Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1954)

PROGRAMS & PROMOTION was hell-bent for putting the blocks to educational tv in that state. It sponsored a bill to prohibit the use of tax money for educational tv by the U. of Illinois. This passed the Illinois lower house, but failed in the Senate. This year, the IBA committee approved educational tv, but qualified its assent in only one respect — that any use of state money for educational tv be approved by the legislature first. Maybe commercial broadcasters are recalling the more than 150 educational stations once extant in the early days of standard broadcasting, now thinned to a sparse 30. Maybe they recall the sky-high hopes and promises for educational fm, which numbers only 117 stations on the air throughout the nation. Maybe they figure educational tv will take the same course. At the most, from the looks of things today, educational tv isn't going very far, very fast. IS MADISON AVENUE SELLING UHF SHORT? (Continued from page 81) station or has received coverage from a distant vhf city. 3. Several uhf stations coming on the air at the same time under one or both the above two conditions. Situation number one generally revolves around a purely market consideration and I think if these stations feel Madison Avenue is against them the reason is because they have failed to realize that with television costs so high, most advertisers necessarily cannot hope to reach 100% of total U. S. sets. Also, a number of new stations, both uhf and vhf, are located in markets in which local media have never received much national advertising. It is in case number two where the socalled classic situations have developed. In certain cases uhf station call letters and cities are indelibly imprinted in the minds of timebuyers and I honestly feel most agencies have spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to fairly evaluate these claims. Some of the most bitter instances involve point three where there are two uhf stations in the same television market. Rather than agreeing to promote uhf, these stations generally make their bid for national spot business by bringing along coverage maps which show that the competitor has used complete lack of judgment in antenna selection and his signal is not being received by a substantial portion of the market. After listening to two such presentations, the buyer is apt to be convinced that no one is ever going to buy a television set or bother to convert from an existing vhf and he had better forget about uhf television entirely. In conclusion, I honestly feel uhf is being judged by agencies fairly; in exactly the same manner as other local media. If a transmission problem does exist, I do not think it fair to blame agencies for failure to buy. They are seldom made aware of these transmission problems as such but are only basing their buying decisions on the resulting audience and cost figures. 'VICTORY AT SEA' PREMIERE PREMIERE of the NBC Film Division's fulllength feature film production of "Victory at Sea" was held in New York at the 60th St. Translux Theatre, attended by top officials of RCA, NBC, United Artists, UN and the Armed Forces. The film was described as "the first theatrical feature produced by a television company." Among those who attended the premiere were Brig. Gen. David Sarnoff, chairman of the boards of RCA and NBC; Sylvester L. Weaver Jr., president of NBC; Carl M. Stanton, vice president in charge of the NBC Film Division; Fleet Adm. William "Bull" Halsey; Henry Salomon, producer and coauthor of "Victory at Sea"; Capt. Walter Kapig, USN (ret.), technical advisor; Bernard Kranze, general sales manager for United Artists Corp., which is releasing the film, and key production executives of the feature film. 'AMOS 'NT ANDY' QUOTES CBS-TV's new Amos 'n' Andy Music Hall, to be launched in September as a Mon.-Fri. 9:309:55 p.m. strip [B«T, July 12], will be sold in six-minute segments at approximately $2,900 per segment for both time and talent, officials reported last week. This price, which applies to new CBS Radio advertisers, scales down to about $2,500 per segment in the case of 52week contracts. Plans for the series were outlined by Adrian Murphy, president of the network and Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, creators of Amos 'n' Andy, at luncheons for advertisers and agencies and members of the trade press in New York and Chicago. WGAL-TV 'MR. CHANNEL 8' WGAL-TV Lancaster, Pa., is sending to advertisers a 7' x 2' white poster advertising itself as "Mr. Channel 8" with 316,000 w. A gentleman wearing a high hat and monocle and whose body consists of a large red 8 is centered on the sheet. "Mr. Channel 8" claims to be first in central Pennsylvania area coverage, reaching, besides his home city, Harrisburg, Reading, Lebanon, York, Hanover, Chambersburg, Sunbury, Lewistown, Pottsville, Shamokin, Carlisle and Coatesville. Large red letters against a black background identify the stations and network affiliations. The caption reads: "growing, growing, GROWN! new super power! more impact for your dollar!" TSLN FLOOD COVERAGE COMPLETE on-the-scene flood coverage was provided to all Texas Spanish Language Network stations, according to KIWW San Antonio, which sent its program director, Quintin Bulnes, and members of its public relations and engineering staffs into the Rio Grande flood area at Laredo, Texas. Telephone reports and tape recordings made in the field provided a detailed report of conditions in the disaster area to all TSLN stations, KIWW reports. KVOZ FLOOD REPORTS KVOZ Laredo, Tex., reports going on a 24-hour emergency operations schedule during the recent Rio Grande flood crisis. At two-hour intervals the station carried reports from police stationemergency headquarters, in addition to hourly U. S. Weather Bureau broadcasts. When the flood became severe, programs were interrupted to bring messages and warnings of water stage. Four local amateur stations based at key points originated running reports of danger spots from their mobile units. Eventually the station was flooded and personnel and transmitter were moved to Laredo Air Force Base, where a stu dio had been under preparation for several weeks. KVOZ returned to the air in a few hours continuing to use the temporary studio for two days until they were able to return to its regular studio buildings. SITTING among promotion pieces of Crosley Broadcasting Corp.'s "Operation Sunburst" campaign [B#T, July 19] is Crosley President Robert E. Dunville. The set of six 15-ounce glasses, with embossed portraits and autographs of Crosley personalities, can be obtained by sending one dollar and a boxtop or label from any product advertised on any of the five Crosley outlets. Records to right and left of Mr. Dunville are special promotion pieces with a message to advertisers and agencies. BUSINESS IS GOOD KOMA Oklahoma City is sending to agencies and advertisers a green and white promotional folder which describes, with illustrations, the many places radio may be heard. The cover speculates: "Somebody may have one under the bed." The 20 illustrations range from football games to factories, from kitchens to bathrooms. "No matter what you're doing, you have KOMA Radio," it is pointed out and "there's no substitute for the convenience of radio." The back cover scoffs at recession talk, at least in Oklahoma. Using an AP report coupled with financial and sales statistics, KOMA claims that, in Oklahoma, business is better than it was last year. NAME THE LURE FREE week-long vacation at Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks was the top prize in a contest conducted by Sam Molen, sports director for KMBC-AM-TV and KFRM Kansas City, Mo. I The competition, featured on The Outdoorsman program, offered viewers a chance to name a new fishing lure. NBC CLEVELAND 'FIRST' THE SIMULCAST of the "Masters of Melody" concert orchestra brought greater Cleveland listeners and viewers bi-naural sound for the first time, according to NBC's WNBK (TV) and WTAM-AM-FM there who teamed up for the presentation. S. E. Leonard, engineer in charge of Cleveland's NBC stations, said best I Page 88 • July 26, 1954 Broadcasting • Telecasting