Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

DATELINES OF THE WEEK A sampler of radio and television news enterprise STATIONS the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 1955, KTLA reported an end-of-period deficit of $512,536. Comparable deficit figure for Dec. 29, 1956, was $485,770. Gross revenue in 1955 was slightly over $4 million and in 1956 was $3.9 million-plus. Income during the first four weeks of 1957 totaled $176,694, short of expenses in that period by $39,578. Mr. Buckley and DuMont president Bernard Goodwin are due in Los Angeles for inspection of KTLA facilities, located on the old Warner Bros, lot in central Hollywood now occupied by Paramount Sunset Corp., which has the old movie studio as a modern tv film production plant and is renting these facilities to tv film producers. Mr. Wrather, Texas-California oilman, is owner of 38.9% interest in KFMB-AM-TV San Diego and is buying KERO-TV Bakersfield, Calif, for $2.15 million [B»T, March 18]. He also holds a grant for ch. 44 WJDW (TV) Boston and ch. 1 3 KYAT (TV) Yuma, Ariz. He owns the Lassie and Lone Ranger series. Dryfoos Named 'Times' President ORVILLE E. DRYFOOS. vice president of The New York Times since 1954, last week was elected president, succeeding his fatherin-law, Arthur Hays Sulzburger, who was named chairman of the board. Mr. Dryfoos, who joined the newspaper in 1941, also is president and director of Interstate Broadcasting Co., a subsidiary of the newspaper, which owns and operates WQXR-AM-TV New York. ST. PETERSBURG — New proof that it pays to advertise — not only for admen, but for newsmen too — comes from WSUN-TV St. Petersburg, Fla. Station call letters emblazoned on a staff car helped the WSUNTV staff off to a fast start on a double murder story and resulted in the first pictures of victims and accused murderer on the air, WSUN-TV says. As news photographer Wilbur Pilsbury made his way home in the staff car one evening, another car drew up beside his, and the driver tipped Mr. Pilsbury off on the murder. The cameraman contacted his colleague, Bill Borgschulze, and the two brought in first pictures from the crime scene and from the police station as the accused was brought in. CHARLESTON — When a severe explosion rocked a chemical plant, injuring several persons in Nitro, V/. Va., a fortnight ago, WCHS-AM-TV Charleston, W. Va., 15 miles away, had bulletins on the air in 19 minutes and television pictures following in 95 minutes. Two cameramen. Bill Kelley and Dave Riley, later had to be hospitalized briefly for treatment from the effects of noxious fumes they had inhaled while covering the story; but not before they had raced back with their film and developed it in 26 minutes, finishing the job while theme music for the news show still was playing. WCHS and WCHS-TV originated feeds for other stations as far away as KING-TV Seattle. DECATUR— WSOY Decatur, 111., made local history when Harold Jensen, station newsman, took a tape recorder into court to interview prisoners, the station says. He talked with two teenagers charged with vandalism in defacing a school gym. The interviewees, their identities concealed, gave frank answers into Mr. Jensen's microphone, saying their escapade was conducted for "fun" and "amusement." The WSOY newsman had to get permission from the state's attorney, the court and the sheriff to make the unprecedented tape. PORTLAND — Spring gales in this Oregon city two weeks ago buffeted two freighters into Hawthorne Bridge, threatening to knock it down. Newsmen of KOIN-AM-TV Portland had only to look out over the studio rooftop to give listeners and viewers the dramatic account of a battle by tugboats to pull away the freighters and save the bridge. A camera was dragged up from the studios to give live video coverage to the near-disaster 1,000 feet away. The rooftop remote was the only tv treatment the story got, KOIN-TV reports. CBS Pacific Radio Network made use of the KOIN coverage a few hours after the crisis. LOS ANGELES— Down the coast, KNX Los Angeles says a telephoned tip the night of April 15 enabled the station to beat wire services by a half-hour with the first report of L. Ewing Scott's capture in Canada. Mr. Scott, accused of murdering his wife, was brought back to Los Angeles after the arrest in Windsor. KNX checked the first tip with Canadian authorities and put news of the arrest on its Ten O'Clock Wire, following an hour later with a telephone-taped eyewitness report by a Canadian reporter. The station stayed ahead of the story, it claims, through the next day, when Mr. Scott confessed his identity and it later was confirmed by the FBI. NASHVILLE — After a reported mass suicide attempt by Hungarian refugees in Vienna, WSM-AM-TV Nashville dispatched Bill Williams, recently appointed director of news and special events [B»T. April 22], to Vienna, Austria, to get the current refugee story on tape and film. During his twoweek stay, Mr. Williams is sending back daily tapes and film, augmented by direct telephoned reports. DENVER — Hugh B. Terry, president and general manager of KLZ Denver, is back from the Caribbean and has unpacked tapes recording an earthquake account, midnight voodoo chants recorded on a concealed unit, a jungle trek far into the back country where he talked to the head of the Albert Schweitzer Memorial Hospital, sounds of calypso and merengue dances and music, and other features collected on the trip. The taped impressions have been edited into a special series being heard Sundays. 6:30-7 p.m. SPOTLIGHTING SCRIPTS from the SESAC Transcribed Library Saleable scripts for the SPOT advertiser or for the 15 minute and half hour show. Fiesta Time Polka Party Magic Holiday Tuneful Topics Music We Remember Polynesian Nights Here Comes The Band Mr. Muggins Rabbit American Folk Music Little White Chapel Rendezvous With Maltby For information on SESAC's "Scripts and Discs" offer Write . . . Sesac, Inc. THE COLISEUM TOWER 10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE NEW YORK 19, N. Y. Page 98 • April 29, 1957 Broadcasting • Telecasting