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coming a big factor in program building by local TV stations. This fall many a daytime program will be constructed around local personalities, often radio-recruited. With networks beginning to program daytime dramas in TV. there is a growing tendency for local TV stations to program film packages in the daylight hours. These films are usually selected so that they are a light, '"matinee" type to appeal to the distaff viewers. Otherwise, the program situation in spot TV is pretty much the same as it was last fall as regards balance of types. The over-all number of spot programs on almost every station has, however, been stepped up. Q. Are there any special programing trends in nighttime spot TV? A. Yes. More stations are going in for the type of late-hour film show that was pioneered by WPIX, New York, with its Night Owl Theatre. These are being scheduled in marginal time, around midnight usually, and are picking up a lot of national spot TV business. More nighttime spot TV newscasts will be around this fall (most big TV stations have increased their news staffs since last year ) . Many big nighttime sports packages of all types will be around, an increase over last year. Actually, trends in nighttime TV, due to lack of time slots in which stations can build programs, are less predictable than daytime. Most big advertisers are looking for good adjacencies for announcements and breaks when they go shopping in nighttime spot TV. Q. Are independent TV stations emerging with definite program formulas? A. There are only six, all in New York and Los Angeles (WPIX, WATV, WOR-TV, New York; KFI-TV, KTLA. KLAC-TV, Los Angeles). Nearly all of them are still working out their own program formulas. None of them has emerged with the kind of clean-cut "independent station" formula that was A COMPLETE TV film studio. In Hollywood (28) since 1938... TELEFILM Inc. Live & cartoon. made famous by New York's WNEW and others in radio. Programing on independent stations consists mainly of a few low-cost live shows (variety, cooking, quiz, etc. i . and quite a number of feature film shows, Western film shows, sports programing, and newscasts. Programing is generally set up on a somewhat hitor-miss basis, with no real attempts at block programing or programing in counterpoint to networks, except in the case of sports packages and adjacent sports programs. One of these stations, at least (KTLA), has achieved standout popularity with viewers. Eventually, when the freeze is off, new stations are on the air, and the chaotic current situation settles down a bit, definite program formulas will emerge at independent TV stations. TV freeze Q. Will possible lifting of the television "freeze" affect my fall plans? A. It may affect your fall 1952 plans, but fall 1951 is status quo. FCC's recent announcement of 2,000 proposed TV allocations for new stations in the very high and ultra high frequencies was like opening the lid to a Pandoras box. Far from settling the question of new stations, it provides grist for additional argument. On 23 July, hearings on these allocations are scheduled to open before the Commission. It's estimated that between 800 and 900 persons are seeking to be heard — including educators who are out to earmark channels for their own exclusive use. An unofficial estimate, based on normal hearing procedure, figures it would take about a year to hear that many people. Naturally, the hearings will be speeded up considerably, perhaps by substitution of written for oral testimony. Even assuming that everyone agrees on allocations and no one sics the Supreme Court on FCC, as has been threatened by opponents of the allocation plan who question FCC's right to set aside channels for education, there is Mill a very practical engineering problem. There's no shortage of transmitting equipment right now, despite tightening materials controls; in fact c\n\ huge manufacturer is shipping transmitters out of the country to cash-on-the-line foreign customers. But there will be a problem with TV receivers built to pick up today's veryhigh frequency channels. Most of the new crop of stations will have to broadcast in the higher uhf channels. Sounds straightforward enough. If channels get crowded on one part of the spectrum, open up new ones where there's more room. But one difficulty with ultra-high-frequency operation is that the effective transmitting radius is only 30 miles, or half of that on vhf. And just how good reception will be no one knows for sure; it will vary drastically according to terrain, since electronic waves of this length behave much like light waves and can only travel in straight lines. Further, television set makers will need heavy persuading to build a new breed of TV set capable of pulling in uhf stations. They could, of course, make converters. But an extra box hooked up to the fancy living room receiver has never gone over well in the past, either from an engineering or an aesthetic point of view. Witness the failure of FM converters. No, any reservations which may have been nourished by the idea of a rash of new TV stations — soon — may as well be forgotten. It will continue to be an increasingly frantic rat-race for availabilities on 107 television stations for most of another year and possibly longer. Network eo-op shows (TV) Q. Are national advertisers using more co-op shows as spot programs? A. Yes. Some national advertisers and a few big regional advertisers are beginning to show up. here and there, using co-op programs where they can't (1) get network clearance on a station for a program, and (2) where they can't find a local show that suits their advertising purposes. Pure Oil is using Who Said That? as a co-op (via Lee Burnett) on some 17 NBC-TV affiliates, mostly in the East, buying it through station reps rather than through network sales. The Campbell Soup Company (via Ward Wheelock, Philadelphia) is using an ABC-TV family comedy co-op, The Haggles, on KSD-TV, St. Louis as a pilot spot operation, and Fort Pitt Brewing Com 142 SPONSOR