Broadcasting (Jan - Mar 1950)

CREATIVE PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS WNBQ (TV) SUCCESS CUSTOM TAILORED programming has limelighted WNBQ (TV) Chicago nationally in a single year of operation. Fourth TV outlet in Chicago, and fourth in NBC's O&O chain, WNBQ celebrated its first birthday Jan. 7. Among several glowing candles on its TV cake, one appears to be brightest — the recent sale of the Chicago-created Garroway at Large network show to Congoleum-Nairn Inc. for a reported $5,000 weekly. As prime example of the program theories evolved by WNBQ's top personnel, the show has consistently won plaudits of expert as well as uninitiated— but it remained sustainirtg eight months. Proof is now in the taste as well as the looks of the pudding. During its first year, WNBQ has telecast local and network shows made-to-order for the type of talent available in Chicago. Init'al goals set up by Central Division Vice President I. E. Showerman (also manager of WNBQ and WMAQ-AM), TV Operations Director Jules Herbuveaux and Program Manager Ted Mills were : (1) attain quality in everything, down to station breaks, and (2) put Chicago on the map. Two NBC Chicago shows, Garroway at Large and Kukla, Fran & Ollie, have re-converted hordes of pallbearers who thought they buried Chicago as a broadcasting center years ago. Means to these ambitious ends were set by Mr. Herbuveaux, a veteran showman, who insists on teamwork backed up by responsibility of all his staff. The staff, ■ in turn, is given complete authority, so that responsibility is moi'e practice and than theory. Mr. Herbuveaux studied engineering, then switched to music and led his first Chicago dance band in 1921. He broadcast shows, recorded songs and played the first network program out of Chicago — NBC's National Farm and Home Hour. Producer of vaudeville and stage shows, he organized the Central Division music staff for NBC, produced radio shows there from 1933 until 1938, and worked as division program manager until 1948. His kinship with talent, in addition to his management experience, was the background for his original ideas on TV when he took over as chief of video operations. Because he had hired and developed personalities like Dave Rose, Benny Goodman, Garry Moore and Johnny Johnston, the step to TV and encouragement of video talent such as Dave Garroway was natural. HIS concept of television — and it weaves throughout all WNBQ programming activities — is that ( 1 ) no ar.tjJ^J or anyone with a creative mind'cati be encumbered with business v^rol'ries, and (2) TV is a new field, and persons need to be given a full scope for creative work. "We want no imitation of anything. We're in Chicago, and Chicago is different from any other place," he says. "We still have to and want to use talent on hand, which is excellent but very limited. We started building original shows without big names and big budgets, bu'lding typically Chicago shows designed for one medium — television." Mr. Herbuveaux, in a business where professionals admit confusion, confesses "I am unconfused. TV is the most honest thing in the world, and there's no fakery in it. Be honest, put on a good show and the camera will take care of the rest." The simplicity of his formula belies hard work that goes into 16% hours of live programming weekly, of which eight are network feeds. b ^^^^^^ A natural approach, with a show constructed around talent rather than vice versa, is followed by Ted Mills. Named program manager four months before the station began operations, Mr. Mills realized even then that, to compete with New. York, WNBQ had to develop talented non-name stars, with emphasis on originality, creativity and skill, and concentrate equally on behind-the-camera techniques and personnel. He is a former Army movie producer and TV producer at NBC New York. A devotee of practical experimentalism, he created both the Garroway show and Crisis, a halfhour weekly "true confession" situation with professionals enacting roles from case histories related by laymen. Other network shows originating in Chicago are Kukla, Fran & Ollie (Sealtest Ice Cream, RCA Victor), Quiz Kids (Miles Labs.), Wayne King Show (Standard Oil of Ind.), Studs' Place, Chicago Jazz, Cactus Jim (participation) and Portrait of America. The last, which has been on the air only a month, is a weekly half-hour remote documentary of a family at home, with film clips added for variety. It is produced by Ben Park, who has been cited nationally for his other documentaries. Report Uiicensored and It's Your Life, both Chicago AM originations. WNBQ telecasts Monday through Friday from 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. and Sunday from 3:30 to 9:30 p.m., totalling about 40% hours weekly. This does not include Projectall, which shows news pictures and bulletins, time and weather and a standing advertiser's message for about five hours weekly. SPECIFIC programming rules set before the station began fulltime commercial operations are st'll in effect — "No show can have drapery backgrounds, because interesting sets are no more expensive; every show must have a desif^n ; never stage a • scene in a living room unless it is in a ^drama<"ic program ; Ught must ' be plotted for every show; cameras MANAGEMENT-LEVEL men at NBC's Central Division include (I to r) Paul McCluer, chief of AM network sales who headed the TV sales staff also until six weeks ago; Division Vice President I. E. (Chick) Showerman, who works as general manager of WNBQ (TV) and WMAQ (AM), and E'-gene Hoge, recently named head of TV network sales. John McPartlin heads the local TV sales staff. must work for us instead of just recording what they see, as they are creative instead of reportorial; cameramen are encouraged to get their own shots." These are dayto-day rules for Mr. Mills and his staff. The first live programming produced by WNBQ was a heavy stint by Newsmen Clifton Utley and Jim Hurlbut Nov. 2, 1948, when President Truman was elected. The men gave five-minute news summaries every half-hour for 10 hours and 27 minutes on the sixstation Midwestern network. Bill Ray, chief of the news and special events staff, directed the entire telecast. WNBQ's history dates back to jj June 1947 when call letters of ' WNBY were tentatively assigned by the FCC. At the same time the network leased for 10 years three floors of the Civic Opera Bldg., half-mile away from its Merchandise Mart headquarters, for FM and TV transmitting equipment. In September 1947 the station strung an insulated cable link for intracity TV between the Mart and the central terminal of the Illinois Bell Telephone Co. The cable, first to be installed by a Chicago video station, also is used for audio program transmission. It contains 12 video and 186 audio circuits. In March 1948 the call letters were changed to WNBQ because of WNBY's phonetic similarity to WMBI (AM), Chicago's Moody Bible Institute station. Call letters WNBQ had been assigned years previously to the NBC Chicago engineering department for its 25 w relay transmitter. FCC .granted a switch, and the station became WNBQ, retaining the definitive letters of NB held by NBC O&O TV stations. The new call also was favored because of the similarity to WMAQ, I'ts AM sister. WNBQ test pattern was put on the air experimentally Sept. 10, 1948. and 10 days later tl^e station participate'^ in the three-hour opening of NBC's Midwest network with WBEN-TV Buffalo, WSPDTV Toledo, WWJ-TV Detroit.