The Press: AP & Radio

Between the lines of a formal announcement, that Alvin J. (for John) Steinkopf, until Pearl Harbor a topnotch Associated Pressman in Europe, had joined radio station WBBM of Chicago as a news analyst, there was last week the story of a new relationship developing between A.P. and radio.

Though technically a WBBM employe, precise-voiced, middle-aged Al Steinkopf is paid by Press Association, Inc., A.P.’s money-making subsidiary (A.P. is a nonprofit cooperative), and can be yanked back to A.P. cable desk or overseas duty whenever the terms of his WBBM contract permit.

At WBBM Steinkopf will analyze news for Barbasol (and any other sponsors WBBM digs up). Barbasol pays WBBM, WBBM pays P.A. for Steinkopf’s services. P.A. then deducts a “handling charge” (like an agent), gives the balance to Steinkopf, greatly augmenting his regular salary.

Said P.A.’s farsighted, businesslike General Manager William J. McCambridge: “We hope to organize a corps of news analysts. We are shooting for the post-war years. A.P. has news; P.A. has men to analyze it. Perhaps the time will come when we will have trained P.A. commentators in the major U.S. cities, the major capitals of the world. It might turn out to be a newspaper-of-the-air, who knows?”