Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

MARTIN COREL'S AUTHORITATIVE NEWS SERVICE FOR MANAGEMENT OF THE VISUAL BROADCASTING AND ALLIED ELECTRONICS ARTS AND INDUSTRY PUBUSUEO WEEKLY BY RADIO NEWS BURUO • WYATTJLOG.. m' with Electronics i ^ Reports C. • TELEPHONE STERLING 3-1755 *V0L. 10: No. 15 rt iC)54 April 10, 1954 1 ^ More Editorializing? McCarthy Reply a Dud, page I 5 More Start, Opening Smaller Markets, page 2 S More CPs, St. Louis VHF Grant Soon, page 3 Storer Sells to San Antonio Publisher, page 4 Supreme Court Reversal of Giveway Ban, page 4 UHF Study — at FCC and Congress Levels, page 5 Upcoming New Stations & Transmitter Shipments, p. 7 TV Trade's First-Quarter Report Card, page 10 Color Situation Remains Little Changed, page 12 1572-ft. Tower in Oklahoma City Now Going Up, page 14 in thim immumg MORE EDITORIALIZING? HcCARTHY REPLY A DUD: Has CBS broken the dam, finally and permanently, and inaugurated a strong editorial policy that will be emulated by other networks and stations? Probably not, though there's an important school of thought within the industry that says TV-radio station owners should take stands on public issues same as newspapers. It will be surprising indeed if the Murrow-McCarthy exchange marks dropping of the industry's historically neutral attitude on controversial issues — except now and then as a commentator lets loose on an explosive subject. Controlled as it is by a govt, agency, the FCC, the industry has always felt the Commission an uncertain shadow over it, depending on the character of the commissioners and the political temper of the times. One chairman, actually, once ordered a network to hearing on renewal of its station licenses because Mae West used v/hat he construed an indecent inflection in her famous line, "Come up and see me some time." Sponsors, too, have been traditionally reluctant to offend even the smallest fraction of their audience. Editorializing as a general practice, to put it plainly, has been too complicated and too risky. Not much doubt where CBS — and President Eisenhower and the Army — stood after Sen. McCarthy's April 6 reply via film to Edward R. Murrow's notable telecast of March 9 on Alcoa's See It Now. Nor is there any question where the TV-radio broadcasting industry, most newspapers and apparently the majority of viewers stand. It seems more than mere coincidence that Gen. Eisenhower invited CBS pres. Frank Stanton as guest at White House stag dinner April 8, day after news conference where the President told reporters he had known Murrow for many years, considers him his friend, recalls his great wartime broadcasts from London. Same day, U.S. Military Academy invited Murrow to deliver lecture on security at West Point, April 25. Same day, too. New York Newspaper Guild voted Murrow its annual Page One Award — latest of some 50 prizes the famed commentator has won. Murrow relinquished his whole Alcoa period for the McCarthy reply, then went on air briefly to refute the McCarthy charges that he follows Communist party line, that he was once a member of the I.W.W. — and to nail the McCarthy innuendo of Communist favor because he was favorably mentioned in the Daily Worker (out of context, because same "praise" told of Adlai Stevenson, Senator Flanders, the Army and broadcasting companies, even Eisenhower, having given McCarthy "a slap on the wrist"). The Senator put his foot into it. too, with what his own party leaders are calling a reckless declaration that Communist influences caused an "18-month deliberate delay" in govt, program to develop and produce the hydrogen bomb. This had nothing to do with the Murrow-McCarthy squabble, but was seen as typical McCarthy tactics by many editorial writers, let alone by govt, officials. "Caught with his charges showing," wrote N.Y. Times' Jack Gould, "the Senator wandered all over the lot and at the end of the program the casual listener must COPYRIGHT 1954 BY RADIO NEWS BUREAU