Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1961)

Court convicts Tripp of accepting payola Disc jockey Peter C. Tripp was convicted last week in New York's Special Sessions Court of taking payola to play records on the air while he was employed by WMGM New York. He was found guilty of accepting $36,050 in gratuities from eight record manufacturers or distributors from June 1958 to October 1959. He faces a maximum sentence of one year for each of the 35 counts of commercial bribery on which he was convicted and could be fined $500 on each count or a total of $17,500. Justice Edward Breslin announced that the presiding judges (others are Justice Vincent R. Impellitteri and acting Justice Aaron Goldstein) were unanimous in the verdict and set sentencing for June 30. The Tripp trial was the first prosecution to result from District Attorney Frank S. Hogan's investigation into payola which began exactly a year ago. Also accused of accepting payola from various record companies are four other disc jockeys: Alan Freed, formerly of WINS and WABC; Tommy Small, once with YVWRL; Hal Jackson, formerly of WLIB; and Jack Walker, once with WOV (now WADO); and three other station employes: Mel Leeds, former program director of WINS; Joseph Saccone, once record librarian of WMGM; and Ronald Granger, former record librarian at WINS. All stations involved are in New York. CBS-TV program honored among Sloan citations A CBS-TV program on highway safety, its sponsor, producer and writer won special commendation in the 13th annual Alfred P. Sloan Awards, presented last Tuesday (May 16) to the 1960 radio-tv winners at a dinner in New York. LeRoy Collins, NAB president, who spoke briefly at the awards ceremony, commended both the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as sponsor of the awards and the National Safety Council which administers them. Mr. Collins said he supports wholeheartedly the continuing efforts of the nation's broadcasters to promote traffic and pedestrian safety. The following stations, advertisers and individuals were honored for their selections : Sustaining category — WTKM Hartford, Wis.; WGN Chicago, WNEW New York; Canadian Broadcasting Corp., and WCPO-TV Cincinnati. Commercial category — Thomson Brake & Alignment Co., KVOE Emporia, Kan.; Portland Cement Assn., Tennessee district, WLAC Nashville; Florida State Theatres Inc., regional network of independent radio stations; Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., national network of independent radio stations; Shell Oil Co., WWJ-TV Detroit, and Philip Morris Inc., sponsor of CBS-TV's CBS Reports presentation (Dec. 20) of "The Great Holiday Massacre." KLON Long Beach, Calif., and WQED (TV) Pittsburgh were noncommercial educational station winners. Palmer Williams and George A. Vicas, producer and writer respectively of "Great Holiday Massacre" each won $1,000 cash awards, the first ever awarded by the Sloan Foundation. WNEW announces sales organization WNEW New York, one of the nation's most successful independent radio stations, will take over its own sales representation on June 1, when its contract with Robert E. Eastman & Co. expires. John V. B. Sullivan, vice president and general manager, said the move stemmed from a belief that WNEW's position, programming and acceptance are such that they can most effectively be represented to advertisers and agency buyers throughout the country by salesmen who not only are familiar with the station's operations but also can devote full time to the job. Mr. Sullivan announced the expansion of the WNEW Radio Sales office in Chicago and the opening of sales offices in Detroit and San Francisco. David L. Miller, formerly of WHK Cleveland and WIP Philadelphia (which like WNEW are owned by Metropolitan Broadcasting Corp.), heads the Chicago office. He has been representing WNEW there since last September, working in cooperation with the Eastman organization. Additions to the Chicago office of WNEW Radio Sales Back to school Dr. Frank Stanton, president of CBS, will speak at the 95th commencement exercises of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology June 9 in Cambridge. Dr. Julius A. Stratton, president of MIT, in his announcement cited Dr. Stanton's "relentless campaign for free access to information and for the corollary responsibility in reporting it. In a time when effective communications between people and nations are needed more than ever before, it is especially appropriate to have a speaker who is internationally recognized as a leader in radio and television." are Gordon P. Copeland, formerly with Venard, Rintoul & McConnell in Chicago and Ken Pierce, formerly with the Chicago office of Peters, Griffin, Woodward. David C. Croninger, formerly general manager of WTAC Flint, Mich., has been named manager of the Detroit office of WNEW Radio Sales, and Richard H. Schulte, formerly with the CBS Radio Spot Sales office in San Francisco, has been named manager of the new San Francisco office. Dual Supervision ■ The new sales organization will work under the supervision of H. D. (Bud) Neuwirth, vice president and director of Metropolitan Radio Sales, and Richard H. Gerken, eastern sales manager for WNEW Radio Sales. Disclosure of the move, which had been anticipated unofficially for some time, revived conjecture that the parent Metropolitan Broadcasting Co. might be considering establishing its own sales-representation firm for some or all of its other stations. Officials reported, however, that no such move was being considered and stressed that WNEW was a "special situation." But they acknowledged that if the WNEW move proves profitable they might naturally be inclined, in time, to review their other station situations on a caseby-case basis. Unger resigns from NTA over policy difference National Telefilm Assoc. Board Chairman Oliver A. Unger resigned last week because of a policy disagreement with officials of National Theatres & Television, 38% owner of NTA, and the company's largest single stockholder. Mr. Unger said Thursday (May 18) that NTA needs a better operating management team — one more in accord with NT&T — which has gone through a number of recent changes. NT&T, he said, has new people with new ideas that he disagrees with, so "I am resigning in the best interests of everyone." A special NTA board of directors' meeting was to be held this Saturday (May 20) in Beverly Hills, Calif., to elect new NTA officers. Mr. Unger has not announced his future plans. Jury upholds Bloomberg The Massachusetts Supreme Court has upheld a jury's award of $20,761 to Haskell Bloomberg, station broker. The award was for a 5% broker's commission when WMGT-TV Pittsfield, Mass. I (now WCDC [TV] Adams) was sold in 1958 by Leon Podolsky to Capital Cities Broadcasting Co. Mr. Podolsky's Greylock Broadcasting Co. appealed the lower court's verdict. 54 (THE MEDIA) BROADCASTING, May 22, 1961