Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

STATIONS CONTINUED to devote more time and creative energy to local program research," Mr. McGannon said. "This research must meet the industry's programming needs for both the immediate and distant future. "Project 62 will not be limited by pure financial or calendar considerations. It will use as its laboratory weekly periods of air time on each of the WBC tv stations. We believe the success of such a project determines the dimension of our future and it will attempt to fulfill our basic obligations to the industry and the millions of people we serve." Mr. McGannon said program people "should concern themselves only with the search for and execution of new program art forms." He added that Project 62 will be budgeted as a corporate undertaking rather than being carried on each individual station's budget. He indicated that while initial thinking envisions annual expenditures "well into six figures, this is an estimate and not a limit should the results justify further consideration and expansion." Mr. Pack said Project 62 will provide "not only a challenge but a showcase for our programming people, enabling them to explore and utilize their ingenuity for developing new formats for the medium. It affords opportunity for them to range beyond the creative demands of their daily work into an area of so-called pure research." The laboratory project will be backed by audience research in each of the WBC tv markets to provide a gauge of the effectiveness of the experiments. Mr. McGannon said the idea of conducting the programming research project on a closed-circuit basis was rejected on the ground public exposure is important as a psychological incentive to program developers and as a means of learning audience acceptance. DATELINES Newsworthy News Coverage by Radio and Tv CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. • WINS New York scheduled Navy blimp K-43 on an emergency standby basis for use as a radio relay station in an attempt to intercept and broadcast signals from the American Vanguard satellite, which was scheduled to be launched last week. The station, in cooperation with the Navy, planned to present a three-hour broadcast from aboard the blimp when the satellite was launched. NEW YORK • Although WOR and WORTV here realize that local news is important, it is only happenstance that two of its top stories in the past two weeks have been downright provincial. Two weeks ago, a water main burst a block away from the stations' headquarters at Broadway and 40th St., and the radio-tv outlets were able to provide colorful commentary and pictorial coverage. Last Tuesday, a gas main exploded on Broadway, only 20 feet from the entrance to the studios, and within minutes, the development was carried on WOR. An hour later WOR-TV provided film coverage of the accident, in which two working men were injured seriously and store windows were shattered. PARIS • Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. has picked the NATO meetings next week as the site of its first overseas news-gathering activity, as WBC's Washington chief, Rod MacLeish, prepares to feed spot and feature material to 12 stations. News will originate directly from the French capital by land line with supplementary tape and film coverage. DENVER • Newsmen of KLZ-AM-TV here stalked a pair of jailbreakers with police and GATHERED around one of the cameras in the newly-completed studios of WMBD-TV Peoria, 111., during an informal meeting for area admen last Monday, are (1 to r) Robert O. Runnerstrom, vice president and manager of WMBD-TV; Robert F. Voss, vice president, Mace Advertising Agency Inc.; A. R. Thomson, president, Thomson Advertising Inc.; Marvin Hult, president, Marvin Hult & Assoc. Inc.; Charles C. Caley, president, WMBD Inc., and Robert Flink, vice president, Ross Advertising. WMBD-TV, CBS affiliate, intends to begin programming with the start of the new year. brought back words and pictures of a wrecked getaway car, the subsequent foot chase and capture of one of the fugitives. The KLZ Radio show, Denver at Night, climaxed running reports of the Nov. 27 incident by staying on the air an hour longer than usual to extend coverage, while one accused killer remained at large. As the search went on for the still missing convict, the stations featured continuing reports from police headquarters on what has been called the most extensive manhunt in Denver history. HOPKINSVILLE • WKOA, ordinarily a daytimer in thii Kentucky community, stayed on the air overtime broadcasting flood information last month, while waters surged about the studio. WKOA's downtown studio building was itself 2Vi ft. deep in water. The staff was marooned, but lines were maintained, and with FCC permission to extend station hours for emergency service, the staff and volunteer helpers stayed on the air until 10:30 p.m., Nov. 18. Spot reports from listeners augmented those of WKOA newsmen, and flood coverage was fed to NBC and other stations in Kentucky and Tennessee. TAFT • Engineers and newsmen of KTKR Taft, Calif., are wondering how remote a remote pickup can get. When two KTKR mobile units followed a search party into the woods looking for a child, they were unable to establish contact with studios, but a freak of reception put the units in contact with KYES Corpus Christi, Tex. There an operator relayed information between the two KTKR mobile units and the base station. As the units in California shifted position in the woods, searching for a location that might provide communication with KTKR, one unit heard exchanges between the KYES and KTKR base stations. The KTKR remote crew cut in on the conversation, establishing direct communication, and direct reports on both stations. WASHINGTON • Advisers and old hands all assured John Meyer of KXOK St. Louis that he stood little chance of getting the White House on the telephone when news of the President's stroke was released. The newsman tried anyway. He tried twice and wound up with a minute-and-a-half interview with Anne Wheaton, who at the time was acting presidential press secretary. Five minutes later the direct, beeper report was on the air. CLEVELAND • Ralph Mayher, news-cameraman of KYW-TV Cleveland, is never without his camera. When he happened on a food market robbery last month, he was ready to film a gun battle between six policemen and five robbers. Mr. Mayher perched on a ledge to shoot the violent scene, and after police subdued the wounded robbers, he rushed the dramatic footage back to KYW-TV studios for quick processing and broadcast. Page 86 • December 9, 1957 Broadcasting