Broadcasting (Jan - Mar 1949)

Bows and Boos TELEVISION engineers merit the highest praise for their achievements which last Wednesday linked 14 cities from the Atlantic to the Mississippi into a unified video netvifork. It is regrettable that television showrmen cannot be given equal praise for their pooled program commemorating this spectacular event. Working together, the program heads of the four TV networks should have put on a video show surpassing anything previously presented to home viewers. It could have been a full-scale drama with an all-star cast, a variety bill with every act a headliner, a first-flight documentary. On many occasions the individual networks and stations have presented outstanding programs of all types. What a job they could have done in concert. Instead, each network took its own quarter: hour for its own show, not even troubling to : check with the other networks to produce a pleasing ensemble. One network did not even give its viewers the courtesy of rehearsing its program in advance, but let them watch while the actors hunted for the chalk marks on the floor which showed them where to stand to come into camera range. The "Golden Spike" ceremonies were expected to have the largest audience ever to watch a video program. In failing to deliver a program worthy of the occasion, TV showmen missed a golden opportunity. SINCE the days of the founding fathers, America has been the land of standardization. The narrow-gauge railroad went the way of the dodo; screws, nails, nuts, bolts, were all standardized. So were coins, pick-handles, bottle caps and lefthand drive cars. We have a National Bureau of Standards, which determines standards on everything from time (by the clock) to tensile strength of steel. Then why, an upheaval in the phonograph record standards? We now have in addition to the standard 78 rpm for home recordings, the SSVs long-playing development of CBS, and the newly announced ^5 rpm of RCA Victor. Well, after all, we guess it's the free competition that counts. If the midgets produce better fidelity than the biggies the public will buy them. Anything the prablic accepts becomes standard. Professional Immunity REPORTERS are protected in only 11 states against legal and other reprisals if they refuse to reveal confidential news sources. Not one of the 11 laws, however, recognizes radio newsmen, because the original law was enacted by Maryland in 1896 and the other 10 states have copied it. The need for inclusion of radio in these i statutes is obvious. Still more obvious is the j need of privilege laws in the other 37 states — \ laws with specific recognition that reporters are reporters, whether the means of publicai tion is in print or on the air or on a TV or facsimile receiver. A suggested model law has been sent by ; NAB to all state broadcasters associations, and to broadcasters in non-association states. This being a state legislative year, broadcasters should contact their legislators and submit the model law for prompt consideration. Page 40 • January 17, 1949 Bare Bones BMB SOME SEMBLANCE of order may now emerge from the chaos surrounding Broadcast Measurement Bureau. Acting with heartening alacrity, the BMB executive committee, made up of top men representing the Assn. of National Advertisers, the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies, and the NAB, has devised plans for the 1949 coverage measurement, and has placed the production authority in the competent hands of Dr. Kenneth H. Baker, NAB research director. The survey will proceed as scheduled in March, and under the research methods agreed to by the BMB technical committee. There will be no cutting of corners on the measurement itself, despite the tight financial condition of BMB. Results will be forthcoming in the fall. They may not be produced on slick paper, buckram-bound, but the grist will be there. Hugh Feltis, BMB president, hits the road to enroll enough new subscribers to pay the freight — a task he is well equipped to perform. What happens to BMB after the 1949 study is problematical. Reorganization plans are under consideration. The task at hand is to meet current commitments in good faith. By acting promptly and summarily, the BMB executive committee has kept BMB alive. Now that all concerned are aware of the unvarnished facts, we think BMB will survive. Broadcasters should remember that, in the publications field, the Audit Bureau of Circulation almost died, because of intramural controversy. After its false start, it enjoyed healthy growth. The same can, and probably will, happen with BMB, or its measurement successor. "I'll Huff and Puff . . ." STRAW indicating the direction of the radio log wind appeared last week as the lead Closed Circuit in this journal. Gist of the item was that all three San Antonio newspapers have capitulated to popular demand and restored program logs to their columns after stations had refused to pay for the space. Although Editor and Publisher, newspaper trade journal, carried the full story of all the huffing and puffing of San Antonio papers when they were attempting to force stations to pay for the logs, the fact of their final capitulation barely made the magazine last week. There's a one-paragraph account tucked away on page 54. The San Antonio story is significant when reviewed in detail (see story, page 29) as an indication of the course which will eventually be followed in other cities where publishers have charged for logs in a search for easy advertising revenue. In every city where the plan has been attempted, as in San Antonio, there has been public demand that the logs be restored. In some cities, station management has been forced to capitulate to the newspapers. But the fact remains that in the vast majority of metropolitan centers large enough to support a daily paper, station logs still appear without charge as a part of the news content which readers have a right to expect. Newspaper management is to be congratulated on this wise course. Newspapers have their responsibilities to their readers just as radio stations have to their listeners. The siren song of possible easy revenue will never compensate for public loss of confidence v^hich inevitably results when a paper or a station forgets its responsibility to its readers or its listeners. SOME people push their way into radio. Others use pull. But J. Neil Reagan, newly appointed manager in charge of all operations for the McCann-Erickson Hollywood office, was literally pushed into radio. It happened back in 1933 when he was visiting his brother Ronald, now a Warner Bros, picture star, but then announcer-sportscaster of WHO Des Moines. "Moon" Reagan, as he is known to friends in and out of the industry, was then a cost accountant with plans to be a lawyer. The station program manager, seeing the young chap waiting around, assumed he was there for an audition. So without consulting him and over his protest, he was handed a script and shoved into the audition booth. Believing it a gag instigated by brother Ronald, he went through with the audition. The legal profession lost a possible Clarence Darrow when "Moon" Reagan won the audition. And at $17.50 per week which to him was even more amazing. But since those days Mr. Reagan has had a varied career. Besides announcer-sportscaster, he has been radio, stage and screen actor. His credits also include those of writer-producer, director and general trouble-shooter. With the administrative responsibilities that go with being Hollywood manager in charge of all operations for McCann-Erickson in that city, Mr. Reagan has no time these days personally to engage in histrionics. But he does direct the weekly CBS Dr. Christian program (Chesebrough Mfg. Co. — ^vaseline hair tonic) ; and supervises production of Pillsbury Flour quarter hour segment of the five weekly ABC Kay Kyser's Kollege of Fun & Knowledge when that program originates from the West Coast. Neil Reagan has similar duties on the weekly Straight Arrow show sponsored by National Biscuit Co. on Don Lee Pacific stations. When that series goes Mutual starting Feb. 7 it will be increased to thrice weekly and so will his supervising duties. He also writes West Coast originating commercials for the five weekly CBS Godfrey Show for National Biscuit. Tampico, 111., was his birthplace and the date Sept. 16, 1908. His given names are John Neil. The Reagan family did some moving around in those days. As result he received his early schooling in such Illinois cities as Chicago, (Continued on page ^5) BROADCASTING • Telecastine