Broadcasting (Apr - June 1960)

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OUR RESPECTS TO . . . William Colin Bill Payette, who was then reporting news instead of selling it, once scored a news beat on the plans for Jean Harlow’s funeral because friends of the late actress mistook him for an undertaker. It is an understandable mistake, especially in time of grief. Mr. Payette stands a well-kept 6 foot 5 and along with tact and courtesy possesses a dignity which, for solemn occasions, no doubt can be as commanding as a mortician’s. But outside of funeral parlors — no favorite haunt anyway — he bears no resemblance to a mortician. Far from it; he's a newsman first and last. Now 47 and general sales manager of United Press International, he has been a newsman for some 25 years. Throughout that span his work has been closely identified with radio and television. He started on the UPI radio desk in Los Angeles when the western radio wire was first opened; for a time he also wrote a Hollywood column for radio; he has worked for UPI on the venerable Richfield Reporter on the West Coast and for the Esso Reporter in South America; and when UPI wanted to organize a television service, he was the man who did it. William Colin Payette was born May 13, 1913, in Aberdeen, Wash., the son of Edward and Eva Payette. The elder Payette was sheriff of Chehalis County, and the son got his middle name from that of a deputy killed in the pursuit of a fugitive. Grounded ■ Long before young Bill was old enough to pack a gun his family packed its belongings and moved to Los Angeles. Then back to Washington state and, when he was 8, back to the L. A. area again. There he went through public school and the U. of Southern California, where he graduated in journalism in 1935. In high school he played football until he broke an arm, an accident that not only took him out of football but kept him out of basketball, where his height would have been even more valuable. He was editor of several school papers during his high school days and, in Victorville, wrote a high-school column for the town’s weekly. He had displayed a sales talent even before that; while still in elementary school he started as second newsboy on his corner and soon had so much business his competitor quit and left it to him. After USC he worked for a year as editor of the Santa Monica Topics, a twice-a-week throwaway which was in the red when he joined and in the black when he left, but subsequently Payette went out of business. In 1937 he moved from the Topics to United Press in Los Angeles, on the new radio desk. Six months later he was transferred to the general news desk, but continued writing the UP Hollywood radio column. In the fall of the same year he was named bureau manager at Billings, Mont, (offices in the KGHL building), where part of his job was to prepare a daily radio report. During the next two years he moved from Billings to Butte, again as bureau manager (he also was the staff in this one-man operation); from Butte to Helena as state manager, then back to Butte for a quick stint before transferring to Seattle in 1939 and Portland in 1940 as northwest news editor. Front & Back Offices ■ In 1941 he was back in Los Angeles, where he became bureau manager in 1943 and remained in charge of Southern California and Arizona until the end of 1948. Then he was transferred to South America as manager of the northern division, in charge of all UP operations— both news and business — north of Brazil and Peru. During this twoyear stint he established the first radio teletype delivery of news to South America and the first daily overseas Telephoto transmission of newspictures anywhere in the world. He once covered an earthquake disaster and signed up a new subscriber the same UPI's Payette He tailors news to radio-tv needs day. Newspapers in South America were so impressed by same-day delivery of pictures that when a group of Puerto Ricans tried to assassinate President Truman in Washington, one paper put out five extras in one day. In 1951, when UP decided to establish a television news service, Mr. Payette was called to New York to develop the plans and set it up. The problem then was how news should be handled on television in the first place. Mr. Payette helped work out with 20th Century-Fox the joint project which now is UPI Movietone Television News. They evolved the system of supplying newsclips to stations for insertion locally, a script wire to keep the film current, an advance service which supplies stations with appropriate background film and copy on major news stories that are apt to develop, and, along with other pioneering services, the use of Facsimile to get news pictures to stations in a hurry. He has been intimately involved in UPI’s television and radio operations since that time. Even after his promotion to assistant general news manager in 1955, he continued to follow the broadcast activities closely and was frequently called upon for counsel. His accomplishments in all news media contributed to his elevation to the UPI board in 1958 and his selection as general sales manager last Dec. 30. Client Comes First ■ Whether he’s arranging news coverage or selling it, his philosophy is rooted in client service: “Figure out what the subscriber needs, then do it. We can do anything that people can pay for.” It was this line of reasoning that led the UPIMovietone division to launch its newest service, voiced news reports, a few weeks ago. Known as “UPI Audio,” the new service feeds to UPI radio wire clients daily audio reports on top news stories breaking around the world (Broadcasting, May 30). Mr. Payette is a man who can take his work home and discuss it with a knowing audience. His wife, whom he married in 1952, is the former Virginia MacPherson, for many years UPI’s widely read Hollywood columnist. They live with their children, Susan and Bruce, in Bronxville, N.Y. The Payettes share a common hobby, skiing, which first attracted him in 1947. It looked like fun, so he took off for a month, went to Banff in the Canadian Rockies and practiced until he had mastered the ups and downs of it. Now he and the family shoulder their skis and are away for the weekend whenever work and weather permit. Their other common hobby is Nantucket; they spend his summer vacations there. BROADCASTING, June 27, 1960 107