Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

VOL. 49. NO. 15 NEW YORK, MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1949 TEN CENTS TV RECEIVER SALES REACH NEW HIGH Over 2 Million Sets Being Manufactured This Year; Holiday Trade Will Exhaust Dealer Stocks FMA Seeks Assistance In Killing New Tax Washington Bureau of RADIO DAILY Washington — FMA called upon its membership the past week to seek aid from Congress toward lifting of the Treasury regulation imposing a new ten per cent excise levy on TV sets equipped with a continuous FM band. The association saw this ruling as "the first step by the Federal government to tax other component parts of TV receivers whether radio equipped or not." Only real possibility of killing the new tax is through Congressional (Continued on Page 2) Chesapeake Newsmen Elect New Officers Denis Sartain, news chief of WWDC, Washington, has been elected president of the Chesapeake Press-Radio Association, succeeding William Hardy, new director of WFMD, Frederick, Md. The group includes broadcasters in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Elected first and second vicepresidents respectively at the meeting last week were Matthew Warren, program director of WEAM, Arlington, Va., and Fred Hinkle, news editor of WCUM, Cumberland, Md. GE Earnings Off 19% From Last Year's Figure Schenectady, N. Y. — General Electric Company's consolidated operations for the first nine months of 1949 resulted in a 19 per cent drop in net earnings from last year's figure, president Charles E. Wilson (Continued on Page 2) Linguistic Tenor Miklos Gafni, a newly-discovered dramatic tenor who has been guesting on radio and TV shows, will use three of the seven foreign languages he knows when he is interviewed on programs, 9:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m., Oct. 26, over WHOM, foreignlanguage station in New York. He will appear on German, Jewish and Italian shows, Expose? Paul Raibourn, vice-president of Paramount Pictures, Inc., and president of Television Productions, Inc., will discuss "Television— Now and Hereafter," at the first fall meeting of the American Television Society at the Park Sheraton Hotel tomorrow night. Pressed for further explanation of the subject matter of Raibourn's talk a spokesman for ATS said: "he will expose the deep dyed machination which have tied up television, and will tell why television stocks went up in the Stock Market last week and how far they will go." Raibourn is non-committal on the content of his TV speech. WJZ Completes Plans For Election Coverage WJZ and WJZ-TV, on Nov. 8, will concentrate its local and state election night radio and television coverage in the large new studio, "TV1," in ABC's Television Center, New York City, it has been announced, along with other details, by Thomas Velotta, the net's v-p in charge of news and special events. The studio, which measures 50x100 (Continued on Page 3) SESAC-KOTA Dispute Settled; New Pact Signed Sesac, the music licensing firm, has announced the settlement in its favor a dispute with KOTA, Rapid City, S. D., over performance fees, (Continued on Page 3) The achievements of the United Nations Radio Division from its inception in 1946 up to the present are summarized in a 16-page report prepared by the Division's executive staff, and made public today in connection with United Nations Day observance. Each week, the report points out, about 100 hours of broadcasting are originated at Lake Success; this figure is greatly increased when the First Run Film Airing Set For Phonevision Chicago — Zenith Radio Corporation in the next few weeks will inaugurate a daily Phonevision telecast for ninety straight days utilizing ninety first run films from top Hollywood film companies. A Zenith spokesman emphasized that these will be first run class "A" films and not old films or reissues or so-called "B" product. The spokesman de (Continued on Page 7) President Names Doherty To Geneva Conference President Truman has named Richard P. Doherty, NAB employeremployee relations director, one of two management representatives on the U. S. delegation to the International Labor Office Conference in Geneva this week. The agenda will include discussions of employment (Continued on Page 2) Telephone Sleuthing Pays Off On Newscast Cincinnati — Tom McCarthy, news director of WKRC, demonstrated the direct approach in news gathering last Wednesday when he hooked up his wire recorder and several (Continued on Page 8) General Assembly is in session. It does not include the many hours of UN proceedings carried by individual stations, and networks, or re-broadcasts of recorded meetings and interviews. The Radio Division is broken down into four operation sections — European and Middle Eastern, Latin American, Trans-Pacific, and English Language. European and Mid( Continued on Page 8) Receiver sales and production are at an all-time high, with demand still exceedingsupply, a check of major manufacturers revealed yesterday. It had been expected that the FCC hearings on color and the attendant publicity would influence many persons to postpone purchase (Continued on Page 7) AFA Drive Stresses Advertising Benefits The Advertising Federation of America's current public relations campaign, released in New York yesterday, is built around the idea that advertising lowers, rather than raises, the cost of most products which are advertised. The campaign, aimed at promoting "a better public understanding of advertising," is produced cooperatively by six major industry groups. (Continued on Page 3) WKAT Offers UN Visit As Essay Contest Prize Miami Beach, Fla. — Paul Kingsley, WKAT commentator, is conducting an essay contest in cooperation with the United Nations Institute on the subject >of "Formula For World Peace." The youngster who writes the (Continued on Page 2' What's Buzzin' New Brunswick, N. J. — Football fans following the Rutgers games over a local station complained that often the noise of roaring motors, as of planes divebombing the field, almost drowned out the broadcasts. Investigators found that the "planes" were a family of wasps, who had set up housekeeping in a corner of the stadium's broadcasting booth. Today Is United Nations Day; Radio Accomplishments Noted