Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

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VOL. 16: No. bl 9 Huge KSWS-TV Tower Topples: The i,6io-ft. tower of KSWS-TV (Ch. 8) Roswell, N.M., one of the world’s tallest structures, toppled in a freak windstorm Dec. 8. It crashed into the transmitter & generator buildings, injuring Walter H. Campbell, engineer from Commercial Radio Monitoring Co., Kansas City. He suffered a badly broken knee, according to station owner John A. Barnett. Three other engineers escaped injury “miraculously,” he said. Two dove under a workbench and the other squeezed against one of 3 control panels. Barnett said that “practically everything in the buildings was demolished.” In addition, the crash damaged 2 of the 3 houses maintained at the site, 2.5 miles S of U.S. Highway 380, near Caprock. The 14 people in the houses, families of the engineers, were unhurt. Barnett estimated the damage at “several hundred thousands of dollars.” He said he expects to resume telecasting with temporary equipment in Roswell Dec. 20 or 21. Freakish nature of the storm was illustrated, he said, by the fact that utility poles in the area were sheared off. « * « Explosion & fire wrecked radio WICO Salisbury, Md. Dec. 15 after the station had gone off the air for the day. The blast, believed to have occurred in the station’s gas heater, ripped studios & offices in the one-story plant. Pres. Robert C. Boyle noted that the transmitter is not located in the building, said the station would be back on the air when studio equipment could be replaced. TV-radio scholarships are among grants totaling more than $60,000 which will be offered next year to Boston U. graduates & undergraduates by the School of Public Relations & Communications. Included: 15 educational WGBHTV & 1 WGBH-FM Boston graduate scholarships, providing $1,500 for the calendar year; 3 radio WBUR-FM Boston graduate assistantships for $1,800 plus tuition; Bcstg. Executives Club of New England’s Harold E. Fellows Memorial scholarship, providing $500 for a year of graduate study in broadcasting; Tarlow Associates Radio Stations $250 scholarship for an outstanding senior. Details & applications are available from Dean Melvin Brodshaug, Boston U. School of Public Relations & Communications, 640 Commonwealth Ave., Boston 15. Deadline: March 1. Colleges & universities offering TV-radio degrees are listed in the Journal of Broadcasting quarterly (fall 1960 issue). This, the publication’s 5th annual survey of the field, shows 96 schools (7 more than last year) now offering broadcasting education leading to a degree, and 49 others offering broadcasting courses without degree. The Journal is published by the Assn, for Professional Bcstg. Education, U. of Southern Cal., University Park, Los Angeles. TV workshop for viewers is provided by WJRT Flint as an in-studio course in the city’s adult-education program. The workshop, which begins its 3rd year with the winter semester, is instructed by production mgr. Ray Schwarz and other WJRT staffers. The course acquaints the students with over-all station operation, instructs them in the planning & production of TV commercials & programs. TV-radio editorial campaign, seeking approval by state legislatures of a Constitutional amendment to grant D.C. residents the right to vote for President & Vice President, has been started by radio WWDC Washington. Fact sheets & suggested editorial material on the franchise issue have been sent to 300 stations by WWDC Pres. Ben Strousc. Auxiliary Services CATV LEGISLATION (cont.): FCC is about ready to make its recommendations to Congress with respect to CATV regulation (Vol. 16:50 p9). However, a final vote hasn’t yet been taken. The latest proposed legislation is broad. It would allow the Commission to do whatever it considers necessary to preserve a locally-originating station, in an area served by a CATV, while at the same time protecting the public’s right to receive as many signals as possible. With such a law, FCC would be free to weigh each station-CATV conflict on a case-by-case basis. If Congress goes for this approach, stations & CATV would get half a loaf each — with a chance to convince the Commission they’re entitled to more in their specific cases. ■ Taboo Taverncasts: Yankee enterprise notwithstanding, you can’t rig up a trick antenna that’ll pick up an otherwise-blacked-out pro football game in your area, and then use it as an advertised come-on for paying guests in your place of business. That’s the gist of a precedent-setting injunction granted Dec. 16 in N.Y. to CBS-TV and the N.Y. Football Giants in a suit against the Circle Bar & Grill Inc. of Wayne, N.J. In effect, the injunction recognizes definite property rights in a TV program which contains no material protected by statutory copyright. What had happened to cause the ruckus ? Operators of the Circle Bar & Grill had installed a special antenna-&booster system this fall capable of picking up Philadelphia & Hartford stations. Then, when a Nov. 20 game was scheduled between the Giants & the Philadelphia Eagles at Yankee Stadium in N.Y. (with N.Y. stations blacked out). Circle ran ads in local papers advertising a $2.50 buffet lunch and (in small print) inviting customers to see the game. On Nov. 27, when the Giants played the Eagles again at Philadelphia’s Franklin Field, Circle’s proprietors set up their TV system in Camden’s Convention Hall and charged admission. A temporary injunction had been issued on Dec. 9 by Judge John C. Grimshaw of Superior Court, Hackensack, N.J., restraining the tavern from continuing its practice. The Dec. 16 action made the cut-it-out order official. CBS and the N.Y. Football Giants did not state any plans to follow up their preliminary victory with further action. TV teacher training via closed-circuit system is a success at N.Y.’s Hunter College, announced dir. of teacher education Dr. Herbert Schueler. The project, begun last January under a National Defense Education Act grant, links 6 classrooms of Hunter’s elementary school for gifted children with 3 college classrooms on the same floor, enabling instructors to observe student teachers at work. Pay-TV oral argument was turned down by FCC last week, as expected. It rejected a petition of the theater owners. It granted all parties 10 days within which to file replies to each others’ briefs (Vol. 16:49 p2). The Commission also turned down theater owners’ petition to rebut the testimony of NAB TV vp Charles H. Tower. Rambler’s 1961 sales program was outlined to American Motors Corp. dealers & sales mgrs. in 35 cities Dec. 15 in a closed-circuit show produced by NBC telesales in conjunction with Geyer, Morey, Madden & Ballard agency. Ho.st was American Motors Pres. George Romney.