Variety (Jul 1946)

84 B\»IO Wednesday, July 24, 1946 FCC Backs on WINS Sales Nix, But Walker & Dorr Still Don't like It Washington. July 2S. The FCC last week 071. by : 4-10-'' vote, reversed an earlier, pro posed decision and pave final okay to Hie sMc of Hearst's New indie. WINS, to the Crosley Raj .0 Corp.-n.ow wholly-owned V> the Aviation.Corp. ■■ . .. ' Four members-Aclmu chairman Charles B. Denny and -Commission- er* E K. Jell. Ray Wakefield, and •Rosel ■ Hyde-agrccd the sale was now in.'"the public inlcivst as re- sult' of a June 19-20 oral -argument which revealed tho parties h-Kl blacked out, a contract-provision -to give Hearst's Daily Mirror $400 000 worth or news broadcast* on WINS over a 10-year period. At the same hearing. James Shouse, Crosley veopee had also met earlier FCC pb^ of jections to the sale, by givinf details on AVCO's proposed, opera tion of WINS, including a commit merit to sell no more than 80^ the program time. The new contract also gives Hearst a S400.000 credit on FM and television transmitting equipment, it AVCO goes, into the manufacture of these items on a commercial basis within the next ten years. The two dissenters—Commission- ers Clifford J. Diirr and Paul Walk- er—objected on the same grounds thev gave for nixing the sale of the Crosley Corp. to AVCO last Septem- ber The two said the price being paid for WINS is also out of line. Both objected specifically to a clause still in the WINS, sales contract call- ing for "local news co-operation" between the radio station and Hearst's Daily Mirror. They de- clared that they were not satisfied with this clause, purporting to elim- inate the provision of the original agreement under which Crosley was to furnish radio time to Hearst in' the amount of $400,000. According to testimony at the June argument. Shouse and WLW general manager Robert E. Dunville will alternate running-the New York station, though Willard Schrocder is slated to remain on at WINS as sta- tion manager. WINS will be con- nected by wireline with. WLW, Cin- cinnati, and its program format will be revamped to include a larger proportion of news, farm, and other live-talent shows. . ■ Chi Alcoholics Kick, WCFL Draw Too Heavy Chicago, July 23. Chicago office of Alcoholics Anonymous has refused to allow its name to be used on the air in connection with the AA transcribed show produced by WW J. Detroit, and aired over WCFL here—but not because AA disapprove of the pres -dilation cooked up by the Detroit branch of ex-drinkers. Purpose of the show, of course, is to help cure inveterate drunks— but onlv if they themselves want to be cured. Local AA'crs. however, have thumbed down co-sponsorship full lot the public service layout with WCFL because they don't want too much publicity. And their standoffish attitude is cued by the past experience, from which they've learned that practi- cally every Chi housewife whose spouse goes out on only an occa- sional tear feels she has to call AA every lime it happens. A A just hasn't got the funds to hire that many switchboard operators. Air Service Hollywood, July 23. With but one air mention Tom Hotchkiss, newscaster on KGER, Long Beach, sleuthed out an old man amnesia victim who had been sought by police for three days since disappearing from his home. The frantic family of. Robert D. Chamberlain called the station to ask for an an- nouncement. Five minutes after Hotchkiss aired the 80-year old man's description . a woman shopper in a San Diego market spotted hint and called the cop? pers. . He had wandered some 90 miles from home. New- Corporate Setup Cincinnati, July 23. A separate corporate setup, the Crosley Broadcasting Corp.. will control WINS and WLW and other broadcasting activities of the Cros- ley Corp.. of which the new organi- zation will be a wholly-owned sub- sidiary. Official structure of the new corp., under FCC okay, has James D Shouse as president. He ■ had been v'-e-president in charge of broad- casting of the Crosley Corp., the former parent company.. Other of- ■ ficers are Irving B. Babcock, chair- man; Robert E. Dunville. Shouse's right-hand man, continuing as vice- president and general manager; El- mer J. Boss, vice-president and treasurer; R. James Rockwell, vice- president in charge of engineering; Harry M. Smith, vice-president in charge of sales; and Raymond S. Pruitt, New York, secretary. Pruitt also holds as secretary of the Cros- ley Corp., which manufactures ra- dios, refrigerators and other appli- ances. ■ Directors of the new company are Powei Crosley, Jr., who headed the Crosley Corp. until last September when it was sold to the Aviation Corp.; R. C. Cosg'rove, Victor Eman uel. : Walter A. Morgenson. and Shouse, Dunville, Pruitt and Bab- cock. Besides 50,000-watt WLW and WINS, which is to jump its power from 10,000 to 50,000 watts, the C'osley Broadcasting Corp. controls more than a dozen relay, shortwave, International, experimental and de- velopment stations. It likewise has r - Hons pending before the FCC to nr»»-^te FM and television sta- tions in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, O.. and a FM station in Washington, D. C. , UOPWA Turns Guns on NBC The United Office and Profes sional Works of America (CIO), or ionization of white collarites which won the largest vote (although not yet officially certified) in a National Labor Relations Board election at CBS.- is now engaged in a fight with the NBC net. According to UOPWA officials NBC has fired 11 members of the I Guest . Relations Dept., and has also fired one of the union's leaders in the attempts to organize the net's collarites. Latter is Richard Niederstein. formerly supervisor of the International Dcpt.'s news Toom. According to NBC officials, who say they'll dp their talking formally to the NLRB or any other respon- sible agency, the charges arc "apple- sauce and baloney." UOPWA, however, is not taking the issue lying down and has already petitioned the FCC, members, of Congress from New York, as well as the NLRB for an investigation of the charges. The union filed a couple of months ago for certification as collective bargaining agent for NBC employees in the Guest Relations Dept.. in- cluding pages, messengers, guides, ticket-takers, etc. According to the union, 11 women were fired May 24. several days after the NLRB had held its second hearing into the ap- plication. Meanwhile, however, the union has withdrawn its application for recognition in Guest Relations. Some NBC execs interpret that with- drawal as lack of strength. Aaron Schneider, N. Y. regional director, complained in a letter to Niles Trammell, NBC. prexy, that the asst. manager of the Interna tional Dept. had leptured employees against joining the union. The union claims also that it has been -unable "to secure assurances of good faith" from Ernest de. la Ossa, network personnel manager. Jones' New Jaw Show Spike Jones has been doing some huddling with Kenyon & Eckhardt agency execs on building an air show slanted for the kids. It would be either a half-hour weekly show or a 15-minute cross-thc-board atrip. ' Jones has done several albums similarly aimed for the Juve trade. COAST TALENT WANTS H'WOOD AM STATION Washington, July 23. . The Hollywood Community Radio Group, - whose stockholders are all talent men in the radio and pix fields,.last week (18) filed an appli- cation, with the FCC. for a new standard broadcast station in Gar- dena, Calif. . Proxy of the company Is Alvin Wilder, news analyst for the Pacific Coast Network. Other officers in- clude Emil Corwin, screen writer and active pamphleteer for the Po- litical Action Committee, who is also brother of CBS' 'Norman Cor- win; Paul Stewart and Abe Polon- sky, Paramount Pictures writers; Cal Kuhl, director of West Coast recordings for RCA; Sam Moore, writer for NBC's "The Great Gilder- sleeve" program, and prexy of the Radio Writers Guild; Pauline Lauber, secretary of the Radio Writers Guild; and William Pomerance, di- rector of the Screen Writers' Guild The group already has a bid In foi an FM outlet in Hollywood. RWG, 4A's Snafu Over One-Shot Scripter Pact The long-drawn out negotiations- for a freelance writers' contract be- tween the American Assn. of Ad- vertising Agencies and the Radio Writers Guild has struck the tough- est snag to date, and no one is par- ticularly happy about it. .-.What's happened is this: The ne- gotiating committees representing the 4A's and the RWO had agreed on a contract for one-shot shows, as distinct from serials and series. But then they disagreed on whether or not to promulgate that contract now. Reps of the 4A's insisted that, while they had agreed to the 15 clauses protecting one-shot script- ers, they would make those provi- sions part of whatever overall con- tract eventually develops between the admen' and the writers. The RWG group insisted: Let's jointly recommend this much now, and go on from here. Thai's where the matter stands how. The 4A's nego- tiators, headed by Abbott K. Spen- | cer and J. Walter Thompson agency said they couldn't agree to promul- gate what they call a partial con- tract without polling their full com- mittee. They arc in. process of mak ing such a poll now. The Guild people, saying nothing pending completion of the 4A's com- mittee poll, nevertheless are clearly perturbed. Hints have been made by some influential Guild members who are not members of the RWG negotiating committee that they will insist that their negotiators break off contact with the 4A's if the poll results in the negative. "We've come to an agreement, but these people won't announce it. and we think our negotiators should tell them they're not acting in good faith." is the way one. prominent Guildsinan summarized the situa tion. * The" one-shot provisions, fpr the first time, give the writer of that type of show a good many rights that he never possessed ' before. While no money scale is set in the agreement, it permits one-shot rights to revert to the writer, giving him the right to sell his show again for rebroadcast, for films, the legit stage, or any other medium.' The contract defines trial scripts and au dition scripts and, in general, sets down the rule that all negotiations with a writer be in writing so that there can be no argument as to what was ordered. The contract also spec fles the time limitations in which writer is to be paid. If the 4A"s finally agree to pro mulgate these provisions, the Guild will expect that at least 90% of the agencies should abide by the terms of the new contract. The two ne gotiating committees would then go on batting around the terms of on setting the terms of a contract tor writers of series and .serials. Love Those Hucksters Any Froth Carlos Franco, Frederic Wakeman Square Off on WQXR, But Radio's Still Baloney to Maloney "Author Meefs the Critics" IWQXR, N, Y.) tost toeefc (18) tackled Frederic Wakemaris -The Hucksters." Emcee John K. M, McCaffrey brought Carlos Franco, veepee" of Young & Rubicam agency, to (he mike as Wakeman's attacker. Russell Maloney defended Wakeman,-by'and Itfrye. ■ The discussion touched upon advertising, upon the American radio t-s. the BBC system, etc. Here are some excerpts from the show. About the Book Franco: I think it is an interesting fiction book/Indifferently written, which loses a point halfway through. . . .. Kimberly 8i Mogg is. . . . just about as much of a phoney as any writer can ever write, about Vic Norman was a dishonest person . . . the book is neither, typical of adver- tising' or advertising people.... Malonev: It is the first grown-up book written about the radio. . .:. I don't doubt Mr. Norman and his $35 tie. I believe in his adventures, and I believe in that wonderful theatrical agency with the wonderful name of Talent. Ltd. I believe in them all—the people on the Superchicf. and the agents, and so on. They are all real. About Evan Llewellyn Evans Franco: I never met such a person ..- . . I have found, advertising men to be full of rich humor, humor that doesn't stain Or sting, and Evans in the book 'doesn't represent that .,...1 have never met such.ah individual.-' Maloney: Evans is a man with terrific lust for power, and no particular object for it. All he can do is persuade people to buy soap. He victim- izes these people . . . will sacrifice anything to this lust. About Radio & Advertising Wakeman: Mr. Franco and I have apparently moved in different, circles £ advertising . . . All I have tried to do is show what it was. Is "love that soap" any more penetrating or irritating and nauseating than a combi- nation of foghorns, jingle bells, whistles, toots and so on that you hear over the radio practically 20 hours a day? It seems to me that this book took . hold .. . not because it's profound literature—I make no pretensions to that —but because there! has right now come to-the surface of the American public a feeling that radio has not realized, It has not delivered what it might have delivered, and there, is a dissatisfaction. Franco: I don't think that radio has realized its possibilities, and I he American public couldn't possibly be satisfied with radio as it exists today. One point Mr. Wakeman made—that the book deals with radio advertising. I don't think it has a great deal to do with it not as much as he would like me to believe it did, and others share my opinion. Maloney: I am concerned with the fact that Mr. Wakeman, here on ihe air and in the book, has criticized radio several times and you (Franco) haven't given' me yet any ways in which the book is. inaccurate. Franco: Well, Mr. Wakeman criticizes radio in general terms. I must agree there are certain advertisers and advertising agencies that K<i be- yond good taste; but in the business you find a. great many advertisers—, the majority of them ... do an honest, sincere: job of it. x What About BBC? McCaffrey: Let me make a pitch here in favor of our present radio ad- vertising. What about the situation which occurs when you have no; ad- vertising whatsoever, as on the, BBC' Maloney: Isn't it a little more soothing and sedative, at least? Wakeman: I am in favor of commercial radio over the BBC kind of radio ... I think that radio advertisers had better starl changing some of the sounds that come out of the loudspeakers, or the American public, is going to rise up in protest against it, and we might get a BBC type of radio. Franco: Our radio represents a freedom! a freedom we should all be happy with. We have no .controls over it as they have in England: and anybody who wishes to. control radio as they have it in England, possibly should go to England. Maloney: There is one thing that freedom of the radio results' in—a man " buying a little segment of time and ignoring what has gone before and what will come after. Wakeman: I don't think we should compare two fairly lousy types ot radio systems. I think we should try to improve ours over the premise of BBC . . . it is long and dreary and, although sans commercial, I don't think it would go with the American public. But the point I would like to make is that radio presently being so commercial is over-commercial-. ized to the point where all radio is planned on a mass entertainment basis and I believe radio is a'medium Of communication amongst all kinds of people so that if there are 5,000 people here in this country interested in some esoteric subject, that radio should be in a position to give it to them. That means changing programming and commercial concepts, but not de- stroying commercial concepts entirely. -But don't keep radio a continuous vaudeville show which, because of the dearth of talent, has about four good shows of that kind a week and all the rest-simply stink to high heaven. . I don't say throw the rascals out. I sny ' : - . : A one tiny little segment of life that the American people know little about, yet where money is expended day after day and it is time they learned about how the segment operated and I hope that that segment of life, namely the advertising world, might take a look at itself and do a better job with radio. Franco: Mr. Maloney. I am highly surprised at you for taking a highly ' imaginative, a highly fictional book, as an instruction book on radio, as something that' would teach you something about it. There are other sources from which all of us might learn something about it, namely in the present advertising agencies, over the radio stations, over the nation. MEREDITH SET FOR AMERICANA PACKAGE New ■ half-hour dramatic show starring Burgess Meredith is being packaged on the Coast by Robert Maxwell Associates, aimed for fall network airing. Show is tabbed "Native Land, with Ben Lucien Burman, the au- thor, as scripter in his first radio venture. "Land" will deal with sagas of America, leaning heavily on native foJk lore and folk music Olga Diuce, producer-director of Mutual's "House of Mystery," planed to the Coast Sunday (21) for huddles with Meredith on behalf of Maxwell office. At the. same time she'll also sit in on the pic version of the Max well-packaged "Superman" air show now shooting on the Columbia lot CBS Flowchart Places Program Supervisors, Shows Plan's Workings Under instructions from CBS vice president Davidson Taylor, there has been a recent clarification of execu- tive jurisdiction affecting the various CBS house programs. A list pre- pared by William Fineshriber gives a quick-glance summation of the operation ot the CBS "supervisor system" revealing the considerably increased number of programs which now come under a supervisor, while at the same time clearly suggesting that a great many programs still operate outside the supervisory plan which is now about two years old. The list does more than illustrate the distribution of tasks within the CBS program department. It also reveals the extent of summer pro- gramming at the network. Between 20 »n4-30 new programs of various kinds have been or art 'being launched. ■ May Backs Golf Again, Books Femme for Voice GeOrge S. May, the industrialist, has again bought time on NBC for a coast-to-coast airing next Sunday (28) of the May-financed All-Amer- ican Golf Tournament at Tam-O- Shanter Country Club, Chicago. Aside from the unusual aspect of the commercial auspices, it'll prob- ably mark the first time that a femme Bportscaster has handled a golf tournament. Kay Byrne, women's N. Y. State golf champ, has been pacted for the job. She'll work with Bill Stern. Glen Taylor to Ayer Hollywood, July 23. Glenhall Taylor has resigned at veepee and supervisor of Pacific Coast radio activities for Young & Rubicam and on.Aug. 15 he moves to N. W. Ayer as manager of the agency's Hollywood radio division. Taylor Succeeds Herbert C. San- ford.