Variety (June 1958)

: Vgdnesday^. Jiipg 1958 PmBEff MVSIC 43 Storz Radio Qiain Bans Cpl^ The controversy over radio's “Top 40” format and the program¬ ming accent on-rock ’n’ roll, which was kicked off by Columbia Rec¬ ords’ artists & repertoire chief Mitch Miller last March at the disk jockey convention in Kansas City, is still echoing through the music Miller, who made a vigorous and sharply worded attack on those “Top *40” broadcasters for “abdicat¬ ing” their responsibilities to the tastes of I2-year-old listeners, re¬ ceived a delayed repercussion when the Todd Storz midwest radio chain recently. moved to ban all Columbia Records from its pro¬ gramming schedule for a two-week period in retaliation for Miller’s continuing crusade against the so- called juve-angled programming. Miller’s attack, whi(di was wide¬ ly reported in the press, has re¬ portedly caused numerous ad. agen¬ cies to inquire into the program¬ ming policies of the stations they bought time on. Heretofore, a rating index was sufficient. After Miller’s blast, however, it seems as if advertisers became interested not only in how many persons were dialing in, but what kind. MiUer’s argument that the audi¬ ences of the “Top 40” statiphs . are made up predbminantly of kids has, of course,, been challenged by broadcasters using that’ music form¬ ula. It’s been pointed out by the pro-Top 40 outlets that top audi¬ ence ratings have been obtained before 3 p. m., when the . kids pre¬ sumably are in. school, as weR as after 3 p. m. . Many “Top 40” sta¬ tions, are first in ratings all day long, blit only when, the kids come, home. One “Top 40” proponent pointed oiit that the musical tastes of teen¬ agers extend beyopd their school days and carry into early- adult¬ hood. These people, the “young marrieds,” are in the market for goods and therefore dp constitute an attractive audience for adver¬ tisers. Up From Vaud0 Pit Omaha, June 17. Emanuel; Wishnow of Lin-, coin, onetime vaude musician at the : Stuart Theatre there and now professor of music at the U.. of Nebraska, will be guest conductor of the first two concerts. at. the Oinaha Symphony Pops Concert sea- -son. r ■■ He will sub for Richard Dun- Can, who recently resigned the Omaha post. The summer ser¬ ies wiU begin . June 24 and will again be. held at Peony Park ;here. ' To Die Pic Indies Pic Tobters to Choose Between AFM, New Union In NLRB Vote Jnii 9-10 Hollywood, June 17. The NatlonM Labor Relations Board has set July .9 and 10 as the dates for the strikihg film musi¬ cians tq vote so as to determine Whether the American Federation of Musicians dr the newly fornled Musicians Guild of America shall represent them as its bargaining agent with the major studios. Both guilds compromised their differ¬ ences on procedure and consented to the ground rules set by the NLRB following two days of legal skirniishing. Compromise means that approximately 1^200 tooters who have had at least two days of employment in the studios during the last 15 inonths will be eUgible •^to vote.-.’- Until the . election determines which org shall rep the tooters, the strike, now 18 weeks old, will con¬ tinue. Tbe producers also have agreed/on the. election dates and will wait for the outcpine prior t6 resuming negotiations. H. 0. Bumgarner was the hear¬ ing officer for the NLRB ‘ Hollywood, June . 17. The American Federation of Musicians has been accused of vi- oiating an interim agreement with the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers by Marvin Faris, exec secretary of the organization. ; Faris said that, the union is now demanding an additional clause barring recording on films to be released by the majors—rthus is repudialihg its original .agreement with the SIMPP. \ “L : assum.e independent pro¬ ducers will follow, the majors In going, abroad for scoring,” Faris said.“Such a development will further reduce employnient of musicians to a new low since-the major contract musicians are al¬ ready .on strike;”. A spokesman for the AFM said that the union had “no alternative since it has to make its strike against the majors as effective as possible,” and shut . off as much prdduct flow to the majors as it could. When the. majors were struck, iSIMPP signed a deal under which its members would pay for sejwices of musicians at the rates stated in the expired contracts, With a fur¬ ther’understandmg that any im¬ provements: later negotiated would be paid retroactively. Unaffected, however, is Samuel Goldwyn’s “Ppfgy and Bess,” re¬ cording for which has been undetr way. since April;. Goldwyn Is not a member of either AMPP or SIMPP, and has Signed ah interini agreci- ment. _ : Washington, June 17. Lytids of Stephen Foster are censored and changed, for con¬ sumption of. Washington moppets; according to Rep. D. R, Matthews. Florida legislator, who last year charged that- radiortv. stations. were tampering with the Works of the folk tunesmith. He said song books Used in schools here, delete such 'vords as Vdarkies.” Rep. Frank Chelf (D., Ky), who • the webs ;^£,cen- lyrics, . jdiirta ifi > bo^investigat^ - - Top execs of both Cplumbia Red-^ ords and. RCA Victor are being yeiy careful not to. oversell the. | hew stereo disk deyelopm.ent. Their conservatiye approach to stereo is designed to counteract a growing fear among retailers that mon¬ aural LP stocks will be pbsPleted eyeh before the public is fully con¬ verted, to stereo. it’s believed that all the hoopla about stereo niay. cue disk buyers to hold back from buying monaural IP’s until they get a stereo rig: Such a purchase, hPwever, may be some time in the future and, in: the interim, sales will fall off. Both George R. Marek, RCA Vic¬ tor disk. v.p. and general manager, and Goddard Liebersoh,. Columbia Records prexy; have emphasized at different times that.there are from 23,O0D,000 to 27,006,0.00 monaural phones how in existence, of which 5,000,000 can be considered to be hi-fi units. Such a distributioh of machines mearis a long future for monaural records.. That is doubly true since monaural disks have an improved sound wben played over a stereo setup. . Lieberson’s Statement Liebersohi in introducing Colum¬ bia’s stereo phorib line, last week, stated that an “educational pro¬ gram” is needed to clear up the Is¬ sues and problems that have c r o p p e d up - since the stereo Splurge began several months ago. ^‘Stereo,” he says, “is the greatest obfuscation since the Civil Wai*.’’ The confusion, he points out, is primarily on the consumer lev^I but even the manufacturers are hard-pressed to predict the net re-^ suits of a stereo market , since it has not -yet been exposed to the public. However, Lieberson as¬ serts, it’s the manufacturer’s job to “educate” the corisunaer: And the first .lesson, accbrdihg to the Col prez, should be -that all recr ords can be played on . stereo phonographs. Although he made an analogy to the Civil Wari: Liebersoh doesn’t foresee any battle between stereo and. the lO-year-old monaural LP. “Stereo,” he points out, “is not so reyolutibnary a step as the intro¬ duction of the LP to supercede the 78’s.” He stressed; that stereo is just a refinement of the LP. . .On -Gimmicked IStefeopbony’ Qn the sound values bf stereo. Liebersoh pointed out that it is; a special kind, of listening. “The only kind of stereophony that is easily recognizable,” he adds, “is gim- micked stereophony.” In the “gim¬ mick” category, he put such stereo disks which showcase sounds from bowling alleys, railroad stationsi (Continued oh page 50) Hotihd Dbg (Tags) Elvis Presley may do for dog tags. what Davy Crockett did for coonskin hats. The BeRa- yance JeWeiry Co., .North At¬ tleboro; Mass., will launch a . line of dog tag jewelry July 3 .With ‘a claimed liSOO.OOb adr Vance order. , .; included in; the line of dog tags will be braceiets, anklets and key chains all bearing Presley’s U. $. Army serial number, blood type, autogVaph and etched picture. They’ll sell for $1 each in either sflver or gold plated finish. . Idea was sparked -by Boston deejay Norm Prescott and sportsr caster joe Egan. They’ll be pebdled in chain and depart¬ ment stores, “ecord shops, su¬ permarkets and theatres. After .10 years in the low-price LP .field, yeterari disker EU Ober-^ stein is returning to the pop mar¬ ket via his own label. Rondo Rec¬ ords. The low-price LP lines will continue to operate as before al¬ though ObCrstein plans to devote full time tb Rondo. Oberstein already has; set 35 national distributors for Rondo and wRl peddle four separate al¬ bum liheSi They are Rondo-Gold at : $4.98,. Rondo at $3.98, Rondo- lette at $1.98, and a Rondo Stereor phonic at a price still to be de¬ termined: There are, as yet, no plans for the singles market. .. In the first release Oberstein has included four of the RondorGold series, including albums by Gio¬ vanni Martinelli, Josef Hofmann, and ^ Serge . Prokofieff playing his own compositions. The Rondo Rne is; being . launched with 12 LP’s. featuring packages by pianist Kurt Maier, EngRsh maestro Johnny Gregory, tenor Miklos Gafni, Wil¬ lie Farmer’s orch and thrush Sarah Vaughan. Included in the kickoff: release of 20 Rondo-lettes are LP’s by Dizzy. Gillespie, Jack Tea¬ garden, Jaye P. Morgan, ErroR G^her and the Three Suns. Herb Joseph / conies, into the. Rondo picture as Oberstein’s exec assistant and Dick Gersh will han¬ dle natipnal publicity. The Srwivbti^^ Col ph i^ RCA’s Int’L Kick Stereo is going Interriational as RCA kicks off its new tape-disk program at a meeting of top com¬ pany officials from New York asr sociated companies in. Europe at meetings today (Wed.) aiid tomor¬ row. In additioh to discussing plans for RCA activities under the new European c o.ih m o n market, the company wiR introduce its stereo line to RCA reps from Eng¬ land, France, Belgium^ HoRand, Norway; Sweden, Denmark, Fin¬ land, Switzerland, Germany, Aus¬ tria, Portugal, Greece and South Africa. The meeting Is the. first international confererice of . such scope to be held by RCA-• RCA delegation from the tJ. S. will be headed by ^rexy John L. Bimns and Frank M. Folspm, chainhan of the exee committee of the board of directors. Charles M.: GdoriM: exec v.p.i will preside at the . meetings: . George K Marek, v.p: and general manager. the yiG(6V diyl^oh; isil^HWenffi I ihg th^ ffieeting. _ ■ . L .r . .Col’s 25: New Models Cblumbia . Records Will hit the pihonbjgraph market this season with 25 new models.: The line Will encompass four majbr. categories: moiiaural-only p h o nos, stereo- adaptable; models, stereo units With optional additional speakers, and full stereo two-unit sets. The stereb-adaptation units (in¬ cluding cartridge, amplifier and speaker) will be available at $39.95. Utilizing adapter units, a : stereo (Continued oh page 50) Carlton^ Seecp^sV'MievTob* " Latest indie diskeries to. ; gbt in on the swing to stereo • . are Carlton Records and %ecb . ■■-Records.'■ , Carlton / will launch . its ;stereo line in July and Seecb Vdll hit. the . market at June’s end with four stereo albums. Seeco’s price for the stereo i L^ wUL^ $^-98. Carlton has 5^H’’aiinounced its stereo .scale.:;':..:::/ .Decca's Phono Line Decca Records has come into the stereo market with a new complete line of phonographs ranging up to 3330: in price., pecca’s higher^ priced equipment features dual channel amplifiers . and speakers while the lower-priced units have provisions for plugging in another speaker through a radio or televi¬ sion set for the stereo effect ' Decca / is spotlighting a portable ihachihe; selling for $140, as one- of the lowest-price. full stereo units On/the market. Also in the Decca phono line is a 45 rpm portable go¬ ing for $40. Last year’s model of this ihachihe was a top seller for Decca. : . Decca is using a demonstration disk, ‘.‘Adventures in Stereo,” fOr its phonograph campaigh. It is also being made available tO other- ma¬ chine. manufacturers for their ex¬ ploitation. Decca introduced its stereo line at the Barbizbh Plaza Hotel, .N. Y./ last 'Thursday (12). /pecca’s first stereo disks are jdue. puijiext.month. . / _ Recent hid. by Burton Lane, prexy of the American Guild of Authors & Composers, for publish¬ ers to sit down and hammer out a hew basic a^eement with the songwriters in “the American way” has drawn mixed reactions from the top publishers. WhRe the bulk of the major firms still don’t intend ta sit down with AGAG until they get proposals for a hew pact~4n advance. Lane’s in¬ vitation got an okay from the biggest company in the field, the Music Publishers Holding Corp., the Warner Bros, group. WhRe accepting Lane’s invite to discuss a new agreement, MPHC chief Herman Starr voiced some sharp criticisms of the songwriter’s organization. Starr pointed., out that 18 months ago he attempted to work out a hew agreement with AGAC, then known as the Song¬ writers Protective Assn., but was told then that the songwriters had decided to extend their agreement fOr another year. That, Starr de¬ clared, was unacceptable to him and he. has been operating without an AGAC contract since that time, Starr complained about the “arbi¬ trary attitude” of AGAC and their failure to con:act him for new discussions. Starr stated that he read a lot of stuff in the trade papers about negotiations for a new pact, but he never received a caR directly. . Starr’s ‘Glad to TMk’ Starr, who has always operated independently of the rest of the industry,/declared that he would be glad to" talk over a new deal in direct riegbtiations with AGAC. He said that he signed the original 8PA deal apart from the rest of the industry and had no ihtenRon. of being part of a general bargaining session. Although Starr’s acceptance of Lane’s invite really adds up to an indictment of AGAC’s strate^' for the past year. AGAC execs were (Continued on page 50) Mi(;bel4 to Quiz Kaye, Chevalier for MGM Label’s Interriew-in-Deptfa LPs MGM Records is extending its interviews-in-depth, under Arnold Michaelis’ quizzing, to Danny Kaye and Maurice jChevalier, both of which will be done on the Coast. While “prestigy’ items, these LPs are getting attention, as Rlustrated by the . initial * Eleanor Roosevelt and Rodgers & Ha mmerstein plat¬ ters. For reasons of the archives MGM would like Winston Chur- chiR, President Trunian, David Ben.-Gurioh, the Pope, Nehru; Pre¬ sident Eisenhower and Frank Sina¬ tra op wax. Last would would come under the heading of “sensational” items, which would probably mean bigger sales than the br^st'ge sets. There is a uniform $500 advance against a 10% royalty on the $4.98 albums. This is what Mis. Roose¬ velt got and, in thb c'a^e ttf Oscar Hammerstein 2d and Richard Rod¬ gers, each received a $500 advance since each made a two-side. LP although packaged as one unit. RCA Tape Cartridges Get ‘Custom’ Treatment .RCA Victor is making available it^ new stereophonic tape cartridge to other labels and industrial users via its custom .record sales depart¬ ment It’ll be part of the com¬ pany’s complete tape service, in¬ cluding recoi-ding, editing, high speed duplicating, labelmg, pack¬ ing and shipping. Duolicating equipment developed by RCA en¬ gineers now makes it possible to tiarn out the cartridge tapes faster than conventional reel tapes. Machines for play’ng the car¬ tridges are not .vet on the market, but will be fWaillbl? in the fall In a broad span qf-^i^es.