Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct - Dec 1952)

NBC STATIONS Boca Meeting Support Nil EFFORTS of some NBC affiliated stations to stir up a December convention of their own following the network's abandonment of plans for the annual session appeared at the weekend to have developed little support. Affiliates in some areas were slow in replying to informal polls conducted by members of NBC's Stations Planning & Advisory Committee. P. A. Sugg, WKY Oklahoma City, requested the polls at the instigation of affiliates who felt there should be an NBC station meeting regardless of the network's stand [B*T, Oct. 27]. Mr. Sugg told Broadcasting • Telecasting a large number of affiliate officials were too busy with political problems, and related management headaches, to reply to the polls by SPAC committeemen. Chance that a convention may be held next spring developed during the week, with some feeling that NBC officials might go along with the idea. One suggestion was that NBC stations get together during the Los Angeles NARTB convention April 29-May 1. A meeting of the NBC Television Affiliates Committee is scheduled Nov. 12, with rate compensation as the main topic. The so called Damm Committee, headed by Walter J. Damm, WTMJ-TV Milwaukee, may meet before the yearend. This group has had several discussions during the past year. Majority Opposes E. R. Vadeboncoeur, WSYR-TV Syracuse, a television SPAC member, said the 13 affiliates in his district were preponderantly opposed to a December convention at Boca Raton, Fla. He added, however, that they voiced belief that some form of meeting of TV affiliates is necessary or desirable. Of the 13, he said eight were opposed to proceeding with the Boca Raton general convention. Most of these expressed a need for a business session of TV affiliates. Two affiliates favored a general convention, two stated no preference and one did not reply, he said. Key problems stirring desire for a TV meeting, it was understood, are network affiliate negotiations over a new formula to compensate stations for carrying network commercial programs, and the belief voiced by several stations that NBC is not paying enough attention to morning programming. On the compensation question, an affiliates committee submitted a proposed new formula in late summer, NBC came back with a counter-proposal, and further negotiations are due at the Nov. 12 session. NBC officials indicated no intent to re-Schedule the cancelled Boca Raton meeting. Mr. Sugg had notified SPAC members he had been informed by Tony Provost of WBAL Baltimore, that Boca Raton could be made available the week of Dec. 13. Page 30 • November 3, 1952 COL. A. FRANK KATZENTINE, owner WKAT Miami Beach, was presented with a baby Mexican tiger to use as the station's mascot. The station uses a cat as its symbol. Posing with the "kitten" are (I to r) John I. Prosser, WKAT general manager; Judy Allen, lion tamer, and Walter A. Callahan, WKAT sales manager. ELECTION RESULTS VOA to Air Overseas DEPT. of State's Voice of America will carry U. S. election results to various countries in 46 languages, it was indicated last week. A staff of 300 announcers, newsmen and engineers will be utilized to assemble and broadcast the returns starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, with stress on shortwave broadcasts behind the Iron Curtain. Among places slated to receive full coverage are countries in Europe, Latin America and the Far East, Near and Middle East. Voice programs will be relayed by domestic networks overseas. Broadcasts to the Iron Curtain will employ a special pattern. All phases of the political race will be reported, Voice officials said. EKCO SWITCHES Full Line to D-F-S EKCO Products Co., Chicago, which spends about $900,000 yearly on advertising, has switched several portions of its account from Earle Ludgin Agency to DancerFitzgerald-Sample, both Chicago. The transfer, effective last week, brings the entire Ekco line into one agency. Ekco products include Diamondware cutlery, Minute Mop products, various Flint lines of kitchen tools, cutlery and food mixers and Ekco Ware cooking utensils. For the past two years, the list has been divided between Ludgin and D-F-S, with the latter handling Diamondware stainless steel table ware and Minute Mop products. In a short one-week period, the client planned and signed for sponsorship of a quarter-hour segment of Welcome Travelers on NBC-TV. SET SALES RISE Reported in Dept. Stores DEPARTMENT store sales of radio TV receivers and phonographs last July showed a 19% increase over the same month in 1951 but the 1952 seven-months total was off about 23%, according to the Federal Reserve Board. These figures were contained in the October bulletin of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Total of 174 stores reported in this survey. Drop of 63% was recorded in stocks on hand in stores at the end of July. Ratio of stock on hand in terms of sales was 2.6 for July, indicating stores sold about half their available supply at month's end. RTMA Lists TV Rise, Radio Drop SEPT. SET OUTPUT OUTPUT of TV receivers in September was 124% above the same month in 1951, according to Radio-Television Mfrs. Assn. Radio set production fell below the level a year ago. The industry produced 755,665 TV sets in September, a five-week month, compared to 337,341 sets a *• a year ago. Radio production totaled 865,654 sets compared to 1,100.246 in the same 1951 month. In all, 3,670,591 TV sets and 6,689,535 radios have been produced in the nine months of 1952. Of home radios, 21,507 had FM tuning facilities, according to RTMA. Another 7,664 TV sets had tuners for the FM broadcast band. Shipments of receiving tubes by January February March (5 weeks) April May June (5 weeks) July August September (5 weeks) RTMA member companies totaled 34,196,286 units in September compared to 27,946,193 a year ago. For the nine months of 1952, shipments totaled 245,689,629 tubes compared to 280,795,338 a year ago. Radio-TV receiving set production for the first months of 1952 is detailed below: AUDIO FAIR Binaural Demonstrated FOURTH Annual Audio Fair, under the sponsorship of the Audio Engineering Society of America, was held Wednesday through Saturday at New York's Hotel New Yorker with more than 100 displays of sound equipment on exhibition. Highlights of the fair included displays of binaural sound systems by Magnecord Inc. and Ampex Electric Corp. In binaural ("two eared") recording, musical sound is picked up by two microphones, recorded on two independent sound tracks and played back through separate speakers. Binaural recording was described as an effort to give an added dimension to recorded sound in much the same way that a stereoscope adds the illusion of depth to a photograph. Magnecord presented a demonstration of binaural sound reproduction at a news conference Wednesday and later that evening cooperated with WQXR New York in a broadcast demonstration. The binaural effect was accomplished by broadcasting one sound signal over AM and the other over FM. Magnetic binaural recording is presently not available on a commercial basis as no satisfactory method has been found to massproduce tape recordings. A binaural system that uses a disk with two sets of grooves, one set at the outside of the record and the other halfway across it, was demonstrated by Cook Laboratories, Stamford, Conn. Harry N. Reizes, fair manager, estimated that at least 15,000 persons visited the exhibition. He said that 29 technical papers were delivered at the Audio Engineering Society's convention, which is held each year in conjunction with the fair. Mr. Reizes also announced that the fair has established an annual $250 scholarship to be awarded to a deserving student specializing in audio engineering. First presentation will be made at next year's show. The Audio Engineering Society of America is composed of more than 1,100 members in the United States and abroad. Television Home Sets Portables 404,933 409,337 288,723 312,705 68,433 72,866 510,561 322,878 309,375 357,689 286,164 288,927 99,720 110,529 128,351 361,152 198,921 397,769 297,669 203,868 235,728 205,186 81,353 105,006 755,665 324,786 126,666 3,670,591 2,596,259 998,110 Auto 195,147 267,779 343,314 275,250 215,478 246,909 95,220 94,315 230,706 1,964,118 Clock Total Radio 80,152 632,455 106,103 759,453 175,169 975,892 176,003 847,946 115,588 748,344 124,489 874,253 61,295 441,736 108,753 543,802 183.496 865.654 1,131,048 6,689,535 Sesac Xmas Scripts SESAC transcribed library, New York, will send special Christmas programs to subscribers along with regular November shipments, which will include a complete list of SESAC's Christmas music. Special program scripts are: "Music and Christmas," "Music for OnceUpon-a-Time," "Home for Christmas," "The Wondrous Gift of Christmas," "Christmas Tree Decoration— Homemade Style," "The Toys' Christmas Eve," and "Mister Muggins Rabbit." BROADCASTING • Telecasting