Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

STATIONS DATELINES OF THE WEEK A sampler of radio and television news enterprise WASHINGTON — WMAL-TV in the capital, lone local station providing live tv coverage of the Teamster union hearings in the Senate, organized an impromptu network that by Friday totalled 13 stations. The combination of Friday and the unpopular number proved a lucky one, as the hearings went on for the third day and viewers from coast to coast were able to see complete versions of the probe. Before sessions got underway Wednesday afternoon, WMAL-TV offered its coverage to ABC-TV, but the network was unable to program the hearings, as were other networks, which relied on film coverage. Fred S. Houwink, general manager of WMALTV and chairman of the ABC-TV Affiliates Assn., offered the telecasts to other interested stations, and Otto Brandt of KING-TV Seattle took the lead in lining up stations to participate. KING-TV also carried live coverage of Teamster President Dave Beck's first appearance on Capitol Hill. Wednesday-Thursday starters, besides the originating station and KING-TV, were WEWS (TV) Cleveland; WCPO-TV Cincinnati; WTVN (TV) Columbus, Ohio; KTVI (TV) St. Louis; KJEO (TV) Fresno, Calif., and KGW-TV Portland, Ore. Friday, three Baltimore stations, WBALTV, WMAR-TV and WAAM (TV) shared coverage on a rotating basis, picking up the signal off-the-air and relaying it to WSBATV York and WTPA-TV Harrisburg, both Pa. Commentators for the newscasts were WMAL-TV's Richard Rendell and Charles Herring, news director of KING-TV. NASHVILLE — When a plane landed in Montreal, Canada, last Monday carrying the wife of a captured hero and high official on the revolting side in last fall's Hungarian uprising, that was the signal for WSM-AM-TV Nashville to air an exclusive interview the station believes is a "beat" on all the national news services. WSM-AM-TV News Director Bill Williams, late last month on special assignment among Hungarian refugees in Austria, interviewed Mrs. Mari Maleter on film and tape while she was hiding with her three small children near Vienna and shortly before she boarded a plane for Canada. Mr. Williams agreed to withhold release of the interview until Mrs. Maleter and her children were safely across the Atlantic. When she arrived in Montreal Monday, WSM-TV promptly put the filmed version on its Your Esso Reporter and WSM carried the taped interview on its All That's News, both evening shows. Her husband, Tal, a major general with the ill-fated Hungarian "Freedom-Fighters" and who became defense minister of the SMILING as he signs for ABC Radio Network affiliation is Thomas F. McNulty. president of WWIN Baltimore. Frank Atkinson (1), ABC Radio regional manager, and Edward J. DeGray, vice president in charge of station relations for ABC Radio, look on. The affiliation contract comes into force June 1. government-in-revolt, stayed behind and was captured by the Russians. He was acclaimed as a "Hero of Budapest" after leading the defense of Killian Barracks, last rebel fortress in Budapest to hold out against Russian troops, WSM says. Now in a communist prison awaiting trial in two weeks on a charge of treason against the satellite government, Gen. Maleter last Thursday was charged with "counter-revolutionary activities"— along with former Hungarian Premier Imre Nagy and Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty — by the chairman of the communist Hungarian presidential council. AUSTIN — Not only was KTBC-AM-TV on the spot with correspondent and/ or camera crew at most of the trouble areas during the Texas tornado-river flooding period, but it also acted as clearing house for official weather reports by direct line from the U. S. Weather Bureau, and feeding them to other Austin stations. Meanwhile, a KTBC newsman was assigned continually to state disaster headquarters to funnel out reports from civil defense observers and the highway patrol. NEW HAVEN — WAVZ's two-way plans to ground mobile radio units last week helped firemen from five Connecticut towns battle forest fires in nearby Milford by relaying information such as spreading flames, nearness to homes, and the best way to get at the fire's bases. LOUISVILLE — In the land where horseshoes are said to be lucky they are proving lucrative, too, for WHAS-AM-TV. The Kentucky Derby, originated for CBS Radio and Television, by WHAS stations, is only one feature of a three-week season covered by WHAS-AM-TV, which this year sold a schedule of 30 radio racing broadcasts and seven telecasts to Falls City Brewing Co. The Spring Meet started April 27 at Churchill Downs, where a full crew of sta Broadcasting • Telecasting Page 118 • May 13, 1957