Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

9 with EiKTRONICS V HtPORJS PUBLISHED BY TRIANGLE PUBLICATIONS, INC. WASHINGTON BUREAU Wyatt Bldg., Wash. 5, D.C. Telephone Sterling 3-1755 ALBERT WARREN, Chief WILBUR H. BALDINGER PAUL STONE WM. J. McMAHON, JR. WALTER H. ANNENBERG, President PUBLICATION OFFICE Box 700, Rodnor, Pa. Telephone Murray 8-7400 MARTIN CODEL, Associate Publisher Weekly Newsletter Published Saturdays JAMES T. QUIRK, Business Monager JAMES B. DELEHANTY, Asst. Business Mgr. MERRILL PANITT, Editorial Director HAROLD B. CLEMENKO, Managing Editor WILLIAM WIGHT, Associate Editor DAVID LACHENBRUCH, Associate Editor NEW YORK BUREAU 625 Madison Ave., N.Y. 22 Telephone Templeton 8-4700 CHARLES SINCLAIR Television Factbooks Published in March and September • AM-FM Directory Published in January TV and AM-FM Addenda Published Weekly Copyright 1959, by Triangle Publications, Inc. Personal Notes: Jerry a. Danzig, NBC v.p. for radio network programs, named v.p. for NBC-TV participating network programs {Today, Jack Paar Show), replacing Wm. Sargent, who resigned as director to join TelePrompTer . . . James A. Stabile assumes full responsibility for NBC talent & program contract administration, succeeding v.p. Thomas E. Ervin who recently resigned to organize otvn business . . . George H. Revercomb, legal asst, to FCC Comr. Frederick W. Ford and son of former Sen. Chapman Revercomb (R-W.Va.), engaged to Miss Mary Collins McCall Henderson, daughter of Mrs. McCall Imes and late Jacob Henderson . . . Paul E. Wills resigns as Mid-West TV sales mgr. of Westinghouse Bcstg., his future plans to be announced . . . M. J. Beck, for more than 50 years treas. of Katz Agency, major TV-radio reps, was stricken ill New Year’s Eve and is confined in Lenox Hill Hospital, N. Y. . . . Court McLeod promoted to administrative mgr. of ABC-TV program dept., Western div. . . . John O. Downey, ex-program director of WHCT, Hartford, joins CBS-TV program dept. ... Van Beuren W. De Vries, v.p. & station mgr. of WGR-TV, Buffalo, assumes also duties of gen. mgr. of radio WGR . . . D. A. Noel promoted to gen. mgr. of WHBQ-TV, Memphis, succeeding Wm. H. Grumbles, now v.p. of RKO-Teleradio; Boone Nevins promoted to gen. mgr. of radio WHBQ . . . Alvin G. Flanagan, gen. mgr. of KCOP, Los Angeles, named v.p. & gen. mgr. of all operations of KCOP TV Inc. . . . J. Stuart MacKay promoted to v.p. & managing director of All-Canada Radio & TV Ltd., succeeding G. F. Herbert, retired ... New FCC personnel: Attorneys — Jacob Mayer, ex-Labor Dept., to Bi'oadcast Bureau; Leonard Joyce, exArmy, to Opinions & Review; John B. Leonard, 1958 Georgetown U graduate, to Safety & Special; Edwin J. Schafer, ex-George 0. Sutton Washington firm, to General Counsel; Jerry Hamovit, ex-private practice, Houston, to General Counsel; Hilburt Slosberg, ex-Housing & Home Finance Agency, to General Counsel. Engineer — Julius Nelson, ex-Picatinny Arsenal, Dover, N. J., to Broadcast Bureau. . . . James E. Goldsmith, ex-sales mgr. of KWK-TV (now KMOX-TV), St. Louis, named sales director of upcoming KCPP (Ch. 11) there . . . W. E. McClenahan, exgen. sales mgr. of WKOW-TV, Madison, Wis., named exec, v.p. & gen. mgr. of WQUB, Galesburg, 111., effective Feb. 4 . . . Lloyd Taft, ex-exec. v.p. of Cincinnati Times-Star, named gen. mgr. of Radio Cincinnati’s WBRC, Birmingham . . . Jack M. Warner resigns as TV & industrial film v.p. of Warner Brothers, succeeded by Edmond L. DePatie . . . David J. Melamed, ex-Chesapeake Industries, named v.p. in charge of business affairs of National Telefilm Associates . . . Edward A. Rogers, ex-NBC exec, producer (Kaleidoscope), onetime staff director of CBS radio, named production director of Independent TV Corp. . . . Richard Foerster, ex-Peters, Griffin, Woodward, named sales mgr. of WISN-TV, Milwaukee . . . H. Preston Peters, pres, of rep Peters, Griffin, Woodward, named pres, of Station Representatives Assn., succeeding Frank M. Headley, pres, of H-R Television . . . Harvey Spiegel promoted to research director of TvB . . . John F. Wade promoted to TV research director of rep Avery-Knodel . . . Sportscaster Harry Wismer has been elected a director of Texas American Oil, Midland, Tex. . . . George Freeman, ex-radio WNHC, New Haven, named news director of WNBF-TV & WNBF, Binghamton, N. Y. . . . Herbert M. Schulkind, asst, chief of FCC rules & standards div., recently on network study staff, joins Washington TV-radio law firm of Fly, Shuebruk, Blume & Gaguine. Obituary Gustav Hirsch, 82, pioneer communications engineer who built a successful TV transmitter 30 years ago, part owner of radio WEOL & CP for WEOL-TV, Elyria (Ch. 31); WVKO, Columbus; WONE & off-air WIFE-TV, Dayton (Ch. 22), died Jan. 7 at Columbus. Seymour Berkson, 53, publisher of the N. Y. Journal American, onetime head of INS, died Jan. 4 in San Francisco. Harris Ellsworth, ex-Oregon radio broadcaster and newspaper publisher who was named Civil Service Commission chairman in 1957 after 7 terms in House, retires March 1 to return home — “and do nothing for awhile” — in Roseburg, where he still is part owner of daily NewsReview. In 1956 he sold his interest in its radio KRNR, which he’d put on air in 1935. Ellsworth said he has no plans now to resume active newspaper or broadcasting work. Willie Snow Ethridge, wife of Mark Ethridge, publisher of Louisville CoitrierJournal (WHAS-TV & WHAS) and onetime pres, of NAB (1938), is author of Summer Thunder, novel of the founding of Georgia, published by Coward-McCann Jan. 5. Charles Boren, for 11 years industrial v.i». of Assn, of Motion Picture Producers, Hollywood, named exec. v.p. there under pres. Eric Johnston. Federal Communications Bar Assn, elected following slate of uncontested nominees at Jan. 9 meeting in Washington: Leonard H. Marks, pres.; Frank U. Fletcher, first v.p.; Robert M. Booth Jr., 2nd v.p.; Edward F. Kenehan, secy.; E. Stratford Smith, asst, secy.; John H. Midlen, treas.; Theodore Baron & Arthur H. Schioeder, 3-year terms on exec, committee; Donald C. Beelar, 1-year term. Outgoing pres. Wm. C. Koplovitz was designated delegate to American Bar Assn, conventions of 1959-61. Richard A. Solomon, veteran FCC asst, general counsel in charge of litigation who has handled lion’s share of Commission’s court presentations, is resigning to join Justice Dept, anti-trust div. He has been with FCC since 1952. Dirocfory of fret* film, listing otfc'iings of industry, Govt., etc. — TV Pit til Source Hook (428pp.) --now avail aide fi'oni Broadcast Information Bureau (Judy Dupuy), 535 Fifth Avc., N. Y. 17.