Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

PROGRAM SERVICES PERSONNEL RELATIONS ment houses and bars and, eventually, private homes. A spokesman for the New York Telephone Co. said that such a system is technically feasible in a city like New York, where miles of such cable already have been laid to service television studios. Mr. Kantor said he had made the offer to the ball clubs in telegrams sent on Monday to Walter F. O'Malley, president of the Dodgers, and Horace C. Stoneham. president of the Giants. He decided to make the offer public, Mr. Kantor added, because he had received no response from the club presidents. Mr. Kantor's offer followed reports that both the Giants and the Dodgers have been negotiating with Skiatron Tv Inc.. a pay-asyou-see tv company, for the sale of television rights for $2 million each per year. Mr. O'Malley has claimed that his talks with Skiatron have bsen concerned exclusively with New York telecasts. Coincidentally with this development. Look magazine last week released the results of a nationwide study which indicates that "if the Dodgers and the Giants submit to the lure of toll tv on the West Coast, chances are they will be able to attract very substantial paying audiences." Look's conclusion, based on a study conducted by Alfred Politz Research Inc., New York, depended largely on the answer by respondents to a question on paying to watch a World Series on television. According to the study 35.6 million people (27.9%) would be willing to pay 25 cents to watch a World Series game on pay tv; 32.4 million (25.4% ) would be willing to pay 50 cents and 25.3 million (19.9%) would be willing to pay $1. When price is not a consideration, the study shows that 53.2 million people (41.7%) would be interested in watching a World Series game on tv. Others Are Interested There were reports that the Milwaukee Braves National League baseball club had been approached by toll tv interests in recent weeks for potential rights to Braves telecasts, but Donald Davidson, publicity director, declined comment. He said he had no knowledge of any overtures and that any statement would have to come from the Braves* management, which accompanied the team to New York Thursday. Ever since the Braves moved from Boston a few years ago, the club's management has pursued a non-tv policy. Permitting only regional radio coverage. Whether the Braves' management is receptive to pay tv is not known. Meanwhile, in Chicago Philip K. Wrigley. owner of the Cubs, has officially denied he consented to the Brooklyn Dodgers' purchase of the Cubs' Los Angeles franchise so that the way would be paved for the Skiatron overtures. He branded such an assumption as "irresponsible." Earl Hilligan, press director for the American League in Chicago, said he has no knowledge of any overtures to any of its teams. The league maintains its own radio-tv department, which would be involved in any discussions if they were held, he said. L. A. Local 47 Files Transcriptions Suit THE rebelling Hollywood musicians filed another suit last week against the American Federation of Musicians, asking damages of $2,270,000 and an injunction against the AFM and more than 60 companies engaged in the production of transcriptions of radio shows, jingles and spot announcements for use on both radio and tv. CBS and NBC were among the defendants. The action is the fourth taken by the Hollywood musicians to challenge the validity of the Music Performance Trust Fund which the complaint maintains requires producers of transcriptions, jingles and spot announcements to make re-use payments to the fund for re-use of a transcription originally produced for one sponsor in connection with the program of another. Unlike previous actions, this suit seeks money judgments directly against CBS and NBC. Damages claimed against CBS are $80,000, representing payments made in connection with Gunsmoke and the Jack Benny show radio programs and $40,000 against NBC for payments made in connection with the Dragnet radio show. It is charged that in violation of existing j agreements requiring re-use payments to the performing musicians in these shows CBS and NBC contracted with the AFM to reuse the programs for other sponsors, the reuse payments going into the trust fund. Complaint was filed in the Los Angeles superior court by attorneys Harold A. Fendler and Daniel A. Weber. NLRB Examiner Rules IBEW Illegal in WCKT (TV) Picketing MEMBERS of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers violated the National Labor Relations Act when they picketed three remote pickup points at which WCKT (TV) Miami. Fla., had arranged broadcasts, a trial examiner of National Labor Relations Board ruled Saturday. The union's Miami local was ordered to cease picketing activities that occurred Oct. 30, 1956, at the Fontainebleau Hotel. Nov. 16 at the Thunderbird Motel and Jan. 11 at Hialeah race track. David London, NLRB trial examiner, held the picketing was illegal since the board had not certified the union as representative of WCKT employes. The picketing had induced employes working at the three business places to strike or refuse to work, it was held. The examiner found that the Hialeah picketing forced cancellation of three telecasts of races on three dates. The U. S. District Court on Jan. 28 enjoined the union from Hialeah picketing. The examiner found the Hialeah work stoppage was due to the concerted activity of union members and not their individual action as claimed by the union. WCKT and its affiliated radio station, WCKR, took the air last summer. They declined to negotiate formally with IBEW until employes had voted on whether they wanted to join IBEW, join some other union or remain non-union, the examiner held. His report showed that gross revenue of WCKT-WCKR operations exceeded $1 million from Aug. 1 to the time of NLRB's hearing last March 19-20. Tower Advises: Don't Club Unions While They're Down MANAGEMENT should not use revelations of corruption in the labor movement "as a club either at the barg aining table or in the halls of the legislature," Charles H. Tower, NARTB employer-employe manager, said Tuesday in a talk to a group of Cleveland broadcasters. Mr. Tower told the informal session that management "should forego strategic retaliation against unions, concentrating instead on constructive measures which will, through the imposition of procedural control, reduce the possibility of wrongdoing." He said management "has a real stake in stable, democratic unions as well as in honest and intelligent union leadership." Recent wounds received by the labor movement, partially self-inflicted, will not cause its premature death, he said. Unions taken as a group make up a social institution which "fills a legitimate social and economic need," he said. As to union responsibility. Mr. Tower cited two broadcasting areas— jurisdictional strife and technological change — that call for more statesmanship and courage on the part of the unions. Jurisdictional disputes which lead to refusal to perform assigned jobs are indefensible, he said, injuring the employer and depriving the public of service. "The time has come for responsible union leadership to take protective steps to eliminate the abuse," he claimed. Discussing improved technology, which he called "the essence of America's industrial development and cornerstone of our economy of abundance," he predicted an even faster tempo of change in broadcasting in the five years ahead. He added, "Where loss of jobs or rearrangement of assignments is involved, the problems of adjustment are difficult for both management and labor, but the answer lies in cooperative effort to work out a smooth transition, not in a militant campaign of opposition." Hollywood CBS Office Workers Reject OEIU in NLRB Balloting CBS office employes in Hollywood, by a vote of 185 to 136, have voted out Local 174 of the Office Employes International Union which had represented them in negotiations with management for the past 10 years. An election was held by National Labor Relations Board in response to a petition signed by more than 30% of the employes asking for the opportunity to withdraw from OEIU the authority to act as bargaining agent for the group any longer. A merit committee of the CBS white collar workers, headed by Anthony Georgilas. will call a general meeting of all eligible employes to determine what type of representation is desired to replace that previously provided by OEIU, Mr. Georgilas said Tuesday, following the election. Page 92 • June 10, 1957 Broadcasting • Telecasting