Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1959)

Pacific Ocean Park • CBS Inc. and Los Angeles Turf Club have sold Pacific Ocean Park, oceanside amusement park at Santa Monica, Calif., to John M. Morehart, west coast beaeh property developer. Price was not disclosed but reportedly was in excess of $10 million. CBS and the Turf Club had jointly and equally owned the park, which was opened in July 1958. Subsequently, Jack Van Volkenberg, who was former president of CBS-TV, took over as operating head of POP, remaining in that capacity through the present season which ended Oct. 1 1 , when the park closed for the winter. Mr. Van Volkenberg was in Florida last week and not available for comment. Adds second vtr • WTTG-(TV) Washington, D.C., announced the purchase of a second Ampex video tape recorder on the anniversary of their initial purchase. John E. McArdle, general manager of the Washington station said that the second recorder "will add a new dimension to WTTG (TV)'s telecasting potential. We will now be able to transmit video tape, while at the same time we are producing new tapes. Our ability to videotape record programs and commercials now becomes limitless." Music fund raiser • American Composers Alliance, New York, last week named comedian-musician Jack Benny as winner of its Laurel Leaf Award for 1959, presented annually for distinguished service to music in America. The award, which will be given to Mr. Benny by Ben Weber, president of the ACA, at the President's Ball of the National Press Club in Washington on Nov. 21, is in recognition of Mr. Benny's benefit concert appearances. In the past four years he is credited with raising more than $1.5 million for musicians and music organizations. Action on access • W.C. Swartley, Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. vice president for the Boston area and 1959 president of the Massachusetts Broadcasters' Assn., has recommended that the association set up a permanent freedom of information committee. Its first project would be to set up demonstrations and discussions on court coverage with local bar associations. This would complement work done at the national level by NAB, he said. Windfall • Big Joe's Happiness Exchange Foundation, distributor of charitable funds collected by Big Joe Rosenfeld through his nightly (midnight-4 a.m. EDT) program over WABC New York, has received a $1.21 million bequest in General Motors stock. It was left by Mrs. Dewitt Page, who died Oct. 5. The widow of a General Motors vice president three years ago had given the Happiness Exchange Foundation $40,000 in cash. The 22,060-share block of GM stock left the foundation was the largest single gift in a will distributing millions to charity, schools and relatives. AMST gains five • The Assn. of Maximum Service Telecasters has announced that five more video stations have joined the organization, bringing its total membership to 125. New members: O. M. Schloss, WIIC (TV) Pittsburgh, Pa.; Robert R. Thomas Jr., WO AY-TV Oak Hill, W.Va.; Hulbert Taft Jr., WTVN-TV Columbus, Ohio, and WBRC-TV Birmingham, Ala., and Thomas S. Bretherton, WTOL-TV Toledo, Ohio. AMST is composed of tv stations operating on maximum authorized power and has participated in tv allocation studies. New home • Caribbean Networks Inc., N.Y., formerly at 200 W. 57th St., moved Sept. 28 to 20 W. 43rd St., Zone 36. Telephone: Longacre 5-7840. Signs lease • WVOX New Rochelle, N.Y., which has had its facilities in two separate locations, has signed a longterm lease to consolidate its operations in the Pershing Square Bldg., 270 North Ave., there. WVOX will occupy more than 2,000 square feet in the building's lower lobby. More space • ARB Surveys Inc., associated with American Research Bureau Inc., New York, has moved to larger quarters at 11 W. 42nd St., New York 36. Telephone: Wisconsin 7-6977. The company was formerly at 201 E. 57th St. Lamb profits • Third quarter profits of Lamb Industries Inc. totaled $187,521.74, Board Chairman Edward Lamb reported last week to stockholders. Earnings per share for the three months ended Sept. 30 were 174 For the first nine months of 1959, the company had an operating profit of $376,811.78, or 34^ per share. Figures for the same period of 1958 are not comparable, Mr. Lamb said. Included in the diversified Lamb properties are WICU-AM-TV Erie, Pa., and WMAC-TV Massilon, Ohio, a uhf which is not on the air. WKVT turns turf • WKVT Brattleboro, Vt., is under construction by the WKNE Corp. (WKNE Keene, N.H.). It's slated for completion next month. WKVT will be on 1490 kc with 250 w. Predictions • KDKA Pittsburgh opens its 20-year-old time capsule today (Nov. 2) to broadcast predictions made in 1939 by a group of distinguished citizens. Each recorded his ideas of what life would be like in 1959. Today's broadcast will mark the pioneering Westinghouse station's 39th birthday. Broadcasting in front of the KDKA Radio Time Capsule on Nov. 4, 1939 (above 1 to r) were Lenox R. Lohr, NBC president; H. S. Wherrett, president, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.; and Dave Garroway, in 1939 a KDKA announcer. Next Monday (Nov. 9), new predictions will be made and sealed in the time capsule until 1979. BROADCASTING, November 2, 1959 81