Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1956)

POLITICAL BROADCASTING MONEY TROUBLE CUTS DEMO AIR TIME vote expectation of anyone who is looking for Eisenhower to win. 2. How do you think the membership of the new Senate will be divided? Average of the answers: Republicans (now 47) 47 Democrats (now 49) 49 Total 96 Individually, the replies indicated the consensus that the battle for control of the Senate will be close. No news director gave the Republicans more than 54 seats, the Democrats more than 57, and more than a few replied that they expect an even division, with each party having 48 seats. 3. How do you think the membership of the new House will be divided? Average of the answers: Republicans (now 201) ... 203 Democrats (now 230) 232 Total 435 (There are now 4 vacancies caused by deaths.) Here the individual replies vary from predictions of a 219-216 division to those which foresee majorities as high as 300 Republicans to 135 Democrats or, in the other direction, 281 Democrats to 154 Republicans. 4. Which candidate do you think has made more effective use of radio-tv? Number of Votes % Eisenhower ...... 90 68.2 Stevenson 28 21.2 Nixon 28 21.2 Kefauver 7 5.3 (The votes exceed 132 and the percentages exceed 100% because some respondents voted for more than one of the four candidates.) CBS-TV cancels five-minute show for lack of payment, NBC-TV and Democratic agency agree to drop two others. MONEY, or lack of it, reared its head in Democratic broadcast campaigning last week. On Thursday CBS-TV, citing lack of payment, cancelled a five minute film program which was to have been sponsored by the Stevenson-Kefauver Campaign Committee. On Friday, NBC-TV and Norman, Craig & Kummel, Democratic agency, cancelled, by what NBC-TV termed "mutual agreement," two five-minute periods which were to have been carried Saturday and today (Monday). What would happen . with other Democratic programs scheduled before the elections Nov. 6 was not clear. Earlier, the Democrats had experienced similar difficulty with a closed-circuit dinner scheduled Oct. 20. Theatre Network Television withdrew from its arrangements to carry the program because the party did not pay in advance. Sheraton Closed-Circuit Tv Inc. stepped into the gap (see story at right). The CBS-TV show was to present Adlai Stevenson, Democratic candidate for President, in a short talk. It had been scheduled to go on at 3:25-3:30 p.m. EDT, but was cancelled at 3:20 p.m. Network spokesmen said that, aside from the cancelled program, the Stevenson-Kefauver Campaign Committee had five other five-minute periods scheduled on CBS-TV, plus a half-hour on Nov. 5, election eve. CBS-TV issued the following statement: "The CBS Television Network regrets the circumstances which compelled it to cancel at 3:20 p.m. today [Thursday] a political broadcast to be sponsored by the StevensonKefauver Campaign Committee and scheduled for 3:25-3:30 today. "The cancellation arose under the longstanding policy, of which all political parties concerned have been fully aware, and which is specified in the contract, that there must be payment in advance of such broadcast. In the case of the broadcast scheduled for this afternoon there was no payment nor any guarantee of such payment. It may be noted that the CBS Television policy of payment in advance is consistent with the policy of other advertising media." The network filled the cancelled fiveminutes with a film featurette. The remaining Stevenson-Kefauver Campaign Committee schedule on CBS-TV: 10:55-11 p.m. last Friday; Monday (today) at 10:55-11 p.m.; Wednesday at 11:55 a.m. to noon; Thursday at 1.55-2 p.m.; Friday at 3:25-3:30 p.m.; Monday, Nov. 5 at 10-10:30 p.m. ABC-TV's schedule for the StevensonKefauver Campaign Committee: Last Friday at 9:25-9:30 p.m.; Monday (today) (ABC Radio as well as ABC-TV) at 8:30-9 p.m.; Tuesday at 3-3:05 p.m.; Thursday, 3-3:05 p.m.; Saturday, 9:55-10 p.m. The remaining schedule on NBC-TV: Monday (today) 10:30-45 p.m. — spon sored by Democratic National Committee. Ordered by S-K Campaign Committee: Monday 3:55-4 p.m.; Tuesday 3:55-4 p.m. and 10:25-10:30 p.m.; Wednesday 10:25-10:30 p.m.; Friday 8:55-9 p.m. Ordered by Democratic National Committee: Saturday 11-11:30 p.m. (simulcast); Nov. 5 at 3:55-4 p.m. TNT Walks Out on Demos; Sheraton Moves into Gap THE closed-circuit telecast of Democratic party dinners in 30 cities on Oct. 20 was threatened with cancellation when Theatre Network Television withdrew from the venture two and a half days before the telecast. Sheraton Closed-Circuit Television Inc. stepped in and provided arrangements and the telecast proceeded on schedule. A TNT spokesman said the company cancelled arrangements because the Democratic National Committee did not abide by a written contract providing that full payment for production costs be made in advance of the telecast. He claimed this is "standard broadcast policy" in effect at stations and networks. A Democratic Party spokesman acknowledged there had been a contract with the stipulation mentioned by TNT, but said that since all funds had not arrived from various state committees, TNT could not be paid in full. He expressed surprise that TNT held the Democratic Party to the contract, pointing out that the party had been "in business for 150 years." One 'Neutral Show7 Promised For Election Eve Tv Viewers WITH Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s Studio One (Mondays, 10-11 p.m. EST) preempted election eve (Nov. 5), along with a host of other top-rated shows, to allow the GOP and Democratic candidates to get in their last licks, CBS-TV will fill a 30-minute time lag between candidate Stevenson's and President Eisenhower's telecasts with what might be the only "neutralist talk" to be heard that night. The show: The last of the Pick the Winner series which Westinghouse (through Ketchum, MacCleod & Grove, Pittsburgh) has been sponsoring this season. Following a speech by Adlai E. Stevenson, set for 10-10:30 p.m. (purchased through the Democratic National Committee) and preceding an hour-long program sponsored by the Republican National Committee scheduled for 1 1 p.m., CBS-TV will preview its election night facilities. A team of CBS reporters, including Edward R. Murrow, Charles Collingwood, Richard C. Hottelet, Bill Downs, Blair Clark and political pollsters Sam Lubell and Elmo Roper, will supply the latest analyses, information and predictions. Emceed by anchorman Walter Cronkite and guided by CBS newscaster Lowell Thomas, the program also will tour CBS's studio set-up for Nov. 6-7, showing Remington-Rand's "UNIVAC" and other electronic computing devices to be used by CBS. Fills Gap for GOP WHEN the Eisenhower Volunteers at Santa Barbara, Calif., discovered last week they had failed to obtain a municipal permit to use sound amplifiers on their cars for an "Ike and Dick" parade and rally, KIST there provided a last-minute solution. Two women officials of the volunteers approached KIST President -General Manager Harry C. Butcher, former Naval aide to Gen. Eisenhower, with a proposal to buy one hour of time during the parade Wednesday afternoon. He consented and the sale was made. Result: each car in the parade tuned KIST on its auto radio to pick up the special hour program of bright martial music interspersed with 10-second "commercials" written by the women's group. Naturally, parade watchers could hear it too. Page 62 • October 29, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting