Variety (Nov 1944)

Wednesday, November 15, 1944 ffiRIETY RADIO 33 AFRA Slaps Deadline on De Mifle To Pay $1 Levy Or Be Suspended Hollywood, Nov. 14. C, B. DeMille's defiance of Amer- ican Federation of Radio Artists in connection with the special assess- ment of $1 to oppose the "right to work" measure, voted down last week, is expected to result in his suspension. Board of directors of the LA local, of AFRA gave him until Dec. 1 to make his payment before punitive action is taken. DeMille has told friends that he will fight the special election levy in the courts and has no intention of com- promising his principle and paying it. If suspended, DeMille would have (6 be withdrawn as emcee of- Lux Radio Theatre; although .he could .coii.tinue as. its producer. , •• . Precedental ruling on special as- sessments tor defeat of- the '/right to'work" measure was handed down in superior court, here when- a special levy by Screen Office■■Em- ploye's. : -Guild in opposition to the same measure was upheld in its legality; , SESAC PLATTERS Sesac, music licensing firm, is .'tailing.a- series of, platters to plug its library Series is a package of lS-minute stanzas, 39, of them using mostly hillbilly, cowboy and folk tunes. •■ KATE SMITH 34.3* Jfoie-s where you get a' BIG Hitting,' WlW Station, BIG Market. • Nmipcr JRattlij'/ Winter Siniiig Iiulei. 11*413 44- W 1 A G WORCESTER General ElectricYStrip Show Set for CBS in Jan. General Electric, wili sponsor an audience participation program, with Art Linkletter as m.c, starting on CBS between Jan. X and 15, in the 4 to 4:25 p.m. time slot Mondays through Fridays in one of the most ambitious attempts . to date, at in- roads on the daytime serial format. Stanza, which will be titled, "GE's House Party,''! will originate in the CBS studios in Hollywood. Young & Rubicam and John Gudell Radio Productions handled the deal. WHAT GOES ON WITH CHI RADIO SCRIPTERS :■',■'■ „ . Chicago. Nov. 14. , With three of Chicago's top writers planning to pull out. for N. Y. around the fust of the.;yoar because of their utter disgust with the treatment.ac- corded them by ad agencies here, the story of one writer becomes of prime interest. :v /.'. .: Writer, who. accepted an assign- ment to write a half-hour dramatic show on spec for $250, was.informed a week after the script was turned in, that the radio' director- had been unable to contact the writer and, because, another writer had been hired to doctor, the script. $7.5 would ] be deducted from the $250 agreed \ upon. Agcncv c.scc admitted doc- , toring job was bad and. asked the ! original writer to polish the object- -j ed-to pails hi the script; _ | Failure on- the part of. the radio 1 director to get proper clearance en the script.from a film studio which owned the rights to the niaterial re- sulted in a last-minute cancellation, with the ..radio agency head refusing to pay. the Writer , even the $175. Grounds were that since show was not aired, there ;was. no obligation on'the part of the.agency to pay off. 3-Way Parlay Akron, Nov; 14. Each of the three Akron de- partment stores—Yeager's; Pol- sky's, and O'Neil's—sponsors a "Woman' of the Week.'' program, but last week, to their mutual astonishment, each program, fea- tured the same woman. She is Lotta Phillips Smith, who directs Little Theatre plays, the Children's Theatre, the one- act play group which visits hos- pitals, and manages the Akion Concert Course. ■:''•'.'■ ■ ' • .. ,- WOKO, Albany, Protests FCC Ruling Vs. License OK; Stock Deal Involved itHST MiWS W WS-D 60 Kc. 5000 WAITS WNEW'Newsreel' Also Into Detroit-Windsor "Air Force Newsreel,- heard for the past nine months on W.NEW. N. Y., will also be heard: on CKLW in the Windsor-Detroit area shortly. Scripts for stanza., which uses per- sonnel from the Mitchel Field. N. Y.. air base and is produced by Pvt. Dick Pack, are'shipped .to radio per- sonnel at Selfridge Field. Mich., Who cast and produce 'the <show for the Windsor station.- • : ..-: Hicks' Stix Clix Pave Way to Pix -./■- Chicago. Xov. 14. ' Significant of the nation's wartime nostalgia for the "good .old days," roadshows from WLS. home of the "Barn Dance," are winding! up the year with ; a record of having ap- peared, before audiences totalling al- most 3.000.000. Despite travel re- strictions, ''local yokel" characters, have managed to. riv.ke appearances before auds-.scattered from Manhat- tan. to rural communities in. the. Rockies, with state md county fairs and similar outdoor shindigs, in the midwest especially, getting the big- gest .play for- their cornied talents. Records; of all theatre dates haven't been kept by the station's booking office, but, in the past year, they ve had anywhere from one act to units of 25 or 30 performer? playing 225 rural dates' of from one to four days apiece. Besides,that, their -acts play theatres throughout the country every-day jivthe vcar. Bonanza in this field., lines up With terrif successes of live shows like '"Bloomer Girl" and "Oklahoma!''; radio and. night;; club, cleanups by Tolksingers like Burl Ives, and re- vivals of old songs to prove, ah in- creasing interest in Americana on the part of the public. Peculiar gimmick is that, despite Claims.of know-it-alls that radio has been the. main road to Hollywood lame for such "Barn Dance" vets as Gene Autry. Lulu Belle &. Scotty, Arkie, lloosicr Hot Shots and others who got ;their start , on the. Prairie. Farmer station, these personal ap- pearances have also helped pave the nay to movie gold. Among others, who have., hitched onto the. Hollywood gravy train, dur- ing the last 15 years via.the station's airers and foadshows: are. Fibber McGee and . Molly. Smiley Burne'.te, Pat Bultram, Patsy Montana, Red Foley, Maple City Four, etc. • Albany, Nov 14. WOKO will protest a. preliminary FCC ruling denying its application for renewal of a license, on the al- leged ground that misrepresenta- tions-had been made by WOKO,: Inc. Harold E. Smith, g.m., said the pro- ceedings, in which WOKO has 20 days to reply, will :n no . way affect the operations of the local CBS out- . let. It was stated by the WOKO management that the present hear- ing results from charges- of technical violations alleged to . have occurred more than 14 years ago. WOKO was transferred from ' Mount Beacon-, to Albany .in 1930. The. alleged violations involve cer- tain stock transactions in cohneeuon with the station financing ' and have no bearing oil any services insofar as it ■ relates to public interests and necessity provided by WOKO ' ac- cording to Smith.. . A.h AP story in. the- morning Times-Union iHe.a'.st daily), which ran an eight-column page one strean er on the FCC ac- tion, quoted the proposed findings as reading. "From a consideration: of all the material facts found" in die record of this hearing, -the commis- sion has concluded that, the appli- cant. caTinpt be . entrusted with . the responsibility-of a licensee ... the, grant of the application, for renewal of license by the applicant corpora- tion, .wbulcf not servepublic, con- venience, 'or necessity, and there- fore should, be denied.'' -;. . The-CBS outlet is accused of con- cealing the tact that .Sam Prckard, former FCC Commissioner and cx-. CBS v,p., owned 24'.' of the stock Schenectady—Elsie Page, secretary to Judge Chatfteld Bates, of Sche- nectady City Court; is joining. WSNY as a writer; working oh local ac- counts. Ken Hallehbeck, formerly of WGY.is a new; announcer at WSNY, while Peggy Daley is new re- ceptiotnst . -. • r .- Neil Dalton Steps Into Healy's OWI Top Job Washington, Nov, 14. Neil Dalton, assistant chief of the OWI Domestic Bureau, has been tipped to chief, succeeding George W. Healy, Jr., who- resigned 'last Wednesday <8> to resume as m. c. of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. H&ii.y was with OWI lor 10 months, Dalton was asst. to.the president of . the Lotiisville Courier-Journal and Times Co.. joining OWI. in March. ; :■'. UNHAPPY WGN TOPPED CHI'S VOTE COVERAGE Chicago. Nov. .14. Chicago's quietest election, despite the fact that more people voted than ever before, was marked, oddly enough,/by' the. finest. overall local coverage attributed to WGN. Mutual outlet here owned by anti-Roosevelt, Col. Bert McC'orniick. Police estimated that 1,000.000 peo- ple jammed the Loop, where - they heard 100 loudspeakers leased • by WGN from the State Street Council • .department store exec- 5 ). and spotted on every lamppost on State (from Wacker to Congress!, blare forth the requiem of the Colonel's political, hopes. Only station' to put the-show on public address system iiv the Loop, WGN also had loud- \ speakers at the Morrison hotel j i Democratic headquarters I, and two I other buildings-^-but, not. strangely, \ at GOP headquarters at the LaSalle ! hotel, '•■:.'•' 1 which was kept in the name of a. brother-in-law, R. K. Phelps, of Kansas City. ....'-, Examiner's Opinion The a f te r n o o n Knickerbocker News, Gannett publication which has held an interest in WOKO, stated the opinion was by an ex- aminer for FCC. It then quoted Smith in explanation of the station's stand, WOKO will be represented at the final hearing by George Sut- ton, Washington attorney, and Michael- D, Reilly and Sam Jacobs, of Albany. WOKO is reputed to be one of the... biggest money makers among the 1.000-watt stations in the cast: Some- lime ago the FCC ordered divorce- ment J'rbhi WABY, Mutual link, on the grounds the *ame interest' should not control two stations' in a locality. However, an indefinite ex- tension of ..the time: limit was said - to have been' granted pending an appeal by another station on this policy ruling. Last spring, reports were current that the Knickerbocker News would take over WABY and thai in doing so a reported 25'< in- terest the paper had in WOKO would be liquidated. The two vta- l ions 'how have studios in the same building at.Radio Center. This ar- rangement presumably would not,, be continued if the outlets, were .management-divorced, ..■/..; WDRC HARTFORD 4 CONNECTICUT PR C — F M $26,500,000 llartrnrO for »»•-«=••—»"" r • "" „r n vi„ over l»»t lin dane of «••' w- at »ne l«w ral*! Uie WDRC to Connect in Connecticut 100 GAGS—$1.00 Fun-MosJ*r Gog File Not. 1-2-3 $1.00 EACH \lul.-K CtwUu I'liMiiil.., *« TaulH Sniilli. Ua.fl lo "t'l N'-MASTKIf." i«li W. 5+ St.. Snitr lll-'l. N. V. I!» WHN, N Y., Aims Show | At Ex-GI Home-Seekers | "GI Apartment Clinic," designed . to help discharged veterans locate | living quarters, is being prepped ,by WHN, N.. Y.. as a Sunday air-cr. Idea Is to make the radio station a central clearing house for d's faced'With a housing problem for themselves and .families; '■ ••:.'.■,'■./'- ; -: v ; . Station has . approached foi me-r N Y* 'Mayor Jimmy -Walker to serve as moderator, interviewing ex- soldicrs on the kind of apartments needed Station a Kb" -liope* to get landlords to furnish■ .lists• of ; avfiil- iiblc apartments-. C.DVO.City Va- cancy Listing Bureau is batKing ihc programV : ".:-'■ .. ::.;.-',.' LEADING DEPARTMENT STORES choose for their "Did you find the Wheatics, Mcfice?' ■ Bakewell, Andrews Upped 1 - HdjK *-'iid N'nv. : i. W.li am Bakc,\cll ai,d Claik An- di'fW-' have been uppcVI from liciir truant -to rank of captain-armed foi: < s i ari.o ,-t.-i - vie»e Biilti •/'•ell, forme- ivt t.ir. serves as aftnig ehsc-f of uroac!'c*.-.t-- »f ctit/n, •a l)H( ; ; Ahtii-cvvs, foVincr -.-rudip p;-o- , d.icr r )/■(!!it ■ to- Major i n j Boai' n•;,--n.- ctnef of tipop nforma- i tion.'.-ectior.. :,.'-;'"■'. '/."-.;'■ TOP PROGRAMS Basic Blue 5000 Watts Represented by Paul H. Raymer Co.