Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1959)

Record Details:

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WESTINGHOUSE Broadcasting Co. seminar finds P. G. Lasky, v.p. KPIX, San Fran.; J. E. W. Sterling, pres., Stanford U.; Don McGannon, pres., WBC, at Palo Alto campus *We must rediscover the individual man' ^ The individual, not the group, sparks original tv and radio ideas, third Westinghouse conclave concludes ^ 350 broadcasters hear roster of pros outline what originality is, why you need it and how you work to get it ^ SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF, ^^eventy-eight giant steps toward maturity in public service broadcasting were taken last week in San Francisco as an equal number of speakers appeared before some 350 radio and tv executives attending the third annual conference of the Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. Speakers and panelists — comprising some of the most astute, imaginative and successful broadcast "brains" — paced their discussions to the conference theme of individualism as set by WBC President Donald H. MoGannon. And, regardless of their work-a-day function — as luminaries such as Pulitzer prize winning poet Archibald MacLeish, or playwright Marc Connelly, or semanticist S. I. Hayakawa, or as industrious program men from 250 watt stations — they pivoted their remarks around the same basic points: • The goal of all broadcasting — public service or commercial — is the presentation of fresh ideas in a fresh way. • Freshness and originality — creativity— is the product of an individual, not of a committee. • The enhancement of the individual— of the person who is a listener or a viewer, of the person who programs for that audience, and of the station management which encourages this programing^comes with a nurturing of the creative talent in a free and uninhibited atmosphere. • Personal freedom inspires feeling and perception. These emotions, in turn, precede thought and action. • Feeling and perception are the basis of communication in the fullest sense of the word. And communications experts in the broadcast field should foster — in the words of Mr. Hayakawa, a luncheon speaker at the Stanford U. seminar series — empathy rather than sympathy or "a feeling with the listener rather than merely a feeling for." In his opinion (and all of the speakers were explicit in their agreement on the same point), "the vacuum tube is the greatest boost to communication since the invention of printing and movable type." The power of radio and tv to communicate forcefully and meaningfully today, as it is — and tomorrow, as it can be — was stressed by every panelist at the three-day seminar on the Stanford campus in Palo Alto, 21-23 Sept. Despite the academic environs and subjects for discussion, speakers from all parts of the country, representative of all professional phases of broadcasting, took a practical view in centering their arguments and contentions on one basic theme: the individual as the fount of creativity. They discussed news as the primary format of programing wearing the guise of public service. But they introduced also subjects of religion. documentaries, politics, editorializing and cooperation with established civic and governmental agencies. Most of them agreed that public service programs need not bear the stigma of public do-goodism. In their opinion, so-called public service programs can be exciting, imaginative — and sponsored. Robert Foreman, executive v.p. in charge of creative services at BBDO, New York, while speaking with the so-termed "glamour panel" (which included Dr. Frank Baxter of the U. of Southern California; Fred Friendly, executive producer at CBS and playwright Connelly) : "Anything worthwhile can be sold. If the program idea can be confined to audience need then it becomes something salable and becomes of value to the ad agency." Lofty conference observers termed public service broadcasters a "conscience" for the radio/tv industry. But pragmatists in the group — and there were many — said that programs which take the needs and hopes of the public into consideration — in terms of the market and the people to whom the station operates — have far more doUar-and-sense advantages than those programs which do not. Public service programs, they agreed, have these pluses for station management: • They build prestige which, in turn, builds audience, audience loyal 36 SPONSOR 3 OCTOBER 1959