The Pittsburgh Press (October 3, 1942)
Musicians’ czar in action –
Jack Benny’s rebroadcast barred; Army band, war bond staff silenced
Hollywood, California (UP) –
The weekly broadcast of Jack Benny’s radio program to the Pacific Coast has been canceled because if the American Federation of Musicians’ fight against transcriptions, Blue Network officials announced today.
The network said President James C. Petrillo of the AFM had demanded that both the early and the late Benny shows be produced with live talent or that the musicians be paid double wages.
Because the early broadcast reached the West Coast at 4 p.m. PWT, it has been repeated by transcription at 8:30 p.m. for western listeners. Network spokesmen said many of Benny’s programs were scheduled to originate from Army camps and that repeating “live” broadcasts would be impractical.
Cincinnati, Ohio (UP) –
An Army Air Forces band from Washington was prevented last night from broadcasting over a small radio station here by a ruling of an American Federation of Musicians local.
Oscar F. Hild, president of the local, said it was not the musicians who were banned, but rather the wire that would have had to be installed at the USO headquarters where the band was playing for a USO dance.
Mr. Hild said:
Both union and non-union orchestras play from there and, if the wire were installed, we would have to “police” the wire every night.
Earlier, the band had broadcast over another Cincinnati station, and the band was made up of some of these players.
New York (UP) –
Objections of the American Federal of Labor (AFL) has forced the war savings staff of the Treasury Department to abandon plans for a special musical program over a network of frequency modulated radio stations.
The Treasury had accepted the offer of the Perole String Quartet to give concerts free. The AFM refused “clearance” of the program, however, on the ground that FM stations do not regularly use musicians.
William Feinberg, secretary of the AFM’s Local 802, said the quartet could play for nothing for any station it chose, so long as the station employed some union musicians.
The war has curtailed FM broadcasting, because stations have few commercials, and most of them have been using recordings and transcriptions.