U. S. Radio (Oct 1957-Dec 1958)

P?^'^ lOOK on LOOKED UP! SPECIALIZED NEGRO PROGRAMMING With 100% Ntgre programming per(onntl, KPRS it affaclivtly directing th« buying habit* of ilt vast, faithful ouditnct. Your taitt matiag* wottet neilhtr timo nor monoy in reaching tho hoort of iti "proferred" market. Ruying time on KPRS it like buying the only radio tlotion in a community of 127,600 active preipcctt. 1,000 W. 1590 KC. KPRS KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI for ovai/abi7ifiei call Humboldt 3-3100 R(»retentc4 Netiontlly by— John C. Pearion Company You're headed in the right direction with Plough, Inc., Stations! Radio Baltimore WCAO Radio Boston WCOP Radio Chicago Radio Memphis WMP5 report from networks HAD I O TV MMESENTAIIVES. INC. MfW Town • CMICAOO • •OtTOM • ttATTLl ATLAMT* • LO« AMOSLIft • ftAN P«ANCI>CO rixere are as many approaches lo network radio this season as there are networks, and, among network executives, more opinions on tlic subject than thai. At .Mutual, it's musicand-news, with a particuhtrly heavy accent this year on news, thanks to an expanded broadcast day, a new coast-to-coast live news coverage setup and accjuisition of some new "name" commentators. .At .American Broadcasting Network, the cry is "down witii musicand-news." In its place network brass are going allout for live music programming — some 32 hours of it weekly — along "Breakfast Club" lines, and, to make way for that impressive load, tliey are "bumping" dramatics, including some time-lionored and still lucrative soap opera billings. .At NBC, the key word is still "Participation." Full network support continues to go to "Monitor," "Nightline," "News of the Hour" and the entire service feature concept. Star names this year are being sought more stringently, perhaps, than in the past, for sprinkling through the weekend programming. Otherwise, the thinking at NBC, as voiced by Vice President Matthew j. Culligan, is that jukel)ox progrannning is due to le\el off. CBS, whicii has its own weekend service feature in "Impact," its own network stars of the Godfrey-Linkletter variety and an abiding faith in daytime serials, will have its novelties (like the Stan I'rcberg and "Sez Who?" shows), but there is nothing about them intended to |)rove anv revoluiionai v ])rogrammiiig ihesis. "Operation Newsbeat" The Mutual spot news setup, called ■0|ieration Newsbeat." puts on tap to •iliiliates throughout its 17hour broadcast day some 486 newsmen, a key re porter for each afhliate. It already has stored some newsbcats thus far. The setup will enable the network to keep (lose tabs on Queen Elizabeth during her .\meri(an visit. Mutual's president. P.iul Roi)erts, a former newspa|)(rm.in, compares the fiuuiion of "()|)er.ttinn Newsbeat" lo tiie service perlormcd for newspapers by AP or UP. He'll have a chance to prove this point wlun kev men in Ottawa. Detroit, Washington. New ^■ork and other cities on the Queen's roiUe |)rovide spot coverage of li( r travels. Further proof, as Mutual executives see it, of the wisdom of its "acfcnt on news" policy is found in the fact that Fint 'n Set, Inc., recently diverted a SI. 000, 000 spot budget from daytime tv, whicli the cosmetic firm characterized as "too static." to a series of 21 fi\e-minute -MBS network newscasts under way as of October 1. Among news commentators lately sna^ed by the network are Henry Mustin, Paul Sullivan, C^harles Warren, Steve .McCiormick. \\'alter (^ompton and Westbrook \'an \'oorhis. Live Music-Variety Shows At .American, Vice President for progrannning Stephen Labiniski enunciates the new thinking in no micertain terms: "Frankly, we think there's a real hazard in the sameness that is growing up in radio. Long-range, you can't survive with music and news." The result of this thinking. American's high-budgeted trend to live music-and-varietv shows, most of them full one-hour programs, and six of them — or a total of 27 hours weekly — brand new shows. .Apart from the high production costs, the departure isn't too radical. .Actually, the stress is on currently popular music and a strong personality to tie things togetlier — the staples of disc jockey programming. The network is frankly hoping the stars of these new shows — Herb Oscar .Anderson, Jim Reeves. Jim Backus, Merv Griffin and John Pearson — will project a network equivalent of the disc jockey's local appeal, a mixture of familiarity, persuasiveness and com|)anionship which die .ABN brass call "gazinkus. " The way Labunski sees it, as things stand now. two local stations with similar music and-news policies are dividing the same audience. "We're trying to furnish our affiliates witli a slight degree of dilTerence. We're competing on their l)ch.df with their own local compititors, not with NiU: or CB.S." Sa\s ABN President Robert t. Eastm.in: "We have a commodity and the immtdi.itc targets to build the radio inciustrv into a billion doll.ir iiuiusLry. .As this develo|)s. the station representatives will gel their share and we will gel ours — and tlie stations as.sociated with each ol us will piospci." o o • 56 U.S. n\l)lO o October 1957