Sponsor (Nov 1947-Oct 1948)

WWJ-TV received a 21% return on its postcard survey of TV listening in Detroit made during the period December 10 to January 14. The responses came 65% from homes, 24' ^ from public places, and 11% from dealers. The program receiving the greatest number of "excellents" was the NBC Newsreel. It's scanned twice weekly, at 8 p.m. Wednesdays and 3:30 p.m. Fridays. Out of 463 replies 237 homes, 72 public places, and 28 dealers rated it tops. Only one respondent tabbed it bad, 19 pxxjr. The balance, 93, felt it was good. In the order of "excellent," viewers rated the balance of their viewing in the following sequence: Hockey Hi; "B" Pictures (motion pictures) I.S.?; Junior Jamboree (juvenile) !4S; Fun and Fables (cartoons) 147; Free for All (aud. participation i 124; Point of \iew (round table) 108; Comics (slides & skits 116; T\ Matinee home economics) «7; Powers School (charm course) 70; Man on Street (Interview) 60; Sketchbook (dept store mdse) 37. The WWJ-TV survey also turned up the information that the average television home in Detroit has five viewers per set, the average tavern 43 viewers, and the average dealer nine. It also revealed that when the station scanned the Rose Bowl football game, in which the University of Michigan participated, the average viewers per home jumped to 11, the public-place viewers to 128, those in dealers' stores to 80. The Motor City is sports-conscious plus. ♦ ♦ * By October 1948, Chicago will be linked via coaxial cable with Mil waukee, Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis, and several networks will be feeding their affiliates visual programs by that time. The Eastern link in the chain (New York, Philadelphia, Schenectady, Boston, Washington, and Baltimore) will be extended to Richmond by December and at that time is scheduled to join the midwestem Icxip. * * * There will be over 190 applications pending for TV licenses by June first according to present indications. * * * Frank H. Lee Company (hat manufacturers) will present Drew Pearson on TV, as well as on the ABC network, as soon as plans can be completed to give the program a visual aspect. * * * The Crosley Broadcasting Corporation (WLW, Cincinnati) will have three TV operations on the air by the end of 1948. WLWT in the Queen City is now telecasting, WLWD (Dayton) will be on the air sometime in November, and WLWC's location in Columbus, O., is being cleared with the Civil Aeronautics Authority now. Crosley hopes to be able to cover a good part of its radio service area through multiple ownership of TV stations. * * * While AP announced (at a Hollywood convention) that it was dropping its immediate plans for a TV newsreel, INS and UP are going along with their plans full steam. INS beat all the theater newsreels with film on the Czechoslovakian crisis during March. * * * RCA-Victor has brought its booklet "What's your television I.Q.?" up to date and expects to distribute well over 1,000,000 this year. * * * Besides his 10,000,000 feet of stock film for TV, Frederic Ziv has some 75 full-length feature films for lease to stations. Pictures include in their casts such players as Alan Ladd, Bela Lugosi, Doris Day, and Parkyakarkus. * * * Duane Jones has combined the fad of "Who Is It?" with jigsaw puzzles. During the telecasts of Missus Goes A'Shoppiy^g (WABD, New York), John Reed King, the mc, builds the face of a noted personality, piece by piece, while viewers are asked to identify "Mr. Who." The contestants must write the name of "Mr. Who" and 25 words or less on the subject "What changes television has brought to your home," on the back of the wrapjDer of any one of the sponsors' products. Duane Jones advertisers using the program on a revolving basis arc SweetHear t Soap, Bab-O, and Mueller Macaroni products. The grand prize will bt a Launderall Washing Machine. Results of the contest are going to be judged b> the advertisers, says the agency, on a costper-sale basis. Walter Ware, TVdirector for Duane Jones, feels the time has come to make television in New York deliver sales that justify telecasting expenses. * * * Over 16,000 TV receiving sets were in use in Chicago as March drew to a close. At the beginning of the wind\ month Chicago passed the 15,000 mark and WBKB's rates went up to a base of $500 an hour. Captain Bill Eddy, director of the station and Balaban & Katz television activities, stated that not onl\ were available viewers increasing by leaps and bounds but that the switch was to home receivers. Whereas a year ago a majority of the sets were in bars and grills, today only 22% are so located. Residential installations account for 69.7% of the 1 6,000 sets in the area. The balance are in use in dealers' stores. WBKB's rate during the period in which from 5,000 to 15,000 receivers were in use was $375 an hour. * * ♦ American Tobacco will have a number of TV programs on the air this spring. There'll be a mystery, Barney Blake, produced by N. W. Ayer, Tonight on Broadway produced by Martin Gosch for Foote, Cone and Belding. and a number of other to-be-announced vehicles. More than half the FM stations in the nation are using breaks between programs to remind their listeners imany of whom are hearing FM on a friend's receiver) to 'be sure your new radio has FM." This is an FMA-inspired campaign. * * * 483 FM stations were on the air at the end of March. * * * Ten regional FM networks are either functioning on a pilot basis or plan to be in operation within the next three months. Regional networking for specific sections of the radio audience seems destined to be an important part of FM service in the years to come. Stations will themselves operate their own microwave relays and thus networking costs will be kept to a minimum. * * * Sevcnt\-fivc per cent of all FM stations are owned by AM station oper ators. One-third are controlled b> newspap)er-AM station managements. * * ♦ Cincinnati's WCTS-FM will be serving trolleys and buses with five-minute radio packages— music, newscast, and commercial. During a study made by the Taft interests 96', of all riders in the trolleys and buses noted on survey cards that they approved of the idea. Baltimore and Washington won't be far behind the Queen City and WilkesBarres WIZZ may have its transitradio plan, called Transcasts, in operation almost as soon as WCTS. The latter are also affiliated with the Hulbert Taft organization. 92 SPONSOR