Broadcasting (July - Sep 1950)

A Veteran of 18 Years in Telecasting, WPTZ Now Enjoys a Ledger in Black ifl(i;jSr A FIELD where there is understandably an abundance of first-timers, WPTZ (TV) ladelphia is a veteran. That .h explains how the station stands "•'the business of telecasting. I'he postwar period's hurry and jffle to put things right in the 50 business came with expecta4ii that sooner or later television lild rush through the front door millions of American family i3jf*ies. eip'ihance, fortified by foresight, responsible for WPTZ's posiffii'li in the forefront. Thanks to ozen or more years of telecastexperience and scientific develfient by its parent company, ;lco Corp., WPTZ already had foot in the door when the inj [try began its expansion, 'ffhilco first began experimenting ■fh television in 1928. Then, !) ked with the preliminary reich by the company's experts, [*ico obtained permission of the 1, Federal Radio Commission to ■ ii rate an all-electronic television :em. An experimental station ,ujy3XE (which was to become WPTZ)— was established June 28, 1932. As early as 1939, W3XE inaugurated regular program service— a far cry from top-rated network shows of today but enjoyable nevertheless to the minute audience served. At that time, there were only 250 sets in the area and since newspapers didn't log televised programs, WPTZ had to post-card its listeners with daily schedules; a practice that lasted until early 1947 when, with sets reaching the 5,000 mark, Philadelphia papers began adding a TV listing. Set Ownership Grows In the ensuing three years, television set families have mushroomed in the Philadelphia area. Today, the Quaker City is credited with some half a million sets, ranking the metropolis fourth TVwise in the nation. There's little doubt that this spiraling set population, to a great extent, has been influenced by the aggressiveness of WPTZ, particu larly so because the city has only three TV stations. Throughout its history— WPTZ was granted a commercial license and officially acquired its call letters in 1941 — the station has concentrated on an amazingly simple theory : Provide the best possible service that television engineering and know-how can produce. Regardless of the competitive nature of "claims" in the business of telecasting, WPTZ, an NBC affiliate, feels it has gained undisputed place as a true pioneer in the development of television engineering, programming and in the commercial aspect. Only last spring, it was WPTZ which helped take daytime television out of the ranks of "experiments" and make it stand on its own. After much checking by its stafi' members, WPTZ decided the feature film was a big attraction for daytime viewers. Instrument of this brief was Hollywood Playhouse, which presents a film each afternoon Monday-Friday. The series came up with a startling 27.1 on the American Research Bureau rating for April. Rates 27.1 In concrete terms, on the basis of 440,000 sets estimated for April in the Philadelphia area, the 27.1 rating would mean that nearly 120,000 set owners watched the show every afternoon in the 2-3 p.m. period (the figures also boosted the area's sets-in-use figure for all stations in that time spot to a healthy 31.2). WPTZ's success in daytime television was no less spectacular than earlier attempts to seek TV fare for its audience. At a time when program planners had to secondguess engineering technique, WPTZ came up with a telecast of U. of i|c ^ THE Big Four, who mastermind the WPTZ operation, go into a conference huddle. L to r: Commercial Manager Alexander W. Dannenbaum Jr., Assistant General Manager Rolland V. Tooke, Vice President and General Manager Ernest B, Loveman ^ and Chief Engineer Raymond ^ J. Bailey. AN AIR view of the 552-ft. WPTZ transmitter tower at Wyndmoor, Pa., suburb of Philadelphia. This is part of WPTZ's complete modernization program which was finished in late 1948. Pennsylvania football as early as the fall of 1940; a baseball pickup in 1941; the Republican National Convention of 1940 (telecast with NBC) with WPTZ on the air for 60 hours; Army-Navy football originations and other such pioneering events. The station was pioneering because most of the techniques employed in the 1940 pickup of the GOP convention were used eight years later when other stations went to Philadelphia to cover both Republican and Democratic conclaves; many of the TV methods used in covering the U. of Penn games now have become standard operating procedure. WPTZ is owned and operated by the Philco Television Broadcasting Corp., a subsidiary of the Philco Corp. William Balderson, Philco president, holds the same office in the subsidiary corporation. Active head of WPTZ is Ernest B. Loveman, vice president and general manager since the corporation's founding in 1946. Mr. Loveman, a Philco associate since 1928, was one of the original committee of executives who supervised program planning for the TV station in its early days. Rolland V. Tooke is assistant general manager. He concentrates on administration, program planning and scheduling, network relations and departmental assignment, to name the top duties. In the "good old days," when WPTZ's program department consisted of him (Conti)Uied on page 69) July 24, 1950 • Page 59