Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

IN PUBLIC INTEREST Oklahomans Respond Quickly To WKY-AM-TV Eye Programs Oklahoma City was looking and listening Dec. 2, when WKY-AM-TV there broadcast A Gift of God, separate radio and tv dramatizations of Oklahoma City's need for an eye bank. Within 48 hours of the halfhour programs 2,000 volunteers had signed up as volunteers for the bank project and corneal transplants had been performed on two people. On WKY-TV, A Gift of God showed the progress of a donor's eyes over a 150-mile journey to an Oklahoma City operating room. A film of a corneal operation was followed by an appeal for the Lions Club eye bank project. The radio version of the show told the same story, substituting sound for visual effects. WKY-TV is offering film copies of A Gift of God to other Oklahoma tv stations, and the radio version is being distributed on tape by Lions Club members. The tv show was written by WKY Public Affairs Director Gene Allen and directed by Joe Jerkins, WKY-TV program manager. Bill Wheatley, program manager of WKY, wrote and produced the radio broadcast. WISH-TV Cited for Documentary On Community-Built School Plant WISH-TV Indianapolis was cited by the local chamber of commerce for a "magnificent job" by its news department on a nationally significant film story. Camping in Greensburg, Ind., for a solid week, the station's news department filmed a public interest documentary showing how a community of 7,500 built a $3.5 million school system without a tax boost, federal or state aid, supplemented only by a municipal corporation grant of $1 million for certain improvements. Vince Leonard, WISH-TV news director, sent his crew on the project, which encompassed five school buildings and water and sewage plants. Response was so overwhelming, according to the station, that national opponents of federal-aid-to-education, U. S. government and congressional leaders and educators visited the community. Robert B. McConnell, vice president and general manager of WISH-TV, credited an "alert news department with spotting a good story, which we felt was so important that other things had to wait so it could be told." WISH-TV canceled a network program to air it Nov. 17. BETTER TO GIVE • WMUR-TV Manchester, N. H., WPEN Philadelphia and WTOP-AM-TV Washington have directed their Christmas fund-raising toward introducing underprivileged children to the spirit of giving. Each of the stations is participating in a plan whereby donations are distributed among the youngsters who are taken on shopping tours to make their own selection of a gift. HAPPY ENDING • Thanks to KM BY Monterey, Calif., and the people of the area, the 11 members of the Mascarenas family of nearby Seaside, whose possessions were destroyed by fire, are back on their feet again. As soon as the station was informed of the family's problem it broadcast a series of appeals over a 24-hour period, including an interview with the parents. Over 2,000 articles of clothing and furniture poured in and within two days the family had resumed housekeeping. AWRT PROJECT • The New York City chapter of American Women in Radio & Television were guests of Mayor and Mrs. Robert Wagner at Gracie Mansion last week when the women broadcasters held their fourth annual Christmas party for children of needy families in that city. Approximately 400 gifts were donated by AWRT members for distribution Christmas morning by the Service to Families and Children organization, a division of the New York Welfare Dept. FUND FORMED • NBC personality Dave Garroway last week announced the formation of the Psychiatric Research Fund — "an organization devoted to raising money exclusively for basic research into the causes of mental illnesses." Mr. Garroway, who co-founded the organization with Dr. Paul H. Koch, commissioner of mental hygiene for New York state, plans to begin his personal campaign to raise money for the fund with a plea for support on Today tomorrow (Tuesday). BROADCASTING THE BUSINESSWEEKLY OF TELEVISION AND RADIO 1735 DeSales St., N. W. Washington 6, D. C. PLEASE START MY SUBSCRIPTION WITH THE NEXT ISSUE □ 52 weekly issues of BROADCASTING $7.00 □ 52 weekly issues and Yearbook Number 11.00 □ Enclosed □ Bill title/ position * company name address city Please send to home address — — Page 22 • December 16, 1957 Broodcatting Publication! Inc. Sol Taishoff President H. H. Tash Secretary Maury Long Edwin H. James Vice President Vice President B. T. Taishoff Irving C. Miller Treasurer Comptroller BROADCASTING* TELECASTING THE BUSINESSWEEKLY OF TELEVISION AND RADIO Published every Monday by Broadcasting Publications Inc. Executive and Publication Headquarters Broadcasting • Telecasting Bldg. 1735 DeSales St., N. W., Washington 6, D. C. 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