Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1960)

BROADCASTING THE BUSINESSWEEKLY OF TELEVISION AND RADIO September 26, 1960 Vol. 59 No. 13 TIO'S FIRST YEAR: AN APPRAISAL Tv's image-building office has talked little about itself but it's shaping up an ambitious information program for tv Someone said, when the Television Information Office was going through the process of being born, that its success could be measured by the number of times it did not get its name in the papers. By that standard, TIO today can look back on its first year as one of practically unmitigated success. Few broadcasting organizations of national stature have managed to operate so anonymously. Created to improve television's image by spreading the truth about tv, TIO has operated at a low level of visibility by choice. Its leaders follow the classic public relations theory that the client, not the press agent, should get the publicity. But few people — least of all the people running TIO — will argue that simply keeping quiet is worth half a million dollars a year, which is approximately what TIO's annual budget currently comes to. What, then, have been TIO's chief accomplishments since it officially opened the doors of its New York headquarters on Oct. 12, 1959? ■ It has got itself organized. From an idea it has grown into a going concern, a 12-man organization headed by Louis Hausman and supported by all three networks and approximately 150 tv stations. ■ It helped put the results of the quiz-scandal storm into perspective by commissioning one of the nation's foremost independent researchers, Elmo Roper, to probe public reaction and then distributing his findings widely in influential circles. ■ It has been instrumental in getting stations to work together in promoting their "'quality" programming to local opinion leaders. By next month, some 94,000 of these leaders in 17 cities will be receiving monthly bulletins from their local stations showing the educational, informational, cultural and special-interest programs scheduled in their respective communities for the ensuing 30 days. The number will exceed 100,000 when plans currently afoot in three other cities are completed. ■ Some 60,000 English teachers in elementary and high schools and col BROADCASTING, September 26, 1960 leges across the U.S. will receive early this winter a 150-page "Resources" book currently being prepared to acquaint them with television's operations and to help them in using commercial television programs in teaching English. The project was initiated and financed by TIO, is being conducted by the television committee of the National Council of Teachers of English. ■ Within the next few days TIO will publish what may be the largest publicaffairs idea book ever produced. It's a 100,000-word collection of case histories compiled from 260 stations, describing 75 public afi'airs programs in detail and summarizing almost 1,000 others. All U.S. television stations and approximately 10,000 opinion leaders will get copies. ■ In cooperation with the New York City Board of Education TIO has organized an in-service course designed to teach teachers what television does and how it does it. The 15-lecture course will be taped and a syllabus prepared so that local stations may adapt it for teachers in their own communities. ■ TIO financed and supervised the creation of 60 and 20-second animated spots, currently in process of completion, explaining the NAB Television Code. TIO initiated this project for the code board, which will distribute the spots to code stations. ■ TIO keeps a running collection of what people are saying about television, good and bad, which it distributes regularly to its members. Thus far there have been 70-75 mailings of these "Background Facts," which are de New project ■ Louis Hausman, TIO director, shows a visitor a storyboard of one of a new series of animated spots, explaining the NAB television code, that McCann-Erickson has prepared for TIO. The spots, in minute and 20 second lengths, are intended to explain how the tv viewer benefits from the code. For samples of one spot see page 28. The code spots are only one of several activities that TIO is about to set in motion. 27