Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1961)

WBBM takes 30, but there's plenty for all NEW ORGANIZATION HANDS OUT 85 AWARDS IN CHICAGO The newly-founded American College of Radio Arts, Crafts & Sciences held its first annual banquet in Chicago Tuesday and smothered a dozen local radio stations with 85 awards and citations. The honors went to personalities as well as to stations. Two — WBBM and WGN — collectively won 55 of the 85 mentions. Five other awards went to advertisers and agencies. College officials the next morning admitted privately that although the affair was a big success (520 station, agency and advertiser guests attended), the number of awards obviously must be cut down in the future. Of the total 125 nominations for awards submitted this year (each accompanied by a $10 filing fee) only 35 did not win mentions in some category or another. ACRACS has been granted space for a national headquarters by the Conrad Hilton Hotel, which also will give space to a national "radio hall of fame" the college plans to establish next year. Last week's awards constituted a "salute to Chicago radio" and will not be considered for the national hall of fame, according to the ACRACS president, Donald N. Mann, manager of special projects for WBBM Chicago. Mr. Mann's ACRACS associates give him most of the credit for forming the organization and the hall of fame. Both are to be national in scope. The college also seeks to create "suitable awards, grants-in-aid, scholarships, fellowships and to encourage institutions of higher learning to create departments in radio education." Lots of Help ■ Mr. Mann said over 90 people from stations, agencies and advertisers helped in judging this year's local awards, arranging for the dinner and assisting in the entertainment. A half-hour of the program was carried live by WBBM, WCFL, WGN, WIND, and WLS. WBBM placed first with 30 of the 85 station mentions. WGN received 25 citations. Ward L. Quaal, executive vice president and general manager of WGN Inc., was named "radio man of the year." A special award was presented to Ralph L. Atlass, vice president of Westinghouse Broadcasting Corp. and WIND, for his long career of leadership and service to radio. Zenith Radio Corp. and its WEFM (FM) there were honored for multiplex and stereo broadcasting contributions. The "yellow pages" radio commercial was adjudged the best transcribed spot. Earle Ludgin Co. is the agency. Honorable mentions went to National Tea Co., Colorado Corn Fed Beef and Lillienfeld & Co. The best local live commercial award went to Bowman Dairy Co. J. Walter Thompson Co. and WBBM shared in this honor. Honorable mention went to United Airlines and N. W. Ayer & Son. Of the remaining 30 awards WLS received eight, WCFL seven, WIND five, WMAQ three and WEBH (FM) two. One each went to WGES, WEFM (FM), WFMT (FM), WXFM (FM) and WOPA (Oak Park). Color breakthrough seen by NBC for '61 "We expect 1961 to be color's biggest year," John K. West, NBC vice president in charge of west coast activities, said last Tuesday (Dec. 12). "For the first time there is real excitement among color set dealers," he reported. This year's sales are now expected to hit the 150,000 mark, 50% better than 1960, provided dealers have sets on hand to satisfy customer demand. The RCA wholesaler in Los Angeles has only one color set in stock, Mr. West noted, with a pricetag of $1,500, and Christmas still two weeks off. Tracing the history of color broadcasting since 1954, NBC's first year of colorcasting, with 68 hours and six advertisers, Mr. West recounted that "last year there were 1,034 hours of color on NBC and 110 different sponsors. . . . This year there will be more than 1,600 hours of color," with a proportional rise in the number of sponsors. New records will also be set this year for the number of homes reached with color programming, the number of summertime color hours, the amount of daytime color programming (triple that of two years ago), and the amount of nighttime programming (up 71% over 1960). More programs of every kind, news and sports events as well as dramatic and variety shows, are being broadcast in color, and the days of block color broadcasting are becoming more frequent, Mr. West observed. He added that with 367 tv stations (more than % of the total) equipped to broadcast network color and 104 also able to originate their own color programs, color is no longer limited to a few stations. Along with network programming, Mr. West credited color's recent rise to technical developments that have made color sets easy to tune and control, with good picture quality and dependable performance. New low light level camera tubes and faster color films have made color programming cheaper and better, he said. And now that 10 other set makers have joined RCA in producing color receivers, he concluded, "1961 will probably be remembered as the year of the color breakthrough." Mr. West's review of color history was presented at a meeting of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences held in NBC's Color City. Donn Tatum, vice president in charge of television sales for Walt Disney Productions, introduced film clips of color discussions by Walt Disney and Prof. Ludwig von Drake. Richard C. Welsch, director of production and business affairs, NBC, west coast, demonstrated Chroma-key and other special effects utilized by NBC in live color programming as well as color on film and tape. He also showed an experimental approach to animation on tape, similar to that of Ampex (Broadcasting, Nov. 6), foreshadowing a new field of endeavor for video tape programming. NBC move to Burbank to be complete by 1963 In the spring of 1963, NBC will finally and fully vacate Hollywood's Radio City at Sunset & Vine and move all of its operations to Color City in Burbank, Calif., where most of the network's west coast activities are already centered. The land on which NBC established its Hollywood headquarters in 1938 will be the site of an office-buildinghotel complex to be erected by Uhlco Properties of Los Angeles, which has purchased the property for $3.5 million. The option, secured by Uhlco early this year (Broadcasting, March 13), was exercised Dec. 14. The NBC lease on the property runs Fellows scholarships Two Harold E. Fellows Scholarships of $1,100 each will be awarded for the 1962-63 school term by Assn. for Professional Broadcasting Education. APBE administers the scholarships, which were established by NAB as a memorial to its late president, who died in March 1960. Eligible for scholarships are the children of employes of radio and tv stations and networks that are members of NAB. They may be used for courses of study in radio and tv at any of the 60 colleges and universities belonging to APBE, which will specify rules for the scholarship competition. 64 (THE MEDIA) BROADCASTING, December 18, 1961