Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1957)

STATIONS TIME PLANS RADIO-TV SUBSIDIARY WITH COY SLATED FOR PRESIDENCY MR. COY A WHOLE new corporate set-up to encompass all of Time Inc.'s broadcasting properties is expected to be spelled out this week with the filing of application with FCC covering the company's $15,750,000 acquisition of three radio and three tv stations from Consolidated Television & Radio Broadcasters Inc. TLF Broadcasters Inc. (the initials stand for Time Inc.'s Time, Life, and Fortune magazines) has been formed as a subsidiary of Time Inc. to hold all the stocks of all of the parent company's radio and tv properties. In addition, TLF Broadcasters, which will not itself be a licensee, has incorporated two subsidiaries in preparation for taking over the Consolidated stations. One of these subsidiaries will operate WOOD-AM-TV Indianapolis and WTCN-AM-TV Minneapolis-St. Paul. Wayne Coy, who with Time Inc. currently owns KOB-AMTV Albuquerque, is slated to be president of the TLF subsidiary, which will operate the Indianapolis and Minneapolis St. Paul stations. Under him, Eldon Campbell, Time Inc. consultant on broadcast management who most recently has been on special assignment at Time Inc.'s KDYL Salt Lake City, is expected to be named vice president and general manager of the WFBM-AM-TV division, and Phil Hoffman, manager of Time Inc.'s KLZ-AM-TV Den ASSOCIATES IN PGW GET COMPANY STOCK ACTIVE associates of Peters, Griffin, Woodward Inc., radio-tv station representative, have acquired full stock ownership in the company, H. Preston Peters, PGW president, is announcing today (Monday). The acquisition of all stock ownership was made possible by the sale last year of all remaining shares held by James L. Free, one of the founders of the firm who retired from active company management last May. The corporate name, Peters, Griffin, Woodward Inc., was activated on March 15, 1956. Before that date, the firm was known as Free & Peters Inc. Top officers of PGW are Mr. Peters; Lloyd Griffin, vice president and director of television, who joined the firm in 1945 after service as radio director with Knox Reeves, Minneapolis, before World War II, and Russel Woodward, executive vice president and director of radio, with PGW since 1934, a former member of George Batten Co., and, shortly after the merger of that firm with BBDO, one of the five founders of Benton & Bowles in August 1929. MR. HOFFMAN MR. CAMPBELL ver, is due to take over as vice president and general manager of the WTCN-AM-TV division. There has been no decision as to Mr. Hoffman's successor at KLZ-AM-TV, where Hugh B. Terry is president and general manager. Willard Schroeder will continue as vice president and general manager of WOODAM-TV, where he has served under the present ownership. TLF Broadcasters, which will serve as a sort of holding company for all the various properties — and which was set up by Time Inc. in order to segregate its broadcasting interests from its other operations — will be headed by Roy E. Larsen, Time Inc. president, as board chairman and president. Weston C. Pullen Jr., Time Inc. vice president and head of its broadcasting activities, will be executive vice president. Arnold W. Carlson, also a Time Inc. vice president, will be vice president and treasurer; John W. Harvey, Time Inc. controller, will be secretary, and Andrew Murtha, also of Time Inc., will be assistant secretary and assistant treasurer. The board members of TLF will be basically the same as those of its various licensees, and the stations will continue to operate largely autonomously. The applications for FCC approval of the acquisition of the Consolidated properties are expected to be filed early this week, approximately a fortnight after the Consolidated stockholders, headed by Board Chairman Harry M. Bitner Sr., gave their formal approval to the transaction [B«T, March 4]. The papers will point out that if final FCC approval has not been received within eight months after the Consolidated stockholder's adoption of their liquidation plan — which would be eight months from Feb. 26 — then either buyer or seller may terminate the agreement on five days written notice to the other. Time Inc.'s current radio-tv interests include 100% of KLZ-AM-TV, 80% of KDYL and KTVT (TV) Salt Lake City, and 50% of KOB-AM-TV. The Albuquerque properties, however, are being sold to KSTP Inc. by Time Inc. and Mr. Coy, president and general manager as well as half owner, in a separate transaction. Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Pierson, Ball & Dowd are the laws firms representing Time Inc. in the Consolidated transactions, while Dempsey & Koplovitz represent Consolidated. WOR Working on Travel Market, Described as Vast Ad Source A MOVE designed to tap the expanding travel field for radio was reported last week by Robert J. Leder, manager of WOR New York, who announced the appointment of Paul Andrews as the station's first director of travel and transportation advertising. Mr. Leder said the "mushrooming travel industry represents a vast and comparatively untapped source of radio advertising." Mr. Andrews, who conducts WOR's nightly Let's Travel, is a former advertising manager of Sabena Airlines. ON HAND for a dinner held in conjunction with the stockholders meeting in New York of Peters, Griffin, Woodward Inc. were: Seated (I to r): William W. Bryan, vice president, manager Detroit office; Russel Woodward, executive vice president, director of radio; H. Preston Peters, president; Lloyd Griffin, vice president, director of television; Jones Scovern, vice president, treasurer; Hal W. Hoag, vice president, West Coast manager. Standing (I to r): Jack Brooke, eastern sales manager, television; William Tynan, midwest sales manager, television; Arthur Bagge, midwest sales manager, radio; Otis Williams, television sales, New York; Lon King, assistant vice president; John Sias, assistant to director of television; Daniel Mosely, assistant to director of radio; Robert Somerville, radio sales, New York; George Castleman, new business development, television; John A. Thompson, assistant sales manager, radio; Frank Woodruff, director of radio promotion and research; and John Francis, radio sales, New York. Page 80 March 11, 1957 Broadcasting Telecasting