Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

If You Sell to Adults You Belong on KBIG IF THE ABLE-TO-BUY, Mature Southern Californian is your marketing objective . . . you belong on KBIG Radio. THIS "station with the musical memory" deliberately sacrifices the transient youth appeal of today's top tunes ... 20, 30, 40, 50 . . . for the perpetual popularity of yesterday's top ten-thousand. FROM THE MELODIC WEALTH of the last fifty years, KBIG's music department carefully programs for its disc jockies a wide variety of popular music, colorfully varied in time and tempo, vocal and instrumental, standard and novel. Rich, modern arrangements of timetested favorites nourish a warm, continuing bond between the Catalina station and millions of mature, able-to-buy Southern Californians. PROOF? A new Pulse qualitative survey which shows the KBIG audience 91% adults, only 9% teens and children. Your KBIG or Weed representative will gladly bring the complete breakdown. JOHN POOLE BROADCASTING CO. 6540 Sunset Blvd.. Los Angeles 28, California Telephone: Hollywood 3-3205 Nat. Rep. WEED and Company OUR RESPECTS to Oliver Archibald Unger Oliver A. Unger, president of National Telefilm Assoc., New York, is known to his colleagues as "the negotiator," a testimonial to his ability to pry loose feature film products from such recalcitrant sources as David O. Selznick, the J. Arthur Rank Organization, Alexander Korda Productions and 20th Century-Fox Corp. Behind a facade of plump joviality, Mr. Unger conceals a tenacity of purpose. When he joined NTA in January 1954 as executive vice president, he was delegated the responsibility for feature film and tv film series procurement. The emergence of NTA to a position considered to rank among the top distributors in the business and its diversification to encompass several facets of the entertainment field are a tribute, in part, to Mr. Unger's persuasive talent as a negotiator. But he would be the last person to discount the substantial contributions made to NTA's phenomenal growth by Ely A. Landau, board chairman; Harold Goldman, the executive vice president, and Edythe Rein, senior vice president. Mr. Unger's acumen comes partly from about 20 years in the motion picture and tv film business. Oliver Archibald Unger was born in Chicago Aug. 28, 1914. and spent his early childhood in Europe where his father was a banker. After graduating from Syracuse U. with a BA degree in 1935, Mr. Unger entered the motion picture business as an office boy with Hoffberg Productions Inc., New York, importers and exporters of films. Except for about two years during World War II when he was an executive with Celloplastic Co., Pittsburgh, Mr. Unger always has been associated with the -film field. He remained with Hoffberg Productions until 1941, leaving as a vice president and part owner to accept the post of eastern division manager at Monogram Pictures. Before re-activating his post-war career in 1945, Mr. Unger completed a project still close to his heart: in association with Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and Elliot Roosevelt, he completed a full-length documentary motion picture. The Roosevelt Story, based on the life of the late Franklin D. Roosevelt. He recalls the film had a "successful" theatrical run but is even more proud that the Brussels International Film Festival in 1947 adjudged the picture as the one "most likely to contribute to world peace." Late in 1945 Mr. Unger organized Distinguished Films Inc., New York, a foreign film distribution organization, and in 1949 formed Snader Telescription Sales Inc., New York, which produced and distributed more than 800 telescriptions which were sold to tv stations. In 1951, Mr. Unger became a partner in Television Exploitations, New York, which released to tv the Chemical Bank group of feature films. In 1953, with Mr. Goldman, he established Comet Television Films Inc., New York, feature film distributors, which combined with NTA the following year. Mr. Unger's first noteworthy coup in product acquisition was to convince J. Arthur Rank that television exposure in the U.S. of some of his outstanding feature films would lend prestige to British films and offset poor impressions from earlier inferior imports. Mr. Rank was impressed with this reasoning and made 26 of his films available to tv through NTA. Similarly, Mr. Unger prevailed upon Sir Alexander Korda to release ten of his company's outstanding films to tv. His prowess as a negotiator was underscored dramatically in 1956 when he persuaded Spyros P. Skouras, president of the 20th Century-Fox Corp., to release the Fox library to tv through NTA. On occasions, Mr. Landau backstopped Mr. Unger — and Mr. Skouras came to refer to the pair admiringly as "those two fat boys." The final transaction stands today as the most extensive on record in the tv-motion picture field, requiring NTA to pay Fox $30 million for about 450 feature films, deliverable over a five-year period. Fox acquired 50% of NTA Film Network. Mr. Unger is confident NTA will continue to flourish in the years ahead as it has over the past 3Vi years. The company's gross sales for the fiscal year ending last July (still unreleased) are expected to reach about $17 million, as compared with the $2 million in the first year of operation. He cited these examples of NTA's diversification program: the NTA Film Network, co-production agreements with Fox and Desilu Productions, station ownership (KHGM-TV Minneapolis, WATV [TV] and WAAT-AM-FM Newark, N.J.), NTA Pictures Inc. (theatrical distribution) and Kennis Films (shipping and inspecting films). For the future, according to Mr. Unger, NTA is eyeing ownership of the full complement of radio and tv stations permitted by FCC and is exploring the possibility of pay tv. He believes toll tv can exist "side by side" with free television and reports that NTA will become "an active participant" in pay tv, should that system jell. Mr. Unger is married to the former Virginia Speed of New York. They have six children — Anthony, 17; Carol, 15; Stephen, 11; Meryl, 6; Olivia, 3, and Victoria, three months. He is a member of the Radio & Television Executives Society of New York. His favorite pastimes are golf and travel. Page 20 • November 4, 1957 Broadcasting