Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1963)

True Adventure will run anywhere from $13,500 to $17,000. Fortunately, quality has gone up along with costs. We wouldn't accept today what we were happy to get seven or eight years ago." Looking to the future, Mr. Burrud feels it is quite possible that his company might be merged with a large firm. "I wouldn't object if my people can go along as a unit. I'd like to make a capital gains deal on all the negatives we own; earnings of $1 million a year sounds like a lot, but there's not much left after taxes." Does the blacklist still exist in radio-tv? AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS PANELISTS CITE TROUBLES Canada; Treasure "It's all about lost and buried treasures, but I've yet to find one myself") and the veteran Vagabond are currently in six markets apiece. Wiljon Corp., a subsidiary of Bill Burrud Productions, handles the sales of True Adventure in the 1 1 western states and all sales of Treasure and Vagabond. The syndication of True Adventure outside the West, in the rest of the U. S. and abroad, is handled by Teledynamics Inc., New York organization which deals exclusively in color programs. Built-in Viewers ■ Scheduled largely in the early evenings, all-family viewing time, the travel-adventure films do well in ratings, Mr. Burrud reports, particularly with adult viewers. "When there's a kid show against us, we'll tie it; when there isn't, we're generally tops." One thing he can't explain is that audience composition studies show the majority (60%) of his viewers to be women. From its small beginning, Bill Burrud Productions has grown to an organization with 23 fulltime employes and 53 stringers around the world. The home staff includes nine editors, four supervisor-producers, a production coordinator, three salesmen and the management and office help. Gene McCabe, vice president and business manager, handles most of the day-to-day business matters, leaving Bill free for his creative work, such as writing the talks he gives to amplify and explain the pictures. "Things have changed since 1953-54 when we started making Vagabond," he commented. "Then those half-hour films cost about $5,000 apiece to produce. Today, a 694,000. National Educational Tv & Radio Center's share was $4.7 million and WNDT (TV) New York was granted $2,994,000. WNDT also received $225,000 grant for programs exchanged with WGBH-TV Boston. 5% increase for directors More than 700 members of the Directors Guild of America, including directors, assistant directors, associate directors and stage managers, got raises of 5% on Jan. 1 under contracts negotiated by DGA in 1960. A freelance director of a tv network program (except dramatic, sports or "high budget" programs) get $66 for a weekly show of five minutes or less under the new scale, up to $855 for seven hour-long programs a week. The new scale for dramatic shows ranges from $80 for a five-minute, once-aweek show to $1,033 for seven hourlong programs. The broadcasting industry still maintains a blacklist which bars certain entertainers from appearing on radio and television, it was asserted in a general panel discussion by performers and lawyers in New York, Dec. 30. The discussion, called "The Thunder of Reaction," was presented by the American Jewish Congress. The panel included John Henry Faulk, former blacklisted radio commentator, who recently won a libel suit against Aware Inc. for linking him falsely with procommunist causes. Other panel members were Oscar Brand, ballad singer and tv entertainer; Theodore Bikel, actor and folksinger and head of the arts chapter of the congress; and Howard Squadron, law yer and co-chairman of the congress's commission of law and social action. It was the consensus of the panel that a performer cannot be expected to be silent on controversial political issues and confined only to his immediate world of entertainment. Mr. Brand contended that an entertainer may be prevented from performing on radio or television by one post card from a listener disputing his appearance on a program. The networks and agencies, he emphasized, "feel guilty" about the existence of the blacklist but are afraid "to get into a sphere where they will be considered troublemakers." He suggested that social organizations like the congress appeal to the BROADCASTING, January 7, 1963 57