Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

STATIONS CONTINUED CANON 35V2 KOOL-TV Phoenix ran afoul of "an extension" of Canon 35 in attempting film coverage of the installation of a new state supreme court justice late last month. The station's Ralph Painter, assuming that the Canon 35 ban on broadcast coverage in Arizona courtrooms pertained to actual legal proceedings only, set up his cameras. But, according to KOOL-TV, Chief Justice Levi Udall came on the scene and with a wave of his hand banished the cameras during the actual swearing-in. KOOL-TV got its pictures, however, when Mr. Painter prevailed on the principals to re-enact the ceremony later. WSBA-TV York, Pa., appoints Jack Masla & Co., N. Y. REPRESENTATIVE SHORTS Blair Television Assoc. moves from current offices at 422 Madison Ave., N. Y., to 415 Madison Ave., effective Oct. 15. Telephone: Plaza 1-1922. STATION SHORT WRCA New York reports 40% increase in local billings and 30% gain in combined local and spot sales billings for first nine months of year over same period last year. Good digging for sponsors, too! Elton Britt, once prospector for uranium, wrote and recorded for RCA-Victor the first country and western song ever to sell over a million records. His records have sold 12 million plus. Britt is now finding better diggings on WMAL-TV's "Town and Country Time" . . . 2:303:00 p.m. Monday through Friday . . . produced by Connie B. Gay, and birthplace of Jimmie Dean, Patsy Cline, and George Hamilton, IV. With Britt, Roy Clark's band, top guest stars, this show digs gold for sponsors too. 7 real live daytime programming wmal-tv WA S H I N G T O N, D.C. maximum power on channel 7 AN EVENING STAR STATION j Represented by H-R Television, Inc. Page 80 • October 7, 1957 GOVERNMENT FTC MONITORING BEARS FRUIT The Federal Trade Commission's radio-tv monitoring unit took center stage at the agency last week as two of the unit's first cases alleging false advertising went into hearing. First arguments in the government's case against Whitehall and American Chicle commercials were heard. Whitehall Pharmacal Co. (InfraRub and Heet), New York City, was in the first group of complaints developed by the year-old unit. These were the three actions citing muscle rub products last spring [B«T, April 1] against Whitehall, Mentholatum Co. and Omega Chemical Co. The last two have yet to answer the federal charges. American Chicle Co. (Rolaids), Long Island City, N. Y., was the target of the first action by the unit to be concerned solely with television commercials [B»T, May 20]. Proceedings promise to be drawn out but are assuming some of the showmanship elements of the electronic medium itself. The government has set up a screen and projector in the hearing chambers and is showing film commercials as key evidence. Counsel for Whitehall and American Chicle are protesting the "courtroom" showings on the ground that conditions are so different from the circumstances of ordinary tv viewing as to give an erroneous impression, constituting "gross distortion and misemphasis." This point is considered vital in the still new field of tv ad regulation. Vincent A. Kleinfeld, lawyer for Whitehall, stated that he had no objection to the government's showing a complete program sponsored by the firm but called it "fantastic" to take a minute or 30-second commercial out of context and show it in the "naked" hearing room. The test of a commercial message, he said, is the total effect on the consumer. The effect of a one-minue spot, surrounded by program material and seen at home on a 21 -inch screen cannot be judged fairly by a hearing examiner looking at an isolated commercial film on the hearing room screen. American Chicle's attorney, H. Thomas Austern, in objecting to the government film presentation, suggested simulating a tv receiver screen. His objections to the showing were overruled by the hearing examiner, and Rolaid film spots on the motion picture screen climaxed the first day's hearing last Monday. In his protest to the move, Mr. Austern said, that "to project a 60-second segment ■ — unrealistically and unfairly to focus and to concentrate upon that isolated projection at a hearing — to view and to hear what no television viewer sees and hears under remotely comparable circumstances — disassociated from anything that has gone before or is next to come to his attention on the television screen — would be so gross a distortion as to be false and misleading in itself." Showing of Whitehall commercials was scheduled Friday in Washington, following Tuesday and Wednesday sessions in Philadelphia. There was a strong likelihood of Whitehall's objection to the showing being overruled since FTC Hearing Examiner John B. Poindexter, assigned to both Amer ican Chicle and Whitehall cases, had allowed the isolated spots to be shown at the Rolaids hearing Monday. In Philadelphia, FTC counsel, Morton Nesmith called in Dr. Richard Smith, Philadelphia rheumatology specialist, and Dr. Joseph Lee Hollander, head of the arthritis clinic of the University Hospital of the U. of Pennsylvania, to describe laboratory tests on Heet and InfraRub. The FTC complaint challenges Whitehall claims regarding duration and extent of relief provided by the preparations. Mr. Nesmith expected to conclude his case Friday. Whitehall's rebuttal is not yet scheduled but probably will not begin for several weeks. The Rolaids action, off to an all-day start last Monday, was scheduled to resume today with the probability that the government would call expert witnesses to testify on Rolaid copv points. Before the film showing last week, FTC lawyer Daniel J. Murphy called two outside witnesses, Jane Smith, traffic manager of WTTG (TV) Washington with program logs to show programming of Rolaids' spots, and Professor James N. Mosel of George Washington U., advertising psychologist, to testify on the commercials' "meaning" to the consumer. The government, in its complaint, cited Rolaids' use of a white-coated performer in its doctor-dramatization (so identified on the air) spot and its depiction of a tattered napkin that could have been burned through by stomach acid. After hearings have been concluded in the Whitehall and Rolaids proceedings, initial decisions by Examiner Poindexter will go to the full commission for final action. Respondents may appeal unfavorable rulings in courts. FCC Denies WSUN-TV Request To Operate on Area's Ch. 10 The FCC last Wednesday denied a request by ch. 38 WSUN-TV St. Petersburg, Fla. (owned by the City of St. Petersburg), that it be authorized to operate on ch. 10, which was assigned to New Port Richey (near St. Petersburg), Fla., last May [B»T, June 3]. WSUN-TV has not "demonstrated that public interest would be served by its operation on ch. 10," the Commission ruled in denying the station's June 26 petition. Objecting to WSUN-TV operation on ch. 10 were Bay Area Telecasting Corp., Florida Gulfcoast Broadcasters Inc. and Suncoast Cities Broadcasting Corp., all announced applicants for the facility. Comrs. John C. Doerfer and T. A. M. Craven dissented to the Commission's majority decision. Ch. 7 WTVW (TV) Evansville, Ind., which has been ordered to show cause why it should not operate on ch. 31, had its petition to dissolve the proceeding denied by the Commission. Also denied were WTVW petitions which would (1) assign four vhf channels to Evansville and make Louisville, all uhf and (2) retain ch. 7 in Evansville and make Louisville a three-vhf market by shifting ch. 6 from Indianapolis I Broadcasting Telecasting