THE LONE RANGER STILL RIDES THE RADIO RANGE IN BOSTON

BOSTON, MASS. There's one guy the tons of snow that hit Boston last month did not keep from his appointed rounds, the Lone Ranger.

Believe it or not, folks, radio drama is not dead! It's alive and well on WCRB. Boston, thanks to Van Christo.

The famed series had its birth at Detroit radio station WXYZ in December of 1932, and became a regularly scheduled program the following month. Before long, the Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian companion Tonto captured the imagination of millions of listeners. The show became a national favorite and remained so for over 20 years.

The famous team were subsequently represented in thousands of products, a successful tv series and, most recently, a Saturday morning cartoon program. But none of these later adaptions ever compared with the popularity of the original radio series, which continued to command top ratings until its "untimely" cancellation in the 1950's.

Untimely? "Emphatically," asserts Van Christo, whose advertising agencysponsors the half-hour program. A frequent lecturer on the subject he maintains that "radio drama, one of America's few indiginous art forms was phased

out of the '50's while it was still highly popular. Network officials made a sacrificial lamb out of it, because it conflicted with the potentially more profitabletelevision medium."

In 1966, when Christo began what has become his personal crusade to regain a place for radio drama, he chose WCRB, a "classical music" station, as the vehicle. "I felt," Christo says, "that the station's audience represented a perfect cross-section of educated, discerning listeners who would welcome this dramatic fare, and perhaps lend a voice, as well as an ear, to our cause."

At the close of each radio episode the Van Christo Radio Theatre features: a special Radio Buff Contest. One drawn winner, correctly answering a radio "trivia" question receives a collector's-item lp record of Orson Wells' historymaking War Of The Worlds.

Van Christo has not only been responsible for the return of the "masked rider of the plains" but also has presented such vintage radio favorites as The Shadow, The Black Museum and The Third Man. To some people these programs are an adventure in "camp"; to others, a sentimental journey. But to most listeners,. emphasizes Van Christo, they still represent a uniquely exciting form of drama whose major ingredient is imagination.

Questioned about the future plans for his program, Christo said, "We hope to sponsor this series for a long time to come, and to bring back many more radio. favorites. The response has been nothing but encouraging."

According to some sources the rebirth of radio drama is imminent. But until that day comes, its many supporters gather before their radios faithfully every week to hear the Van Christo Radio Theater when the William Tell Overture. fades up, and out of the past come the hoofbeats of the great horse, whatisname, and a hearty "Hi-Yo, Silver, Awa-a-a-y!"

VAN CHRISTO MYSTERY THEATRE

SPONSOR MAGAZINE DOES FEATURE STORY ON VAN CHRISTO ASSOCIATES

Vintage radio suspense drama, revived by Van Christo, has tallied up a remarkable success story. Thousands upon thousands of letters, cards and phone calls have poured in from enthusiastic listeners . part of a massive, alert, audience

of Bostonians and New Englanders of all ages. The radio suspense show has: shown a remarkable universality in its appeal . . reaching not only adults, parents, business and professional people . . . but the swinging responsive new generation of students and teenagers!

...

So phenomenal has response been to Van Christo's radio suspense drama revival . . . and so unique was the idea that an advertising agency, Van Christo Associates, sponsored the program Charles Sinclair, Editor of Sponsor magazine, gave it national recognition1 with a full scale feature article!

The following pages are a reprint of this Sponsor article and we cordially invite you to read it.

1 Comparable articles on this revival of vintage radio suspense drama have also appeared in "Variety," "Radio and TV Broadcasting," and other national media.

VAN CHRISTO ASSOCIATES, INC.,
Boston, Mass.

"WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS

ETC., ETC."

Trivia buffs versed in musicology could have told the group of intent, waiting students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology that the spooky organ theme that began to come from the loudspeaker was Camille Saint-Saëns' Le Rouet d'Omphale.

Other buffs might have told the MIT group, sprawled comfortably around the room in the kind of clothes students wear on Sunday evenings before hitting the books in preparation for Monday classes, that the rich baritone voice with the menacing laugh belonged to actor Bret Morrison who, for the next half-hour, would switch between his dual identities as playboy Lamont Cranston and The Shadow.

The scene could have been straight out of 1945 but for a few important differences-notably that most of the student group wasn't even born when The Shadow was carrying the sponsorship banner for D&H Blue Coal on Mutual. The time was very much the present, and nighttime Sunday television sched- · ules might as well not exist for the group, as far as they were concerned.

Much the same scene was being enacted at Boston University, at Harvard, Radcliffe and other educational centers of The Establishment in the Boston metropolitan area. The 30 minutes that begins at 8:00 p.m. on Sundays had rapidly become a sort of high campus ritual.

Nor was the phenomenon confined to student lounges, dormitories and other gathering spots. In not a few upper-middle and just plain upper-class households in the better Boston surburbs cocktail parties were in progress, timed so that guests arrived and had buffet supper and drinks before Cranston, accompanied by The Lovely Margo Lane, began once more the battle against evil-doers.

Students, business leaders, and a flock of listeners in all kinds of demographic brackets have lately been proving that vintage radio drama is far from dead, and at least in the city of the Lowells and the Cabots-is proving enough of an attraction to give pause to tv programers.

Although syndicator Charles Michelson has been selling The Shadow, and other radio oldies, in major U.S. markets for several seasons now, the renaissance of the antiracketeering crime-fighter had skipped the Boston area. It hadn't skipped the attention of Van Christo, president and founder of the smallbut-lively advertising agency in Boston that bears his name.

VENERABLE MYSTERY RADIO REPLAYS ARE USED BY INNOVATIVE BOSTON AGENCY TO ATTRACT NEW CLIENTS, AID IMAGE OF INDUSTRIAL SPONSORS

Christo is a vintage radio buff-the kind of guy who can tell you the first name of the actor who used to play The Lone Ranger (Answer: Brace) or that matinee disk jockey Jim Ameche on New York's WHN used to be Jack Armstrong, or that the late Paul Douglas did the Coco-Malt commercials on Buck Rogers, or that Prokofieff's "Three Oranges" mach used to be the theme of This Is Your FBI, or as a topper-that Shadow Bret Morrison is now dubbing director of New York's Titra Sound Corp., specializing in English tracks on import European feature films.

Like most buffs of radio neiges d'autre fois, Christo was content to play the game over cocktails and luncheons or at gatherings with friends. That is, he did until he was one of a group of agencymen invited to a preview of network tv shows for the 1966-67 season.

Sensing a tv program casualty rate that later became a fact, Christo decided to put his fondness for radio drama of the 1930s and early 1940s to some practical use. He arranged for a pair of audition tapes of the now-syndicated old radio series, The Shadow and The Black Museum (the latter is a Scotland Yard-type thriller, with Orson Welles-who, incidentally, was also at one point the voice of The Shadow-narrating).

With the types in hand, he approached WCRB, and AM-FM classical music independent in the Boston area that had been a pioneer in FM stereo and other good-music innovations, and broached the idea of programing the two series. Station officials thought Van Christo had flipped, and pointed to the BachBeethoven-Mozart-Brahms backbone of their regular program schedule, and the questionable suitability of mixing such personalities on the air as Lamont Cranston and Otto Klemperer or Leonard Bernstein.

But... well, why not?

So, The Shadow bowed once more in Boston, after some two decades, late last fall. No longer did commercials, however, extoll the merits of Blue Coal as a household fuel. This time, they were selling a different product-the Van Christo agency itself.

An agency as sponsor? Again, why not? As Van Christo himself told Sponsor: "An advertising agency is a bastion of creative, imaginative thought and actions. To attract prospective clients, and to explain the advertising industry to the public at large, something dramatic, creative and imaginative should be presented."

It was. One of the main commercials in each Shadow replay was a corporatelevel pitch for the agency, which handles a number of consumer and industrial accounts. Stressed was the agency's "creative, imaginative approach" to advertising in today's economy, and audiences were invited to "use your imagination Make this program come alive."

Also in the sponsorship act were two of the agency's industrial clients-New England Technical Sales Corp., and General RF Fittings.

The normal media temptation for such accounts would be to think in terms of technical trade journals or other specialized media. But, as it turned out, with future engineering and technical executives tuning at places like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and with a number of present corporate executives at decision-making levels dialing the show, the sponsorship is now felt to have been a wise choice on what was officially named The Van Christo Mystery Theatre.

The agency, on the air, asked listeners to indicate to the station or agency their feelings about the venerable Shadow series, and its runnning mate in another WCRB time slot, The Black Museum. The result was an agency vestibule filled with letters, cards, and other messages, plus a lot of phone calls. Sample reactions:

"Each Sunday night the tv is shut off and the radio goes on, so we won't miss the next thrilling drama on your program. My husband and I enjoy the old programs we heard as youngsters, and the children are thrilled. The two boys72 and 9-lie right down on the floor in front of the radio, and barely move until the program is over. Not so with tv-they talk, squirm, poke and make pests of themselves."

"It was quite refreshing to 'watch' the radio again. We enjoyed the presentation of The Shadow.. we had to order the children (ages 12 and 13) to listen at the start, but by mid-program you couldn't tear them away. We would like to thank the sponsors and WCRB for sticking their necks out to bring us a thoroughly enjoyable program . .

"Let it be remembered: radio on your station with The Shadow is a family activity for us. Who else but you organizes home entertainment for the family? Keep it up." Signed: Morgan (10); Janie (17); Paula (15); Dad (40); Mum (39).

"After listening to your radio suspense drama, The Shadow, We have decided to express our interest and appreciation. The series is one of the few on radio or tv to which we look forward . . ." Signed: Four students at MIT, classes of '67 to '70.

"My parents have often told me about the programs which used to be broadcast over the radio . . . and naturally I became interested. I decided to see for myself when I learned that the Shadow and The Black Museum would be on. I tuned in and found that it was even better than I had expected it to be. I am 17 years old, and I hope to be able to hear every one. I hope you received enough support to continue broadcasting these programs and to perhaps widen the variety of these fine shows. Thank you for bringing back these shows to let people of my generation know what they were like."

With this kind of response, the Van Christo Mystery Theatre, now operating as a separate, sub-entity of the agency, intends to review other oldie-but-goodie radio possibilities for the Boston area, such as The Green Hornet and Gang Busters. One of the greatest compliments to Van Christo came from the head of a competing agency who called the radio project the first truly original approach to the years-old problem: seeking business in an unusual manner."

ORLEANS, MASS., August 9, 1969. DEAR SENATOR PASTORE: I spent 18 years as an owner and operator of Broadcasting stations, starting from scratch, putting each nickel I had in each station and working 70 to 80 hours a week to make it go. The result was that the people in my area got a heck of a broadcasting service.

Today a group with money and high-priced lawyers can talk me out of my license and I can assure you that under these conditions I would never, never, never have gone into the business. It takes 2 to 3 years to build a cohesive staff, takes hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment that depreciates in 6 to 10 years.

You see that things I did were done because I could see a future in it.

The new applicants today will have to be the worst kind of fast buck opportunists to go in it in the first place with 3 years of security, and the real loser will be the listener.

I suggest a 10-year initial period for a new licensee, with subsequent 5-year renewals, and a 3-year extension for current licensees from the date of your bill.

Regards,

KENNETH M. COOPER.

Senator PASTORE. The next witness is Richard C. Block, vice president and general manager, Kaiser Broadcasting Co. Mr. Block.

STATEMENT OF RICHARD C. BLOCK, VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, KAISER BROADCASTING CORP.; ACCOMPANIED BY JOSEPH ROSENBLUM, COUNSEL

Mr. BLOCK. Mr. Chairman, I am Richard C. Block, vice president and general manager, Kaiser Broadcasting Corp. Accompanying me is counsel Joe Rosenblum, our communications counsel of Wilmer, Cutler & Kettering.

If I may first address myself to something you said earlier about profitability, when I was 4 years old I decided I wanted to be an announcer on the radio. At about 16 I still had this burning ambition. So I went to the radio stations in San Francisco, two of them, and auditioned. Unanimously they told me, No. 1, I didn't read very well, and they didn't think I ever would, and they also said I didn't have a very good voice.

So from then on in I decided to be in management, and so in view of that, if I could be allowed to depart from my statement, not read it, I would appreciate it.

Senator PASTORE. I had the same experience when I was in grammar school; my teacher told me I was a nice boy, but I didn't speak loud enough. Would you believe it?

Mr. BLOCK. So if I can take the precedent of Mr. Smith, and put this in the record, perhaps I can accelerate the reading of it.

Senator PASTORE. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. BLOCK. Kaiser Broadcasting Corp. was founded in 1957 by the late Henry J. Kaiser, in Honolulu with the building of the VHF station KHVH-TV, Honolulu. This became an ABC-TV affiliate for the islands.

In 1964 the stations were sold, so we could devote our entire energies and resources on developing UHF stations in major markets.

In 1962 we applied for our first four stations and since 1965 we have activated WKBD-TV, Detroit, WKBS-TV, channel 48 Burlington, serving the New Jersey-Philadelphia area, KBSC-TV, serving

33-229-69-pt. 1- +7

the Corona-Los Angeles area, WKBG-TV, serving the CambridgeBoston area and KBHK-TV, San Francisco and WKBF-TV, Cleveland.

Over the past 42 years we have invested many millions of dollars in the development of these stations. Our goal has been to develop good vital television stations in markets that were in the main underserved.

For example, in the Philadelphia area there were three stations, one UHF independent, when we went on the air and now there are six. None of the stations that we acquired were acquired as a going concern. They were constructed from the ground up or by purchasing stations or going into partnership with others. We have made them stations from the ground up, which is in the Kaiser tradition of generally going into an industry and building the companies from the ground up, steel, aluminum, and certainly cement. He followed that pattern.

We didn't underestimate the task that we were going into when we went into it. We knew we were not going to have network affiliation; we knew because of this we were going to have to produce and develop and purchase most of our programing.

We also knew we had massive habits on the part of the viewers to overcome, because of their loyalty to the network stations. We also knew there were problems in the all-channel sets getting out.

We are happy to say because of this committee, by the way, which we are certainly indebted to the committee for and to you personally for, Mr. Chairman, for the work that was done on the all-channel legislation passed in 1962, which made it possible for us to bring this diversity to American broadcasting.

When we started in 1965 there weren't may takers. Four of the construction permits for which we applied were uncontested, and I think the Commission was delighted to see a broadcaster and someone with adequate resources going into this business.

However, at present I think the situation is somewhat changed. For example, channel 50, Detroit, came on the air in January 1965, and there were about 19 percent of the households that had UHF television. Now it is in excess of 70 percent. At that time, as any new station would, we had problems with the transmitter from time to time, and we would go off the air and have a very uncomfortable and rejected feeling of having no one call in. The audience wasn't there. But it is quite a different situation now. In Detroit, according to ARB, the February, March, and May reports, we now outrate, have a higher average audience than the VHF independent in the market.

So with programing and filling the needs of the public we think we have succeeded.

Now comes along a time when the stations begin to get profitable— and we have never had a profitable year up to this time, nor do we envision that for several years to come-and we have this threat of the comparative hearing and that is why we do support S. 2004.

We are certainly not trying to shirk our responsibilities; we are not trying to say we are special, but there has been a tremendous amount of capital, there has been tremendous patience on the part of the directors, stockholders, and officers, and we don't think it would be a fair thing to occur, to have this sword of Damocles that would hang over our heads, which can have a deleterious effect on any station.