Haire, .who does thoee .spdii:seied musical clock programs on WGY, Schenectady, also airs a 15-minute sponsored : neWs '“cominehtary thre#’ mornings a week Via WGl'Y.: Hfe also has been appearing in televisipii shows on WRGB.