No Kidding

"NBC," wrote Walter Winchell last week, ''which is spending $780,000 for the 14 Toscanini broadcasts, is hushing the amazingly low rating, which hasn't been published by the surveyors. It is 4.2."

Even if Columnist Winchell's figure had been true, which it apparently was not, 4.2, * while far short of the great variety shows' ratings which soar into the 30s, is about equal to the 4 average of the highly popular Philadelphia Orchestra. But NBC officials, smoked out, declared that Toscanini's rating was 9.1, which is on a par with the score of the New York Philharmonic's Sunday afternoon broadcasts.

Meanwhile, Toscanini broadcasts had become Manhattan's musical rage. Fourteen hundred of the musical and broadcasting elite, invited by an unfathomable system, have elbowed each other every week into the NBC auditorium for the privilege of hearing symphonic music under the worst possible acoustical conditions. For outsiders, a snob value has raised ticket scalpers' prices to $25 a pair. When Radio Comedian Fred Allen's scriptwriter recently penned the lines: Q. "What's the difference between me and Toscanini?" A. "He has long hair," art-conscious NBC officials censored the gag. Apparently there is a house rule against kidding a reputation like the Maestro's--or $780,000.

fEstimated per cent of U. S. radio audience.

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