Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST MARCH OF DIMES REPORTS CONTINUED BY STATIONS Radio and tv outlets give additional reports on efforts to make annual polio campaign a success this year. SINCE publishing a story on media participation in the March of Dimes [B«T, Feb. 6], several reports of other radio and tv stations which participated in the drive have been received. They include: WAFB-TV Baton Rouge, La., personality Orene Muse promoted a "Mad Hatters Day" with Bob Earle, WIBR Baton Rouge manager, serving as m. c. A "Mad Hatters" brunch raised $2,000. WAFB-TV also held a March of Dimes telethon, featuring singers Johnny Desmond and Ella Mae Morse. KCSJ-TV Pueblo, Colo., staged a sevenhour telethon which raised $3,000 for the local chapter. The program was simulcast on KDZA, KCSJ and KGHF, all Pueblo. WLWT (TV) Cincinnati staged the Golden Gloves for Polio boxing championships, attended by 13,348. All proceeds from the fights were turned over to the polio fund. WCKY Cincinnati, in addition to participating with other area stations in promoting the Starliner train [B»T, Feb. 6], also placed Rex Dale, station personality, in an iron lung in a downtown store window. The "Rescue Rex" goal of $2,000 was reached in just under seven hours. Former Poster Girl WPEN Philadelphia used its 950 Club to collect contributions and featured a guest visit by four-year-old Nancy Kuestner, a former March of Dimes poster girl. WSJV (TV) Elkhart, Ind., staged a 6V2 hour telethon featuring 150 entertainers which raised over $5,000. KRON-TV San Francisco devoted two films and two live 15 minute programs to the polio drive. WLAC-TV Nashville, Tenn., staged a 14 hour Poliothon which raised $37,317. Over 100 separate entertainment acts were used in urging viewers to phone in contributions. Tommy Woodward, 1956 March of Dimes poster boy, visited the Helen Neville Show on WGR-TV Buffalo, N. Y., arriving in a fire engine with a police escort. Soon after his appearance, the station's switchboard was swamped with calls from viewers wanting to make donations. Disc jockeys on WICK Scranton, Pa., charged a dime for each request played, with a goal of $1,400, representing the station's kilocycles. The promotion lasted three weeks and over 21,000 requests were received with 5,539 listeners visiting the studios. WKOW-TV Madison, Wis., staged a 16hour telethon which exceeded its $20,000 goal by $10,000. Motorists, who drove past live cameras to put money in a "fishbowl," caused a 10-block traffic jam. KOTA-TV Rapid City, S. D.'s Captain Glenn's Fun Wagon helped boost the area over its $20,000 goal and at the same time gained several sponsors. Fun Wagon was scheduled to leave the air Feb. 1 for lack of a sponsor. After the program's efforts on behalf of the March of Dimes, four Rapid City businessmen demanded that they be allowed to sign 52week contracts to sponsor Fun Wagon. WKBR Manchester, WTSV Claremont, WTSL Hanover-Lebanon, all New Hampshire, RFE to Be Spotlighted A DAY-LONG announcement campaign stressing the work of Radio Free Europe and Free Europe Press is to be presented as a joint venture by MBS and Crusade for Freedom for broadcast on Mutual on Feb. 22 — George Washington's Birthday. Special series of live and transcribed announcements between 9 a.m. Feb. 22 and 1 a.m. Feb. 23 will be preceded by "Behind the Iron Curtain," a regular MBS feature narrated by John H. Tobin, Feb. 20. Program will detail the accomplishments of RFE and Radio Free Asia in the last five years. In addition, MBS has sent out to all of its affiliates a series of six transcribed spots which, the network says, will be played in addition to approximately 35 announcements scheduled by the network. auctioned various items donated by businessmen, raising $7,000. New Hampshire Gov. Lane Dwinell served as one of the auctioneers. Radio-Tv Backing of Red Cross Urged by Strouse at N. Y. Meet THE NEED for aid to the Red Cross by radio and television stations and networks was stressed at a luncheon a fortnight ago by Norman H. Strouse, president of J. Walter Thompson Co. and chairman of public information committee, New York Chapter of the Red Cross. Mr. Strouse explained the need of help by communication people to gain the $6.4 million goal for the New York Chapter this year. A kit containing special radio and television announcements and programs was distributed at the luncheon. Kits and any further information for radio and television may be obtained from Hope Lawder Ritchie, director, radio-tv division, 1956 fund campaign. This year the national drive starts Feb. 29 with President Eisenhower's message, which will be followed during March with scripts, program inserts, spot announcements, features and human interest stories which will be forwarded to program directors and commentators. Time Donates Recordings To Rochester Public Library TIME Inc., publisher and past producer of The March of Time radio and film program, has announced the donation of its entire MOT recording library to the Rochester (N. Y.) Public Library. Over 400 transcriptions, spanning a 15-year period of weekly broadcasts covering 1929-1944. are included in the gift. Time Inc., principal stockholder of KDYLAM-FM Salt Lake City and 50% stockholder in KOB-AM-TV Albuquerque, first entered the broadcasting field in 1924 with its production of The Pop Question Game, a radio news quiz based on Time's editorial content. Four years later, it launched its second series of news programs which, the company claims, was responsible for the introduction of the word "newscast." In 1931, it launched The March of Time. The company currently participates in a series of five-minute news dramatizations titled It's Time on ABC Radio and sponsors parts of newscasts on ABC-TV. Media Supports Heart Fund RECORD total of air time for spot radio and television announcements and educational feature programs is expected to be allocated this month to the Heart Fund campaign, it was reported last week by the American Heart Assn. The association said that 92 leaders in the fields of entertainment and public affairs are represented in the filmed announcements and recorded talks that are being sent to radio and television networks. A special feature of the campaign is a half-hour television film, Heart of America, which AHA's 56 affiliates and 350 chapters are "successfully spotting on most of the stations in their individual areas throughout the month." WNCT (TV) Debuts 'Tax Telethon' TAX EXPERTS from the Raleigh, N. C, regional office of the Internal Revenue Department are serving as guest panelists for WNCT (TV) Greenville's new Tax Telethon program. Viewers call in any tax problems they have and the fourteen-member panel discusses it and gives the answer over the air. The show will be continued until April 1. It is not necessary for callers to identify themselves. NBC Launches Conservation Program NBC RADIO has launched a special 13-week series of broadcasts on conservation of soil and other natural resources under the title of Today and Tomorrow, (10:30-11 p.m. EST; WRCA New York only on Sun., 6:35-7 p.m. EST). The programs are narrated by actor James Cagney, who owns two farms, one at Millbrook. N. Y., and the other at Martha's Vineyeard, Mass. Today and Tomorrow will be broadcast as a public service in cooperation with the conservation foundation, a non-profit, independent organization. WLWT (TV) Charity Drive Raises $100,000 WLWT (TV Cincinnati reports it raised nearly $100,000 among viewers for the annual Ruth Lyons' Christmas Fund for hospitalized children and over $520,000 since fund was started in 1947. Sum was raised on Miss Lyons' 50-50 Club, also carried by WLWD (TV) Dayton and WLWC (TV) Columbus, also Crosley outlets. WTVJ (TV) Telethon Nets $401,000 OVER $401,000 in cash has been collected from a United Cerebral Palsy telethon programmed by WTVJ (TV) Miami. The drive started at 10:30 p.m. Jan. 21 and concluded at 3 p.m. Jan. 22. According to Otto Fenias, telethon chairman, pledges not yet collected are expected to bring the total to over $420,000. "This is the largest amount ever collected by a CP Telethon not only in Miami but among those programmed in other cities around the nation," Mr. Fenias said. WCIA (TV) Debuts Conservation Program AN agricultural public service program, You and Conservation, is being programmed by WCIA (TV) Champaign, 111. Designed to inform farmers about the importance of conservation, and to tell city people how they also benefit from good soil practices, the quarterhour program is being presented as part of a 13-week series. The show is hosted by Bernard Fleming, a director of the Assn. of Illinois Soil Conservation Districts. Broadcasting • Telecasting February 20, 1956 • Page 63