Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1958)

NETWORKS CBS-TV SPLIT IN SURPRISE MOVE • Jones heads various operations of CBS Tv Stations Division • Cowan similarly named as president of CBS Tv Network Division CBS surprised the television business last uivk In announcing it has split CBS-TV into two separate divisions under separate presidents. Merle S. Jones and Louis G. Cowan. Mr. Jones, who has been president of CBS-TV, was named president of the CBS I elevisiOD Stations Division, consisting of owned television stations, CBS-TV Spot Sales, CBS-TV Film Sales, Terry toons and other non-network activities, which altogether account for approximately half of the profits of CBS-TV. Mr. Cowan, whose Louis G. Cowan Inc. created $64,000 Question before he moved over as CBS Inc. staff vice president for creative services in 1955, was named president of the CBS-TV Network Division. This includes "all operations having to do with network programming, sales, production, affiliate relations and the like." CBS Inc. President Frank Stanton, announcing the unexpected changes Tuesday, attributed them to "the growth, size and complexity of the television division." Explaining the move, Dr. Stanton said: "In 1951 when we completed the separation of our radio and television broadcasting activities, the CBS Television Division operated two wholly owned stations, New York and Los Angeles. The CBS Television Network had gross time billings at an annual rate of $42.5 million. "The CBS Television Network's gross billings for 1957 were approximately $240 million. The division now operates six companyowned stations and has an application pending before the FCC for the. purchase of WCAU-TV Philadelphia. The other major units in the CBS Television Division today are CBS Television Spot Sales. CBS Television Film Sales Inc. and Terrytoons. Some idea of the importance of these non-network units may be gained from the fact that they account for approximately half of the profits of the division. "Because of the growth, size and complexity of the television division, the time has come to divide it along functional lines into two new separate operating divisions: the CBS Television Network and the CBS Television Stations. . . ." Dr. Stanton said CBS is "indeed fortunate to have two such leaders as Merle Jones and Lou Cowan to head these new divisions." He asserted that "the end result of this growth development will. 1 am confident, be greater efficiency for all television operations." The changes were effective last Wednesday. On that same day, Mr. Cowan was elected a member of the board of CBS Inc. check KOfil'fi beautiful rating figures in Denverl KOSI is the favorite family station on the Denver dial! Pulse Average 5. 1 per quarter hour 6am-6pm— 5,000 watts See RETRY for KOSI, Denver and KOBV, San Francisco's No. I family station in Hooper, Pulse, Nielsen. WGVM, Greenville, Miss. No. I Hooper and Nielsen Call Ed Dcvttey MID-AMERICA BROADCASTING CO. Oct. Pulse totals KOSI No. I 6 am -6 pm overall MR. JONES MR. COWAN Mr. Jones already was a board member and will continue to be. Both Messrs. Cowan and Jones also are vice presidents of CBS Inc. Mr. Jones, who took over as president of CBS-TV Jan. 1, 1957, upon the retirement of J. L. Van Volkenburg, first joined CBS at the network's KMOX St. Louis in 1936. Thereafter he served the company successively in key posts in Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, St. Louis and New York. Mr. Cowan was head of the program production company bearing his name (now Entertainment Productions Inc.) before moving to CBS Inc. more than two years ago. With the separation of CBS-TV into two divisions, CBS Inc. now operates seven divisions. The others are CBS Radio, CBS Labs, Columbia Records, CBS-Hytron and CBS International. Tv Network Gross Time Sales For January Up 11% Over 1957 The gross time sales of tv networks totaled $49,594,212 in January, or a 14% gain over January 1957, Television Bureau of Advertising has reported. (Monthly reports of network billings now are being computed for TvB by Leading National Advertisers Inc. and Broadcast Advertisers Reports Inc. Formerly, Publishers Information Bureau compiled this data.) ABC-TV compiled the greatest billing boost with a total of $9,134,917 in January, a gain of 36%. CBS-TV was up about 9% and NBC-TV approximately 11%. TvB soon will release a supplementary report with product classification totals, a list of leading advertisers and a breakdown of gross billings for day and night. The network figures: % gain January 1958 over 1957 1957 $ 6,715,581 36% 20,231,474 9% 16,554,941 11% 43,501,996 14% ABC CBS NBC Total January 1958 $ 9,134,917 22,072,167 18,387,128 49,594,212 Page 78 • March 17, 1958 Networks to Beat DST Problem With 1958 Transmission Plans The outlook in mid-March is that by April 27 when Daylight Saving Time comes around, the three tv networks will have beat the perennial networking problem of transmitting programs from DST areas to standard time zones. ABC-TV is announcing today (Monday) that it will expand its system, thus maintaining most programs in their regular time periods during DST. The network is adding the Eastern Standard Time zone this year and as a result very few stations — except for Broadcasting