Evening star., 1936-11-08


This battle Of the broadcasters te
novel and adroit ideas designed to pro-,
vide the countless thousands Of we'll
produced programs that some 600 sta
tions provide every week. Radio, natu-
rally, Is an evanescent art and, unlike
the theater, 1t seldom can repeat Its
shows.
Time Is a rather scarce commodity
this season, for stations are finding it
difficult to juggle their schedules to
accommodate all who would pay for
seconds and cycles. In fact. time Is
becoming so scarce that Columbia net
work Is going outside its facilities to
develop a training ground for promis-
ing talent.
NHEN Columbia's Artist Bureau
w found itself without means of
putting the finishing touches on up
and-coming artists due to its bulging
time schedules, it arranged with WIN,
New York station, to serve as proving
grounds for high-grade artists who
otherwise might have no microphone
to pick up their offerings and prepare
them for the transmitter. WIN IS
owned by the Loew and M-G-M the
atrical interests.
These artists aren't amateurs, Co.
lumbia insists. On the other hand,
they are skilled performers being
coached in the finer points of micro
phone technique WIN will benefit
by having at its disposal better sup
ply of talent, it believes, while CHS
will have increased air time for the in
PRODUCTION and trying out OF new
artists.
This proving ground technique has
been growing in popularity this year.
Only last Summer New England
sponsor, contemplating the copmunity
sing program now heard Sunday eve
nings, decided to give it a regional
twirl Just to see how it would be re-
ceived. Tried out while on Yankee
network, in New England, it was en-
Enthusiastically received, and the spon-
sor was quickly convinced that 1t had
found its show.
About the same time another firm
became enamoured of question-and-
answer program and selected WJSV,
Washington, as the radio crucible, for
that was where the idea was con-
ceived. Big crowds jammed the hotel
where the performance was staged,
and radio-audience reaction was just
as favorable. After while the Co
lumbia key station in New York,
WABC, was added, and eventually
the program was deposited in an
N. B. c. spot over a good-sized
hook-up.
NEW ENGLAND is the scene Of an
other idea in program testing. It
is the Committee Of 100" plan, put
into effect some months ago by Yam
kee network.
The committee of citizens was con-
ceived as q volunteer group, which
would listen regularly to a preview
Of q popular weekly program. Each
member was to tell his and more
frequently her ideas about the pres
entation. If substantial majority
voiced satisfaction, the program
would go on just as they heard it.
On the other hand, if the jury
members would shoot it full of holes,
then some serious revamping would
be in order and the program as the
public heard it would be vastly differ
ent from the original conception of
the production staff.
Incidentally, the committee had a
chance to do bit of censoring if it
felt that anything not suited to
young listeners was inadvertently in
cluded. OF course, the censorship
question-from good-taste stand
point-has never been serious radio
problem, since the broadcasters lean
backward in their effort to avoid
obscene or smoking-room material.
Eddie Cantor was one of the first
to try out his gags and quips at an
afternoon dress rehearsal, and any
duds which failed to produce the de-
sired gales of outlaws were deleted
and new ones hastily inserted.
Walter O'Keefe and his Caravan
company adopted the plan of getting
the studio audience on hand more
than half hour before the pro-
gram went on the air. During this
period the program for the following
week was submitted to the audience
and unsatisfactory material was over
hauled during the intervening seven
days.
7 TITLE troubled as we are on this
- side Of the Atlantic over the
broadcasting of speeches designed to
provoke internal or external aggres-
sion or rebellion, the radio peace
conference" held in Geneva recently,
out of which came convention
signed by 10 nations who agreed to
follow the good neighbor policy with
respect to their radio broadcasts,
caused scarcely a ripple of interest
In the United States.
Over in Europe, however, the pact
Is deemed all-important, even though
Germany, Italy and Spain are con-
spicuously absent from the list of
signatories, and even though some
cynics may regard this latest peace
effort of the League of Nations as
Just another empty gesture.
DESPITE the heat of the recent
American political campaign,
during which even the Communists
were allowed time on the air under
the political equality provision Of the
communications law, and despite the
frequent outbursts in this country
regarding the curbing of free speech
on the air, the mere fact that fear
ridden Europe had to promulgate such
. pact would seem to render our
radio problem simple by comparison.
The convention for the use Of broad
casting in the cause Of peace, as the
pact is known, has been five years
In the making. 4
The five years since the League of
Nations and its auxiliary, Interna-
tional Institute Of Intellectual CO.
operation. began working on a radio