Portland Public Library Portland Public Library Digital Commons The Maine Broadcaster Local History Collections 10-1947 The Maine Broadcaster : October 1947 (Vol. 3, No. 10) Maine Broadcasting System (WCSH Portland, ME) Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/mainebroadcaster TBE BROADCASTING~!·~~ MAINE BROADCASTER: SYSTEM\. AJllliat e PUBLISHED AS AN AID TO BETTER RADIO LISTENING Vol. III , N o. 10 P ortln.ncl, Maine, October, 1947 Price, F ive Cents HOUR-LONG PLAYS ON NBC's FORD THEATRE MeBs To Offer No Crime Or Mystery Programs Howard Lindsay Frill Foothall ;; Before 9.30 P.M. On NBC Coverage Emcee-Narrator The · :iona l~ .Broadcasting Com­ be broadcast over the NBC network The Maine Broadcasting System and pany convention, meeting in Atlantic before 9:30 p. m .. ." Of New Series ~BC will offer a full schedule of the City, N. )., this past month, unani­ It is important co reiterate now, The hou.r-long Ford Theater starts nution's top football games this fall mously"'<ndoprcd a propos:il that, ef­ for the information of the general Sundny, Oct. 5, 011 WSCH, vVRDO with Saturday afternoon play-by-play fective ·1an. 1, 1948, "no series of public, some of the policies of NBC: and \.VLBZ with the noted playwdght­ broadcasts. The fi.rst important game detective, crime or mystery cype 1. No program will be broadcast prnducer-actor, H oward Lindsay, w; of the season-the Minnesota-Wash­ programs" will be broadcast over which glorifies or justifies crime, master of ceremonies and narrator. It ington conrest-al.ready has been aired NBC before 9: 30 p. 111. criminals or ally anti-social practice. will be heard throughout the and with Bill Stern, NBC's sports director, foll This action, the object of which is 2. Lurid, overly realistic dramati- furnishing the play-by-play account. winter at 5 :00 p. m. to 6:00 p. m. each "ro reduc~ the exposure of juvenile zations of the morbid or criminal as­ Sunday. A schedule of the games to be and adolescent minds to crime sug­ peccs of the story most be avoided. Every possible source-great plays, brnadcast this year is not available at gestion," was cuken at a closed meet­ rhis rime. In fact, Bill Stern selects 3. Programs which by virtue of prize-winning shore stories, musicals, mg of NBC executives and represen­ detailed descriptions of the technique cla~'Sic novels and famous morion the games to be covered by N BC on tntivcs of 160 of the network's sta­ a week-to-week basis, choosing the and methods of crime become blue­ pictures- will be used as material for tions. Voting for the proposal were prints for impressionable listeners this weekly series. T he premiere football contests of top interest. \tVilliam H . Rines, managing director [n addition to .regular Saturday must be avoided. presentation wi ll be Samuel Clcmcn's of the Maine Broadcasting Syscem; ·'A Connecticut Ynnkee at King Art­ coverage, the Maine Broadcasting Ed Guernsey, manager of \,VLBZ, 4. Revenge most never be justified System will keep its listeners up-to­ as a motive. rhur's Court," as adapted by Lillia11. Bangor, and Jack Atwood, manager Schoen. date with a .round-up of all the scores of WRDO. 5. o mention, direct or implied, on Hal Dyer's Sport's Journal at 6: 15 of sex crimes . Howard Lindsay Lindsay's career in the cheater is p. m. And durillg the week, Dyer T he proposal in pare follows: closely linked with the State of Maine. "Dramatization of crime, mystery 6. Law, justice and the office.rs of The world premieres of both the stage will broadcast pre-game statistics and the law should be portrayed without line-ups as well as his own predic­ and detective stories, while a .recog­ and screen versions of his famous nized and justly popular form of en­ disparagement or ridicule, but with Les Brown's Dad play, "Life vVith Father," were held at tions. His popul2.r sports program is respect. heard over WCSH, WRDO and tertuinmenc and litcrnnuc, requires the Lakewood Theater in Skowhegan. particularly marure and discriminat­ \ VLBZ at 6: 15 p. m., Mon, through 7. Crime must always be punish­ A Baker, Inspired Last August, Lindsay revisited Skow­ Sac. ing judgment in radio presentarion. ed. Crime isn't a subject for comedy. hegan to attend the first showing on " In order fucrher co reduce the 8. ews of crime will always be Son To Play Sax the screen of the play which previous­ exposure of juvenile and adolescent presenred factually. o appearance ly had broken all theatrical records on minds to crime suggestion, effective of persons involved or featured in Les Brown, oae of the country's liroadway with an eight year run. N ose for News Jan. I, 1948, no series of detective, current criminal or morbidly senti­ top band-leaders, inherited his Jove of Highlights of the first 13-week crime ,,r mystery type programs will mental news stories will be allowed. music from his father, who was a group in the series will include A small town correspondent baker by trade. t:ugenc O'Ncill's stage corncdv, "Ah for the Maine Radio ews Scr­ Les was born in Rcinerton, Pa., \tVi ldemess," on Nov. 2, and another ,·ice recognizes the value of ncws­ PREMIERE - - Mar. 1-l, 1912. \,Vheu he was eight first-on-the-airways, J. B. Priestley's minutely. H e's so conscieotious year old, he started rnkillg piano stage melodrama, "Dangerous Corner," that he's apologetic wlkn a story lessons and contin ued tbem tor a to be aired Nov. 30. ...isn' as--. ncw~orth~ as it.-might year. TI1en, one day, the youngster Adaptations w ill be nldde by first ,- be. -Boh HawWs Quiz Show Moves To NBC watched his father and three uncles rank craftsmen, and du.ring each 13- Wiring a story about breaks in­ play in an amateur sax quartet. Young week period cwo original one-hour to two northern Maine rail.road One of radio's fastest moving and Les got hold of his dad's soprano sax, plays will be presented. Tn this man­ stations, he reported that the loot funniest quiz shows will move to cried it and decided this, not the ne~ ''For d T hearer" h~pes to give nt one sration was a small amounc NBC when the Bob H awk Show joins piano, was the instrument for him. It \vnters the first opportunity they have of casll and then added: "Sorry, the network on Oct. 2 (Thursday at was a c:m:er-making decision. had to fashion original 60-rninure 10:00 p. m.). noching taken in other break." plays expressly for radio. Fast? Quizmasrer Hawk speaks Les studied and practiced on the Originating ill New York, the "Ford 264 words per minute and averages sax all through his early years, and 4, 190 words per broadcast. Funny? by the time he entered the Con­ T heater" will draw its cast members Hawk is so quick with a witty adlib servatory of Music in Ithaca, N . Y., from the ranks of experienced radio that listeners often suspect (mistaken­ in 1926, he was far ahead of the other actors, and no Broadway or Holly­ ly, ~f course) that contestants a.re pro­ kids who played the sax.· From Ithaca, wood "name" stars will be used for the productions. fcsS1onal comedy "stooges." he went to Cornwall, N. Y., as a stu­ Plays will not be relegated to a Contestants a.re chosen from the dent at tbe New York Military Aca­ demy. When he left there in 1932, back shelf after presentation on chc studio audience bf announcer Art air. Parr of the "Ford Theater" rep­ Gentry, and Hawk never sees them Les had distinguished himself lcadina bands and raking part ill extr-cu.rri~ ertory plan is to assemble a collection until they a"re introduced to him at of out~rnnding radio dramas to be pre­ the microphone. Nevertheless, the cular activities. T hen Les a~tendcd Duke University sented time and· again throughout the "Bob 1:-bwk Show" often manages to years. sound as funny as a regular comedy and formed his first band, "The Blue prngram, though it .indulges in the Devils." The group played a sum­ serious business of testing people's mer engagement at I cw Jersey's knowledge and pays high cash divi­ Budd Lake and there Les met the girl dends ro well-informed contestants ~horn he married a few years later. who successfully answer Bob's intri­ I he Browns have two children, Les, cate questions. Jr., age five, and Denise, age three. Bob Hawk, the man behind this HE ASKS 'EM - Form er E nglish The Blue Devils broke up in Sep­ fast-moving show, is a veteran quiz­ teacher Bob Hawk, radio quizzer since tember, 1937, and Les turned to mak­ masrer who knows whereof he speaks. 1936, takes his fast-moving program to ing ari:angcmcnts for other bnnds and His first radio quiz shO\v, created in NBC Oct. 2. tte·11 be heard at JO: 00 publishers. In 1938, be formed a new !93t'i, wa.~ rhe forerunner of many p. m. ench T hur~dny over WCSH , band, and with a slow 111,r careful others of its kind. W ROO and WLBZ groundwork of lengthy lot.-ation en­ gagements built up the band's reputa­ tion. The real bre:1k came when the A girl singer who bas really come Edith Oliver writes questions for group was booked into Mike Todd's up fast is_ blonde, pretty Peggy Lee che show, Take It or Leave It, but Theater Cafe in Chicago, where thcv on the Junmy Durance Show.