Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

Four Sign for CBS Radio Four advertisers signed for a total of $400,000 worth of business on CBS Radio during the past week, it was announced last Thursday by John Karol, CBS Radio vice president in charge of network sales. Sponsors include Knouse Food Cooperative Inc., Peach Glen, Pa., through N. W. Ayer & Son, Philadelphia, which ordered an alternate-week quarter-hour of Arthur Godfrey Time for 26 weeks starting Jan. 1.; Andrew Jergens Co. (Woodbury Soap), Cincinnati, through Cunningham & Walsh, New York, which signed for five weekly 7 V2 -minute units of daytime drama for four weeks beginning Feb. 19; Hudson Vitamin Products Corp., New York, through Pace Adv., New York, which bought a weekly "Impact" segment for 13 weeks, beginning Jan. 12, and Aero Mayflower Transit Co., Indianapolis, through Cadwell, Larkin & Sidener-Van Riper, Indianapolis, which expanded its lineup for two 5-minute news programs six days a week from 1 1 1 stations to the full network, effective last Monday. LOU MAXON, head of Maxon Inc., agency which will create the 1958 consumer campaign for Brand Names Foundation Inc., is in the middle of a planning session attended by (1 to r) Albert Messer, foundation merchandising director; Edward R. Taylor, executive vice president, Motorola Inc., and chairman of the foundation's consumer advertising committee; Mr. Maxon; Frank Armour, executive vice president of the H. J. Heinz Co., and member of the foundation board, and Henry E. Abt, president of the Brand Names Foundation. Some 1,600 radio and tv stations participated in the 1957 campaign, handled by Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample. Agencies serve on a volunteer basis. STEREOPHONIC SOUND: NEW RADIO MEDIUM Tomorrow night (Tuesday) Prudential Insurance Co. of America will sponsor its second annual Christmas Eve stereophonic tv-radio broadcast, Christmas in Stereo, on KRCA (TV) and KFI Los Angeles (7-7:30 p.m.). On Christmas Day, two Southern California fm stations — KCBH (FM) Beverly Hills and KMLA (FM) Los Angeles — will devote the entire afternoon from noon to 6 p.m. to what these stations call the ultimate in sound broadcasting, an all-fm stereophonic broadcast. Eight days ago, also for the second consecutive year, Prudential sponsored a stereophonic tv-radio broadcast of the Brigham Young U. Christmas Hour (Sun., Dec. 15, 9:30-10:30 p.m.) on KTVT (TV) and KDYL Salt Lake City. Last fall (Sun., Oct. 13, 5:30-6 p.m.), Prudential picked up the tab for what was announced as "probably the most expensive program ever presented in Southern California," Scouts Onward, another KRCA-KFI stereophonic program designed to aid the Boy Scouts in their annual Roundup Week recruitment drive. Each Sunday since KMLA began broadcasting last July, it and KCBH have joined forces for a 3-6 p.m. stereophonic broadcast, to which early in the fall they added a weekday half -hour (12:30-1 p.m.) to give dealers something to use to demonstrate stereophonic sound to lunch-hour hi-fi fan shoppers. In October, KABC-AM-FM Los Angeles launched Saturday in Stereo (8-10:30 p.m.). In November, KFAC-AM-FM Los Angeles presented stereophonic coverage of the opening concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra season (Nov. 14, 8:30-10 p.m.), sponsored by the Southern California Gas Co. and Southern Counties Gas Co. What is stereophonic broadcasting? First, it's simulcasting, with two transmitters broadcasting the same program. But a simple simulcast is simply a duplicate broadcast of the same sound, fed to both transmitters from a single pickup, whereas a stereophonic broadcast involves two pickups, each fed to an individual transmitter for simultaneous broadcast, and two receivers so located as to give the listener the same sounds in each ear he'd get if he were in the hall with the orchestra. "In the studio the microphones are set up so that the radio sound is picked up at the right and the tv at the left," says a folder distributed by Prudential agents to tell people about the Christmas Eve stereophonic broadcast. "In your home you set your radio to the right of your tv set. Thus your ears receive all sounds exactly as they are picked up and transmitted by the sound equipment." Listeners, at least Southern California listeners, are enthusiastic about stereophonic broadcasts. The first tv-radio stereo programs last winter brought "the kind of fan mail we used to get in the early days of radio," according to Andy Potter, tv-radio director of Reach, McClinton & Co., Los Angeles, who created the idea of a sight-and-sound stereo program for Prudential, a client of the agency. The first KRCA-KFI stereophonic broadcast on Dec. 2, 1956, drew such a large and enthusiastic response that it was repeated on Christmas Eve last year and now has become an annual event. Also reminiscent of radio's early days were such incidents as the minister who, having heard the Dec. 2 program, incorporated the Christmas Eve repeat into the church service at that time. And the veteran who called the Prudential office to say he had just 24 hours to convert his GI insurance and could a Prudential agent come right over to see him. To listen to the Sunday afternoon KCBH-KMLA stereophonic programs, neighboring families often get together, one family taking its fm receiver to the neighbor's home so that both can hear the full reproduction of the music, J. B. Kiefer, president of KMLA, reports. Some hi-fi fans have purchased second fm sets of their own, he says, and others have installed TeleVerters on their tv sets so that they may be used for fm as well as tv reception. Flintkote Co. (insulating and roofing material) and Pierce Brothers Mortuaries are sponsors of these broadcasts, which pull "at least 100 letters a week, and 30 to 40 telephone calls," Mr. Kiefer says. Fm broadcasters like Mr. Kiefer believe the all-fm stereophonic broadcasts to be the last word in sound reproduction, but they consider tv-am or am-fm attempts at stereo programming far from adequate. "True hi-fi, and that's what stereophonic sound is," says Bill Tomberlin, KMLA's chief engineer, "means reproduction without distortion of sound signals from 50 to 15,000 cycles. Am broadcasters are prohibited by the FCC from broadcasting frequencies above 7,500 cycles to prevent interference. Tv sound, while technically fm, has a deviation of only 25 kc, compared to 75 kc for an fm station. That is, in fm we can swing 75 kc either way from our assigned frequency, giving a much better signal-tonoise ratio." Broadcasting December 23, 1957 • Page 41