The Jockeys

The disc jockey's turntable began to look like radio's wheel of fortune and by last week, two networks had bought a share of the earnings.

ABC, which had long closed its ears to the small talk, big commercials and occasional records of the jockeys, had signed famed Jazzman Paul Whiteman for an hour spin five days a week. Mutual last week opposed him with an older spinster: Martin Block. From his four sponsors, Whiteman will gross $208,000 a year; Block will get $312,000, plus a couple of hundred thousand more from Manhattan's WNEW and Los Angeles' KFWB (altogether, disc jockeying's top dollar).

With such inducement, more & more famous names have been grabbing an armful of records and sponsors, and going to work at fortune's wheel. A few: ex-Bandleader Tommy Dorsey (450 stations) is guaranteed $300,000; ex-Sportcaster Ted Husing (Manhattan's WHN) can aim for $250,000; Andre Baruch and Bea Wain (Manhattan's WMCA) for $150,000.

The jockeys who have built their self-styled "spindustry" out of thin air mildly resent the big-names brigade, but have few financial beefs. Los Angeles' Al Jarvis (KLAC), the favorite in Southern California, takes in $190,000; Arthur Godfrey (Manhattan's WCBS and Washington's WTOP) makes $150,000. Ray Perkins (Denver's KFEL), top jockey in the Rocky Mountain region, isn't bragging about what he makes, but he likes Colorado. Jockey Jack Eigen has the newest gimmick: a wee-hours disc show in the lounge of Manhattan's glossy Copacabana nightclub. The chance to chatter at a microphone brings the nightspot dozens of extra celebrities, and $4,000 a week in extra bar chits.

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