Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

or broadcast, the judge shall prohibit that portion of the trial. ■ After the judge has ruled against coverage, newsmen may attempt to persuade the judge to reconsider his ruling. ■ Newsmen may be cited for contempt of court if they attempt to bring pressure on a judge to reverse his ban on coverage; if they attempt to cover a witness whose objections have been sustained by the judge, or if they attempt to cover a proceeding which the presiding judge has prohibited them from covering. Texas is one of two states that have declined to follow the strictures of Canon 35. Colorado is the other. Both have permitted presiding judges to rule on requests to broadcast trials. Canon 35, adopted by the ABA in 1937, was reaffirmed with some slight revisions earlier this year at the bar association's New Orleans meeting (Broadcasting, Feb. 11). It prohibits the taking of photographs in courtrooms during a trial, encompassing also TV coverage and radio broadcasts, live or delayed. Strict formats make radio inflexible Radio programers were warned last week that emphasis on consistency in a format may lead to inflexibility and finally to a stifling of radio's entertainment value. Joe Somerset, vice president and programing director, Capital Cities Broadcasting, speaking at a seminar in New York, explained he was not attacking "top 40" radio or the concept of consistency of format but he said "too many broadcasters have reduced their operation to an inflexible formula." An agency approach to radio was also presented at the seminar; a plea by Frank Gay, associate media director, D'Arcy Advertising, for more standardized data about the medium for timebuyers. Mr. Somerset acknowledged that "it is only in a few remaining pockets of reaction that we find any arguments against consistency in radio format." However he averred that programers have "compounded radio's most serious problem — overpopulation — by duplicating formats. "There's a great difference between format and formula." he said, and added that "nothing is so sure to stifle entertainment as predictability. What we call 'music and news radio' is becoming predictable." Mr. Somerset was one of five panelists who spoke at the radio seminar, sponsored by Mark Century Corp., syndicator of the Radio a la Carte programing service. Public Service ■ Irv Lichtenstein, vice Cops stop TV 'Game' A program titled "The Name of the Game" and intended for use on the Kraft Suspense Theatre series on NBC-TV may be in for some drastic script changes. Set in a casino in Las Vegas, the show calls for the use of a battery of slot machines as props, but as a truckload of 19 of the onearmed bandits was en route to Revue Studios on Wednesday (Oct. 23) the Los Angeles county sheriff's vice squad halted the truck and removed 13 of the machines as being in good operating condition and therefore contraband. The other six were inoperable, as studio props usually are, and so are legal and were not confiscated. president for programing, wwdc Washington, addressing the session on the place of community responsibility in a station's format, said "public service is not the throw-away portion of broadcasting to satisfy" the FCC. "It can be tailored to fit a station's image; it cannot be noble and insultingly unctuous." Mr. Gay, told the seminar that timebuyers generally do not have enough standardized data to work with in placing advertising. He said station rate cards are too often inadequate, and that audience measurement systems tend to be contradictory and confusing. He also noted that the heavy use of TV in advertising has brought about a defeatist attitude in many areas of radio — especially sales. Mr. Gay called for an industry effort to educate advertisers in the benefits of radio as a selling medium. Another panel member, Robert E. Eastman, president of a radio representative firm bearing his name, said improved relations between stations and reps can enable a station manager to get up to 100% more business out of his representative firm's sales force. New Seven Arts film package Seven Arts Associated Corp. last week began distribution of Volume 8 of its "Films of the 50's" features. Among the 42 titles in the Volume 8 package: "That Wonderful Urge," "The Lieutenant Wore Skirts," "Three Came Home," "Woman Obsessed" and "The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker." Also listed in the volume are "Only The Best," "A Ticket To Tomahawk," "The Glory Brigade," "The Kid From Left Field" and "Twenty-Three Paces To Baker Street." Stop a filibusterlet TV do the job Exposure to television of the Senate during a filibuster might well end the device as a method of tieing up legislation. TV coverage of more congressional hearings also would show the public the real role Congress plays in momentous decisions. These viewpoints, among others, were trotted out during a taped TV session featuring four legislators and two newspeople by Metropolitan Broadcasting Co. The two-hour show, Under Discussion, was scheduled for showing on wnew-tv New York and wttg (tv) Washington Sunday (Oct. 27). Senators Jacob K. Javits (R-N.Y.) and Paul H. Douglas (D-Ill.) and Representatives Henry S. Reuss (D-Wis.) and Thomas B. Curtis (R-Mo.) participated in the panel discussion. Also on the panel were Benjamin Bradlee, Newsweek Washington bureau chief, and Meg Greenfield, Washington correspondent for The Reporter magazine. Senate floor proceedings are not telecast. Under Senate rules, no broadcast cameras, microphones or still cameras are permitted, or even a public address system, a point noted by Senator Javits, who has been trying to get microphones installed in the Senate. TV coverage of some hearings in the Senate is permitted by the committees involved, but they are limited. A more extensive use of TV coverage particularly in the less sensational, but vital legislative areas such as in hearing witnesses on the administration's tax bill, was recommended by the panel. Program notes... Features on TV ■ The Broadcast Information Bureau reported last week there are 10,427 feature films in current release to television, of which 2,997 are post-48 productions. This information is incorporated in the latest issue of BIB's TV Feature Film Source Book, which lists approximately 1,205 features available to TV in color. Westhampton activity ■ Westhampton Film Corp., New York, reports it has acquired 15 post1960 features for distribution to TV and has named Ben Colman, formerly eastern sales manager of Screen Gems, as sales manager. Westhampton recently moved to 717 Fifth Avenue. Telephone is Plaza 2-1919. The firm plans to be active in distribution to TV of U. S. and foreign motion pictures and in financing movie and TV production. Christmas show ■ Worldwide distribution rights to The Little Story Shop, a puppet TV series designed for preChristmas use produced by Louis Weiss, 56 (PROGRAMING) BROADCASTING, October 28, 1963