Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1960)

CBS to have employe stock purchase plan An employe stock purchase plan, a deferred bonus plan and liberalization of retirement benefits for CBS employes will be voted on by the company's stockholders at their annual meeting, April 20, in New York. Details of the proposals are spelled out in the proxy statement for that meeting. It also shows Chairman William S. Paley and President Frank Stanton again heading the company's salary and bonus list— with $294,375 each— in 1959. Messrs. Paley and Stanton each received $150,000 in salary plus $144,375 in additional compensation. In addition, $5,625 was set aside for deferred payment to each. Merle S. Jones, president of the CBSTV Stations Div., ranked next with $75,000 salary, $35,000 bonus plus $5,000 deferred. James T. Aubrey Jr. received $68,942 salary and $20,000 bonus as CBS-TV vice president, executive vp and, beginning Dec. 8, president. Louis G. Cowan, president of the tv network until his resignation as of Dec. 8, received $69,808, with no bonus. Others among the highest paid executives: Arthur Hull Hayes, president of CBS Radio, $60,000 salary. $17,500 bonus and $2,500 deferred bonus; Goddard Lieberson, president of Columbia Records, $67,500 salary, $21,875 bonus, $13,125 deferred; Henry C. Bonfig, corporate vice president and director, $50,000 salary, no bonus; Arthur L. Chapman, president of CBS Electronics, $60,000 salary, $12,500 bonus, $7,500 deferred. These figures do not include sums set aside for these executives under the CBS pension plan. The pension figures ranged from $35,585 for Mr. Paley and $24,626 for Dr. Stanton to $11,210 for Mr. Chapman. Changes in the pension plan for CBS employes would establish larger retirement benefits than the current plan provides but reduce termination and death benefits. The employe stock purchase plan to be voted upon would allow employes to buy CBS stock, with the company then giving each participant one share for each five shares purchased, plus additional shares after each consecutive three-year period of participation in the plan. The practical effect of the proposed new deferred additional compensation plan would delay payment of part of bonuses. Upon termination of employment, participants would receive the equivalent of what they would have received if the deferred portion had been invested and reinvested in CBS stock. WRCV-TV rate card WRCV-TV Philadelphia has introduced a new rate card that will become effective April 1. Current advertisers will receive rate protection through July 1; program advertisers until Oct. 1, the card states. Program time rates have been increased slightly; evening 10 and 20 second station breaks have Boston shuffle A complete reshuffling of television network affiliations in Boston became a virtual certainty last Thursday as CBS-TV announced that WHDH-TV, Boston Herald-Traveler station headed by William B. McGrath, would become its primary outlet in that area effective no later than next Jan. 1. WHDH-TV is now on ABC-TV. First step in the shuffling loomed when NBC closed its deal to acquire WNAC-TV from RKO General in exchange for WRCV-TV Philadelphia, part of an agreement also involving their respective radio stations and the purchase of NBC's WRC-AMFM-TV Washington for $11.5 million (Broadcasting, March 21). Assuming the Justice Dept. and the FCC approve the Philadelphia-Washington swap, ch. 7 WNAC-TV— currently a CBS-TV outlet — will take on the NBC affiliation. With CBS and the ch. 5 WHDH-TV now signed, Westinghouse Broadcasting's ch. 4 WBZ-TV presumably will go from NBC to ABC. CBS authorities said their affiliation with Westinghouse's KPDC (TV) San Francisco would not be affected. been adjusted while daytime station breaks remain unchanged. All minute participation rates have been increased. EQUIPMENT & ENGINEERING LATEST ELECTRONIC GEAR SHOW IRE meets in New York and exhibits new equipment Electronics experts seeking a single package of latest developments had their appetites whetted last week at the Institute of Radio Engineers 1960 international conference in New York. A more concentrated wrap-up on broadcasting will be available next week in Chicago at the NAB Convention (see story, page 90). Delevopments ranging the spectrum of electronic equipment were shown and explained. Some of these are adaptable to commercial broadcasting though the stress was on military and industrial applications as well as on space flight and communications. IRE's four-day program consisted of technical papers at the Waldorf-Astoria and an engineering show at the Coli seum. It drew an estimated 65,000 engineers from 40 countries. Sun Bounce • Donald J. Blattner, RCA Labs staff, theorized on use of the sun as a huge reflector that woud relay radio signals between distant points on earth during periods when the moon was unavailable. He described the method as technically feasible via known transmission techniques and perhaps feasible via known transmission techniques and perhaps justified by a growing demand for more communication channels. Scientist Blattner visualized a system of large antennas, powerful transmitters and advanced electronic data-handling equipment accomplishing the feat of reliably reflecting coded radio signals in the solar atmosphere of ionized gases. Signals transmitted at 40 mc would be reflected from the corona (outermost portion of the sun's atmosphere). Required would be a million watt power output and a 120-ft. parabolic antenna capable of following the sun as well as a wide-band receiver coupled with associated data, handling equipment for processing to handle some "smearing" of relayed signals caused by the sun's rotational speed. It would take about 16 minutes for the signal to cover the round-trip distance between earth and sun (speed limited by the use of 20-second pulses for communicating coded information which would overcome spurious noise created by the solar atmosphere.) 136 BROADCASTING, March 28, 1960