Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

There are 1452.800 people in our 224.566 TV homes' A man's living room is the best place in the world to make friends for your company and customers for your products. The families you meet in the Jackson, Mississippi, market have an average of $5,735° * to buy what they want. Why not make them want what you have? They're in a tremendous period of economic growth, with spendable income up 40% since 1950 and retail sales up 125% since 1947! Get your foot in the door now! Need more sell? Call Hollingbery or Katz for a fact file. 'Television Magazine ""Sales Management 1957 Survey of Buying Power MISSISSIPPI IS SOLD OIU TELEVISION GOVERNMENT continued government services operating in those bands. They include fm and tv broadcasting, auxiliary broadcast services, marine, aeronautical, public safety, industrial, amateur, transportation and others. Claims Court Denies Damages In BCA's Loss of Ch. 1 Grant The U. S. Court of Claims in Washington last week denied the $13.5 million suit brought by the bankrupt Broadcasting Corp. of America, of California, against the FCC. BCA declared its losses occurred when the FCC, because of interference problems, in May 1947 suspended BCA's grant, for a tv station on ch. 1 in Riverside, Calif.; the grant originally had been issued in December 1946. Ch. 1 was reassigned to nonbroadcast activities in May 1948. Willard L. Gleeson, president and principal owner of BCA, claimed he spent more than $300,000 in building his proposed tv station. In 1953, the House of Representatives referred a private bill for relief in the amount of more than $450,000, introduced in Mr. Gleeson's behalf, to the Claims Court for ajudication. In the court, Mr. Gleeson and BCA filed suit for $13.5 million. In a 56-page finding to the judges, trial Comr. Marion T. Bennett ruled that BCA's financial troubles were due to the general condition of the firm [At Deadline, Feb. 18]. The Court adopted the trial commissioner's findings and stated that neither BCA nor Mr. Gleeson are entitled to recompense by the government for any losses. The Court, agreeing with Comr. Bennet, ruled that these losses "arose from the plaintiff's other activities" and that "plaintiff's intermingling of these losses with those respecting television casts serious doubt on the credibility of plaintiff's evidence with respect to television losses, if any, and vitiates any possible equities in his favor. . . . Many of [the losses] are entirely anticipatory and speculative and . . . not attributable to . . . defendant." U. S. Tax Court Opines Sale Of Marx Show Was Capital Gain The U. S. Tax Court has rendered an opinion that the 1950 sale of You Bet Your Life by Groucho Marx and his partner, producer John B. Guedel, to NBC for $1 million is subject only to a capital gains tax and not personal income tax. The Internal Revenue Service had claimed that only one quarter of the sales price was subject to capital gains, and that the rest was regular income. Not so, said the court, which found no part of the $1 million to be services taxable as ordinary income. It noted that the sales price was set by independently-offered sealed bids of $1 million (from both NBC and CBS) which established it as the fair market value. The court also commented that it is aware that stars often try to sell shows at the most favorable tax rate. But in this connection, it reminded tax officials that "it has long been recognized that a taxpayer may decrease the amount of what otherwise would be his taxes, or altogether avoid them by any means which the law permits." IRS can take this to the U. S. Court of Appeals. Page 74 • November 11, 1957 Broadcasting