Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

85% of Hawaii . . . is Hawaiian, Japanese, and Chinese. Only 15% Caucasian! Hence Pulse multi-lingual interviewers visiting homes are a "must" for accurate reporting. Indeed no other method can possibly work! STATIONS CONTINUED FCC Asked to Okay WNAX, KVTV (TV) Sales The FCC was asked last week to approve the $3 million sale of WNAX Yankton, S. D., and ch. 9 KVTV (TV) Sioux City, Iowa, by Cowles Broadcasting Co. to Peoples Broadcasting Corp. [Closed Circuit, Oct. 7]. Acquisition will give Peoples, a subsidiary of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., its first operating tv station (it once held a uhf grant for Trenton, N. J.), and its fifth radio station. It already owns WRFD Worthington Ohio; WGAR-AM-FM Cleveland, Ohio; WMMN Fairmont, W. Va., and WTTM Trenton, N. J., and at one time owned WOL-AM-FM Washington, D. C. WNAX, founded in 1923 by Cowles, operates on 570 kc with 5 kw, covers the northern great plains area. It is affiliated with CBS. KVTV, a ch. 9 station with CBS and ABC affiliation, was put on the air by Cowles in 1953. In the application, Cowles said it wanted to use the funds from this sale "for other purposes." Cowles owns KRNT and 60% of KRNT-TV Des Moines, Iowa, and 100% of WHTN-AM-FM-TV Huntington, W. Va. Terms of the sales agreement showed that Peoples will pay the $3 million sales price with $500,000 from company funds and $2.5 million from bank loans. Peoples' balance sheet as of July 3 1 this year showed total assets of $2,686,712, of which $963,298 were current assets. Current liabilities were $155,184, fixed liabilities $1.8 million and a deficit shown of $292,653. Peoples' net income after federal taxes for 1955 was $106,000; for 1956 was $143,000. Cowles' balance sheet as of Oct. 5, 1957 showed total assets of $2,904,823, of which $599,739 were current assets. Total current liabilities were $450,823, capital stock was $1.8 million; paid in surplus, $351,863, operating surplus $194,852, with total net worth of $2,345,000. WNAX was given a net depreciated value of $530,000 and KVTV $985,000. No change in personnel at either station is contemplated, according to Herbert E. Evans, Peoples vice president-general manager. WJR Detroit Establishes Recording, Production Unit WJR Detroit announces that it has established a new recording and production division which will write, produce and provide original arrangements for musical announcements as well as situation dialogue announcements and straight readers. The new division will be headed by Jimmy Clark, WJR music director, who also is an arranger and producer. The station's recording and production division facilities are available to all advertisers and their agencies. WJR facilities include acetate, tape recordings, an echo chamber, sound effects, a piano and a Hammond organ. The station will provide the talent necessary for commercials, including an orchestra, singers, actors and announcers. HERBERT E. EVANS (I), vice presidentgeneral manager. Peoples Broadcasting Corp., shakes hands with Luther L. Hill, president of Cowles Broadcasting Co., at signing of the contract for the $3 million purchase by Peoples of Cowles' WNAX Yankton, S. D., and ch. 9 KVTV (TV) Sioux City, Iowa. Kinescope Planned by WSFA-TV Following Sabotage of Program WSFA-TV Montgomery. Ala., undaunted by power sabotage which prevented its telecasting the NBC-TV interview of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Martin Agronsky's Look Here, Sunday, Oct. 27, re-scheduled the show, by kinescope, for yesterday afternoon (Sunday). Spokesmen of opposite views from those of the integration leader were presented in an "equal time" panel session immediately after the Agronsky show. Although it was unable to carry the Oct. .27 show locally, WSFA-TV successfully originated the network pickup from Rev. King's church. The power failure at WSFA-TV's transmitter, called "an act of sabotage" by the Alabama Power Co., resulted from a chain thrown over the WSFA-TV power line causing a short circuit minutes before the 2:30 p.m. telecast. The station was off the air from 2:19 to 3:30, when an emergency crew restored power.^ After newspapers announced that WSFATV would handle the pickup for NBC-TV, segregationists appealed to the station not to carry the show, and threatening telephone calls began coming in. State Sen. Sam Engelhardt, head of the Assn. of Alabama Citizens Councils, organization of southern whites, asked WSFA-TV to prevent the network origination because of possible ensuing strife. He subsequently asked NBC for equal time to reply to Rev. King. Rev. King first came to national prominence as leader of a bus boycott in Montgomery before the U. S. Supreme Court declared bus segregation unconstitutional. Going ahead with plans to broadcast the kinescope, Gene Dodson, manager of WSFA-TV and vice president of the WKY Television System Inc., said it is the station's "duty to inform people what is going on in the community." Local and national authorities, along with the power company, are investigating the Oct. 27 incident. Page 74 • November 4^ 1957 Broadcasting