Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

STATIONS CONTINUED as KITO is rebuilt and operating in accordance with the terms of its regular license. Buyers are associated with KWKW Pasadena, Calif. KITO operates on 1290 kc with 5 kw and is affiliated with ABC. WMFD-TV WILMINGTON, N. C. • Sixty percent interest sold to WNCT (TV) Greenville. N. C., and James W. Jackson by Richard A. and Louise M. Dunlea for $153,850. WNCT will own 49%; Mr. Jackson, 11%. WNCT (TV) is owned by Earl McD. Westbrook, 27%, Josh Home, 5%, Herbert Brauff, 10%, Penn Watson, 10%, and others. Mr. Home is publisher of Rocky Mount (N. C.) Telegram; Mr. Brauff. of the Wilson (N. C.) Times. WMFD-TV operates on ch. 6 and is affiliated with all three tv networks. WNCT will drop its application for Wilmington's ch. 3, leaving United Broadcasting (Richard Eaton) and WGNI Wilmington battling for the frequency. WVLN-AM-FM OLNEY, ILL. • Sold to 111. Broadcasting Co. by Olney Broadcasting Co. for $95,000. 111. Broadcasting is owned by Lindsay-Schaub Newspapers Inc., Decatur, 111., which owns WSOY-AM-FM Decatur, 111., WSEI (FM) Effingham, 111., and has 20% interest in WCIA (TV) Champaign, 111. WVLN operates on 740 kc with 250 w day, WVLN-FM on 92.9 mc with 18.5 kw. WGKV CHARLESTON, W. VA. • Sold to Joseph L. Brechner by Walter and Jacob Evans for $77,500. Mr. Brechner has an interest in WLOF-AM-FM-TV Orlando. Fla.; WERC Erie, Pa., and only recently sold his interest in WGAY-AM-FM Silver Spring, Md. WGKV operates on 1490 kc with 250 w and is affiliated with NBC. KRSD-TV to Be NBC-TV Primary KRSD-TV Rapid City, S. D., will become a primary affiliate of NBC-TV Jan. 1, it was announced last week by Harry Bannister, vice president of station relations for NBC. The station, which becomes NBCTV's 196th affiliate, presently is completing construction of another outlet in Deadwood, N. D., which will operate as a satellite. KRSD-TV is owned by John, Eli and Harry Daniels of the Heart of the Black Hills Stations and is assigned ch. 7. WEEI Tests New Power Unit WEEI Boston tested its new emergency power unit, fueled by city gas, during the Conelrad alerts Dec. 4 and Dec. 9 and reports perfect performance. It was the first run for the new station gear, Onan's 35KVA unit, which puts out enough power to keep the signal on the air at full strength, with enough left over for indoor and outdoor illumination, blower fans, the heating system and electric appliances. When it installed new emergency generating equipment at the transmitter site in Medford, Mass., WEEI chose city gas power because its underground distribution made it less susceptible to interruption than other sources, and it required no storage space. PROGRAM SERVICES HUROK, TALENT LIST TO SKIATRON • Fox names impresario to Skiatron post in 10-year deal • Promised to firm's pay viewers: better, cheaper shows Assuming the city councils of Los Angeles and San Francisco permit the "entry" of Matthew Fox's Skiatron Tv wired-decoder system by April 1958, west coast viewers will be in for some star-spangled entertainment. So declares impresario Sol Hurok, whose appointment as head of Skiatron Tv's cultural entertainment division was announced last week by Mr. Fox. Although Mr. Fox earlier had detailed the technical aspects of his operation in an exclusive interview [Special Report on Pay Tv, Aug. 26], he now has come out with some specific programming plans. At a special news conference last Tuesday in New York, Mr. Fox and Mr. Hurok both spelled out their hopes for pay tv as it would affect potential Skiatron subscribers. • With the signing of Mr. Hurok to an exclusive 10-year pact, the firm is "guaranteed" the services of most of Mr. Hurok's stable of talent, including such names as Jan Peerce, Marian Anderson, Andres Segovia, Artur Rubinstein, Nathan Milstein, Blanche Thebom. the Royal Ballet (formerly Sadler's Wells), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Choir Boys, the Melachrino Strings and other artists of the concert and theatre. • Their appearance on toll television, according to claims, means that U. S. viewers for "the first time" will receive undiluted and uncut versions of the world's great musical and theatrical masterpieces. • The public will be able to see these stellar attractions for "roughly 25%" of what it now costs an average theatregoer in terms of tickets and "marginal expenses," that is, transportation, baby-sitters, etc. "In fact," said Mr. Fox, "we can assure our subscribers that for a family they will pay less than it would cost them for one ticket to see, say, England's "Old Vic." Furthermore, Skiatron will not arbitrarily impose a flat subscription fee, but instead will price admission on determination of the show's overall cost. Mr. Fox, however, did not hold out any hope that subscription costs would come down as subscription audiences grow. "It costs us roughly the same to install a Skiatron system for one family as it would for 30,000 viewers. Initially, our profits will be small." • Skiatron hopes to recoup its expected initial losses and at the same time build up a library of either color film or color tape of "the world's greatest talents" by keeping live programming down to a minimum as its market grows, and by replaying "some of the memorable programs" for its new audiences. Both Messrs. Hurok and Fox were quite vehement on the "propaganda" screen thrown up by commercial tv networks and theatre exhibitors which, Mr. Fox said, maintain — "misleadingly so" — that pay-tv will ask Americans to pay for something they now get free. Said Mr. Fox: "We will not present any attraction that the public is not willing to pay for . . . We will offer events and entertainment which up to now could only be seen in a theatre, opera house, stadium, arena or auditorium . . . box office attractions for which the public is currently paying an admission price." Added Mr. Hurok, who has in the past two seasons produced several NBC-TV spectaculars: "Nor will we arbitrarily cut these productions to fit certain restricted time segments." Mr. Hurok recalled that he had "the misfortune" of "once having to cut 'Romeo and Juliet' — a three-hour play MR. HUROK MR. FOX Page 82 December 16, 1957 ■ — to 70 minutes for 'free' tv, and on top of that I had to find places throughout what was left of Shakespeare to insert moodshattering commercials." He felt the nation has begun to appreciate "better things" but that the networks have failed to provide "better things" because they "assumed" that only "a million or so Americans" care enough. Mr. Fox interjected that Skiatron will "prove once and for all that culture need not be synonymous with long hair." Mr. Hurok, though some of his talent may now be committed to appear on the commercial networks, is "through" with commercial television. His involvement with Skiatron, however, will in no way affect the careers of his talent, "which may wish to appear on free tv." In fact, he would encourage them to do so since it would afford them "greater exposure" to "our future patrons." He felt that from a strict earnings standpoint, most of his talent "welcomed the opportunity" of appearing on Skiatron since they would not only be assured of substantially higher fees but of subsequent royalties based on playbacks of their programs. Asked about the status of singer Patrice Munsel, a Hurok client and now on ABC-TV, Mr. Hurok explained that she is under no network contract and "probably her show won't last that long." Commented Mr. Fox: "This is really a poor man's medium — the amount of money a viewing family will save per month by staying in to see what they formerly would go out [to see] will represent a tremendous saving." He felt that the basic economics of pay-tv are "yet to be developed" but "that somebody has to lay the groundwork." He also touched upon his "opposition," notably from rival pay-tv firms and the theatre exhibitors who envision the advent Broadcasting