Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

Section of RADIO DAILY. Friday. December 30. 1949 — TELEVISION DAILY is fully protected by register and copyright NEAR 4,000,000 SETS AT YEAR END T€L€ TOPICS 1 1 A FTER SEEING Dr. Franz Polgar's amaz** ing demonstration on the Godfrey show Wednesday nite, we regretted that we had missed the hypnotist's own shortlived stanza on CBS. On the Chesterfield show, Polgar gave cards to five members of the cast. After reading the cards for two minutes or less, two of them, musicians Sy Schaeffer and Lee Irwin, fell asleep. There was no doubt that they were completely under and their reactions to two post-hypnotic suggestions were most interesting. While we were watching the act we thought that Schaeffer and Irwin had been hypnotized previously by Polgar and that their reaction to the cards was in itself the result of this previous hypnosis. We checked with some folks at CBS and with Polgar himself yesterday and learned that our suspicions were unfounded. Polgar said he has passed out the cards to fifty students who were total strangers to him and has had perhaps 35 of them go under. He's still under contract to Trimount Clothes, he said, but he received several offers for guest shots yesterday as a result of his appearance with Godfrey. • THE RIVALRY between NBC and CBS ■ has been extended now to the field of grand opera. Early yesterday morning our Western Union teletype started clicking with a wire inviting us to see Opera Television Theater's "Carmen" on CBS Jan. 1 and right behind it came a message from NBC inviting us to a press confab Tuesday on the NBC opera series which kicks off Jan. 14 with Kurt Weill's "Down In The Valley." Marion Bell and William McGraw will sing the principal roles in "Valley," supported by Ray Jacquemot and Kenneth Smith. The work will be staged by Charles Polacheck and conducted by Peter Herman Adler. . . . "Mid-Century," to be sponsored on CBS-AM by Chevrolet Jan. 1 will be repeated that nite as a TV sustainer. . . . KING-TV, Seattle, and KFMB-TV, San Diego, have signed with Telenews-INS for daily newsreel service. • ^BS PULLING OUT ALL STOPS for the ^ Ken Murray show, will do a special pickup from its 39th Street theater for a half-hour preceding the preem Jan. 7. Twill be one of those Hollywood-type previews with Faye Emerson, Robert Q. Lewis and Doug Edwards handling emcee chores. . . . Philadelphia's Mummers Parade will be scanned by WFIL-TV with Petrol Corp. picking up the tab for Cities Service. Jim Felix and Dale Park will be behind the mike and Herb Horton will direct. . . . Colgate-Palmolive-Peet has signed a 52-week renewal for its portion of "Howdy Doody" on 24 NBC interconnected stations. Ted Bates is the agency. Craig Sees Good Year For Radio And Video (Continued from Page 1) home receivers and at least three million auto sets predicted. In his year-end statement, Craig declared that radio manfacturers having fresh designs and features will continue to find good markets. In 1950, "television will continue as the nation's fastest growing industry," Craig reported. He estimated that the demand for sets in recent months will extend into the Spring, although there is likely to be a slackening during the summer months as in 1949. "The industry should sell around 3,200,000 sets" in the year, he added. One of the factors in TV which will help create demands will be new designs and improvements. Craig went on to say. "Up to the present, for example, television cabinet styling has simply imitated radio. We believe at Crosley that television should have i" own distinct design, recognizing that television is a theater in the home." The 1950 line of Crosley receivers. Craig noted, will present "a proscenium arch screen in curved bowfront cabinets which simulate an attractive stage." Shorter picture tubes will enable the manufacturer to provide larger screens in the same size cabinet, the Crosley official said. "This year probably will see the 12 V2 inch tube replace the 10-inch tube in top sales volume." NBC Courier When Mayor William C'Dwyer and Mrs. O'Dwyer arrived at Newark Airport last night, hizzoner carried under his arm a can of film. "Give this to some NBC man," said he. Seems that when Harry Walsh. NBC cameraman, filmed the departure of the newlyweds from Miami for later use on NBC-TV, he could find no messenger at plane time. The city's Chief Executive very graciously volunteered to lug the celluloid back to his city and his public. DuM, Holiday Show Raises Polio Funds More than $178,000 has been received yesterday for the Eastern Area Sister Kenny Institute as a result of the DuMont web's five-hour Christmas Party last Sunday night, with donations still coming in. According to officials of the Sister Kenny Foundation the goal of $250,000 set for the show will be surpassed. Gifts received thus far ranged from 50 cents to $5,000. With a breakdown still to be made, several gifts of $5,000 each are already listed and seven or eight of $1,000 each have been tabulated, DuMont said. The all-star show was emceed by Morey Amsterdam, assisted by Don Russell. Twenty-five telephone operators were on duty until an hour after the show went off the air. Receiver Production Increase Of 75% Planned By W'house Sunbury, Pa.— Westinghouse TV receiver output will be increased by 75 per cent during 1950, F. M. Sloan, manager of the home radio division, said in a year-end report released today. Manufacturing facilities at the firm's seven-and-a-half acre plant here are being increased by one-third, he said. The expansion program, started last month, will be completed in the first quarter of 1950. Pointing out that there are more than 24,000,000 families within range of the 98 stations on the air despite the freeze, Sloan said. "With only 3,800,000 television receivers in operation at the end of the year, there is a potential market of 20,000,000 families, and this will be increased as soon as the FCC makes a decision on the difficult technical problems now before them." Predicting, industry-wide production of 3,500,000 sets next year, the report said: Sees Market Picture "Brighter" "The market picture becomes even brighter when it is realized that the industry has made tremendous progress in improving quality while reducing prices by almost fifty per cent in the past five years. Although such drastic price reductions cannot be expected in the future, further savings will probably be possible barring the type of economic activity responsible for the strong inflationary period during 1946 and 1947." 98 Stations On Air In 58 Markets — Double 1948 At the end of 1949— the first big year in the television boom — there are almost 4,000,000 receivers in use throughout the country and 98 stations on the air in 58 cities. By comparisons, there were 49 stations in operation at the end of 1948 and about 1,200,000 receivers. The figure of 4,000,000 sets is a trade estimate based on the NBC research department total of 3.497,000 sets as of Dec. 1 and reports received since that date of extraordinarily heavy sales preceding the Christmas holiday season. According to Hugh M. Beville, Jr.. NBC research director, more than 472,000 sets were sold throughout the country during November. Sales for September, October and November of this year totaled 1,187.000. From Jan. 1 through Sept. 1, 1,310,000 receivers were sold, NBC said, showing that sales in the past three months have nearly equaled the total number of sales for the first eight months of the year. It is believed that New York now has a circulation of one million sets. The NBC report listed 950,000 installations as of Dec. 1 and retail sales figures indicate that the total is now closer to the million mark. Seven new TV markets have been opened since the last NBC report Nov. 1. They are Utica, N. Y.; Binghamton, N. Y.; Huntington, W. Va.; Tulsa, Okla.; Bloomington, Ind.; Phoenix, Ariz., and San Antonio. Cities Service Cancels Tele Version Of "Band" TV simulcast of "Band Of America" on NBC will be dropped by Cities Service Jan. 9, with the oil company planning a series of films to be used as video spots. The AM version of the show, radio's oldest continuous series, has been renewed for year, effective Jan. 23. In announcing the cancellation. Cities Service said: "Cities Service is sold on the new advertising television medium. The results of the network TV test exceeded expectations. The show was well received by the company's trade, customer and dealer organizations. "The plan to substitute television spot films at this time for the simulcast Cities Service radio program is predicated on the decision to wait for a wider distribution of TV stations and home receivers in Cities Service marketing areas."