Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

"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 ort Don Davis, First Vice President John Schilling, Vice Pres. & Gen. Mgr. George Higgins, Vice Pres. & Sales Mgr. Mori Greiner, Director of Television as a major aid to your Quad-City marketing plans in 1956 NETWORKS • The Bouncing Beam From Bimini WHAT MAY become known as the "Bimini Bounce" — a "mild" form of scattercasting — was to be undertaken on NBC-TV's Wide Wide World program yesterday (Sunday) afternoon in an effort to bring in a live tv pickup from the Bahamas. The earth's curvature made it necessary to "bounce" the tv signal off the atmosphere. For this purpose, NBC reported, the equivalent of a tv station was built on the Bahamas' Bimini Island and a prefabricated garage ferried over to house it. To pick up the signal for relay to the network, a special receiving antenna was set up atop the Fontainbleau Hotel at Miami Beach. The distance from Bimini to Miami Beach is around 55 miles, but the curvature of the earth is such, NBC authorities noted, that a 700-foot tower would have been needed to achieve straight-line transmission. Instead, NBC engineers elected to build a "tv station" — which they did in New York at a cost reported as $22,000 — and transport it to Bimini for installation. Thet setup employed a 5 kw transmitter with a gain of 20 — about 100 kw ERP — to send out a highly directionalized signal to the receiving antenna at Miami Beach, which was said to have 20 times the amplification of a normal one. NBC engineers said the arrangement "might be called" scattercasting or forwardcasting "in a small way — a mild sense." They pointed out, however, that many tv homes are located below line of sight but still receive tv signals. CBS Sets Campaign Program CBS Radio Promotes Andrews CBS News announced Tuesday that starting Feb. 7, news commentator Walter Cronkite will head a special weekly CBS Radio report and analysis of week-to-week developments on both the national and local political scenes. The program, to be heard from 10:05-10:15 p.m. each Tuesday on CBS Radio, and titled Campaign '56 will run through election night. It will make use of the services provided by the recently-announced 12-man CBS News taskforce, "CBS News Campaign Cavalcade" [B«T, Jan. 23]. News Director John Day said that when the news warrants it, Campaign '56 will be extended to 25 minutes. ABC Combines Promotion ON-THE-AIR promotion at ABC will be combined in one unit within the advertising and promotion department, according to John H. Eckstein, director of advertising and promotion for the network. In the changeover, the unit, which formerly reported to J. Ward Mitchell, manager of script, ABC Radio, will now report to Mr. Eckstein. The unit has been set up to bring both radio and tv on-the-air promotion under a single department. 'You Are There1 Goes Live CBS-TV's You Are There, historical drama series filmed since its shift in operations from New York to Hollywood in February 1954, will return to "live" programming April 15 from Television City. A CBS spokesman last week said that "The Return of the Mona Lisa," completed Jan. 20 at the Hal Roach Studios, Culver City, Calif., would be the last filmed show. You Are There is currently seen Sun., 6:30-7 p.m. EST, and is sponsored by the Prudential Insurance Co. of America, through Calkins & Holden, New York. Mutual 'Game' Signs Four MUTUAL has reported contracts have been signed to broadcast various home games of the New York Yankees, New York Giants, Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs for presentation on Game of the Day and negotiations are continuing with several other baseball clubs. Jackson Brewing Co., New Orleans, already has signed for broadcasts in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, parts of Alabama and other areas. Game will be made available for local or regional sale. NAOMI ANDREWS, with the sales and program promotion departments of CBS and Mutual since 1943, has been named network copy chief in the sales promotion and advertising department of CBS Radio, effective immediately, Sherril Taylor and Louis Dorfsman, co-directors of the department, announced Friday. She replaces Harry Welsh, who has left CBS Radio to join Grey Adv. Mrs. Andrews served as a promotion writer and in executive posts with CBS-owned WCBS New York and CBS Radio Spot Sales from 1943 to mid1945, when she joined Mutual and became head of the presentations division. She returned to CBS in 1948 as manager of CBS-TV's sales promotion service and since then has handled a number of assignments. NBC-TV Delays 'Outlook' NBC-TV said last week its new Sunday afternoon news program Outlook [B«T, Jan. 16], scheduled to start Feb. 5, has been "indefinitely postponed." Delay was ascribed to NBC-TVs "desire to continue further work with the program," and to permit Chet Huntley, who will be Outlook's editor and commentator, to fulfill a "number of audition and broadcast engagements for which he is scheduled during the next several months." MBS Premiering Two Shows MBS will add two new network features to its daytime "personalized, companionate programming" schedule today (Monday) with Mutual Magazine (9:30-10 a.m. EST) and Mutual Matinee with Dick Willard (4:05-5 p.m. EST). Both shows are described by the network as "potpourris of interesting and informative material for busy people." $53,752,000 IS A LOT OF HAMMERING! THE MARKET iJ^F^ Pcnnsylvonio Anrhrocitc Region ,*\\s Retoil Sales— $885,484,000 >\ Building Supplies— $53,752,000 (*\ THE BUILDERS— / J WHWL ond WISL J Complete Coverage of 9 Counties " Cost — 60 Cents per 1000 Families NAIL DOWN THIS RICH MARKET! 1954 Consumer Markets — SRDS Se» FORJOE & CO. WISL WHWL 1 KW— Shamtkin. f». 1 KW— Nanticake. Pa. Page 124 • January 30, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting