Variety (May 1946)

Wednesday, May 29, 1946 RADIO 43 B'casters Rally Vs. UN Shutout Radio got a kick in the face at the United Nations meeting in New York last week, and the result is that radio's equal opportunity for coverage of the UN doings may come before- the secretariat general of the international body. For some reason that no one has explained satisfactorily, the Secur- ity Councils subcommittee, hear- ing evidence in the case against Spain, ruled last Thursday (23) that direct voice pickups from the Council chamber must be cut off. Public and press were permitted in the chamber; it was not an open session; but the ruling applied only against direct voice pickups; even radio commentators were not barred. Immediately, the newly organized broadcasters' committee for liaison with the UN, formed only two days earlier under the chairmanship of Stanley Richardson of NBC, sent . a wire protest. Later, the Assn. of Radio News Analysts joined the fracas, sending another protest signed by H. V. Kaltenborn, Lowell Thomas, Cecil Brown, Johannes Steel, Quincy Howe and Charles Hodges—all of them officers or members of the executive committee of ARNA. Members of the UN secretariat have been critical of the failure of the nets to carry much, if any, voice broadcasts from the Security Coun- cil. Efforts have been made by Christopher Cross, UN liaison man for U. S. Radio, to increase such coverage. It was conceded widely that the subcommittee's discrimi- nation against radio did not help Cross' efforts. Curious angle to the occurrence was the fact that, though the order was to keep radio that day from picking up the voices around the Security Council table, the voices • were not actually cut off. WMCA N. Y. indie which picks up every- thing at the Security Council, did record the proceedings.. The stuff, . however, was not put on the air. "It was just plain dull," said a WMCA exec. New York State's Largest Ad Drive, on Nationwide Scale, Gives Radio Brush Albany, May 28. Another New York State adver- tising campaign on a nationwide basis is under way, with radio.ap- parently left on the outside. A pub- licity release on the launching by the Dept. of Commerce of a com- prehensive summer vacation pro- gram listed radio among the media to be used. However, inquiry at the Department last week brought the word no plans for the use of radio had been made, so far as was known. It was indicated air time might not be purchased, although this was not official. Kenyon & Eckhardt is the agency for the latest drive, in which 130 daily newspapers Putnam's Fast Wrapnp George Carson Putnam, ex-NBC gabber recently out of the; Marine Corps, was hired by Mutual veepee Abe Schechter last Friday (24), and was on the air with three shows by Sunday, two of the shows being .sponsored. Putnam returned to New York last week. He had been in Reno, where he married Lee Carson, In- ■tematlonal News Service war cor- respondent—and where he had taken on the new middle name of Carson. In less than 48 hours after he was hired, WOR, Mutual's N.Y. flag- ship, had Putnam on the air for sponsors. Klrsch's beverages bank- Tolls him Sundays at 8:30 a.m., and A. Goodman tc Sons at 10 a.m., each for 15 minutes locally only. In ad- dition, he started a 15-minute net- work show for Mutual Sunday at 1 p.m., and, according to Schechter, several sponsors are bidding for that spot. Dnerr To Coast With Y&RVDoYandDonV Hollywood, May 28. Ed Duerr, production manager of Young & Rublcam's N. Y. office, planed in over weekend for a series of huddles with producers of agency's programs emanating from this point. Having recently had confabs with clients in east, Duerr came to tip producers on views of sponsors as regards possible changes of new slants to be injected into programs next tall. He also brought a list of "do's" and "ddn'ts." in 94 cities and more than a dozen magazines are receiving copy. Campaign is described as the larg- est of its kind in the State's history Radio Shoots Life Into Press Arm As WHCU Vitalizes 51 Weekly Sheets Ithaca, May 28. How WHCU has been taking the upstate weekly newspapers out of their long-established backyard- fence-gossip-formated lethargy and coverting them into organs for dis- cussion of vital community, problems has already stirred considerable comment. On the premise that there are always healthy overtones in "letting one end of the street know what the other end is doing," M. R. Hanna; WHCU mgr., has inaugurated a Sunday series tabbed "Review of the Weekly Press," with Sam Wood^ side-as editor,-in which cooperation of 51 weekly papers in 12 upstate counties has been enlisted. Since program was inaugurated three weeks ago, a lot has been happening to the weekly sheets in- spreading ideas from community to community. They've been taking stands on juvenile delinquency, tol- erance, politics, improved highways, housing for veterans, and have even , established a ceiling price for a "Sitters' Club.?. Weekly the WHCU show high- lights the contributions being made by the various weeklies. Behind Ihe station project is an attempt to ac- tivate and crystallize grass roots thinking and understanding of the world. CFRB-CFCN Continued from paie 29 mate means of convincing the fed- eral government that the take-over will be unfair. While correspondence has been go- ing on for the past three weeks be- tween Sedgwick and the Dept. of National Revenue, under whose au- thority CBC operates, it cannot be learned what CBC proposes to pay for a station that has been operating on the 860 wavelength for eight ■ years. Sedgwick refused to put a value on the property, because of the intangible value of good will end the ready made audience buflt up by this largest of Canadian in- dependently owned stations.' For the record . however, it is known that the market stock value of CFRB right now is $1,827,500, this based on current prices for the Nation's 200,000 "A" shares and its 15,000 "B" shares. Sedgwick admitted that CBC has offered him a choice of four other" frequencies. New York—Fred M. Stoutland, for 13 years with Lennen and Mitchell and recently out of the Air Corps, has joined the radio time buying dept. of BBD&O. For Sale! At a price any client can afford! A NEW KIND OF TRANSCRIPTION SHOW! This new series of transcribed half-hour programs is more than, just a collection of the best mystery dramas ever produced—either live or recorded. For it represents a new idea in electrical transcriptions—the idea that a transcribed show's budget should match "live" show budgets. As a result, "Murder At Midnight" bows to no other program on the air. Top-notch writers, actors, directors and producers have collaborated on this new recorded show. Top-notch engi- neering skill has recorded it. No expense has been spared to make it—yet it's offered at a price 1/2 to 1/3 lower than you'd expect. And the result is a witch's broth of shivers and suspense that will knock your audience for a ghoul! TOP-NOTCH WRITERS: ROBERT NEWMAN (Inner Sanctum, Mystery in the Air, The Man from-G-2) BILL MORWOOD (Bulldoo lii DrummondJ SIGMUND MILLER (Inner Sanctum, Stu- ff pense) PETER MARTIN (Celebrity Club, Art American 1 Portrait) MAX EHRLICH (Suspense, House of Mystery, . Counterspy). . TOP-NOTCH CAST: Narration: RAYMOND MORGAN (This Is Your FBI, Famous Jury Trials, Gangbusters, Counterspy) Talent includes: BARRY HOPKINS, BETTY CAINE, BERRY KROEGER, AGNES YOUNG, AMZIE STRICKLAND, FRANK BEHRENS, LAWSON ZERBE, ROBERT LYNN, and other well-known network stars. TOP-NOTCH DiRICTION AND PRODUCTION: Director: ANTON M. LEADER (Radio Reader's Dioest, You Make the News). Music A Director: CHARLES PAUL (Mr. and Mrs. North, /jM^ tilery Queen). Producer: LOUIS G. COWAN, INC. /Tim Sales, Recording and Processing: WORLD BROAD- 4t)\W CASTING SYSTEM. PRODUCED BY TOP-NOTCH CA: LOUIS G. COWAN, INC. 250 W. 57th ST. NEW YORK It. N. Y. ClrcU 4-4(64 Flash i M»WMll»,IWrj4, IM ,. (I • suspense .^-f^^ogica, n ° W °» ^ air. Z Z min ° stuff T . s Powerful DISTRIBUTED THROUGH WORLD BROADCASTING SYSTEM. INC. A Subsidiary 0/ DECCA RECORDS. INC.. 711 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK 22. N. Y. Wl. 2-2100