Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS & PROMOTIONS Mike With the Most NEW BRAG for Lone Star boosters is the microphone-shaped mobile broadcasting studio which KNUZ Houston, Tex., calls "the world's largest microphone." The mobile facilities, named "Big Mike Studo," feature everything needed for remote originations plus air conditioning, leather upholstery and thick carpeting. Radio Circulation Surveyed In Four Canadian Provinces A REPORT on the daily circulation of Canadian radio stations in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia has been released by Elliott-Haynes Ltd., Toronto, Ontario. The report is divided into three sections, the first giving the census divisions in each province, estimated number of homes, percentage of radio homes, and number of radio homes. The second part gives the report for each census division by stations with percentage and number of daily circulation. The third part gives the data by stations, showing circulation in number and percentage in each census division reached by the station and the total circulation. Six-Nation Radio Hook-Up A SIX-NATION radio hook-up was heard live throughout France Thursday following a "simultaneous premiere" of a new French picture. Si Tons les Gars du Monde in Paris, New York. Rome, Berlin, Moscow and Oslo, through worldwide facilities of the Radiodiffusion-Television Francaise. The broadcast, occurring at about 4:30 p.m. EST and at the corresponding time in the European cities, covered public reaction to the film at each theatre. Since the picture's theme concerns a rescue on the high seas prompted by an SOS signal, each of the six announcers read the testimony of persons rescued under similar circumstances. 260,000 Tv Sets in France LICENSED tv sets now in operation in France number more than 260,000 and the total is expected to increase to 450,000 by the end of this year. French manufacturers also believe that the total could be increased to 700,000 by the end of 1957 and to 6,000,000 by the end of 1958. The following stations are to be put into operation during 1956: Algiers, Bordeaux, Bourges, Caen, Cherbourg, Mulhouse, Moselle, Nice, Rouen, Toulon, Tunis. In 1957, stations in Amiens, Limoges, Nantes, Puy-de-Dome and Renness are planned to be added. Areas now actually served by tv in France are Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Dijon, Grenoble, Metz, Nancy, Reims and Strasbourg. HURDLES LANGUAGE BARRIER THE "Who's-on-First" trouble in identifying Italian operatic arias on the air was claimed to have been amicably solved last week by WOV New York. WOV announcers now comment on operatic selections during the station's two daily opera broadcasts — in English spiced with "a genuine Italian accent." Public reaction to this innovation might be summed up by one letter received by the station: "Thank you," wrote the listener. "I can now determine whether you are about to broadcast an aria from Pagliacci or an Italian version of 'Mary Smith's Second Husband.' " CBS-TV O&O'S EXCHANGE SERIES A FIVE-MINUTE, non-denominational religious sign-on and sign-off film program, Give Us This Day, produced locally by the four CBS o&o stations in New York, Chicago, Milwaukee and Los Angeles, will be exchanged, station-tostation, starting March 1. Under "a new production-exchange policy," each of the stations (WCBS-TV, WBBM-TV, WXIX [TV] and KNXT [TV]) will pool their individual films, rotating them among the four, thus giving each station a schedule of 730 annual broadcasts, two for each day with a surplus of 10. WRIS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION ENTERING its fourth year of broadcasting, WRIS Roanoke, Va., has been celebrating all month long in air promotions, brochures and print ads. The event has been used to focus attention on services of daytime radio, as well as WRIS' birthday, a policy to be extended to all Cy N. Bahakel stations in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. Capping the WRIS observance the first week in March will be a "sponsor-appreciation" banquet for WRIS advertisers, agencymen and local officials. RURAL FMS AIR DEFENSE SHOW FIVE-MINUTE daily program series on civil defense information, Civil Defense Calling, began last Monday on a 10-station hookup of the New York State Rural Radio (FM) Network. The state's Civil Defense Commission programs, initially fed from CD headquarters in New York to the network's Ithaca headquarters each day, are rebroadcast at 6:25 p.m. EST to the following stations: WHLD-FM Niagara Falls, WRRL-FM Wethersfield (Buffalo), WRRE-FM Bristol Center (Rochester), WHDL-FM Olean, WRRAFM Ithaca-Elmira-Corning, WRRD-FM Syra cuse-De Ruyter, WRUN-FM Utica-Rome, WWNY-FM Watertown, WRRC-FM Cherry Valley and WFLY-FM TroySchenectady Albany. The series covers daily CD activities, instructions and fall-out reports for various New York state areas. Broadcast material is supervised by the Commission's Radio Advisory Committee. 'CHANCE' SHIFTS ON ABC-TV ABC-TV's Chance of a Lifetime (Sun., 9-9:30 p.m. EST) will shift to Saturday, 10-10:30 p.m. EST, effective March 3. The program is sponsored by Emerson Drug Co. and Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp. ONTARIO STATION BOOKS FILMS CHCH-TV HAMILTON, Ontario, has started first-run tv film features on its late show six nights weekly, sponsored by nine shopping plazas in its area. There will be two movie films each week, one being used Tuesday to Thursday, the second Saturday to Monday. This is the first time this type of operation has been tried in Canada, and is being televised on CHCH-TV in the belief that the largest percentage of viewers do not watch late shows on a daily basis. WIBW CRUSADES FOR FARMER IN A NEW EFFORT to do something about sagging meat prices, WIBW Topeka, Kan., has organized an announcement campaign among Midwest and Western radio stations to promote meat-eating, on the theory that as consumption rises, prices will follow. President Ben Ludy of WIBW has taken the lead, urging colleagues to program 40-50 ID announcements promoting meat seven days a week for at least 13 weeks. Many broadcasters have already made the campaign pay with resulting new business from packers, stockyards and retail distributors. Cooperating with WIBW, where the plan was conceived, is the Kan. Livestock Assn. NEGOTIATOR FOR THE PURCHASE AND SALE OF RADIO AND TELEVISION STATIONS Page 124 • February 27, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting