Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

NARTB CONVENTION PROGRAMS & PROMOTIONS WSBT-TV South Bend's new version of station ID slides is a special weather panel utilized on a near-saturation basis and including promotion messages aired about 125 times during an average week. The panel shows fluctuations in wind speed and direction as well as current temperature and a vidicon camera is trained on it throughout the day. The panel is located in WSBT-AM-TV Broadcast Center communications room and is reportedly an effective program promotion device. reports to more than 100 stations and to all three networks based upon more than 17,000 hours of viewing during the past year." Monitoring, Mr. Shafto said, clearly refuted the popular notion that feature films are interrupted far too frequently for commercials. A special study of 397 participating feature film shows, involving 32 stations in 12 cities, "showed that stations are well within the code's commercial provisions— as a matter of fact the average time is just about half the permissible length of total advertising." But, he added: "We have yet before us the challenge of integrating commercials into feature films in a manner less offensive to viewers." Among code highlights of the past year, aside from monitoring, he listed the acceptance of the 16 members of the Alliance of Television Film Producers as affiliate subscribers to the code. This, he hoped, was "assurance of eventual adoption by the entire television film industry of the NARTB Television Code." Overall, he felt "we have made much progress in the past 12 months toward demonstrating to the Congress, to interested government agencies, to the advertising industry, yes, and to ourselves, that the . . . code is not a whitewash, a decoy or makeshift Maginot Line. I really believe that we have succeeded in convincing many of these people that the television code is a permanent and vital part of our industry, conceived and administered to set before the broadcaster and advertiser guideposts to better programming and more effective advertising." The alternative to self-regulation, he cautioned, is regulation from outside — and, he pointed out, Congress has demonstrated that it "is ever capable of thrusting upon the FCC more specific and/or more encompassing powers of regulation, whether the seven present commissioners so recommend or no." Mr. Shafto was introduced by Edward H. Bronson, NARTB director of television code affairs, who paid tribute to his "patient and untiring efforts" in behalf of the code. Mr. Shafto will be succeeded by William B. Quarton, WMT-TV Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as chairman, Code Review Board. WRCA-AM-TV to Spend Year Telling Story of N.Y. Police WRCA-AM-TV New York has launched a year-long project in cooperation with the New York Police Dept., under which the stations will broadcast programs designed to give residents of New York an insight into the work, problems and goals of the police. Titled New York Police Report, the project is the third of the stations' "Impact Public Service" features, which previously had explored the activities of the Fire Dept. and the Dept. of Sanitation in New York. The stations plan to broadcast at least three documentary programs on radio and television; will cover police news regularly by its mobile unit; will carry "Do You Know the Law?" segments on various local programs, and will send station personalities to visit schools in the New York metropolitan area to discuss the safety and the laws of the community. WRCA has scheduled for this week a twohour long program (10:30 p.m. -12:30 a.m.) on a date still undecided to present officials of the police department and other city agencies, describing the problems facing the city and steps taken to solve them. April Fool on Radio Listeners FOUR Baltimore stations— WCBM, WFBR, WITH and WBAL — cooperated on April Fool's Day to confuse their listening audiences. A personality from each of the stations was placed on one of the other stations. For example, WFBR's Walt Teas was scheduled on WCBM, WITH's Buddy Deane on WFBR, WBAL's Frank Hennessy on WITH and WCBM's Jack Wells on WBAL. The individual personalities publicized the fact that the stations were cooperating in the stunt and plugged each other's shows, along with the stations and their frequencies. WTOP Washington's Mark Evans gave his fifth annual April Fool's Breakfast for 150 residents who were celebrating their April 1 birthday. Mr. Evans, whose birthday is also on April Fool's Day, conducted his 5:40-7:30 a.m. show from the party. He points out that he thinks the early morning party helps April Fool birthday people be better prepared to meet the jests of their friends and neighbors during the day. KYW Cleveland, Ohio, got into the April Fool's Day act when it invited its listeners to "have a laugh on us" and call a special number. When they called the number, they were greeted with Spike Jones' "Laughing Record." This was followed by the station's suggestion that "For fun all day long, get the happy habit. Dial 1100 for KYW." WICS(TV)'s 'It's Worth Your Life' VIEWERS watching It's Worth Your Life, a new series presented by Sangamon County Medical Society on WICS (TV) Springfield, 111., are being invited to phone in queries on topics discussed each week during the program. Station reports good audience response to the show, which features a panel of local specialists and general practitioners, with G. B. Gordon, WICS news editor, as moderator. Among subjects slated for exploration are abdominal pain, skin diseases, ears and hearing, mental health, prenatal care, allergies, genito-urinary diseases and fractures and accidents. WMGM Mails 'Baseball Kit' IN connection with the opening of the major league baseball season this week, WMGM New York — which broadcasts all Brooklyn Dodger baseball games — has sent a "Dodger Baseball Kit" to agency executives in the New York area and to trade and consumer press editors. The kit contains a miniature baseball bat, a pencil in the shape of a bat and various baseball record books. The games on WMGM are sponsored by F & M Schaefer Brewing Co., and American Tobacco Co., both through BBDO, New York. Professional Man's Radio Habits THE professional man — who is among the high-income segment of the community — listens to radio regularly, reports the Radio Advertising Bureau. Last week RAB distributed a brochure on the professional man's Gates Radio Company, quincy, Illinois, u.s.a. OFFICES IN *NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, ATLANTA, HOUSTON, and LOS ANGELES Page 122 • April 15, 1957 Broadcasting • Telecasting