Variety (May 1946)

W><ln««lay* M«j 8, 1946 POWDffi FOR TOP COIN MUSICALS This, Too, Is Radio Radio can take plenty of slapping around—and has taken it, of late, via lite FCC Blue Book and other routes as Well—but it can come up for more as long as such things as have gone on in the last couple of weeks are part of the industry's record. Take a look at the awards given out at Columbus, especially those involving regional and local programming. See what radio did for the Reel Cross drive this year, although the peace is on and with it 'much cynicism. Look at the United Nations coverage, being done when- ever Hie Security Council is in session by. at least a handful of stationi —among .them NBC's. N. Y. flagship.'WEAF ion a purely local scalei. Consider WNEW's (N.Y.) all-day pitch for the cancer fund a couple of weeks ago, and 1 WLIB's (N; Y.i full-day devotion to the food cam- paign last Sunday (S). Get a playback of P&G's "FBI In Peace & War'' and Bristol-Myers* "Duffy's Tavern" aired during the last week. One plugged the fight against native Fascists, the other went all-out for fond for the starving—and both are expensive commercial shows, not do-gooder sustainers. This. too,.is radio. Which doesn't make the FCC - wrong, but points out how radio can be right when it half tries. Blue Radio Blues Stir Tin Pan Alley And Nets, but Not a Peep Is Heard Tin Pan Alley has been singing* the blues again, of late, blaming the -network's for a' bluenose altitude toward not only lyrics but melodies as well; But talk to the networks, and they'll tell you that they're only -protecting.- 'everybody all the way around, including the songwriters xBiid publishers and, in many cases, the dim producers who want certain fca lit red songs plugged radiowise It's hjilf a dozen of one to the oilier,- and the argument probably never be settled con- clusively. For one thing, neither side will mention specific songs involved in the gripes'—for publication anyway, Bolh sides take recourse in the fact thai property rights are involved when a song is mentioned by name. One or the major webs', it's known, lias recently sent out instructions to its ariiliates. notifying the out-of- town stations about general princi- ples involved in song censorship. But this net won't even admit to such instructions, let alone give an out- sider a look-see at their contents. Musical Innaendos let The network people insist they've got to watch not only the. wording of lyi-jcs but also the musical Spotlight Bands Renewed Coca-Cola manufacturers renewed the new series of "Spotlight Band" programs it inaugurated four weeks ago on Mutual 19:30 p.m.. Mon.-Wed.- Fri). Renewal is for 13 weeks. New programs consist of the j weekly airing of the orchestras of six of! Guj ' Lombardo, Xavier Cugat and w j]l | Harry JameV who work the three nights respectively. Coast-du-NY. Directors Ready For AFL Merger Hollywood, May 7. Paul Franklyn, prexy of Radio Directors Guild. Will go to New York. May 11. for a meeting with chieftains of the. Gotham and Chi- _ Jcago Guilds regarding affiliation of nuendos that could bring wrath upon ''three separate groups. He originally their heads if allowed to go out over j planned to leave here May 1, but the■ ether. They're a bit put out. also, with some of the ad agencies I ON BIZ CONDITIONS With at least four shows—thiee of them; high-budgeted musicals—ready for the fold! "until economic condi- tions improve." time's marching backward among the nets and agencies these days, the parade tak- ing on the tempo of pre-war. de- pression-era blues. Celanese Corpus:.$1,500,000 (time and talentl package. "Great Mo- ments in- Music,'' bows off CBS end of June "to resume wheri conditions warrant. - ' "Andre. Kostelanetz Music." the. Chrysler-sponsored show on which the talent cost alone is $10,000 a week (with total outlay exceeding thai of "Moments") exits' May 30. John Charles Thomas show, in- volving a weekly talent nut of. $12.- 000 for Westinghouse's shot on NBC. is slated for an exit. So is General Foods' "Hop Harrigan" on ABC.. Additionally, there- is a distinct possibility that Philco's "Hall of Fame." which last Sunday changed its title to "Stairway to the Stars" for the .summer only, may. not return to its old status. The Kostelanetz and Celanese shows both affect CBS. with Young Coast Survey Shows Ranks Are Full, Jobs Scarce in Every Phase of Radio Exhibit A Cited as Exhibit A among the reasons for the rash! of current program cancellations is Philco Corp.'s fiscal report for 1945. made public a week ago. Report-: shows the following compari- sons between 1945 and the pre- ceding year: IMS 1H4 Sales .. tllS.129.37g $IS2^33 »S« Net In- eiot . . $2,S77,2S» S3,913,494 Net In- come per ■hare.. $1.71 $2.85 Dividends per share $1.M - $1 2t which package the shows on which, very ofleh. the toughest kind of censoi.<hip must be imposed from time lo time. "Not all the agencies are at fault." •aid one of .the net veepees. "but some definitely are. When some of our big stars-are involved, the agen- cy guys are afraid to do the blue- penciling. They know full well we will have to. So they let the stuff gel by. then have an out with the prima donna: 'Oh, we'd let you do this, but (hat so-and-so at the net- work won't.' ' Listen to this one." the net exec continued, putting a disk on his playback machine. "This is a re- ' cording of a rehearsal for a certain very popular song. Note that musi- cal break. If I had let it go out thai way—it would have cost us plenty I" Mod will. Of course we had lo ask the musical director to change his arrangement. "Don't get me wrong. I myself am probably as sophlsicated as anyone else. Some of those lyrics amuse me. personally— and some of that music too. But that's no reason why I .should take them into mixed com- pany. I don't do that with some of the jokes I personally enjoy. There's no reason Why I should with 'music, over (his network." j caucalled plans when it was learned : that trio could not get together with William Green, prez of AFL, from . whom united Guild seeks an inler- ' national character.' laical group moved toward re- '. alization of a national body when it i voted Tuesday night (30) to join j with other two. Deal (Tad been in I the works for several weeks, with I all in constant contact. Formality of membership vote was all that re- I mained to make it official. ' The conference with Green will probably be held around May 15. I Franklyn plans talking with other ;Guildsmen lo iron out details of uni- fication before petitioning Green for , the character. New York group will probably be leader in that direction, 'since it already holds a Federal ' charter with AFL. It's hoped lo meet with 'Green at the annual \ meeting of the AFL council. Local Guild's attorney is now ^drafting proposals it would like in- cluded in any new international con- stitution. If ready in lime, and ap- proved by the local council of RDG which meets May 10. Franklyn will tote proposal with him for presenta- tion in the east. Rhea Diamond to WLIB WL1B (N. Y.) is about to open a swirt promotion and publicity cam- paign, probably concentrating on its s 'iing of gabbers'. Cue to the drive '-was-seen last week in appointment <>/Rhea Diamond as director of'-pub- "Cily and promotion. . Miss Diamond, with the flnokcrv WMCA until a few years ago. Ims since been associate publicity di- rector of WNEW. : During the war. ?"e organized the overseas public- ity unit for the OWI overseas branch. She. stnri;« l her J ( WI t .IB j . 5 lii»l, J..ui|e 1. Y&R FOR GULF HOLDS DINAH SHORE OPTION With General- Foods dropping the Dinah Shore show next season (GF's Birdseye is going out of radio I. Young &• Rubieam. agency on the account, has an option on the singer until, next Saturday. Reported .thai Ihe agency would like to wrap her up for Gulf as next season's replace- ment for (he Sunday nighl CBS "We. Ihe People" program. Contract with Miss Shore stipulates that she can turn down time and facilitie.- thiil aren't .attractive lo her. Meanwhile, .il's also reported lhal J. Walter Thompson would like to bolster its Bob Crosby CBS show for Ford by parlaying Miss Shore with the b'ai^lcador-emcee. ' ,'■ & Rubieam taking the agency loss on the latter, while Ruthrauff & Ryan gets hit on the former. Mc- Cann-Erickson is affected by the John Charles Thomas show, and TAR holds the bag for the "Hop Harrigan" program. Thus three nets and three agencies are hit by the cancellations, and the losses are not being taken graci- ously. Explanations for the cancellations are all couched in very general terms: Economic conditions. A couple of months ago, the steel strike was blamed, now it's coal: while OPA .comes in for plenty of lashing all the way around. General Motors' loss in its strike. General Electric's multi-million backlog of billings. Philco Corp.'s 1945 drop in net income to $1.73 per share as compared with $2.85 per share in 1944—all these are pointed . to as straws in Ihe economic winds. Added to other shows already an- nounced as ready for the axe. this week's batch has brought plenty of jitters to the agencies. And word is thai the list isn't completed yet. Doubls are being experienced about the return, come cool weather, of the entire brace of General Foods and General MilLs shows. Here again, such gripes as uncertainly over price structure and general slatus of the country's economic con- ditions for the immediate fulure arc being blamed. Now They Hate Allen Way in. which Fred Allen look the "husband-and-wife"' ayem chatter shows for a'ride Sunday (5) night is drawing plenty of attention and adverse criticism from chatterers on such pro- grams. NBC publicity department has been having its hands full trying to line up time to play a tran- scription of the Allen show for the gabbers, who evidently want to know if they heard it cor- rectly the first time. Several of the latter, it's reported, have al- ready raised plenty of fuss about It with the web.'s programming department. FCC Mulls New OfiO Rule, May Hit CBS String Washington, May 7.. .. CBS may have to unload at least one. and maybe two standard broad- cast stations, under an expected FCC move slapping a ceiling on the num- ber of AM outlets any one company may hold. According- to -reports here. Wash- ington is expected to rule that one company can have no more than six AM stations. Same ceiling is al- ready in effect for FM holdings; while, in the tele field, bidders are limited to five stations apiece. Announcement may be forthcom- ing along with an-order nixing Co- lumbia's proposed purchase of KOW, San Jose. ' which would add an eighth wholly-owned station on the net's string. Net had plans, to move KOW lo San Francisco, but told FCC it would be content with re- gional operation, letting KSFO, an- other Golden . Gate outlet, climb aboard the 720kc clear channel with 50k w power. Sales ticket pn the Br'untons' station KQW was $950,000. CBS is the only net directly af- fected by the new policy. Columbia already owns seven stations out- right, six of them clear channel op- e rat ions: WTOP, Washington; WBBM. Chicago: WABC, New York City: WCCO, Minneapolis; KMOX, St! Louis; and KNX. Los Angeles. In addition. Columbia has WEEI. Boston, a regional, and holds a 45% block or WAPI. Birmingham. At the same time. CBS stockholders . Bill Pa ley'. Dr. Leon Levy and brother Ike Levy also control CBS-affiliate WCAU. Philly. FCC has long been -tussling with idea of taking positive stand on 'monopoly threats" in radio. Idea first took shape during commission's study of chain broadcasting. Later, in 1944. former FCC Chairman James Lawrence Fly testified at hearings before the select committee of the House investigating the com- mission that FCC members would like to clamp down on . standard holdings but had held off because 'they -didn't -want to force CBS lo unload stations bought in good faith. KUDOS FOR CAMPBELL Bronze Star medal has been awarded Lt. Vic Campbell: former production manager of WGY. Schenectady, by Brig. Gen. Fraync Baker, public relations officer for Gen. Mai-Arthur's h. ([■ Campbell will return to civilian radio in June after a two-year over- seas slim. Taylor to WTOP / Washington. May 7. ■ George Taylor has joined WTOP. CBS slaiion here, as sales promotion '. director. Me cnnics fronl Armstrong Coil; Co. where he was asst. mgr. and 'handled ^bc' llrmV radfo progruins." Barry Gray's Book in Sept. After 1G months of panning per- formers, reviewing bands and talk- ing.shop all night on his WOR airer. Harry Cray has put it in book form fur Readers Press iN. Y. >. Tome, to be called "So You Wanta Be In fiadi.o." is clue off press in Septem- ber, and will be the answers to many question's asked the disk player nightly. With 2.) forewords by prom- inonls like Sinalra. Winchcll. ct al. the volume w ill ; trace Gray's 11 years in radio, .with the major por- tion of the writing devoted to his present si int. It will include Gray's intimate discussion of his guests, sponsor, li^fes Mjifl'hrftf&S 1 ' ', '• ► By JOHN HURLEY Hollywood. May 7. Go east, or south, or anywhere but here, you air-aspirants! Thai's the story behind the fable that Holly- wood's the place 16 go — or the chance to go places—in radio. The local ether is still inadequate lo ease the growing pains that have come with being radio's second center. In short, Hollywood ain't Mike Mecca. Despite the bleatings of press agents, "schools." job counsels, the Chamber of Commerce and others, there is little opportunity here for the many aspirants and itinerants who have been flocking-West: And there'-s little opulence, except for a few. There are just too many for too few jobs in every contributing branch of aircrobatics. From unions and other accredited sources come the facts of employ- ment; and. even with color telcvi-. sion, the picture isn't rosy. No. 1 plight is that of the actor. In his— \ or her—case it's seven persons per one job. Radio technicians arc best situated by only slightly o.versupply- ing the demand. Directors, too, suf- fer little, it appears. And while mu- sicians are numerically most abund- ant, they have more avenues than radio. Nearly all the unions are try- ing, within constitutional limits, to tighten up on membership applica- tions and transfers to ease the situ- ation. . . Il's a paradox that radio should be $o big; here now that it is literally bursting its britches—'and yet unable to support the hosts who have come here to help make it great. The fol- lowing figures paint a vivid picture: Actors and Seriplers American Federation of .Radio ArtisLs has approximately 2,800 paid i up (workable) members. Broken 1 down figure represents 1,700 actors I (and actresses). 550 singer's, 423 an- I nouncers. 50 sound men. 25 commen- . I lators": and a few m.c.'s, among ! others. For them, it's estimated that; {Indie utatioas absorb about 70 an- nouncers, while nets employ another 40. Freelance jobs in radio are csli- i mated at peak of 400 weekly, in- cluding imminent transfers from Chicago. The latter figure is split between four networks and an ap- proximate 30 agencies. It must be pointed out that Ihe 400-odd jobs do not represent the employment of 400 different people. There is consider- able doubling which effects the vir- tual control of all jobs by a select few. The union has a closed show in local radio. The scribes have a problem, too. Radio Writers Guild pegs its mem- bership at a little over 400 writer- producers, plus 125 associate mem- bers. The figure is said to represent about 95"; of .the town's total of writer-prods. There are 60 program and news department staff writing : jobs for them. The agencies and j package shows attend another 215, ; according lo the Guild, which esti- mates an average of 275 weekly pay ' checks for members. Doubling bug- | (Continued on page 38; Too Much Sweets Almost Sours NBC I The situation whereby everybody | wants to give an award to the net- j works and its shows, as detailed re- i cenlly in V.wubtv, is apparently get- ting so out of hand that it's getting [ under NBC's skin. '• NBC realizes it's a touchy matter, for you can't successfully operate a network and go about hurting peo- ple's feelings: by the same-token you .can't invite a solicitation of-favor to rival webs. But NBC also realizes i that the day-in-day-out barrage from organizations, dubious Or otherwise, non-pro mags. etc.. who come laden with awards on the : slightest provocation, lessens the im- pact of more distinguished and rec- ognized citations. NBC. for one. has a list extending; from here to there '.and <Soe*;n:t'!ikc- it.' ' • ':