Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1962)

RTES moves The headquarters of the Radio & Television Executives Society have been moved to 444 Madison Ave., New York. RTES's Executive Director, Claude Barrere, said the move provides more adequate facilities for the present staff and for future expansion. the jamming of too many stations into a market and the jamming of a station into a market that simply cannot pay out for the facility involved." The editorial quotes Victor C. Diehm of WAZL, Hazelton, Pa., chairman of the Mutual Affiliates Advisory Committee, as saying "That the franchise explosion is growing even faster than our population explosion" — that there is now one radio station for every 10,000 homes, and in some areas, one per 5,000 homes and less — and that a showdown in licensing is needed. With so many stations and only four networks, Mr. Hurleigh writes, "where can the smaller station owners raise the capital to originate the volume and quality of public service so devoutly wished for by the FCC? . . . and why hit a man for not doing something which, under the present circumstances, he simply cannot do?" The editorial notes that Commissioner Frederick W. Ford has publicly recognized the problem (Broadcasting, Oct. 23, 1961), and concludes: "Some refiguring is in order. First things must come first; like a climate for economic health." WOL files damage suit against Senators team WOL-AM-FM Washington has filed a triple damage antitrust suit against the Washington Senators baseball club, asking $150,000 damages and an order to enjoin the ball club from preventing the broadcast in Washington of the Baltimore Orioles' games (Broadcasting, Nov. 27]. The station said it carried the Baltimore Orioles games in 1960 and 1961, but found the games were not available for the 1962 season because of pressures brought by the Washington Senators. The station said broadcast rights to Orioles games are held by National Brewing Co. (National Bohemian beer), but that Washington is specifically excluded from that contract. Annual billings from play-by-play broadcasts of Orioles games in previous years amounted to $50,000, the station said. Suit was filed in federal district court in Washington. BROADCASTING, January 1, 1962 Librarians see tv as a reading incentive SURVEY FINDS IT CREATES VALUABLE CULTURAL INTEREST Librarians have long been aware that the number of library users throughout the country has been increasing. Now they are reported as giving television much of the credit for this upsurge in reading interest — and, what's more, for helping readers become more selective in their books. The American Library Assn., in reporting on the results of a survey of 200 libraries across the country, is careful to avoid any all-out endorsement of the medium — librarians feel there is too much "flim-flam film fare" on television, it says. But the responses to the survey questionnaire, the ALA comments, "read very much like a commercial for television." Many librarians said readers increasingly are choosing books on current events, history, government and science — largely because their appetite for information has been whetted by tv public affairs programming. In addition, the librarians were said to feel that television personalities such as Jack Paar are more effective in creating a demand for books than newspaper columnists or book reviewers. Particularly encouraging in this con nection, the ALA report noted, is that television reaches — and nudges into library reading rooms — individuals who never before exhibited much interest in them. The new image of the average library user that emerges from the survey, the ALA says, is one of a person doing more serious reading, who is learning foreign languages (from library record collections), who is becoming more concerned about foreign affairs and taking a more active role in politics. This "encouraging" image, the librarians feel, results from world tension, and the readers' awareness of that tension as it has been fostered by the mass media, particularly television. Although the ALA deplores the amount of tv time devoted to canned westerns, it indicated that these, too, deserve some credit for the increase in serious reading. Readers are so surfeited "by the glut of tv westerns," the report says, that they are passing by western fiction as never before. "This formerly popular reading material," the ALA adds, "has apparently been dealt a serious blow by tv." MIDWEST — Profitable radio station in market of 40,000plus, grossing $72,000.00 to $75,000.00 annually. Ideal owner-operator set-up. Priced at $1 10,000.00 with 29% down and terms to be negotiated. ANOTHER H&L EXCLUSIVE. WEST — Full time radio station with good power providing excellent coverage. Fixed assets of over $145,000.00 include transmitter, land and building. Will gross $105$110,000.00 in 1961 with good cash flow. Priced at $200,000.00 with 29% down and terms to be negotiated. ANOTHER H&L EXCLUSIVE. AND ASSOCIATES, INC. John F. Hardesty, President NEGOTIATIONS • APPRAISALS • FINANCING OF CHOICE PROPERTIES WASHINGTON, D. C, CHICAGO DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO Ray V. Hamilton 1737 DeSales St., N.W, Executive 3-3456 ' Warren J, Boorom New York Richard A. Shaheen John 0. Stebbins Tribune Tower DEIaware 7-2754 Dewitt Landis 1511 Bryan St. Riverside 8-1175 Joe A. Oswald New Orleans John F. Hardesty Don Sea He 111 Sutter St.. EXbrook 2-5671 37