Variety (May 1946)

HABIO P4BEIBF? Wedneeduy, May 15, 1944» Benton Pushes Last-Ditch Fight To " Save DX Operation From Fadeout Th€ new advisory committee on* •hurt wave operations appointed, last •week by Asst. Secretary of Stale William Benton is a last-ditch ira- jituver to keep the -Government's bx operation from Congressional foreclosure. A former committee upon whom Benton depended to help impress Congress folded up under him. with its. three members going pell-mell, in three different directions. The old committee ' was composed of Dean Carl W. Ackerman, of. Columbia University's School of Journalism: Ralph McGill, of the Atlanta Con- stitution; and Wilbur Forrest, of tlve Herald Tribune. By the time, the three got through batting the DX plans about among them, Ackerman i\as lined up against Benton's plan: McCill was for Benton; and Forrest luck a middle-of-the-road position that helped neither side. Now Benton, faced with a slash of Ji^ budcgl to $10,000,000—and he feels he needs a minmum .of $19.- ttiO.OOO to keep going—has formed a new committee; Some people saw ihe formation of the new group, as <»nc .of those "locking.the barn door j'fter the horse had been stolen" moves. They also criticized Benton's public relations- approach by an-, flouncing formation of a committee but refusing to issue any statement btyond broad- generalities couched in' traditional diplomatic but mean- ingless phrases. Two hep consultants are aiding the committee. They are Philij) Cohen, program director of the old OWI's "invasion station," ABSIE: snd Victor Hunt, of the State Dept.'s Office or International Information kmd Cultural ^Relations.* On the committee . are: Mark Eihridgc. past prexy ■ of NAB and publisher ril the Lousiville Courier- Journal: Dun Fransisco, J. Walter Thompson vice-prexy; Gardner Cowles. Jr.. head of the Cowles 7-iiclio interests and publishers of the Dts Moines Register and Tribune Anson's LA. Trek Solves Chi Employment Problem Chicago, May 14. . Move to KFWB, Los Angeles, of Bill Anson. Chi platter jock, has brought a big hypo to employment situation here, Gradually exiting from local, commitments'; Anson has been busy on his closing shows-in- troducing the 8ve men replacing hhri on-\h'e various strips. Joe-.Wilson.'has already moved into the Common wealth EdisOn spon- sored "Telequizv.icalsV on WBKB, television, and will begin working as soon as the coal, emergency ends power shortage. On Mutual outlet WGN, Paul Barnes, has taken over the "Hirsch Telephone Quiz" and Harold Isbell will do -Words . and Rhythm,'' under Chi Tribune spon- sorship. Cook County Distributors, auto firm, has replaced Anson on its acioss-lherboard ,-mot over indie WIND with Bob Els'on. local sports- caster and emcee of the "20th Cen- tury Limited" show. With six 15- . minute strips, and a half hour ph Sunday, Elson wiil have a talent tie- in with Essaness' Oriental theatre for guest stars. Final Anson disker was taken by Eddie Hubbard; on the same - station, who also has the Chesterfield "ABC Club" and "Non- sense Cupboard," a morning wake- up show. ' Sailer of Ideas! FRED MUELLER KLZ Commercial Manager Ono reason why more advertisers, local and national, buy more Unie on KLZ than on any other Deiivvr sla- (ton Is that KTu'/j sells lUliAS which make its time profitable. KLZ, DENVER Mngg Hangs One, Cleve. Stations Talk Nice Game NAB Board Tightens Program Group, Sets Plans (or Chicago Convention Political Parties Now Cold to Radio Planning ; : Washington, May 14. With the Democratic and Repub- lican National Committees figuring on very little nationwide broadcast- ing in the coming Congressional elections, neither is doing very much at present about replacing radio ex- perts. Most of the political broad- casting time purchased this fall will be local, and on a statewide basis where there are Senate seats at stake. The Democrats report they have a man in. mind- who may be called itv to expert for the National Com- mittee only during the course of the campaign, They dropped their radio man- after the Presidential election of 1944, and have never re- placed him. They feel there is no need for a fulllinie radio man at campaign headquarters. . The'Republican National Commit- tee had John McCprmick on a full- time basis, but he resigned some weeks back to return to'. NBC.in Chicago. He may be replacedby an- other fulltime man, but the GOP appears in no hurry to fill the va- cancy. 58 Test Shows Set By Press Wireless A . total of 58 lest shows will be run by Press Wireless. Inc., in its try-out of the new point-to-point shortwave - broadcasts to local sla- Hoy E. Larsen, president of Time. | ijqns in the U, S. A., beginning next Jin : Prof. Harold Lasswell, director | Sunday 119) . The tests, for a 10- t l War Communications Research I clay period, were authorized by the lor the Library of Congress, and a! FCC after local stations over the Vale law professor; Sterling Fisher.'! country supported PW's application director of NBC's University of the ■ for DX-ing of programs as a means Air; Rev! Robert I. Gannon, presi- to • overcome high-toll ■ telephone dtn of Fordharh University, and Edward R. Murrow, CBS vice-prexy. Benlon. fighting hard to have the Stnate restore sortie of the funds jilathed from his budget by Ihe House, so that he can continue the broadcast, declared: ' "Short wave broadcasting is one i.f the principal methods by which u full and fair picture of America <f.n be projected to the people of »>1her lands. . "It is estimated that there are now wire costs. Some of the broadcasts, accord- ing to John D. 'Whit more, former Mutual and defunct Associated Broadcasting System exec, now with PW, will be beamed; directly from the UN Security Council meeting in New York. Others will be arranged specifically for local receiving sta- tions around the country, featuring news, religious programming, edu- cational stanzas, and music. Each show will be of lS-minute more than 20.000,000 radio sets Out-1 duration, including five minutes of *ide the United States capable of j music and 10 minutes of spoken /utiving short wave. The number is bound to multiply. In many areas 1htit is no other means of gelling information directly from the United Stales." Perk Up Plugs, Trammell Sez material. Twelve of the shows will be relayed over PW's Coast trans- mitter. Ihe resl will be beamed only from New York. The Entire series will be beamed point-to-point to 20 specific areas in the U. S. A., but all are for the in- dustry only and are not to be re- broadcast, the FCC ruled. Chi-N. Y. Switches, Kastor in Middle Ni)<s Trammell, NBC proxy, yes- texlay iTuesday) advised radio ad- vertisers 10 get hep to themselves hnd "reconvert" their commercial plugs, so that listeners Will not reel like dialing out the shows carrying 1ht radio ads. Some of the plugs, said Trammell. "(it inlo the show the way a'rivet- ing machine would fit into a sym- phony orchestra." "If advertisers and agencies." .he ►hid. "will put as much brains and imagination and- creative ability ki- te the commercial as they put into 1ht- show itself, the audience will | enjoy listening to one as much as to executive 1?;t other." Chicago. May 14. End of a long route is cued by re- cent move by Sock Helller from Kastor agency here to sales staff of WOR-Mulual, New York, replacing Bob While, latter switched from Mutual's N. V. outlet to WGN, here, as net salesman. Agency has been involved in a series, of changes, larg- est of which was move of Ed Ayle- shire from' Kastor to Geycr, Cornell, & Newell in California. Ayleshire, who headed up radio for Kaslor. was replaced by Ben Green, for.mer producer-director for ABC's Chi offices. Recent climax to movements was .'entrance of Marvin Harms, ex-partner In the 1 Hill-Blackell agency, inlo the Kas- ■p, . , tor organization on a participation ■ p ■ * l-ba.-is, Harms will head operations from Chi. Trammell made these remarks tin - add/ess before the Assn. of America, held at the Bill- j more hotel. N.Y. Many of the. mem- : te/<- of the association are big radio ! spenders, j cieve land—Bob Neal has been The NBC prexy took the oppor-'named .WGAR sporlscasle'r and will fnnity to defend the daytime serial l-handle the 14 -Cleveland Browns' fiom Die adverse criticism of "in-I games for which the 'station has an .tt-IlnMuals" who, he said, don't lis-[exclusive contract during the next 1t n to -*uch shows .anyway. He ; grid year. Neal came out of the • else- niiide an oblique attack against; Army in March of last year follow-, .Hit. FCC Book criticism of radio, jing a plan* crackup. Cleveland May 14. A healed verbal battle can be started along Euclid avenue at. the mere mention of radio's" not broad- casting the Cleveland ball games for shut-ins hospital victims etc. Bearing the unjust brunt of the battle are Cleveland's four radio stations. . And at the moment the ball'.club- appears in the lily-white role. Keeper alive of the bailie is Press radio editor Stan Anderson who has needled the stations inlo making their position clear. So far the sta- tions have struck but mild love taps not wishing to create ill will. But the picture threatens to become a major crisis. To date W.IW through station manager Ed Paulen has unleashed the first blast slating 'Two years ago we offered Ihe ball.club $27,500 Tor rights to play-by-play broadcasts. However Mr. Bradley I club presi- dent) attempted to dictate"' the choice of the sporlscasler for these broadcasts a choice which has. been arid always will remain a preroga- tive of the station." WGAR has offered to- carry the games. After clearing financial obligations the club, despite chang- ing starling hours etc.; insisted on a station guarantee to carry 100 games. The best WGAR could do was 75, about half the schedule., after elim- inating night games and double headers because of previous com- mitments. WHK, in which Ihe ball club is known to have financial interests through interlocking directorates, finds itself lied, down with network commitments and time headaches. WTAM. which first carried, the ball call broadcasts, found its con- tract canceled for WCLE. located with WHK in the Terminal Tower and which boosted the Higbee Co.. and adjunct to the ball club direc- tor's properties. WCLE was given a three-year and then five-year contract, ending its broadcasts only when it was-forced to separate from WHK because of .FCC rulings. For the moment, the ball club Is not commenting as Bradley is out. of town. The suspicion also rests on Brad- ley's refusal- to broadcast games since it will keep fans away from the scene and at home listening to their radios. This contention despite the fact thai all other major league games are broadcast. This' was pile of the reasons given to WTAM in cancelling that station's contract, .saying its 50,000 watts carried games inlo Dayton. Columbus. Toledo and cul attendance in those cities. Meanwhile, baseball fans'-are writ- ing acid letters to Anderson, won- dering what's wrong ,with the local situation that prevents broadcasting of games. B'casters Wary Of Listening Polls? Washington, May 14. The average broadcaster inay make haste, more slowly from now on in forking over thousands of dol- lars for just any kind of radio lis- tening survey.as result of testimony of a half-dozen Government and in- dustry expert polltakers - at FCC clear channel hearings here this mouth. I Several days testimony was spent in tilting among the surveyors on just what constitutes a good or bad listening study, with holes punc- tured along the way in both the Government and industry efforts to gauge Ihe likes arid dislikes of John Q. Public. Indicative of average broadcast- er's new-born skepticism of the lis- tening poll was testimony of Dr. Leon Lttvy, prexy of WCAU. Phil.ly, al hearing here last Thursday i9). "The more surveys I see," Levy said, "the less faith I have in any of them." This even goes for Ihe Reu- ben Donnelley surveys which gave WCAU No. 1 listeners' preference in the Philly area. Similar sentiment was expressed earlier by James Shouse, Radio Di- rector of WLW, Cincinnati. Shouse (old the FCC thai although his sta- tion had paid out almost $300,000 since 1939 to three separate audi- ence research outfits. WLW was now backslopping their findings with a new-type Peoples Advisory Counsel which checked reactions of selected group ot 2.500 families in the WLW listening area. Washington, May 14. NAB directors wound up a four- day meeting here last Thursday i9) Ijy being received at the Whit* House and getting assurance from President Truman that he supported complete freedom of the air. During the reception. NAB prexy Justin Miller referred to a published letter ot last summer in which the President wrote that "Radio must be maintained as free as the press. Mr. Truman declared that he reemphasized his belief that there must be complete freedom of radio. During the session, the NAB board lined up solidly behind Justin Miller in his fight against the FCC Blue Book. Board also promised to sup- ply three to Ave engineers to aid FCC prepare engineering coverage maps in connection with the clear channel hearings. Groundwork was laid for the next annual convention to be held in Chi- cago in October. Network program heads' were named as the committee to plan the program and entertain- ment for the convention banquet. The board voted to bar from regis- tration at the convention those who are eligible for NAB membership but who have not joined up. "Board also accepted a scheme to . consolidate several standing .com- mittees dealing with programming. The present Program Directors Com- mittee .wilt become the Program Executive Committee, and will ab- sorb the functions of the Agricul- tural Directors Committee, Radio News Committee, Music-Use Com- mittee, and Standards of Practice Committee. The Research and Of- fice Forms and Practices Committees will be consolidated. NAB will push through establishment of a fully staffed Program Department. Next meeting of the board has been set for Eslcs- Park, Colo., Aug. 7-9. V ■ ~ ~ - AUSTRIA'S INFO PROGRAM Vienna, May 14. C'apl. Geoffrey Child, British ra- dioofficer in Vienna, is returning to London lo lake over the 'British program, "England Calling .Austria.'' This broadcast is an information service giving Austrian: listeners a better picture of English customs. Full-Hour Mystery Set As 'Guild' Replacement First full-hour mystery show in history of radio has been set by BBD&O as replacement for Theatre Guild's airshow. lo start June 9'on ABC >" the 10-H P;iii. spot. Shows, will be adaptations from w.k. rnys- lel-y novels, of type of Eric Ambler's "Background to Danger," which is already set. Scripting will be done by free- lancers, with Bob Cenedella as script editor, with Charles Newton chair- man of Ihe story committee. Agency is still, working on show title. : It's booking Hollywood names already, although show will. emanate from N. Y. Musical- director also slilY to be set. \ 'Operation Famine' Set For 120-Hour Program Continuity on WNEW WNEW. N. Y., indie,-inaugurates a far-reaching public service slop Monday (20) When It tees off oh a five-day, 24-hour daily program de- voted exclusively to the food-saving program of N. Y.'s Emergency FHmine Committee. All the station's shows, spot an- nouncements and commercial pro- grams from Monday through Friday will be rewritten and reshuffled to make a pitch to N. Y. listeners lo save food. Station has arranged a tie-in wilh Hie Auxiliary Women's Volunteer Service, whereby. AWVS cars will cruise through the city day and night lo pick up any food or money pledged to the famine pro- gram via phone calls to.the. station. Cars will concentrate each day in a different borough of the city. Plans, drawn up by station man- ager Bernice Judis, will be' known as "Operation Famine" or ,- H-Day minus 5." Program has the complete endorsement of Newbold Morris, chairman of the N. Y. famine com- mitlee. Plan will be blueprinted and distributed, possibly by Ihe FCC. to other stations throughout the coun- try for possible duplication in other areas. . 'WNEW worked out a similar ven- ture during the recent cancer col- lection drive. In that instance, how- ever, the station devoted only one. full day lo cancer-..shows, instead of the five days slated for Ihe famine programs. Another V.P. in Act Hollywood. May 14; Highlights from .career ot Lewis AlleD Weiss, vcepce and gen mgr. ot Don Lee network and vice-chairman of board of directors of Mutual, are being written into film script qt a new Jerry Brandt indie pic produc- tion, "Magic in the Air." Pic, due before cameras soon, tells story of radio from crystal tel to tele. WCAl'j 1«0 riurs « Day Philadelphia. May R WCAU yesterday (Mori) an- nounced'that for the next three weeks every station break—almiit 100 per day—would be devoted lp- plugging trie food campaign to kid The starving overseas. Each break Would be followed by the plug: "Help the Starving - Buy a Food Coupon.". Food coupons referred to it plan devised by Phifiy Famine Committee by which persons pay 1.1 cents e«vh for coupons at stores,.- banks, tic. These eoupons are turned in lor cans of food and sent In bulk to overseas jpoints: Knoxvllle.—Les Sand, former pro bascbail and basketball player, hat taken over an cmccc job at WNOX. .for "Club 99." an afternoon program of music and chatter.