Variety (July 1949)

Wrdnesda3r, July 20, 1049 RADIO 25 MAIL ORDER NETWORKS SPREAD OMer Runs from Mason to Prove A Point and Mason Rims Back to Spier By JACK HELLMAN Hollywood, July 19. Arch Oboler has been a very serious guy since the day he was called “genius in a sweatshirt.” It has paid off well enough but Mr. O. is not one to take solace from self-sufficiency. So he derided to become more literal and immediately suited action to the thought. “Man,” said Arch, “is always running away from something, which is why I changed the title of the James Mason series on NBC from ‘Illusion’ to ‘Run Man Run’.” And perhaps. Just to prove his point, he started running away from . . . the Masons — James and [ Pamela. He finally stopped, but not short of complete professional divorcement from the English acting family. “He had his ideas about suspenseful drama and I had mine,” offered Oboler, “but they seemed to be miles apart. I gue.ss they do things differently on the tight little isle. I’ve been writing and directing suspense and surprise pieces since the early days of radio and the process hasn’t changed much over the years. But since his ideas and mine could never fuse I thought it best to get out and let him get another boy.” Mason and NBC had talked to a half dozen of the top suspense John H. Mitchell (Director of Television for United Artists) DisCMMM Television Vs, Theatrical Distribution la 4fk ArnmoI Radio-TV Rovitw & Provitw Numbor •f f^SRlETr Out Next W eek H1[1IK ERODPS lllfPOjFreelance Scripters See Coin Hypo h New Web Farmout Assignments NABUG Joins In Unions Probe Of Radio 'Blacklist’ Movement of the radio unions to combat the use of a “blacklist” ! designed to bar employment to . actors, writers and directors, be! craftsmen in the business, among cause of supposedly “leftist lean ^ them Bill Spier, Dee Engelbach ; ings,” stepped into higher gear and Tony Leader, and studiously ; thi.s week. scrutinized their samples. Oboler The National and New York was later called in and the mo1 Councils of the National Assn, of mentous decision \vas finally ar j Broadcast Unions and Guilds last rived at: “He s my boy, said Ma; week voted full support to two reason, and the first three shows of ' olutions of the Radlo-Televi.sion the eight-episode series were put , Directors Guild. The RTDG resoon wax, with live music cued on lutions set up tw’o committees, one night, of the broadcast to circum; take action in the case of Wilvent the canned music scale. But Hani Sweets and a second to “take something told Mason that he may | guch further action as it may deem have been wrong and the hassling started. So Oboler bowed out and Spier w'as called back to finish out the remainder of the dramatic omnibus. In taking sudden leave of Ma.son ( night before the takeoff ) Oboler proved to himself that he’s still a genius, even without a sweatshirt. | He now wears a tie and sport jack1 et in harmonious shades. But to ' (Continued on page 34) (Continued on page 34) Equitable 'FBF Switch to NBC? Iowa News Editors Set 3-Man Inquiry Board On News Coverage Melee Des Moines, July 19. genius art me? ns more than I A three-member committee of money and in running away from Iowa radio news editors has been Mason he’s forfeiting a weekly pay named to investigate a recent incident in Des Moines, in which a KRNT newsman and an engineer are alleged to have been shoved around and their tape recorder smashed in their efforts to cover a news story about the local transit dispute. Damage to the recorder was held to be more than $300. Chuck Hilton, Mason City, president of the low'a Radio News EdlI tors’ Assn., appointed Bob BurlinLooks like ABC may suffer an jjanie of KIOA, as chairman. Jack other nighttime program rever.se. Shellev of WHO, and Fran Bouton This time it would involve the | of KWDM. to make the Inquiry. Equitable Life-sponsored “This Is All are Des Moines radio editors. Your FBI,” the Jerry Devine pack 1 The report of the committee to age w'hich has been one of the more the association officers will form attractive after-dark suspense a basis for any action the associashows on the ABC kilocycles. tion may make in “behalf of the NBC is negotidtlng for a move principle of freedom of Informaover of the program into the Fri tion and freedom of reporting in day night 8:30 time. That’s the pe i the radio new'S field.” riod formerly occupied by Camel’s I Incident took place June "8 on Jimmy Durante show, which is the sidewalk outside a ^0^8® h^H switching back to 9:30 the same * mass meeting of the Des night. 1 Moines Street Car Men’s union was hold for the purpose of discussing plans for a tran.sit strike. Newsmen were refused permission Q. ^ to attend the meeting but had bix politicos and government ex g recorded statement from perts will appear as summer re ^ead of the transit system up Pearson on his departure from the meeting, jmie the ABC commentator takes following which a labor group ms annual six-week vacation. smashed the recorder. Neither First guest gabber will be Sen. I KRNT man was injured In the afRobert A. Taft, Ohio Republican, fair, who will discuss the North Atlantic Pact, Sunday (24). PER INOOIRY Bi; Despite attacks on “rate cutting practices” from various sections of the industry. Per Inquiry (PI) deals are spreading at an unprecedented 1 rate. PI deals — in w'hich stations ' are paid for each letter pulled instead of at card rates — are being boomed by two companies. Mail Order Network and Direct Radio ^ Sales, both in New' York. j MON is headed by Harold Kaye, former v.p. of Ollon agency and \ ex-radio director of Joseph Katz ' Co., and is buying time on stations which won’t take PI contracts. Combining direct air selling w-ith a transcription web idea. MON will supply members with custom-made programs including built-in commercials with the station’s call letters, ’fhree separate programs are being lined up, for urban, ruralhillbilly and southern markets. “Stations want mail order biz because it is depression-proof,” Kaye says. “But MON shows often flop because they lack topflight pitchmen. We’ll answer this need with a specialist in each of the three regional fields. Members will take a minimum of five hours a w'eek, with platters in 10 and 15-minute segments.” Kaye’s outfit, which is using fringe time, deals only with agencies, not manufacturers, and items are pre-tested by a Mail Order Buyers Guild. Products are staples such as razor blades, men’s socks and nylon hose. 1 MON has already pacted 16 stajtions and expects to have 100 by September, when it will kick off nationally. N. Y. key, it’s reported, will be WOR, Mutual outlet, and 1 Kaye’s office is in the WOR-MBS building, 1440 Broad w'ay. Direct Radio Sales, established last April, has made arrangements with 70 stations, including four 50kw outlets. According to DRS prexy Donald Withycomb, “The merchandise w'e offer are highquality gadgets useful in the home. Stations are sent .samples and manufacturers guarantee that all items sent out w’ill be identical. Contracts give us and the stations full protection against complaints.” Withycomb said that stations get 30% net of the product’s retail price for each letter received, even if the letter is a demand for a refund or if more than one item is ordered. “In the past,” he said, “there were an aw'ful lot of headaches in PI setups because of re, turns and complaints. How'ever, (Continued on page 36) William S. Roach (Of O^Rrien^ Drisrollf Raftery & Linvler) ditcuiMt t«l«vislea film cl*araacti la *Road to Bankruptcy^ * * * •a* mt tlia moay Editorial Paotorat la Hi# 4rii Aaaoal Rodio-TV Rfivifiw & Prtviaw Numbar of P^KiEfr Out Next Week ¥ The lot of the freelance writer in radio has been an unhappy one, particularly over the past year, with the continued unbeat in audience participation and giveaway programs. But the new trend around the major networks to farm out writing assignments, as particularly revealed in the new approach tow’ard programming at CBS. has served to offer some measure of comfort to at least the more important boys among the freelance fraternity. As far as writers go, very' few are “on staff” any more around the webs. In its current lopoff crusade to effect economies. Columbia has been left with a staff of four. The tendency toward “going freelance” actually set in some time back, with such current Hooper hits as “My Friend Irma.” “My Favorite Husband,” “Our Miss Brooks,** etc., repre.senting freelance writing assignments, even though they’re on the hooks as “house-built” shows. And when a writer clicks with one of the former, he’s generally regarded as good for a fivcI to-KVyear am. ! In embracing its “package concept,” along with the other w’ebs, I CBS today is even willing to buy ready-made documentary programs. That represents a far cry from network thinking a couple years High-Calibre Summer Subs Surprise Trade Surprising a.spect of the summer season thus far has been the calibre of a number of the sustaining shows with which the webs i have been plugging “hiatus time.” ' solves the Despite the recent upbeat in give freelance writers maior problem, away shows and a tendency toward real nemesis, thi'y all agree, ! band remotes to effect savings, it’s in continued public clamor for the general verdict within the , giveaways and audience participai trade that this summer has wit' f*”” b*'‘’8rams. All they need are nessed a replacement cycle far F^iod emcees with a gift for the ad a ; superior in quality to the filler fare over the preceding few years. I Cited as illu.strations, for example, are such NBC summer ad, ditions as the Billie Burke-Harry Von Zell “Chicken Every Sumi mer,” which got off to such a I smart start that it’s considered a likely potential as a carryover for the fall season; the Cosmopolitan mag “Four Star Playhouse” package, on the same web; the new James and Pamela Mason Show, plus the productional values put ' into the web’s radio adaptation of ; “Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” j Considered even more of an oft' season surprise has been qualitative CBS hot-weather programj niing, including such items as the I Abe Burrows Monday night show, the Joan Davis package (already sold to American Tobacco), and the hour-long “This Is Broadway.” lib (sans script)merchandise. -plus a handful of WHOM Studio Move to N. Y. Nixed; Jersey City’s Need Outweighs All Else Pearson’s Politico Subs lowell Thomas Abroad WIND’S lOG Gridfest Chicago, July 19. Eowell Thomas left yesterday' WIND, Chi. has signed the Chi •Tues.i on a trip to east and south Dodge Dealers Assn, for airing of )J'est Asia with stops in Hawaii, China, Siam. India and bikkim. Lowell Thomas, Jr., now in Persia, will join him in Calcutta. K. CBS new.* ster will send ock tape-recorded interviews. full Northwestern U. football schedule, starting Sept. 24 with Purdue U. game. Nine-game package. with announcer Bert Wilson, was peddled for $10,000. Deal ma’ks fourth sea.son station has carried the g.amcs. W'ashington, July 19. On a finding that Jersey City has far greater need for locally originated programs than does New York, the FCC yesterday (18) proposed to deny tho application of WHOM, owned by Generoso Pope and family, to move its main studios to Manhattan. An initial decision by J. D. Bond, hearing examiner, held that the Importance of community service outweighs the added expense of the Jersey City studio plus the “nuisance” of the station identification. It was expected the station would ask for oral argument on the decision. While complimenting WHOM for its foreign-language service to the New York metropolitan audience, the examiner concluded that the question of comparative needs of Jersey City and New York for broadcast stations predominated. He pointed out that New York has at least 14 standard broadcast station studios and Jersey City only one. To allow' the WHOM move, he said, would give New York 1.5 and Jersey City none, thus magnifying the “gross disparity” now' existing. With Its more than 300.000 population, Jersey City should have access to local standard broadcast 'facilities, the examiner said. Needs of the citizenry for a community medium of Information may be “significantly met” by standard broadcast programs originating in local studios, he declared. Service from New York. Newark or Paterson doesn’t answer this need. Neither do FM stations, he said. Citing testimony of Jersey City leaders at hearings in February and April of 1948 on the move, the examiner said that although the radio voice of the Jersey City community may have been “all but stilled” by the removal of station WAAT and by the “diminishing accessibility” jOf WHOM, the need for expression has not ended. The “spirited opposition” of the citizenry to the removal of WHOM, “even though its local service is presently negligible,” said the examiner, “presents the community plea against destruction of the city’s hope for a standard radio broadcast outlet. We are convinced that the plea is meritorious.” The examiner s^id the station has been originating all but one of its programs each week from Its New York studio. Denial of the request to give up its Jersey Clt^' facilities, he asserted, will not “dirertlv require or effect” any change in its operations. Missouri Radio’s 'Show Me’ Stance Kansas City. July 19, Radio biz currently is on the skids in this area, according to reports by half a dozen station managers in town and around the state. While some slippage was expected during the summer months, billings have gone w-ay down for a postwar low 'I'he situation Is made no happier by the fact that costs continue to rise. Outlook Is not entirely black, however, as most stations report a healthy fall biz already coming in. particularly network stations. Come September and major stations figure the ledgers will be fairly well back to normal. Just what’s causing the summer slump to sink so low' is hard to say, but at least three station managers would pin it on the retail situation. Retailers arc finding it hard pickings, and their lethargic Intake is reflected in radio. Couple of network stations lay some of the blame on the nets, ' which they say haven’t fed them the profitable programs this summer. Meanwhile the affiliate is handicapped in selling time, as it is available for only a few’ weeks in the hot months and must ba held for the net come early fall. I The Dempsey Dilemma j Washington. July 19. The FCC found itself In a procedural pickle today in the case of John J. Dempsey, former Nevada governor, vs. KOB Albuquerque, N. Mex. A hearing had been skedded for next W'eek. although it was discovered by reporters that Dempsey had dropped his complaint four months ago. The agency, however, cannot drop It that easily and the legal boys are stalling for time to work things out. FCC’s legal division has asked for postponement of the hearing and hearing examiner James D. Cunningham will probably grant It, Case goes back to March. ’46. w’hen Dempsey asked for revocation of KOB’s license on grounds that the station carried broadcasts attacking him under "hidden sponsorship” of t hi« nolltirni frtni