Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1960)

Toronto; International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Toronto; and Canadian Wire Services Guild, Toronto. Joe MacKenzie, director of organization of the Canadian Labor Congress, has been appointed executive director of the new council. Two Cuban tv stations seized by Sr. Castro Cuba's Fidel Castro last week seized two Havana tv stations and one of the nation's last remaining independent newspapers, El Mundo. The move gives the government control of two of the city's five operating tv channels. One tv station belonged to Amadeo Barletta, Italian-born industrialist with large holdings in Cuba. Mr. Barletta has taken refuge in the Italian Embassy. He also owned El Mundo. The Ministry of Recuperation also ordered tv channel 12 made government property. This channel belonged to Gaspar Pumarejo who fled Cuba after the fall of Batista. Dominion stations give research funds A memorial communications research project at the U. of British Columbia, Vancouver, has been inaugurated with donations of $10,000 from the Canadian Assn. of Broadcasters and $5,000 from the British Columbia Assn. of Broadcasters. A financing drive is underway under chairmanship of Guy F. Herbert, former vice-president of AllCanada Radio & Television Ltd., Calgary, Alta., to raise $300,000 for the project from Canadian broadcasters. The memorial project is in the names of four veteran broadcasters who died in the past year: Harry Sedgwick, CFRB Toronto, Ont; Harold R. Carson, CFAC Calgary, and All-Canada Radio & Television Ltd.; F.H. Elphicke, CKWX Vancouver, B.C., and A.A. Murphy, CFQC-AM-TV Saskatoon, Sask. The U. of B.C. has already done considerable basic research on mass =H0WARQ E. STARK, Brokers and Financial Consultants Television Stations Radio Stations 50 East 58th Street New York 2 2, N.Y. ELdorado 5-0405 Mystery solved A seven year old electronic mystery centering around purported reception of a Houston tv station in England has been retired to the hoax file after scientific investigation. F.D. Drake, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, W.Va., has decided photos of a "KLEE-TV Houston" signal received in England were merely copies of a station identification card. At the time of the 1953 "reception" there was no such call letter, KPRC-TV Houston having taken over KLEE-TV in 1953. National magazines had used the incident as the basis for intriguing stories about electronic signals that float around for long periods. communications in conjunction with the BCAB in recent years. Under the memorial project, the university will continue and enlarge its studies of basic communications and the training of persons in the field of communications. Jack Sayers, CJOR Vancouver, B.C., was re-elected president of BCAB for another year at the annual meeting at Vancouver earlier this month. Ken Hutcheson, CJAV Alberni, B.C., was re-elected vice-president, and Roy Chapman, CKOK-TV Kelowna, B.C., as director. New directors elected were Murdo MacLachlan, CHWK Chilliwack, B.C., and William Hughes, CKNW New Westminster, B.C. Canadian tv sets Eighty-one per cent of Canadian households now have television receivers, according to the latest estimates of the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement, Toronto, Ont. Its report is based on a survey made last fall. It shows that Canada's population of 17,581,400 is divided into 4,294,500 households of which 3,493,600 have television receivers. Ontario leads with 1,369,900 tv households, 88% of total households in province, followed by Quebec with 976,900 tv households, 89%; British Columbia 311,100 tv households, 70%; Alberta 231,000 tv households, 70%; Manitoba 166,800 tv households, 73%; Saskatchewan 155,600 tv households, 64%; Nova Scotia 138,000 tv households, 81%; New Brunswick 96,300 tv households, 75%; Newfoundland 33,500 tv households, 39%; and Prince Edward Island 14,500 tv households, 62%. • Abroad in brief Italian-American exchange • RAI Corp. Italian Radio Tv System has opened temporary offices at 400 Madison Ave., N.Y. In April the company, a U.S. representative of RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, plans to move to permanent offices on the 12th floor of the Corning Glass Bldg., 717 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Distribution of programs dealing with the art and culture of Italy to educational and commercial U.S. stations is already underway as well as of programs in Italian to stations which schedule them regularly. RAI will act as a center for the exchange of talent, ideas and programming between the two countries. Tv grants • CHAN-TV Vancouver, B.C., has been licensed as a competitive station to CBUT (TV) Vancouver. The new ch. 8 station will have 180 kw video and 90 kw audio power. Vantel Broadcasting Ltd., owner of CHAN-TV, has been formally licensed according to an announcement from Ottawa, Ont., on Feb. 18. Canadian government approved recommendations made for CHAN-TV and a competitive station on ch. 7 at Winnipeg to R.S. Misener and Assoc. (Broadcasting, Feb. 8). These are first two competitive tv stations licensed in Canada. JUST AROUND THE CORNER (could be YOUR corner!) A HAZARD THAT NEVER SLEEPS the accusation of LIBEL-SLANDER : PIRACY-PLAGIARISM INVASION OF PRIVACY COPYRIGHT VIOLATION Directed at Station, Staff, Speaker, Talent, Sponsor You can't recapture the WORDS but you CAN INSURE and hold possible Dollar Loss within non-embarrassing limits. 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