Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

STORER PROVIDES OVERSEAS TROUPE Broadcasting company answers Defense Dept. appeal for entertainers. Coca-Cola also will participate in plan to furnish year-round roving unit for servicemen. STORER BROADCASTING Co. will furnish the Armed Forces Professional Entertainment Program with a continuous supply of entertainment to build morale at overseas and continental bases, according to Lt. Col. Jerome Coray, Army representative and deputy chief of the defense project. As head of the broadcast group, George B. Storer was first to answer a Defense Dept. appeal for sponsored units, published in B«T Dec. 19, 1955. Storer stations are auditioning talent to augment the roving Nanigans unit of WJW Cleveland, which has visited defense bases 14 weeks each year for three years. The new Storer project will operate on a 52-week basis. Pete Lee, WJW promotion and publicity director, has been assigned to manage the roving unit, which will leave June 1 on a 17-week tour of the Far East, Pacific Islands, Alaska and Europe. After a month's rest the tour will visit Caribbean bases and continental hospitals and bases, followed by a trip to the Northeast Air Command. Coordinating the project for the Storer group is Ewald Krockritz, head of the national program department. Coca-Cola Co. also is participating. It spon sors the Nanigans on WJW and is expected to supply uniforms and share in some of the expense. Defense Dept. provides transportation, meals and lodging. Most of the Nanigans unit members are teen-agers. The sponsored system has been used to a limited extent by Procter & Gamble, Canada Dry and Philip Morris. A number of radio stations have supplied talent units for tours. Defense Dept. need for morale-building units has become more severe since falling-off in USO funds and disclosure of plans of the Hollywood Coordinating Committee to disband. Stone To Manage Station In Holbrook Partnership WALLACE E. STONE has resigned as vice president of Standard Radio Transcription Services Inc., Chicago, to become manager of the new Stony brook Broadcasting Co. The broadcasting company, a partnership of Mr. Stone and West Coast newscaster John F. Holbrook, plans to operate K G A N Kingman, Ariz. Transfer of the station from J. J. Glancy, founder and current operator, to Stonybrook now is pending approval of the FCC. MR. STONE WLIB Negro Music Festival To Offer African Music WLIB NEW YORK claims a "first" in America for three programs scheduled Feb. 1-3 as part of its third annual Festival of Negro Music and Drama. The series, Where It Began, features recorded African music from Northern Rhodesia, Uganda and the Gold Coast, recorded in those regions exclusively for WLIB. Yesterday's (Sunday) initial festival feature was a special four-hour "Gospel Train" broadcast concert from Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, presenting more than 25 gospel singers. The festival will run through Feb. 12, featuring daily special events programs that not only will give promising Negro actors and musicians a chance to be heard on the station, but also will devote time to documentaries tracing the Negro's heritage. KFJZ-AM-TV Dedicates KFJZ-AM-TV Ft. Worth opened its new million-dollar studios with a two-day open house Jan. 10-11. The new building, at 4801 W. Freeway, house both the am and tv opera,tions, with the radio outlet serving as key station for the Texas State Network. WDAY-AM-TV Moves AN ESTIMATED 16,740 persons attended the two-day open house Jan. 16-17 marking the opening of new WDAY-AM-TV studios and offices in the American Life Building at Fargo, N. D. The stations occupy three floors in the building. DON'T OVERLOOK THE FACTS I It's the facts that count... OllMONT TELEVISION TRANSMITTER DEPARTMENT Broadcasting • Telecasting ALLEN B. DU MONT LABORATORIES, INC., CLIFTON, N. J. January 30, 1956 • Page 61