Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

mETHMNHMlY Section of RADIO DAILY, Wednesday. November 30, 1949 — TELEVISION DAILY is fully protected by register and copyright STATION TIME HASSLE CONTINUES TELE TOPICS XA/ATCH FOR concerted action by In~ ~ dependent Television Producers Association to gain agency and network acceptance of its proposed code of practices. When formalized by the group the code will include provisions of the West Coast producers' code of ethics so that both might serve as a basis for negotiation on a national level. ITPA counsel James Lawrence Fly, former FCC chairman, reports favorable response to the code in informal talks with agency and web execs. Code includes provisions on standardization of contracts, rights, credits. ... At its last meeting, the ITPA board named Irvin Paul Sulds president pro tern to fill out the unexpired portion of Martin Gosch's term, which ends April 15, 1950. Gosch resigned the presidency because of the pressure of business and illness, and moved into Sulds' former position as treasurer. • n. J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO CO. reported ready to pick up the tab for the Ed Wynn show on CBS which is being dropped by Speidel at the end of the year. Company will continue "Man Against Crime," with Ralph Bellamy on the same web. . . . Esso has cancelled out of the 7-7:30 p.m. Sunday seg on CBS, now occupied by "Tonight On Broadway" at the end of its current cycle. . . . Receivers in Britain are being sold at the rate of between 5,000 and 6,000 a week, with a total of a million expected by Christmas. The number sold last month was only 6,000 less than the figure for all of 1947. . . . Films of the Dallas air crash yesterday made by WBAP-TV staffers, were put on a plane to Chicago at 12:30 p.m., EST, landed at the Windy City at 6:28, then flown in a Cub to Lakeside airport where a car picked them up, rushed them to the Merchandise Mart for airing on the Camel newsreel on NBC at 7:45 p.m. . . . KFI-TV, Los Angeles, which has been on the air from noon to 6 p.m. seven days a week, will back up to 9 a.m. sign-on beginning Dec. 5. • UERBERT MARSHALL journeying to ' ■ New York to audition the radio series, "The Man Called X" for NBC. . . . Budweiser sponsorship of Ken Murray's "Blackouts" over CBS beginning Jan. 7 will be the brewery's first broadcast advertising since 1931 when it bankrolled a 15-minute musical stanza over the CBS AM web. "Blackouts" will be aired every other Saturday, 8-9 p.m. . . . Robert Woodburn, former WBKB writer-director, has joined Television Features, Inc., as assistant to prexy Larry Gordon. He'll coordinate sales, production and story departments, serving under production vcc pee William Van Praag. . . . Ben Grauer signed for the Ford Dealers Kay Kyser show which bows on NBC tomorrow nite, Three N. Y, Realtors Sign RCA Anlenaplex Builders of three large New York apartment projects yesterday signed with Commercial Radio Sound Corp., RCA sound products representative, for installation of RCA Antenaplex systems in their new buildings, which will house 1,000 families. The three projects installing the system and the principals who signed for them are Schwab House, 11 Riverside Drive, owned by the 11 Riverside Drive Corp., Julius Perlbinder, president; 40-44 Park Avenue, owned by Pierpont Estates, Inc., Samuel Rudin, president; and 715 Park Avenue, owned by the 715 Park Avenue Corp., Francis J. Kleban, president. Schwab House, with approximately 700 units, will have the largest TV mass viewing system ever installed, RCA stated. Frank M. Folsom, president of RCA, said that the concerted action of the three apartment owners, leading to the signing of contracts for the Antenaplex system, is believed to be the first in which realtors have joined to solve the TV reception problem for their tenants. WABD Sells Wrestling Two De Soto dealers, Nat Patterson Motors and Jackson Motors, and a trade school, New York Tech, have signed with WABD for joint sponsorship of Saturday night wrestling from Chicago. The 52week contract was placed through Moss Associates. 'Mother' Goes Net Sterling Drug Co. yesterday signed a 52-week contract with DuMont extending Dennis James' daytimer, "Okay Mother," now on WABD, to three other web affiliates—WFIL-TV, Philade'phia; WAAM, Baltimore and WTTG, Washington. Other stations are to be added later, according to Tom Gallery, web sales director. Effective Dec. 12. pact was placed through Dancer-FitzgeraldSample. Ziv Completes Deal For "Cisco" TV Films John Sinn, president of Ziv Television Programs, has completed arrangements with Hollywood film producer Philip N. Krasne for production of half-hour TV films based on the "Cisco Kid" stories. Contract calls for 52 films a year for ten years. Looking forward to color, Krasne will shoot the films in 16 mm. Kodachrome at a cost of $15,000 each. Program will star Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo, who appear in the theatrical "Cisco Kid" movies produced by Krasne for United Artists. Sinn produces the series for radio, rights to which are controlled by Ziv. Sponsors of the radio version of the show will get first crack at the films. Dailies' Circulation Upped In 33 Of 42 TV Cities— E&P Lach Of Outlets Seen Hurting Web Sales The TV industry's contention that video would aid rather than hurt other ad media was supported this week by a survey by Editor & Publisher showing a daily circulation increase during the past year for papers in 33 of 42 TV cities. Reported by Jerry Walker, the study found that "In the 33 'plus' cities sales gained more than two per cent, which is double the percentage of gain for the nation's dailies a year ago. . . . Moreover, the total circulations in the 42 cities is slightly under half the total for the country. The Post Office statements showed for this group: 1948 — 27,880,171; 1949—27,958,101." "In the nine 'minus' cities," E&P said, "circulation losses either were too slight to be traced to any one factor or were the aftermath of" price increases (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston and New York) . A merger (Dayton) accounted for one sizaole drop. Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Toledo were the others." Among the reasons for the circulation boosts, Walker said, were a "greater availability of newsprint (which) has enabled many newspapers to resume circulation promotion, extending their areas of coverage and retrieving natural sales zones which they cut off during wartime. Population growth and an ever rising level of literacy also have been working in newspapers' favor," he added. The major problem faced by networks, agencies and advertisers in placing a new show on the air, clearance of station time, will continue for at least one to two years. This is the consensus of trade opinion in view of the fact that the freeze probably will not be lifted until another six months or a year have passed. The FCC has not licensed a new station since the freeze first was put into effect Sept. 30, 1948. Most of the CP's outstanding at that time are already on the air and all will be in operation by spring at which time the total number of stations will be 111. There are 352 applications for stations on file. Of the 54 markets covered by 91 stations now on the air, only four have enough stations to provide full time affiliation for each of the four major networks. These are New York (7), Chicago (4), Washington (4) and Los Angeles (7). Only five cities — Baltimore, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit and Philadelphia — have three stations each. This means that the four webs must compete for time between two stations, or in most cases on only one, in the remaining 45 cities. Both broadcasters and manufacturers are burned over the prolonged duration of the freeze, which was originally scheduled to last six months. The networks want new stations to eliminate the time clearance hassle and to increase circulation. Many station operators with the only outlet in a market are eager for competition because the pattern throughout the country has shown a sharp increase in receiver sales after the second station in an area went on the air. The manufacturers are pressing for an end to the freeze because new stations mean additional markets for receiver sales. Pulse Top Ten (7 Cities— Nov.) Texaco Theater. NBC 59.9 Talent Scouts, CBS 46.9 j Goldbergs. CBS 40.4 Godfrey Friends, CBS 40.3 Toast Town. CBS 39.3 Stop Music. ABC 34.7 Fireside Theater, NBC 34.2 Studio One, CBS 33.9 Philco Playhouse, NBC 31.3 29.1