Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1953)

final two, which deal with this section of the state rather than. a period of history. WJAR GOLF TOURNAMENT JIM METCALF, staff announcer for WJ ARAM-TV Providence, R. I., was presented a trophy on Tv Sports Page over WJAR-TV recently. Mr. Metcalf defeated Roger Kennedy of the Engineering Department 2 and 1 in the 1953 WJAR-AM-TV golf tournament. The tournament is comprised of engineers, directors and announcers of WJAR radio and television staffs. NEW WGAR SERVICE PROGRAM Director Reg Merridew of WGAR Cleveland has added another new program service for WGAR listeners. Beginning this week, road-condition reports will be broadcast four times daily. The reports will be assembled from information obtained from the State Highway Dept., the Auto Club, Central Greyhound and the Cleveland Transit System. KLZ SPORTS COVERAGE KLZ Denver will give extensive coverage of Denver U. winter sports activity every Saturday night at 8:00, beginning Dec. 5. KLZ radio will air direct broadcasts from the Pioneer arena of 12 outstanding hockey and basketball attractions with Walt Schrader, a radio veteran, but a newcomer to the Denver radio scene, handling the play-by-play. city, are mailed out by local business firms whose activities are described in station-tape recorded interviews at various plants and stores in Orange County. Average distribution of postcards, which contain strong plug for station, runs about 7000 a month. COLLEGE BASKETBALL KING-TV Seattle will televise eight collegiate basketball games in the 1953-54 season, it was announced by Al P. Hunter, commercial manager for the station. Four U. of Washington games and four Seattle U. games will be covered. Negotiations to televise the U. of Washington games were completed by Mr. Hunter and Sportsvision, the organization representing the Pacific Coast Conference in television dealings. Sportsvision is represented in the Pacific Northwest by Hugh Felton. All telecasts will be sponsored by the Richfield Oil Corp. Bock to Bach THE NATIONAL Brewing Co., Baltimore, going classical, will sponsor a special Christmas concert featuring the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, with guest appearances by opera star Mimi Benzell and. actor Basil Rathbone. According to an announcement by Jerold C. Hoffberger. National president, the program will originate from WMAR-TV Baltimore tomorrow (Tuesday) evening, and also will be aired by WTTG (TV) Washingtion. POSTCARD PROMOTION SPECIAL postcards printed by sponsoring Security-First National Bank, Santa Ana, Calif., promoting Meet Your Neighbor on KVOE that SONG CATCHES ON STORY with the Hollywood touch — but with a bit more authenticity — developed recently on a WTAM Cleveland Morning Bandwagon show KITE Stages Own 'Pearl Harbor7 on Dec. 7 KITE San Antonio, wondering how many people in that city remembered Pearl Harbor, instituted a "sneak attack" of its own Sunday, Dec. 6, on the eve of the 12th anniversary of the Japanese attack at Hawaii, to prove the city could be almost completely disabled with no one aware of the danger. KITE newsmen Coit Butler and Bill Allert solicited the aid of former navy frogman Bob Hamilton, a demolition expert, and accompanied by a reporter and photographer from the San Antonio Light, they planted fake charges of explosives in six vital spots over the city of 400,000 population. The group, which started shortly after 9 p.m., used "time-fused" charges of "dynamite," "tetratol" and "C-2." They drew only passing attention as they deposited the charges at the city telephone building, the water main supplying the downtown area, a major power plant, a water tower and the radio tower for the sheriff's office, in a manhole at the busiest intersection in town and under the police dispatcher's office. If the charges had been real, KITE says, the town's lights, water and telephone service would have been cut off and the peace officers would have been left without effectual control. Each charge was labeled with a drawing of KITE, the time it was placed at each place and the time when the fuse would have gone off if the charge had been a real bomb. Coincidentally, KITE says, M. H. Rodes, city police communications supervisor, on the same day filed a report with his superiors requesting a $30,000 decentralized radio network to replace the "entirely neglected and completely vulnerable police center now in use. The plan calls for new civil defense communications, creating 38 base radio stations over the city, to stop just such a blow that could destroy all emergency communication." The San Antonio station reports it was swamped with calls after its broadcast, which was timed to take place at approximately the same hour as the actual Pearl Harbor attack 12 years ago. San Antonio teachers were invited beforehand to air the broadcast over loudspeakers in classrooms. Both the UP and INS carried items on the KITE project. Some sample comments received by the station : "Best program of its type I ever heard. It should be required listening." "Tremendous. It made me realize it could happen here." "Excellent reporting. What can I do to help?" when singer-pianist Hamish Menzies premiered his newest musical composition, "Our Anniversary." Mr. Menzies, who was appearing at the Hotel Hollenden in Cleveland, got word that on Tuesday, November 24, Johnny Andrews, m.c. of the Morning Bandwagon and his wife Betti celebrated their second wedding anniversary. He worked all night and came up with an original piece of music, "Our Anniversary" — dedicated to his long-time friend Johnny Andrews, and presented the song for the first time to the vast WTAM Morning Bandwagon audience. Since then, WTAM reports a tremendous amount of mail and phone calls from listeners wanting sheet music and recordings of the song. HISTORICAL STATION BREAKS WAPI-WABT (TV) Birmingham, Ala., in cooperation with the Alabama Historical Assn., are carrying anniversary mention of the most important event in the. state's history for the particular date. The association provides the spots and the stations work them in as a closing item on Alabama newscasts. The stations get mention in the association's quarterly and the association gets credit on the air. Tv Doesn't Hurt Cubs DOES television hurt attendance of hangers-on in the major league baseball pennant races? It apparently doesn't — at least the Chicago Cubs don't think so. In signing a new contract with WGN-TV Chicago for exclusive tv rights to all Cubs' home games [B*T, Nov. 30], James P. Gallagher, club's business manager, stated: "We believe television has helped to promote interest in the Cubs and in baseball in general in the Chicago area. We think television helped to keep our attendance up and certainly brought the game to many people who could not get out to the ball park. The cooperation from WGN-TV in promoting attendance also helped to make additional fans." The Cubs, traditional stragglers in the National League in recent years, finished seventh in 1953. They're the only club without nighttime baseball — and thus have no problem of baseball telecasts when other tv competition is strong. JAPANESE NEWSCASTS KGMB-TV Honolulu, T. H., CBS network station recently programmed daily Japanese language tv newscast. Entitled Tomomichi Kuraichi Reports, newscast is 10 minutes long and goes out over KGMB-TV at 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. KING-TV MERIT AWARD KING-TV Seattle received a special award of merit by the Armed Forces of the Puget Sound area for station's weekly public service program, March On, claiming it to be the first such award presented in the Pacific Northwest. Page 100 • December 14, 1953 Broadcasting • Telecasting