Variety (Jul 1946)

32 RADIO Wednesday, July 3, 1946 CIRCLING THE KILOCYCLES Minneapolis—Music instructors at Minnesota Music Teachers' Assn. convention at Univ. of Minnesota took picks on radio. Instructors said preponderance of popular music, expressed with "more sound than artistry", tends to dis- courage many worthy students from sticking to a sound musical educa- tion, lowers listeners' taste and dulls sense of musical discrimination. Some quotes: Julian De. Gray, Bennington college, Bennington, Vt.: "Security of employment in radio popular orchestras as well as dance bands attracts many, students before they have obtained a sound musical education." Karl Andrist, MacPhail School of Music. Minneapolis: "Radio jazz or- chestras arc mostly brass and reeds, so a big share of embryo musicians insist on playing sax or trumpet." Carl A. Jensen, Macalester college, St. Paul, president of the association '.'Better music programs are usually too late to impress younger stu dents." WEIiI. It features voices of Mon- roe and the Norton Sisters, backed by the band. Disk is aired 10 times daily at choice times. Oma'na—KOAD, first FM outlet in this section, went on the air Monday ight tl) following a salute by its «sister station KOWH.the AM station operated by the same owners, the Omaha World-Herald. There were telegrams from Nebraska and other senators as the new station went on the air at 7:45 p.m. Henry Doorly, publisher of the World-Herald. Gov- ernor Dwight Griswold of Nebraska. Frank * Pellegrin, former Omahan and now critic-advertising director of the NAB, spoke among others, including Mayor Leeman, Army.arid other officials. KOAD is managed by Frank Sho- pen with Harvey Twyman as pro- duction and program chief. New Haven—Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra have made , a special transcription of a musical station break for ..WELL New Haven. The 15-second ditty was composed by Bud' Finch of WELI's announcer staff and it consists of call letters, dial setting and reason. why New Haven it es should keep listening to CANTON, OHIO GOING TO BASIC STATION MUTUAL 1480 ON YOUR DIAL Represented by BURN-SMITH CO., INC. Middlebrooks Into NAB Post Washington, July 2. James L. Middlebrooks took over yesterday (1) as director of engln- eeing for NAB. He comes from Field Enterprises. Inc. (Marshall Field) where he was engineering director. Before that, Middlebrooks was a Navy Commander. '■' Prior to the w.nr, he was with CBS for some years in charge of con- struction for the general engineering department. ^^^^^^Lir/^^2^^F b^b^b\ ^■^B^B^KhV 0 B^lT B^B^Bi Washington — The WTOP-Catholic University annual Radio Writers' Workshop opened for the summer yesterday CI) The. school will pre- sent lectures on radio scripting, pro- duction, and radio news. Classroom courses will be held on the univer- sity 'campus and laboratory work will be at the' CBS-owned 50.000 watter. San Antonio—Musicians employed by KTSA and WOAI here were scheduled to go on strike yesterday (Tues.) unless a working agreement was signed. Principal issue involved is a closed shop. Management bf'i- cials of WOAI and KTSA currently are negotiating with the Musicians Society of San Antonio! Local No. 23 At present there are 14 musicians employed by WOAI, while KTSA has four; Montgomery, Ala.—WMGY, Mont- gomery's newest station, located in the heart of the business district, be gan operation here last week. Sta- tion will operate from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., but hopes to secure night serv ice at an early date. Station is owned by the Dixie Broadcasting Corp. and is affiliated with the MBS President is Thomas W. Sewell, brother of Luke Sewell, manager of the St. Louis Browns Baseball Club. LeLand Childs is gen. mgr. Chicago—.Certificates of Merit for outstanding entertainment work in local Army and Navy installations and hospitals during the war, were awarded to five Chi radio people by the Radio Chapter of the American Veterans Committee at a special meeting at the Ambassador East lotel Monday (1). Receiving, the awards were Dick "Two Ton" Baker, Jean Juvelier, A. Wallace Owen, Dorothy Olson, and Betty Mitchell. . Television Reviews , Continued from pace 31 (Show returns for eight weeks Sat. (6) as replacement for Judy Canova). He followed Arch Oboler at the task and has made the switch from radio to tele without a single letdown in the program's cerio quality. Coe, whose light on NBC television has been partly hidden in the past by Ed Sobol and Ernie Colling, both of whom won ATS awards this last year, has come into his own with this show and should now rank right at the top of the heap. Story, titled "First Person Singu- lar," concerned a psychopathic killer whose wife's constant nagging, ex- treme sloppincss, etc., led him to strangle her in their apartment on one of those blistering summer eve: nings. Killer was never seen, with* the camera following the action and taking in just what .the eyes of the murderer would see. Thoughts in the killer's subconscious, meanwhile, told the story, outlining In fine fashion what might go on in the mind of such a person as he contemplates his crime, is convicted in court and then hanged. Coe - achieved some admirable ef- fects with the camera, drawing the viewer both into the killer's mind and into the action. Use of a spiral montage effect bridged the gap be- tween scenes very well and the inter gration of film to point up the killer's dream of a cool, placid existence and to heighten the shock effect as the hangman ended his life was excel- lent. Technical director' Bill States was on the beam with the controls in following Coo's direction. Actors furnished an example of near-perfect casting. Carl Frank, as the murderer, though never seen, in- jected the right touches with his re- strained reading of the script. Mary Wilsey was excellent as the wife. Her whining voice and little side- touches such as picking her teeth with her finger, all heightened by ultra-realistic makeup, brought forth a woman that even a sane husband might have wanted to kill. Support ing cast was uniformly good. Bob Wade's sets, though not as spectac ular as in other .shows, fit the pro gram well. Announcer Bill Woodson at: the end of the show asked viewers to send in their reactions and advice on whether they wanted the series to be a regular weekly feature. Response should be unanimous in the affirma tive. Stal. CTele—Bikini Continued from page 31 _ services and several newspapers carried side stories to the main A- bomb article on how the explosion had looked in the tele screens. Tele Coverage 'Effective' D. C. Naval officials reported they had received no otlicial information yet on how any of the equipment used to record the test had reacted. One naval rep on Joint Task Force One declared, however,, that the newspaper and radio accounts had led the Navy to believe that tele- vision had "Worked very effectively" ard judged that tele was "apparent- ly pretty good" for. trie purpose. Television stations in N. Y„ un- able to pick up the actual explosion pictures because of the lack of any clay system, broadcast side pro- grams on the event in various ways. WCBW (CBS, N. -Y.) was the only one of thp three stations to go on the air during the time of the explosion, bringing its viewers the best pos- sible story of the test under the circumstances. Station picked up CBS newscaster Bill Down's eye-witness radio ac- count of the explosion .on its audio system, supplementing this with cartoon illustrations by Elmer Wex- ler, former Marine Corps combat artist and now on the staff of PM, N. Y. daily tabloid. Wexler made his drawings as Downs' voice was piped into the receivers, following the action almost word for word Lieut. Com. Paul Hiddtng of Joint Task Force One was also on hand to brief the audience on the test. Show, on the air from 5:45-6:15 p.m. Sun- day (30), was produced jointly by Bob Bcndick and Roger Bowman. WNBT (NBC) devoted Its entire newscast Sunday night to the test, unning the films of events leading up to the explosion. Pictures were taken by Leroy G. Phelps,, .official television pool photog. WABD (Du- Mont) had run other films on the A-bomb earlier in the week and ABC television bought time on the DuMont station to run other films. IBEW Threatens Coast Strike on Monday (8) In Wage Hike Bickering ■ Hollywood, July 2. Strike of indie engineers looms for Monday (8) unless an impasse in negotiations , between the Inter- national Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and station management is overcome by that time. Negotiations were resumed Fri- day (28) following two months of inactivity when the union adamant- ly stuck to its original demands with the broadcasters, refusing to alter the standing offer. IBEW wants an average 30% hike. Broad- casters are offering 18%. . Union resumed with the proviso that if the latter remained unset- tled 15 . days after being resumed, stronger action would be. taken. programming: V ' a . „ , ' PROBLEM * Program to match Product WHAT. to: do: Whether your dient Is a cosmetic manufacturer with an ear for music—or beverage distributor who Want* a . comedy show—the skilled staff of writers, producers, engineers at NBC Radio-Recording can create a Custom- Built program for regional or national broadcast. Produced like a network show, built to your budget . limits, an NBC Custom-Built program gives flexibility .. Is on effective way to match program with product. " If your programming problem resembles this ... call _ _ • • the nearest office of the NBC Radio-Recording Division. NBC RADIO-RECORDING DIVISION MiOr,N*w.Yetk tXhfcsgo • WeiMngfoa • Hollywood • Smrrendice "RED BENSON SHOW" With Charlotte Dembo, Marvin Marx, Fred Udall, Jaquellne Walte Pauline Koner, Denis Sisters Writer: David P. Lewis; additional material by Marvin Marx Producer-Director: David P. Lewis 30 Mlns.; Thtirs. (21); 9 p. m. Sustaining WABD-DUMONT, N. T. This is another of the program packages presented by Caples Co. in a tie-up with Dumont, as part of the ad agency's educational experi ment in the video medium. Program was a. late starter by 10 minutes, markedly oointing up fact that commercially, television is still in the horse-and-buggy era when time didn't mean money. In itself, however, the show was a pleasant variety treat riding on the versatile talent, of Red Benson recently discharged gob. An amus ing comic,, with a slight stain of borscht on his vest, Benson carried the major load with his patter rou tines, mimicry, and singing. Must learn however, to restrain a pre dilection for some corny mugging before he_really climbs. Video format is simple and effec- tive. Benson came on briefly, the camera rolling up to catch a closeup of his palms into which the Denis sister appeared to do a tap-terping stint. Benson, was given another intro and went into a long spiel with Udall as straight man in which he kidded television, ribbed radio quiz shows, and. did take bffs on Tom Howard, Jimmy Durante, and Groucho Marx. In between, he was interrupted by a stooge to provide a degree of camera diversion. Pauline Koner was segued Into her solo dance routines via a couple of dream sequences. A switchover from Benson's gab, the dances were appealing eye-fillers and were done to recordings of "Why Should I Have Spring Fever" and "It Ain't Neces- sarily So." Benson closed the ses- sion with a' safari into Africa (a painted backdrop) for "The Benson Girl," an occasion to bring onstage Jaquellne Waite, a hubba-hubba looker dressed in harem scanties. Jack Paige's Added D.C. Chore Cues MBS Buildup Of Wash.-Originated Shows Washington, July 2. Jack Paige, publicity chief for WOL, the Cowles-Mutual station, takes on the added duties of direc- tor of special events and publicity for the Mutual web in Washington. A. A. Schechter, Mutual vice prexy, in charge of all publicity and special events, said the appointment was part of. a plan to put Washington on the same level as New York, Chi- cago and Hollywood as a web orig. inating point. Paige is to be given a full staff and is slated to build a series of spe- cial network shows to originate here in the fall. He will continue all his present chores with WOL; in ad- dition to handling publicity, Paige and his wife have a morning show,. "Breakfast with the Paiges"; and he. has a Friday, evening quiz program. Mutual now regularly originates the following shows out of D.C: "Meet the Press," "American Forum of the Air," 'This Week in Washing- ton with Albert Warner," Fulton Lewis, Jr., Winthrop Sherman's "News Roundup," "This Is Your Country," the AAF show, "Division Diary," .and periodic Army, Navy and Marine band performances, as well as a number of special weekly originations on national affairs. Radio No Rostrum , Continued from pace Zl for instance, had only one account in which the word "laxative" is used, and exec said that no more such would be accepted. A Mutual exec, speaking for all four nets, said latter were always very diligent in watching ads, that each net had someone checking every show constantly, double- checking on claims, and above all watching out for good taste. The nets are careful to refer listeners to a doctor; Mutual has a medical ad- viser to check on drug ads. -Some local stations might be at fault, and. guilty of Dr. Parran's' charges, he said, but the nets have no control over them. But Dr. Parran's charges were too broad and general, he thought, to be convincing. NBC Talent — Continued from page 23 — will be an extra outlet for crowded N. Y. talent; it will help local sta- tions and advertisers. It will add fees to the performer. An artist ap- pearing twice a week in N. Y. can be planed out to Cleveland, for in- stance, for a commercial appearance at a good fee, as guestar. Farm-outs may include guest-shots as well as term periods. System is a boon to the returned vet, since many of the performers are being offered to out-of-town sta- tions through recordings on the Wel- come Home auditions. Allen was heard that way, and signed, by WKY. System, of course, Menser says, isn't restricted to vets. Network contracts for promising talent, which was also, an idea of Menscr's, are employment, not man- agement, contracts. NBC takes no percentage on farm-out or other fees. This is a talent development project exclusively, says Menser. NBC, in fact, is spending, rather than taking, money on the project, laying out large sums on platters of audi- tions, etc. rounding the halfway ••I *»»• |# Our stations tell us hap* III*" " pily of the plus signs in their ledgers as they round the halfway mark this year. Put Weed and Company's staff of seven- teen men to work and ■ watch the plus signs multiply. RADIO STATIM REPRESENTATIVES Ntw Y*rt • list* • Client • Marta Ditnlt • Sai Fractal • Riflym«l Buffalo.—WBEN "Theatre of the Air" returns July 13 with cast of Buffalo actors directed by Fred Keller. Scripts by w;k. radio authors will be featured with accent on orig- inal radio dramas. everybody knows WBIG means good broadcasting 5000 WATTS DAY & NIGHT Columbia otTlialt gr.Mmboro, ft, c. ftpriunttd by hollingbery ; Mft.: LOU CLAYTON UNITED REX ATX DRUG CO. Frhtriy—CHS—10 p.m. D£T