Variety (December 1950)

WediieBduy^ December 6, 1950 RADIO 27 ?ARI-MUIUAl’ JOCKEYS LINE UP NBG last week was doing some re-appraising bn its public rela- tions (on which it’s spending a lot of coin) on the heels of a double- barreled setback. One was the Time mag front-covering of CBS prexy Frank Stanton and reams of copy on the color television dis- pute, which found the national inag strictly in the pro-Columbia columns as opposed to the RCA-NBC bid for tint supremacy. The other had to do with NBC’s failure to pick np Sec. of State Dean Acheson’s crisis-laden talk last Wednesday night (29), which was carried by the other radio networks (and DuMont on TV), and which would have necessitated NBC* knocking off the Plymouth- DeSotOrsponsored Groucho Marx show. (The other AM webs had no commercials at stake, for the 9 to 9:30 period during which Acheson spoke is occupied by sustainers:) NBC and a lot Of its aifiliates came in for a drubbing as result. Some affiliates, including those serving the Topeka, Kan., and Sante Fe. New Mexico, areas, were asking “how come no Acheson?” . Here’s how NBC justifies its action: A few weeks back it had received wnrd fromi Aeheson’s office notifying the- web that the Secretary of State was making three speeches—last Wednesday’s, one of Dec. 5 before the Conference of Mayors, and another on Dec. 12 before the National Farm Grange. NBC asked Which Were the two most important-ones for pickup and was told Dec. 5 and 12, and scheduled itself accordingly. “That Was two weeks before the ' turn of events in Koi:ea,’’ says NBC, , NBC has at long last cleared up f the snarl attending the appoint- ment of a new manager foi^KNBC, the web’s bwned-and-operated op- eration in San Francisco, after a protracted period of vexations, exec reshufflings, a major resigna- tion, etc. Lloyd Yoder, manager of KOA, the web’s o.&o. station in Denver, lias been designated for the nod to sv/Ach' over to Frisco to head the network’s AM-TV operations as successor to John Elwood, who re- tired several months back. Yoder has long been recognized as one of the aggressive, knowhow oper- ators w’itliin the NBC o.&o. frame- work. Since Denver is strictly an “AM baby,’’ lacking video facilities, finding a successor to Yoder may cue some headaches for the w’eb. Initially, NBC had planned send- ing Harry Kopf to Frisco, in an NBC homeoffice exec realignment wiYich now finds John K. Herbert taking over Kopf’s AM sales post. Kopf balked and NBC offered him the Chicago job to replace 1. E. (Chickv Showerman, wiio in turn was offered the Frisco job. Kopf accepted, but Show'erman turned down Frisco and resigned. (He re- vealed over the Weekend he’s going W'ith Free & Peters stations reps as television sales manager.) Prayer Meet WOV, N. Y. multi-lingual indie, has inaugurated a night- ly pause for prayer at H p, m. As the Lord’s Prayer is read, backgrounded by organ music, listeners are invited to join silently in prayers for U. S. troops in Korea and for peace for the peoples of the world. . Service last 30 seconds. Actors Co. Into NBC % Show’ In a bid to further entrench its Sunday night “Big Show’’ as a major kilocycle entry, NBC has ne- gotiated a deal With the Actors Co., Coast legit group comprised of top film personalities. The Actors Co. group will become a permanent weekly fixture on “Big Show,’’ with its star-studded roster made avail- able to NBC for both the New York and Holly wood-originating pro- grams. Among those Who will appear on “Big Show’’ are Charles Boyer, Mel Ferrer, Henry Fonda, John Gfar- field, Gene Kelly, Deborah Kerr, porothy McGuire, Rosalind Russell and Gregory Peck. Plan is to ro- tate two or three of the stars each W'eek in either originals of^pix or legit capsule adaptations. With each Aveekly sequence to i un about eight or 10 minutes. In addition, they’ll be integrated into the 90-minute Tallulah Bankhead-emceed show. Actors Co. tees off on “Big Show” Dec. 17. The stepped-up war tempo last I week found the networks moving swiftly into action in alerting : themselves for continued opera- ' tions, should the day come when ! New York will be subject to an I atom bomb attack, i Primarily, the webs are con- cerned with setting up auxiliary facilities, such as wire circuits, etc., so. as not to disrupt communica- tions, in the event that it’s neces- sary to shift operations to Philadel- phia, New Jersey, Chicago, or some other point. Thus the webs want ! to be prepared with an auxiliary operational setup that will be tan- tamount to a second string of net- works. Meanwhile, the Korean crisis and its forebodings have cued a re- appraisal of the news setups among the networks. NBC has already set in motion plans for its own auxili- ary transmitter in Japan (instead of relying on Army facilities). It’s anticipated that a good portion of the open time availabilities on the networks will be channeled into an expanded news coverage. Considerable interest is being focused on the. upcoming meeting of Mutual stockholders. It will take place in New York, Dec. 12. This is the first meeting of Mutual stockholders since the sale of the Don Lee Network to the Yankee Network owners. That there will be a jockeying-for-posi- tion among the various stockholder interests in a bid to assert domi- nance over the whole Mutual operation, is considered a foregone conclusion. Some are even an- ticipating fireworks at the Dec, 12 meeting. For years past, the Jack Straus (Macy’s)-controlled WOR, N, Y., and Don Lee on the Coast pretty much held sway in dictating or in- fluencing Mutual policy among the far-flung stockholder components of the network. This frequently found Don Lee-WOB lined up against the Chicago (Col. Robert McCormiek)-Yankee - Philadelphia- Cleveland-Detroit interests. When WOR invested coin for a financial stake in Hoffman Radio’s initial bid for the Don Lee acquisition (at a time when it looked like Hoffman had the winning bid for the Don Lee takeover), it was obviously directed at .maintaining WOR’s leadership within the .Mutual framework. Now that Yankee (bwned by the General Tire outfit) takes over possession of Don Lee, the whole complexion can change. Yankee, it’s conceded, will need the sup- port of some of the other stock- holder interests to gain a dominant position. The alignment of fac- tions may well orystallize itself at the Dec. 12 meeting. Sharp Nosedive in 12% Drop from ’49 y&R Takes an Option On Grant’s ’Mr. Blandings’ Young & Rubicam has taken an option on the new Cary Grant ra- dio series, “Mr. Blandings,” based on the “Blandings Dream House” stories ahd filmization. Half-hour weei^y series was packaged by Don Sharpe and is be- ing peddled for $8,500 a stanza. It’s one of the hottest Items among the new AM entries in exciting agency- client interest. Shoe’s on Other on Aqe on the Coast Goodman Ace, chief scripter wn “Big Show,” heads for Hollywood tomorrow (Thurs.) primarily to complete his screenplay writing chore (an original) for Jerry Wald- Normah Krasna (RKO), and also to supervise the NBC gala produc- tion. Ace will again house-guest with Groucho Marx during his Coast hiatus. >) v » Nd Show, Plus Time, Free As National Guard Aid NBC is now cuffo-ing a half “hour weekly series on a full network basis, and throwing in the time as well. tJnusual circurhstances; fol- lowed request of the National Guard, which asked the web for a free show' and 30 minutes of time every week to expedite its bid for recruits. . As result, the network is turn- ing over the “Appointment with Music” show which originates in Nashville. It will be given all the commercial trimmings for the National Guard ride and changed to the “Don Estes Show,” featur- ing the singer and a 21-piece orch. Show will be slotted in the Thurs- day 11:30 to midnight period, start- ing next week: ‘ ♦ i = m • Criticism aimed t NBC for its failure to pick up the talk of Sec. of State Dean Acheson last week occasioned some eyebrow raising, because of the present status of Charles R. Denny as the web’s exec veepee and head - AM operations. Many recall the key role played by Denny when, as chairman of the FCC, he sparked the publica- tion of the noW-^famed Blue Book as a guide in bringing the industry into line on commercial abuses and public service programming. It was such incidents as that which oc- curred last week, w'hen the Plym- outh - DeSotp - sponsored Groucho Marx Show' went undisturbed on NBC during Acheson’s crucial talk, that whipped the FCC into its Blue Book manifesto. Cantelli Cantata NBG, from all accounts, almost found itself without a guest con- ductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra when Guido Cantelli arrived from Italy last Thursday (30) and ■ reportedly w'as all for hopping the nexJ. plane back. Cantelli, pacted for eight weeks pending the scheduled return of Arturo Toscaqinl to the helm late in January, found himself con- fronted with a brand new problem in netw'ork programming —■ the slotting of commercial spot an- nouncements in a symphonic reper- toire. With the Monday night 10 to 11 symph concerts now incorporated into the web’s “Operation Tandem” sales concept, necessitating three spot announcements during the first half of the concert, Cantelli was broached with the idea of adjusting the music schedule to the commercials, That would have nieant rearranging the schedule to permit three short works in the first 30 minutes. Cantelli, it’s re- ported, blew his top and wanted to fly back. home. From ail indications, however, the Cantelli concept of adapting the commercials to fit the music,' rather than vice versa, won out, as indicated by his preem perform- ance last Monday (4), when only tW'o works were played on the first half, a Mozart piece running 17 minutes and one by Rossini run- ning 10 minutes. As indicative of the fact that NBC has realized the error of its ways, the network command, in fact, is scheduling a Chri.stmas symphonic program eliminating all three commercials (RCA, Anacir and Ford). ' NBC’s gross time sales of 4,939>- 120 for the month of October represent a 12% drop, in compari- son with the billings registered by the web for the same month in 1949. It’s the sharpest single- month nosedive encountered by the network in some years, reflect- ing the number of shows can- celled out by sponsors in the in- tervening period. In October, 1949, for example, NBC was flying the Camel colors on “Screen Directors Guild”; Rexall was bankrolling Phil Har- ris; Wildroot had “Sam Spade”;’ Philip Morris had Ralph Edwards' “This Is Your Life”; Procter & Gamble sponsored “Truth or Con- sequences”; and Blatz was picking up the tab for “Duffy’s Tavern.” Howeyer, the start of the broad- ca.sting season this October foun3 all the clients either cancelled out or moving to CBS, as in the case of Wildroot and Philip Morris (“T or C”). NBG has picked up some billings on its “Operations Tandem,” in- cluding RCA, Anacin and Ford Dealers, but these won’t show up Until later. . The cumulative 10-month picture .shpw^ NBC 2.9% under last year’s billings for the comparable period. CBS, on the other hand, is 16% ahead of last year on October gross times sales, and 10.9% ahead for the 10-month period. October saw Mutual move into tHe plus col- umns, being 8.7% ahead of , Octo- ber, ’49, but 12.7% under last year for the 10-month stretch. While ABC was 7.0% under for October, it is 16.1% below ’49 for the 10- month period. Luckies Forces Wilson Bowout on'Big Show’ Hollywood, Dec. 5. Eileen Wilson, inked for NBC’s “Big Show,” has been forced to. Cancel at request of Lucky Strikes, since the last 30 minutes of the . program conflicts with Jack Ben- ny’s CBS shot for Luckies. . Miss Wilson appears on the cig- i gie firm’s “Hit Parade.” October Gross Time Sales (Estiviated) CBS NBC ABC , Mutual $6,672,635 4,939,120 3,172,100 1,541,500 $16,325,355 For First 10 Months (Estimated) CBS $57,730,300 NBC ............ ... ... 51,285,200 ABC 29,590,000 Mutual 13,420,000 -f 16.0 — 12.0 — 7.0 -f 8,7 — 0.7 + 10.9 — 2.9 —16.1 .—12.7 Radio Writers Guild and the net- works have reached an agreement On freelance prices, adjusting sev- eral categories upward from 9%" to 33%. Minimum basic agreement is retroactive for 11 months, which means that the networks and indie packagers who signed letters of'-*' adherance to the agreement will give more than 200 writers an esti- mated $50,000 in back pay. On collateral is.sues in the staff contract, pay scales of which were settled last month, another meet- ing will be held today (Wed.), when webs will present their Coun- ter-proposals, May Bolhauer, former writers' agent and casting director, replaces James Stabile as RWG’s eastern region executive secretary. Stabile, who resigned two months ago but who held on to wind up some biz for the union has joined the legal department of William Morris Agency. Union has appointed new cbm- mittees, including: membership, headed by Tex Weiner; finances, Lou Pellitier; televisiohy Erik Bar- nouw; grieviihce, Lillian Schoen; special services, Carl Janipel; and entertainment, Louis Hayward.^ NBC’S'TANDEM’OPEN TO 1 $152,025,500 ) 2 : 1 ’ With NBC’s sales plan for “Gp- eration Tandem” made more flex- ible, permitting fdr brief commer- cial rides of four weeks’ duratioif (as in the case Of Ford Dealers) or even less, Liggett & Myers has latched on to the .five-nights-a- week program spots, for Chester- field plugs. , ' Ciggie commercials started roll- ing on “Big Show” Sunday (3) via a transcribed insert by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Plan is to con- tinue the spot plugs through the Christmas period.; * NBC's decision to invite all com- ers under any arrangement is to heighten client interest in the “TandenV' sognients; J i j ) m <> i f