Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

Spring Clinics Slated By Radio Adv. Bureau Session Feb. 20 in Roanoke, Va., to kick off spring series that will cover 50 major cities. Sweeney cites record attendance at 1955's spring and fall clinics. A SERIES of sales clinics covering 50 major cities in 12 weeks will be conducted by Radio Advertising Bureau this spring, with the first meeting slated for Feb. 20 in Roanoke, Va., at the WSLS studios, RAB President Kevin Sweeney announced last week. The spring schedule will be the seventh such series of sales training and management sessions held by RAB in its six-year history. Mr. Sweeney noted that last year, the organization's spring and fall sales clinics drew a record breaking 5,100 attendance, more than triple the number who attended the previous year. The clinics, which end May 11, will be conducted by Mr. Sweeney and the following RAB team: John F. Hardesty, vice president; R. David Kimble, director of local sales and service; Arch L. Madsen, director of station relations, and James F. Baker Jr., Mr. Kimble's assistant. Schedule for the spring series: Feb. 20, Studios of WSLS, Roanoke, Va.; Feb. 21, Jefferson Hotel, Richmond, Va.; Feb. 23, Studios of WMAL, Washington, D. C; Feb. 24, Studios of WFBR, Baltimore; Feb. 27, Columbus Hotel, Miami; Feb. 28, Roosevelt Hotel, Jacksonville, Fla.; Feb. 29, Studios of WIS, Columbia, S. C; March 1, Studios of WSB, Atlanta; March 2, Studios of WAPI, Birmingham, Ala.; March 5, Nashville; March 6, Memphis; March 7, Studios of WDSU, New Orleans; March 8, Studios of KXYZ, Houston; March 9, Studios of WFAA, Dallas; March 12, Studios of WCAX, Burlington, Vt.; March 13, Boston; March 14, Studios of KDKA, Pittsburgh; March 15, Rochester, N. Y.; March 16, Schenectady, N. Y.; March 19, Northern Hotel, Billings, Mont.; March 20, Minneapolis; March 21, Milwaukee; March 22, Pantlind Hotel, Grand Rapids, Mich.; March 23. Studios of WWJ, Detroit: March 26, Tulsa, Okla.; March 27, Amarillo; March 28, Albuquerque; March 29, Los Angeles; April 2, Fresno, Calif.; April 3, San Francisco; April 4, Portland, Ore.; April 5, Seattle; April 6, Boise, Idaho; April 9, Kansas City, Mo.; April 10, St. Louis; April 11, Peoria, 111.; April 12, Chicago: April 13, Cleveland; April 23, Salt Lake City, Utah: April 24, Denver; April 25. Omaha; April 26, Des Moines: April 27, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; April 30, Raleigh, N. C; May 1, Charlotte, N. C; May 2. Evansville, Ind.; May 3, Indianapolis, Ind.; May 4, Columbus, Ohio; May 8, Philadelphia; May 10, New York. NCAA Tv Unit Meets Today To Further Plans For 1956 QUICK action on the 1956 football tv control plan announced by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. will be sought by its new television committee when it convenes in New York starting today (Monday). The group's objective will be to fashion a program within the framework of the national control plan already approved by the NCAA membership at its Los Angeles convention [B»T, Jan. 16] and hear suggestions from member institutions and "interested parties." It hopes to develop a specific national-regional program by March 1, according to Walter Byers, NCAA executive director. The 1955 plan was prepared and mailed to NCAA members on March 11. Two-thirds approval of voting members is required in the mail referendum to put it on the books for 1956. The new 12-man tv committee will hold a three-day session at the Biltmore Hotel, setting up administrative organization and procedure and discussing details of the 1956 program, as well as conducting the hearings. A proposal for different sets of regulations covering uhf and vhf stations because of coverage factors is expected to be aired. Mr. Byers also announced that Reaves E. Peters, executive secretary, Missouri Valley (Big Seven) Conference, will replace Earl S. Fullbrook, U. of Nebraska (who is seriously ill), as NCAA Dist. 5 representative. New committee was announced at the convention. Film Firms Admission To Tv Code Proposed ADMISSION of tv film producers and distributors to NARTB's television code will be proposed to the association's Tv Board when it meets this week at Chandler, Ariz. Board meetings start Wednesday and wind up Friday [B»T, Jan. 23]. At the opening day's session of the NARTB Tv Code Review Board, held Thursday in Carmel, Calif., the code group recommended that tv producers and distributors be allowed to take part in the code operation on an associate basis. The step is designed to bring about code unity within the industry, since a number of efforts have been made by separate film and broadcast groups to create separate code operations. The NARTB Tv Code has been functioning nearly four years, with more than half of tv stations and all tv networks subscribing to minimum tenets of good programming. The code board explained that its action doesn't affect the ultimate responsibility of the licensee. Instead it is "a practical and realistic step on the part of the board in behalf of subscribers to advance the cause of better film as well as live product for the American viewing audience. The step is taken, too, in conformance with the Code Board's instructions to review continually the code's language and procedure in order to maintain its established position as the single responsible industry effort in this vital area of television practice." G. Richard Shafto, WIS-TV Columbia, S. C, chairman of the code group, said he would present the plan to the Tv Board Wednesday. He cautioned that favorable action by the Tv Board still wouldn't permit immediate operation because staff and procedural problems are involved. Attending the Carmel meeting were Mr. Shafto; William B. Quarton, WMT-TV Cedar Rapids, Iowa, vice chairman; Mrs. Hugh McClung. KHSL-TV Chico, Calif.; Roger W. Clipp, WFIL-TV Philadelphia, and Richard A. Borel, WBNS-TV Columbus, Ohio. Representing the NARTB headquarters and code staff were President Harold E. Fellows; Edward H. Bronson, tv code director; Charles S. Cady, assistant to the director; Thad H. Brown Jr., tv vice president; Robert L. Heald, chief attorney, and Robert K. Richards, consultant. Calif. Broadcasters to Meet ANNUAL business meeting and election of officers of the California State Radio and Television Broadcasters Assn. will be held Feb. 6 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood. Luncheon speaker is to be Harold E Fellows, NARTB president, who will review trends and current problems in the radio-tv field. George Greaves, general manager of KNBC San Franc'sco, is president of the state association. VIDEO RATING SERVICES EXPLAINED AT SEMINAR Statistical help for the timebuyer stressed by executives of Nielsen, ARB, and TelePulse at session in New York sponsored by Radio & Television Executives Society. STATISTICAL HELP for the timebuyer was stressed by speakers for three tv rating services at a timebuying and selling seminar held Tuesday in New York under auspices of the Radio & Television Executives Society. Speakers were George Blechta, vice president of A. C. Nielsen Co.; James Seiler, president of American Research Bureau, and Dr. Sydney Roslow, director of TelePulse. Mr. Blechta saw audience measurement data as "guideposts" to the buyer of tv time, who, he said, is in a business "that is not only becoming more and more complicated, but also in many instances . . . the most important part of the total advertising budget." The speakers emphasized that the rating is but one factor of timebuying. Mr. Blechta, in pointing up various dimensions of data supplied to Nielsen subscribers, explained their application in audience studies. "The rating is just the start to your quest for the most efficient time buy," he said. He cited total station area measurement, four-week cumulative audience and measurements made over several weeks as services provided beyond the mere rating of a single telecast. Policy of ARB is marked by "complete disclosure" of techniques used in its interviewer supervised diary method, said Mr. Seiler. ARB, he said, operates with the view of getting information "as correct as possible" from the home, which he described as the "source of viewing." His service also conducts tests of its methods and in an "education program" points up "dangers in misuse" as well as best use of ARB's figures. Roslow Disagrees With Knipe Dr. Roslow took time out in his talk to comment on a proposal made the previous week before a similar luncheon group discussion of radio rating services [B*T, Jan. 23]. James L. Knipe, president of C. E. Hooper Inc., had suggested that the best test for "validity" of any one of the services was for critics to tour and inspect each of the service's physical facilities and, if possible, accompany interviewers on their rounds. The TelePulse head said that his service had clients inspecting physical facilities "all the time" but labeled any practice of accompanying interviews as "superficial." Such accomplishment, he said, would prove "embarrassing" to the interviewer, not to speak of the interviewee. He proposed, instead, that skeptics contact Pulse and said the rating service would oblige in sending an interviewer to homes where the person lived and thus the inquirer could see or learn at first hand of "Pulse in action." Indicating that Pulse cannot indiscriminately "speed up" its reports, Dr. Roslow reminded that one out of every 10 of the sampled must be subjected to a verification check, that geographic distribution must be maintained and that work on program logs and listings must be kept up to date and accurate. He cited the service's cumulative audience reports and "ad noting" of newspapers in homes, saying the latter would provide comparable measurement to tv commercial viewing in the home. Page 40 • January 30, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting