Television digest with AM-FM reports (Jan-Dec 1951)

3 riding wide and handsome in the two-way radio rivalry before Columbia's Bill Paley invested millions of dollars in corralling top personalities into the CBS fold. "Oddly enough, some of those lured into the Paley camp, notably Groucho Marx and Red Skelton, have since joined the big-league NBC-TV roster. Likewise, the transitional era finds the two major personalities who succumbed to Paley' s 'comeon-to-my-house ' capital gains blandishments — Jack Benny and Bing Crosby — have yet to demonstrate their preeminence in TV, with Crosby still remaining aloof... "That NBC has succeeded in jockeying itself into the TV program leadership is attributed in measure to a blueprint concept at variance with the Columbia philosophy of 'grab the client and let the show follow,' a state of affairs which finds one of the web's choice properties, Sam Levenson, frozen out of any of the choice time segments and provoking Gertrude Berg's signaturing with NBC. "NBC, on the other hand, is credited with demonstrating an awareness of 'the show's the thing' formula in alloting specific time segments to the talent and inviting clients to take it or leave it... [A] breakdown of NBC-CBS program rivalry would indicate that, if anything, NBC is more of a powerhouse than ever." Editor Rosen then goes on to compare nightly NBC vs. CBS showings, noting that Saturday-Sunday will offer the "greatest concentration of regularly scheduled names in show biz history." Saturday night on NBC-TV, for example, we're promised The Goldbergs at 7, One Man's Family at 7:30, All-Star Revue (Jimmy Durante, Danny Thomas, Ed Wynn, Jack Carson) at 8, show of Shows (Imogene Coca & Sid Caesar) at 9, Hit Parade at 10:30 vs. CBS's Sammy Kaye, Ken Murray, Faye Emerson, Songs for Sale. Sunday nights, NBC-TV offers Chesterfield's Bob Hope alternating with Jerry Lester and others at 7, opposite CBS-TV's Gene Autry; Young Mr. Bobbin at 7:30, opposite This Is Show Business ; Comedy Hour (Eddie Cantor, Martin & Lewis, Jackie Gleason, Tony Martin, alternating) at 8, opposite Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town ; Philco Television Playhouse at 9, opposite Fred Waring Show ; Red Skelton at 10. Those are merely the week-end night lineups. Daytime and other nights also have lots of big program money and brains and sweat going into them — all for the delectation of the 13,000,000-plus American homes owning TV sets and the millions more the TV people want to add to that audience. STATUS OF 'SILENT' FREEZE HEARING: "P^ r" FCC hearing on TV allocations is in full swing, things going about as expected. DuMont ' s nation-wide plan drew a flock of oppositions, 124 in all, and deadline for first geographical group is Sept. 4. It's too early to tell whether delays will occur after Noy. 26, when all filings are in. Real question is what FCC does about requests for oral presentation when and if they arrive. Commission will undoubtedly be extremely reluctant to grant such requests for fear of opening floodgates and winding up with interminable oral hearings — back where everyone started. Oppositions to DuMont proposal are same as those presented in original comments (Supplements No. 72-72C), v;ith amplification. Fact there's such large number of these is popularly construed as widespread disapproval of plan. Actually, there are far fewer oppositions to DuMont's proposal than to FCC's — largely because DuMont would allow more vhf stations. Most of those disagreeing with DuMont like its philosophy but prefer their own implementations of it. Individual filings aren't generally voluminous yet, but some will be when first sectional group, covering Maine to Maryland, comes in. New York's Board of Regents, proposing 11-station educational network, has 400-page document. [Deadlines for each area are detailed in Supplement No. 73.] There's lots of cynicism about filings, many parties saying "FCC will neyer look at these." But industry went along with "written hearing" plan, and still does, because it offers target dates for ending freeze, whereas oral hearing loomed as talkfest without end. * * if ^ Educational reservation question took another turn this week. FCC Chairman Coy wrote Sen. Johnson that he now sees "in a new light" the question whether FCC