Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct - Dec 1951)

'SPOT NEWS ... HOT NEWS' KSTP-AM-TV Reports SPEED and imagination — these ingredients are "the essence of making spot news hot news" for listeners and televiewers in the area of KSTP-AM-FM-TV Minneapolis-St. Paul these days. These not unreasonable claims are cited by the stations' news department in a report on a recent news story involving the alleged peddling of dope to prisoners of the St. Cloud (Minn.) State Reformatory and possible abusive tactics by prison guards. It is not enough that one be at the source of news "firstest with the mostest," KSTP concedes, and says there is "no secret formula" to which it attributes its claim for blanket news coverage. Actually, it is the "simple deduction" of the management that to do a better than average job of covering events, you need a better than average news staff, the finest facilities and "enough help and authority" from top-level, the station reasons. It is KSTP's proud boast that it brought the prison case into the public limelight with news coverage over a period of weeks. What followed were a series of investiga FOOD BUYING WOR Survey Issued IMPORTANCE of Mondaythrough-Thursday as key shopping days for 19 grocery items was indicated by a food-purchase survey, the results of which were released Nov. 13 by Robert M. Hoffman, research director of WOR New York. The early week segment is just as important as the traditional Friday and Saturday shopping days for the items studied during the week of April 2-7. Seven of the 19 products were bought more often during the early week than on Fridays and Saturdays and at least 40% of all weekly purchases for 16 of the items were made before Friday. Results were gathered by a Pulse check of 1,920 homes in 12 counties of metropolitan New York. Quick consumption items — such as bread, fresh meat and fruits — were purchased mostly during the early part of the week, although the survey revealed a similar purchase rate for such products as crackers, canned goods and frozen foods. Tea, scouring powder, soaps and coffee were purchased more often on Fridays and Saturdays. Friday proved to be the peak grocery-purchase day with some 73% of all families surveyed shopping on that day. Almost half shopped between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., while slightly more than half were in stores between 2 and 6 p.m. Housewives proved to be the prime shoppers, doing 80% of the food buying on an average day. Page 82 • November 26, 1951 AS MANY as 13 staff men and women have an active hand in preparing Today's Headlines, shown nightly on KSTP-TV Minneapolis-St. Paul. Shown in front of station's Telemobile unit are personnel responsible for daily output of TV news coverage. Group does not include TV floor cameramen, a sound man, audio operators or any regular TV personnel. Station schedules two video shows (6 p.m. and 10 p.m.) each day, as well as 1 1 radio newscasts, not including sports and weather reports. KSTP claims its Today's Headlines is "highest-rated multiweekly show of any type in the Twin Cities." tions and the publication of KSTP copyrighted stories from coast to coast. This "clean beat" actually was "all in a day's work," according to the stations' radio and TV news departments. There were others: A five-state manhunt for three men involved in the killing of a local policeman, exclusive TV sound-on-film testimony of a murder trial and on-the-spot reporting and sound pictures of plane crashes, fires, auto accidents, etc. KSTP reports that its large radio-TV news staffs are augmented with scores of photographers and hundreds of string reporters. In the television bureau are movie and still photographers, lab assistants, dispatchers, morgue technicians and editors. It is not unusual, in fact, for as many as 16 persons to work on one story. Proof of the pudding, KSTP says, is that viewers "are rocked back on their heels with the sight of news which has happened only an hour or so before." And sponsors have hopped into news programming in the hope that some listeners and viewers may be rocked their way. The type of sponsors for newscasts is diversified, comprising the following: Weyand's Furniture Store, Nutrena Feeds, Twin City Federal Savings & Loan Assn., Juster Bros. Men's Apparel Store, local Ford dealers, International Nickel, General Electric Supply Corp. and Fanny Farmer Candy. book reviews FREEDOM TO LISTEN. By Arno Huth. United Nations Economic and Social Council. Prepared for the Commission on Human Rights. 35 pages. LISTENER interest and participation in worldwide program operations should be "stimulated and encouraged" and a more constructive attitude toward the "consumer" should be adopted to ensure that radio conveys necessary information and programs. These are two conclusions drawn by Dr. Arno Huth, consultant to the United Nations, in a paper posing problems related to radio programming reception, size and structure of the world audience and different methods of receiving information. Freedom to Listen delves into the size and composition of this audience, individual and collective listening, and freedom and control of reception. Its purpose is to draw the attention of members of the Sub-Commission on Freedom of Information. Practical measures "could advance the cause of freedom of information, and promote and improve the reception of international information," according to Dr. Huth. These may include development of facilities for audiences, reduction of license fees and other taxes in less developed countries, planning and production of specialized programs, and better promotion of international broadcasts, listener relations and audience research. Among other suggestions outlined by Dr. Huth were these: (1) mass production of low-cost receivers; (2) special import licenses for radio-TV sets; (3) use of radio to teach people about the UN; (4) development of greater promotion to publicize programs abroad; (5) encouragement of listener participation as a means of creating audience appeal and interest. The St. Cloud story first arose last August with a tip that some interesting developments might take place in St. Paul's Federal Court. KSTP reporters and photographers were on hand to get an inmate's confession on the use of barbituates in the reformatory. Moments later, the station contacted the warden and obtained a recorded interview, used 20 minutes later. His denial of the charges prompted indignant calls from listeners and offers from inmates to collaborate the charges. KSTP also probed the 1946 death of one prisoner, attributed to strangulation, in exploring the possibility of prison brutality cited by former inmates. Through contact with NBC Hollywood, the station received permission to have the body disinterred there and also paid for an autopsy which showed the prisoner may have died from a skull fracture and not strangulation. KSTP reports it was the first TV station in the country to "break" the story which it copyrighted. All told, the Twin Cities' outlet used 40 tape recordings, eye-witness interview type, and several hundred feet of film. Included were recordings and sound film shots of the doctors, the mother of the prisoner, stills of the dead youth and photostats of the death certificate and coroner's report. TV AND ELECTRONICS As A Career. Ira Kamen and Richard H. Dorf. John F. Rider Publisher Inc., 480 Canal St., New York 13. 326 pages. $4.95. THE AUTHORS have set out in this book to answer for all those interested, the question: "How can I (or my son, or my brother-in-law, or my uncle's chauffeur) get into the television and electronics industry?" They succeed in welldocumented and detailed fashion. They discuss what approach should be used in selecting TV or electronics as a career, employment prospects and how to prepare one's self for a career. Contributing authors help in special fields. PTA Protest BECAUSE of their effect upon children, demonstrations of drinking and smoking in TV commercials are being protested by the First District, California Congress of Parents and Teachers. PTA board of directors, meeting in Los Angeles last week, authorized a letter to FCC and other authorities protesting that while the law protects children from buying drinks or "smokes," television makes both drinking and smoking attractive and dramatic to minors. ROADCASTING • Telecasting