Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

— IN PUBLIC INTEREST Radio-Tv Plans Announced For 1956 Heart Fund Drive PLANS for broadcast media appeals to be aired next month by the 1956 Heart Fund Drive were announced at a joint luncheon meeting in New York of the Fund's radio and television committees. Sylvester L. Weaver, NBC board chairman and head of the Fund's public relations division, presided. Radio stations will be provided transcribed series of 15-minute variety programs titled "Close To Your Heart" and featuring such talent as Eddie Fisher, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Steve Allen, Tayne Meadows and Danny Thomas, as well as a set of dramatic programs starring Jackie Gleason, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, Ralph Edwards and Leo Durocher. In addition, brief recorded spots will be distributed by the American Heart Assn. The spots feature Edward R. Murrow, John Daly, John Cameron Swayze, Mel Allen, and about 30 top popular music recording stars. Supervising these transcriptions are members of the Fund's radio committee headed by John F. Meagher, vice president-radio NARTB, as chairman. According to Myron P. Kirk, Kudner Agency vice president who heads up the Fund's tv committee, six one-minute tv spots and six 20-second strips featuring Edgar Bergen. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Ralph Bellamy and a host of other dramatic actors and personalities have been prepared. CHCT-TV Aiding Unemployed IN COOPERATION with civic, provincial, and federal employment officials, CHCT-TV Calgary, Alta., is airing a half-hour afternoon show to assist some 6,000 unemployed southern Albertans in finding winter jobs. The show features interviews with employment officials. The show is part of a dominion-wide "Do It Now" campaign which urges employers to help create new jobs during the slow winter months. KOTA-TV Baseball Drive Earns $18,000 A one-night telethon conducted by KOTA-TV Rapid City, S. D., to secure money in stock subscription to purchase a franchise for a Class A baseball team, raised over $18,000 in pledges, which enabled the drive to reach its goal. The entire operation was conducted a scant 24 hours before the city's deadline for purchasing the franchise was up. Without the help of KOTATV the goal for the ball team could not have been reached, since only half the needed money had been obtained when the station began its drive. KOTA-TV reported pledges called in from communities hundreds of miles away. WOV Quiets Fears AFTER the Jan. 10 earthquake in Matera, southern Italy, WOV New York broadcast names, ages and addresses of Matera citizens who had been injured or rendered homeless, and assured its Italian-born listeners in the New York metropolitan area that there were no fatalities. The Italian-language station reported that as late as 24 hours after the initial newscast, former Materans called WOV to get details of the disaster not mentioned in daily newspaper reports. — PERSONNEL RELATIONS — Communists Alleged To Be in AFTRA Ranks THE House Un-American Activities Committee, in its annual report for 1955, released last week, said it had established that active Communists are in the New York chapter of the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists and that radio-tv networks continue to use the talents of party members because of inadequate information and investigative facilities. The committee held hearings in New York last year at which 21 witnesses appeared. Only one, George Hall, admitted he had been a Communist, the committee report said, although all had been "identified" to the House group as having been members of the Communist Party and almost all had been employed "recently" by major radio and tv networks. The committee, headed by Rep. Francis E. Walter (D-Pa.). said that although networks have a policy of refusing employment to persons "identified under oath" as Communists, there are exceptions to enforcement because some network presentations, "package shows," are written, cast and directed by advertising agencies. Over these the networks have no power, the report added. "Investigation suggests that use of Communist entertainers has resulted from the practice of certain advertising agencies to close their eyes to the queston of Communist affiliations and activities of various performers," the report said. The House group's report said that principal activity of Communists in AFTRA was a campaign against "so-called 'blacklisting.'" These Communists falsely convinced fellow entertainers that they would be denied employment "if they at one time innocently supported a cause sponsored by the Communist Party." the report said. Communists also attempted to discredit present officers of the AFTRA local because they "could not be compromised by the Communist Party members," the report said. The report noted that networks are not equipped to make investigations to determine Communist affiliations or sympathies of prospective employes. Although networks refuse employment to entertainers "identified" by the committee as Communists or as having supported Communist causes, they "properly do not deny employment to an entertainer who might have innocently become involved with a Communistengineered activity," the report said. The value to the Communist Party of having members in entertainment, the report continued, is their use for propaganda purposes and as sources of financial contributions. Collingwood Elected Head Of New York AFTRA Chapter ELECTION of Charles Collingwood as president of the New York local of the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists for 1956 was announced last week. Mr. Collingwood headed a slate of seven other candidates, representing a "middle-of-the-road" group, which was elected to office without organized opposition. Only one slate of candidates had been filed in the election, although a number of write-in votes for union members belonging to the socalled "right wing" faction were cast. Other candidates elected were: Orson Bean, first vice president; John Henry Faulk, second vice president; Luis Van Rooten, third vice president; Jay Jackson, fourth vice president; Cliff Norton, fifth vice president; Elise Bretton, recording secretary, and Barbara Ferguson, treasurer. KCEN-TVO DOMINATES WACO -TEMPLE Getttsicd ^lejtfvl BILLION DOLLAR MARKET Audience Preference * *Telepulse — June, 1955, rated KCEN-TV first in 356 of 4M quarter hours on the air. Advertisers naturally prefer the big oudiences — the big audiences naturally prefer KCEN-TV — the 100,000 watt, NBC Interconnected station naturally covering its 17,000 square mile service area. . . . (Tallest tower in Central Texas.) KCEN-TV Sales Offices; Professional Building Waco, Texas General Offices: Postoffice Box 188 Temple, Texai Studio* and Transmitter at Eddy, Texas (Between Temple and Waco) Representatives: Notional: Texas: George P. Hollingbery Clyde Melville Company Company Melbo Building, Dalloi C-TV "BIG TIME DAYTIME" programming with any commercial handling you want . . . live camera! always available. "BIG TIME DAYTIME" precedes the sensational new ABC-TV evening schedules. Contact Free &. Peters or: I Don Davis, First Vice President John Schilling, Vice Pres. & Gen. Mgr. George Higgins, Vice Pres. & Sales Mgr. Mori Greiner, Director of Television Broadcasting • Telecasting January 23, 1956 • Page 83