Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1959)

Battle of media rages over news conference The battle of joint versus separate news conferences for newspaper and broadcast media reporters was joined Dec. 16 at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club. A pair of newspapermen objected vehemently to being "ridden piggy back" by radio-tv men who, they charged, do nothing but record the questions asked by newspaper reporters and the answers to them. A pair of broadcast reporters with equal vehemence denied the charge and demanded the right to be in on the original news conference and not get a "warmed over" performance from a tired interviewee. Newspapers send science editors to interview scientists, political editors to interview politicians and so on, Hank Osborne, city editor of the Los Angeles Mirror News, stated. Radio and tv stations, he charged, don't maintain large enough news staffs to have such experts. Too often their representatives sit back while their machines "pick the brains" of the newspaper reporters. A. H. Frederick, Los Angeles Examiner, dean of the city's hotel reporters, declared that the presence of a tv camera "stiffens up a press conference and makes it impossible for reporters to dig in." Television, he charged, wants a story in breadth, a statement to fill 20 to 30 seconds of air time. Newspaper reporters, he said, want the story in depth and need time to dig around until they hit their vein of gold. Clete Roberts, newscaster-commentator of KTLA (TV) Los Angeles disagreed with the argument that tv cameras cause tension. He said anyone in public life today is as accustomed to them as he is to the pad-and-pencil reporters. He agreed that unqualified reporters have no place at a news conference, no matter whom they represent. He declared that today radio and tv are sending reporters capable of asking questions as pertinent as those asked by the newspaper reporters. "We may not have as large staffs, but we're trying," he stated. Hugh Brundage, KMPC Los Angeles news director and president of the Radio and Television News Club of Southern California, objected to "separate but equal" news conferences on the grounds that separate conferences can't be equal. Both he and Mr. Roberts emphasized that after the newspaper reporters have been questioning a man for an hour or more the subject is tired and is in a hurry to have it over with. Also, he has been asked all of the key questions and so the broadcast media get rehearsed rather than spontaneous answers. OKLAHOMA CITY ... on the scene of President Eisenhower's 23.000 mile tour In keeping with KWTV's policy of sending newsmen where news is being made, News Director Bruce Palmer gave the KWTV Community first-hand coverage of the President's tour of eleven countries. Direct reports were made daily via trans-Atlantic telephone. Palmer was the only correspondent from an individual television station to cover President Eisenhower's visit to the Middle East, South Asia and Europe. Carrying out KWTV's news policy, he has made two previous trips to Europe and one to Asia. On-the-scene coverage of the President's tour is another example of why KWTV generates listener loyalty in its 54-county Community! Represented by The Original Station Representative 42 (THE MEDIA) Educational station buys WFAA-TV's gear Educational tv station KERA-TV Dallas (ch. 13) has agreed to buy a standby transmitter, 300-foot tower and antenna, land and buildings with studios and other equipment from WFAA-TV Dallas (ch. 8) for $400,000, according to a joint announcement by E. M. (Ted) Dealey, president of the Dallas Morning News, which owns WFAA-TV, and E. O. Cartwright, president of Area Educational Tv Foundation Inc. The educational group will pay $100,000 upon signing, another $100,000 when it orders conversion of the ch. 8 transmitter and antenna to ch. 13 (by March 10, 1960) and $200,000 when it starts programming (by Sept. 10, 1960, or earlier). WFAA-TV's main transmitter and 1,521-foot antenna are not affected by the sale. WFAA-TV will occupy its present studios until completion of new facilities about January 1961. Mr. Cartwright said as far as he knows KERA-TV may be the only educational station which will be equipped to make color telecasts, when the conversion is complete. He said the News gave the foundation $25,000 cash and "considerable technical equipment" in 1957. Negotiations for the equipment purchase began in September 1958. KERA-TV will erect temporary studios and offices for use until WFAA-TV moves. Tv walks out on Rocky Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, of New York, held a news conference in Miami, Fla., Dec. 18 but without benefit of television coverage. Newsmen from WTVJ (TV), WCKT (TV) and WPSTTV, the city's three video stations, walked out when Gov. Rockefeller's news secretary, Richard Hamper, refused to let them participate with newspaper reporters in a news conference. Ralph Renick, WTVJ news vice president and chairman of the board of Radio Television News Directors Assn., said, "Mr. Rockefeller may be able to get away with this sort of thing up North, but we here in the South do not believe in 'separate but equal facilities' for television." Wometco income up Gross income of Wometco Enterprises Inc. for 44 weeks ended Nov. 7 totaled $8,637,394, with expenses of $7,308,344, the company has announced. Net income after taxes was $641,159. This compares to the same period of 1958 when net after taxes was $486,451 (a rise of 31.8%). Interim BROADCASTING, December 28, 1959