Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

POWER It packs a friendly punch. Stroll down the street with any of a dozen WSYR personalities. Watch the smiles light up people's faces; hear the known you all my life greetings from total strangers. This friendly attitude is for you, too, when these personalities are selling for you. And that's why WSYR Radio is the greatest sales medium in Central New York. So you see what happens: Personality Power = Sales Power for you in the 18-county Central New York area. Instant friends for what you have to sell. Represented Nationally by THE HENRY I. CHRISTAl CO., INC New York • Boston • Chicago Detroit • San Francisc< INTERNATIONAL NIC in Central New Ytrk WSY rr,rriinir»i ir »r rir inif 'pS^puniUTW' R 3 U J '-I Ill 1 1 1 L 5 KW • SYRACUSE, N. V. • 570 KC WF THE SEVEN O'CLOCK HABIT 'Have Gun Will Travel" MONDAY 7 to 7:30 P.M. "The Rebel" TUESDAY 7 to 7:30 P.M. 'Cheyenne" THURSDAY 7 to 8 P.M. Lee Marvin Presents: "Lawbreaker" FRIDAY 7 to 7:30 P.M. "Sea Hunt" SATURDAY 7 to 7:30 P.M. FOR BEST MINUTE RESERVATIONS CONTACT: Adam Young Inc. Wonderful Florida Tele Vision WF ORLANDO, FLORIDA NEWSPAPERS VS. TV: TO EACH HIS OWN Canadians told they fill different needs of public Television is television and newspapers are newspapers. To the public "reading, including newspapers, fills one requirement in their lives. Television viewing fills another, and as far as the public is concerned, they supplement one another. They don't replace one another." The separation of media was noted by Bill Michaels, Storer Broadcasting Co. vice president, television division, Tuesday (Nov. 5) at the Central Canada Broadcasters Association convention in Toronto. Speaking on "What Broadcasting Learned from the Newspaper Strikes," Mr. Michaels told the broadcasters that Storer learned through the Detroit and Cleveland strikes not "to improvise overnight into something you are not — namely an electronic newspaper. Similarly, don't make the mistake of believing that number and volume of newscasts . . . are, in themselves, going to better serve or please the public. It's not that simple, for there is definitely a saturation point for the viewer." Mr. Michaels emphasized that he was not advocating a TV station to "go blandly about its affairs with a 'business as usual' attitude. You do have an opportunity to strengthen your ties with the public in helping fill the temporary void with additional news and related features. You should respond to this opportunity." But, he warned, disillusionment is in store for the broadcaster who thinks that "overwhelming the public with volume at the expense of overall program structure is going to prove to them that they don't want or need newspapers." Mr. Michaels cited the reaction Storer's wjbk-tv Detroit received during that city's last strike when the station pre-empted prime time entertainment programs and replaced them with "30 minutes of news which we literally broke our backs putting together and producing." Only Protests ■ For their efforts, he said, the station "received absolutely nothing but protests by the hundreds, many of them unbelievably bitter. Nor did we get any favorable reaction to short news inserts in prime time which posed production problems with adjacent programing during a previous strike." The Storer vice president pointed out that viewers don't want their TV lives knocked into a cocked hat because there is a newspaper strike any more than they want their newspapers completely transformed if there were a citywide television strike. The viewers, he said, "simply didn't understand why there was such a big rush in putting on the news at 8:30, or 9, or 9:30, nor did they accept our contention of additional 'public service.' Why wouldn't it wait until 1 1 when they were used to getting their news? And then let it go on as long as we liked?" Turning to the commercial aspects of a strike, Mr. Michaels warned the broadcasters not to "take the shortsighted view and let the lure of the easy, quick buck trap you into either overcrowding or improvising your schedule Mr. Michaels Mr. Digges 90 to accommodate more commercials than you know that you should." He cited two reasons on the "philosophical" side to illustrate this point: ■ "There is not much satisfaction or gratification of achievement in taking advantage of someone else's misfortune, even if it is an economic competitor." ■ "On a truly selfish basis, much of the short term business you inherit will desert you overnight the minute newspapers get back into publication and you find that you have jeopardized long term business which could have been more productive over the long haul anyway." Great Potential ■ In another talk at the two-day convention, Sam Cook Digges, administrative vice president at CBS Films, said the projected growth of the Canadian economy through 1970 will provide excellent opportunities in radio and TV for the "creative" salesman. He noted that the gross national product in Canada will be approximately NEVER A NEWS BLACKOUT WITH R.N.I. Republic News International 132 3rd St., S.E., Washington, D. C. BROADCASTING, November 11, 1963