Variety (December 1954)

Wednesday^ December 1, 1^54 RADIO-TELEVISION 31 Those apparent wide differences in the rating reports of different research services aren’t actually so great if all services are report- ing the same : week. Comparison of Nielsen’s top 10 for its first October report with American Research Bureau’s ratings of the same shows indicates a maximum difference of and •minimum divergence of only .1 points, comparison which follows, covering the week oi little differences between the two. Rank Program 1. I Love Lufcy '2. Bob Hope ,.....,... 3. Toast of the Town .... 4. Gavilan-Saxton Fight 5. Milton Berle > 6. Jackie Gleason 7. ' Dragnet ..... v....... 8. Groucho Marx ...... ; ... 9. Tonight at 8:30 (Spec) . ... 10. ‘Sunday in*Town (Spec) . . . . -7 Not carried during^ ARB week. Nielsen’s Top 10 listing covers a two-week period, So that these programs weren’t covered by ARBi. However, in all. cases where both ratings are shown, those ratings are for the week of Oct. 7-13. . '20 Plan’ 1 Chicago, Nov; 30. Latest to get on the radio “package o' spots’’ bandwagon is NBC’s WMAQ which has introed a weekend “20 Plan.” Station has opened up four Saturday and Sunday periods for spot insertions uhder a special rate of $500 *for the bundle of 20 one- minute blurbs. Every Monday ight WATV,-.-* Newark, beams«its signal into the stratosphere where- the. eggheads dwell. And without making a sin- gle concession to commercialism (unless it’s doing esoteric themes in 13-week cycles) that particular electronic beam, which is no more complicated than some of the, pro-, grams it carries, draws in return enough mail to be considered, the envy 'of:'many of its commercial brethren.. 1 j The 'Rutgers U, , part of WATV’s Monday ight highbrow block, drew a total; of, 5,747 letters since the end of ’5$ when a 13- week cycle called the “Weber Series” began# That pile of epis- tles totals nearly as much as some local, giveaways on tv. (Giveaways, incidentally, is the Rutgers angle too: a pamphlet containing some kind of selective info to ; induce writeins). Partially a low budget arid what appears to be an indomitable stand, against concessions tb lesser minds, the Rutgers stanza sits a pe- dagogic prof or other academician in front of a blackboard and facing a camera, and has him talk. The only graphic element (besides a few Chalk marks) might be what the. lecturer conjures, up In. the minds/of his evidently large; but select Audience; Take for instance the first, of the 13-Week' cycles—the “Weber Ser- ies’’., (like all the othersj named after the professor in charge) re the world of art. Things Were slow,, then probably because it was the first ^series on the 13-vveek ycle concept. Returns were ‘fair,” with only 526 letters for all that time, (Intelligenstia were away Fire Islanding it for the sum- mer.) Use of the “commercial cycle” steadily increased mail through the second series, w'ith hangover appeal drawing literates back .week after week.' That Was. the' “Fender Series” on mathema- tics, teal Einstein fodder. . There were near 1,500 letters for that one, coming as they all do from N.Y., New Jersey and Connecticut. There was a falloff in mail during the third of the 13-week cycles, but things picked tip sharply for the most recent two. The “Schmitt.. Series” on “insect: Friend or Foe” picked'up slightly over 1,700 pieces of mail, and the most recent one on Italo com- munities has in its third week al- ready topped the lot with- an ex- cess of 1,80 letters. Westinghouse Electric has or- dered the closed circuit facilities: of CBS-TV for a Xmas Week hoop- la involving its distribs, dealers, etc. It’s for. an hour at 6 p.m. on Dec. 29. That’S a Wednesday, When it’ll be Pabst Beer’s three- for-one '.turn on the 10 p.m. slot earmarked for Westinghouse on an every-fourth-week basis: (In the schedule, Westinghouse would be due on Dec, 8 and Jan. 5, thus shut out of a Yule show except for its “Studio One,” but could go out of turn on the 29th with a nod from Pabst.) Viewing rooms, plus monitors, technicians, etc-, will be supplied by the sponsor. D.C. Good Music Station Washington, Nov. 30, W.GMS, Washington’s . Good Mu- sic Station, is expanding into the field of direct instruction via >‘The University of the Air” series. A. cooperative effort of station and George Washington and George- town U. ? , educational broadcast courses, which tee off next Satur- day (4) will be under production direction - of Mrs. Imogene Putnam, »ho formerly produced a similar series for WCFM. Scheduled every Saturday after- noon for eight weeks, the hour show will be in two segments,, with, each of the participating colleges giving separate 30-minute courses. Station has worked closely with both schools on various music pro- grams. Expansion into general educational fields came as a result of public interest in the courses, Chis B cast Adv. Chicago, Nov. 30. After a delayed start, Chi’s new Broadcast Advertising Council, formed by the merger of the Broadcast Executives Club arid Chicago Television Council, is due to get formally under way iri Janu- ary.- Main business of the initial meeting Jan. 19 will be approval of a slate of officers, nominated by the directors of the. merged out- fits. Nominated roster includes: Peter Cayallo Jr., J. Walter Thompson, prexy; Jack Simpson, Foote, Cone & Belding, James Stirton, MCA, and William McGuineas, WGN veepees; Gladys Blair, Young & Rubicam, secretary; Lois Thomp- son, Robt. Meeker, treasurer, and Alton. Farber, J. Walter Thompson, publicity. ., Directors are: John A. Cory, FrCe & Peters; Arthur Harre, WLS; Lou Nelson, Geoffrey Wade; Leon- ard Matthews, Leo Burnett; Arnold Johnson, Needham, Louis & Bror- by; Sterling Quinlan, W B K B; Charles Zeller, Guenther Bradford; Cy Wagner, NBC, arid John Moser, Moser & Compere. 25G ‘KUKLA’ XMAS PACKAGE AS 1-SHOT Chicago, Nov. 30. ABC-TV is pitching a special hour-long Xmas day package fea- turing Burr Tillstrom’s “Kukla, Fran & Ollie” company in a puppet treatment of James Thurberis “Many Moons” >kiddie novelette. Show, which will go on only if sold, is slated for lush wrappings with Tillstrom personally design- ing the. sets and scenery as well as creating new puppet characters for the fantasy. /, The. film , companies are single- handedly doing a hangup job to perpetuate bigtime local radio bill- ings: If they had their way about it they’d pour virtually all their coin into morning and night. AM spots on a local level in preference to tv.: The pix companies say they’re getting niuch better results, from exploitation. ' radio than from tv spots. For. one thing, it’s hard to grab good local tv spot time. And for even less than it costs to get a 20-second video spot they can get three and four-minute plug ride, in radio. It’s not only, applicable to New York, where re- sults are best, they report* but such cities as Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and De- troit are “hot centres” for radio exploitation of new pix. product. A. recent contest via radio spots on behalf of a film brought in 5,000 answers in Detroit,, the same num- ber in New. York arid 3,500 in Philly; That was about par on a lO-rity check: Same contest de- livered but a few hundred answers via tv. Dramas Don’t Die’— Reprised in Books, Etc. I New York. , Editor, Variety': Was interested . your article about Reginald Rose’s scripts pn “Studio One” attracting “institu- tional attention.” As additional proof that good scripts do riot die after one live' performance, I thought , you would be ; interested in some of the reaction to scripts sold by rne during the past couple of seasons. I might add that the following is merely some of the information that comes into this office. I know a greater number of requests and reactions come to the networks arid agencies. Just to toot the horn for my writers a bit: James Truex has had' his short, play, “She Walks . in Beauty,” which was presented on the Kate Smith Show starring Sir Cedric HardWicke, printed in two antholo- gies of tv plays, The first pub- lished by A. A. Wyn Co. and the second to be, published this year by the Globe Book; Co., educa- tional publishers, ; Permission was recently requested and granted for the^ performance of this script by the - Speech Dept, of the University of Omaha, and was televised over WOW-TV there. Also, Mr.. Truex has granted permission to the Book; Committee of the Society of Friends in Philadelphi to print the script, “Young William Penn.” which was presented on “Hallmark Hall of Fame” April 4, Joseph Cochran’s "The;: Queen’s English,” performed on “LuX Video Theatre” last season, was. requested for perforihanceby the Parent-Teachers Assn, of Adams, High School, South Bend, Irtd:, as well as by inbef of other PTA’s. Rod Scrling’s “U/ F. O., pre- sented on “Westinghouse Sumirier Theatre” this.- past summer, will -also be published in the ..Globe Book Co.’s f orlhcom ing*anthology, and George Lowther’s “Will- power/’ also performed on Lux last year, was presented in May; 11954, by the Fort Hill Players of Scarsdale, N. Y. This-is just proof, as. I said be- fore, that audience reaction is very exciting when a good .script is tele- cast^-.which is certainly wonder- ful for Mr. Rose as well as for many other writers. Blanche Cairtes. A Casualty in Frisco San Francisco, Nov. 30. Red Blanchard, KCBS’ highly publicized zany. personality whose show grabbed spreads in Life and Time/has proven d disappointment sales wise and the station lopped show last week. . Blanchard, who is still under con- tract to KCBS, remains at the sta- tion on staff and will have another show. This time, however, program director ‘ Pede Worth/ declares Blanchard’s program will be aimed at a broader segment of the audi- ence. As a result of the demise of the Red Blanchard Show, two long time KCBS writers and produc- ers, Dick Brill and Ralph DiSalle; have been axed. ♦ CBS-TV was in a $-sign pitch on two fronts last- week, with UHF taking part of the spotlight. First/ the web broke out with a new rate card effective today (^ed.) with these major changes: The Basic Group, minimum re- quirement for all new business, is increased to 46 stations; minimum required ..station lineup for prime night periods increased to 60; with- out .altering established discount scale, a new category, “Over-All Discount,” has been introduced; advertisers maintaining Volume- of 6100,000 or more* weekly gross bill- ing for station time in consecutive 52-week period will, get straight de- duction of 25% as substitution for combo weekly station-hour and an- nual discounts; number of changes production section relating to First “magazine concept” entry for ABC-TV Will be a orie-hour- weekly segment employing ' the “how-to-do-it” theme. Show, titled “Your Better Horne,” is slated for Saturdays from 11:30 a.m. to. ,12:30 starting Jan. 8. Web has al- ready. signed one participating sponsor, A power tool company, and reportedly is getting good station acceptance for the, show. . Segment, which is being pro- duced by Alton Alexander and David Lown, will star actor Neil Hamilton with Helen Lewis as hi$ assistarit. Hamilton’s hdbby : is carpentering, and the feeling at the web is that a trained actor can put "across the show better than a teacher or professional; fix-it ex- pert., There are no magazine tie- ins (despite the “Better Home” tag), but it’s understood that a couple are contemplated for mer- chandising and promotion 'pur- poses, CHI ‘5rSTAR FINAL - GETS AN OVERHAUL Chicago, Nov. 3.0: ( . WNBQ’s pioneering “Five Star/ Final” block of strip shows in the 10 to II p.m, band, which down through the. years rated as one of tv’s best local money makers, is bowing to the trend of the times and is to undergo a revamping the first of the year. The weather, household hints/ news and sports layout is to be telescoped into the first half-hour to leave the 10:30 period open for vidpix berthing and possibly a live sports remote or two. Although the last half has- been doing okay saleswise, the ratings have tailed off against the compe- tition of WGN-TV’s feature films and WBKB’s telepix, so it’s, fig- ured that it’ll be easier to keep the period humming via the Vidpix route. Also believed a factor is that Eastman Kodak is seeking a Wednesday night station time slot for its upcoming “Norby film. Remaining intact will be Clint Youle’s 10 p.m. 10-minute weather show and. Dorsey Connors’ follow- ing five-minute hint squib. Jack Angell’s 10:15 rtewscase wiTl be cut to 10 minutes with the remaining five taken over by Norm Barry’s sports /roundup, presently occupy- ing;. the 10:30 to- 10:45 period. Herbie Miritz’s final' quarter of keyboarding and show, biz chit chat will be dropped. i> CAR ‘ ELECT NEW SLATE Greensboro, NL C./ Nov. 30: William S. Page of WELS. Kin- ston, was elected president of the North Carolina Assn. of Broadcast- ers at Southern Pines. Other officers named included Allen Wahnainaker, WBIG, Greens=_| boro, vice president; Cecil Hoskins, •WW-NC, Asheville, secretary-treas- urer, and Earle Gl.Uck, WSOC, Charlotte; E. Z; Jones, WBBB, Bur- lington, and. T. H. Patterson, WRRF/Washington, directors. facilities, the first increases in two. years (live studio rehearsal, $450 gross per hour for' full facilities; $225 for studio with audio only; $150 for, studio without facilities; for fill -facilities used with live rehearsal/ reduced from $150 to $100 per hour; if only one pro- jector used; for network commer- cial programs primarily on film, base charge of $250 gross per quar- ter-hour, a fee that ad agencies ar,e currently studying, with the us*ial gripes anticipated.) More important for tv’s future: is the web’s “Extended Market. Plan” aimed: at encompassing small outlets and giving “CBS affiliate” more of a ring of reality, Mini- mum rate pattern is eliminated and instead, the network will link up with the smallest markets “as long as station rate is consistent with the actual circulation delivered.” But since, as CBS notes, this will involve many cases where web’s share of payment.from sponsor.will be “far less” than the cost to net- work of servicing such a plan, EMP provides two alternatives to sta- tions: that do not create “serioii overlap’’ with existing network fa- cilities: 1. Station has choice either of taking web programs on recorded basis of $5 per prograrn, or 2. To take these. programs live and pay cable, local connection and transmission charges. From either CBS’ / other view- points, notably the Federal Gov- ernement, EMP is figured to help operation of the U’s in the smaller markets, since these will now hav opportunity to latch on to the ma- jor shows „to build audiences, Atlanta Baptists Up In Arms Over Radio-TV to Atlanta, Nov. 30. Baptists of Atlanta, apparently asleep at the switch, ai-e bestirring themselves .in a belated, effort to prevent removal of the Southern Baptist Riadio and. Television Cen- ter from here to Fort Worth. Bids for the center came from Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Dallas and Tulsa as well as Atlanta and Fort. Worth, The Rev. Paul S; Stevens, direc- tor of the. Baptist radio & tv com- mission said . Texas’ famed COw- town was selected in the following points: An offer by WRAP (radio & tv) of free, . indefinite Class A time each Sunday on its 50,000 wait clear channel station for. “The Bap- tist Hour.” An offer by the station of 30 minutes free, televised, time each week and use of its facilities for expeirimental purposes!. Assurance, of a headquarters, building tor the center and built.to the ccmmission-s specifications. . The Rev. Mr, Stevens said: “At- lanta, lost out because no positive 'offers-'were made to meet any of o.ur needs, Their bid was strictly a negative approach,” . Pittsburgh—Disk jockey popula- tion Ideally continues to grow by leaps and bounds and the newest one is Joe Mann, of tv, who re- turns to KQV, where he got. liis [“Start as a radio announcer, on a weekly basis. With the end of the football season; Mann has been signed by the local CBS Outlet for a rambling, off-the-cuff platter ses- 1 si On- every Saturday afternoon for 1 four hours beginning this week <4>.