Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

4 Personal Notes: Peter B. James, N. Y. mgr. for Weed TV, on Jan. 1 becomes gen. mgr. of W JAR-TV, Providence, succeeding Norman Gittleson, resigned; Bates Halsey named Weed TV eastern sales mgr. . . . Myron P. Kirk, Kudner v.p., named TV chairman of 1955 Heart Fund, John F. Meagher, NARTB, radio chairman . . . Wm. P. Rosensohn, former exec, v.p., elected pres, of Box Office Television Inc., (closed-circuit TV) replacing Milton Mound, who becomes board chairman; v.p.’s are Sid Caesar, Abrams Chasin, Ivan Veit, Robert M. Rosencrans, Edgar A. Rosenberg . . . George Greaves, gen. mgr. of KNBC, San Francisco, elected pres, of Calif. State Radio & TV Broadcasters Assn.; Philip G. Lasky, KPIX, named v.p. for north; Frank Burke, KFVD, v.p. for south; Gene DeYoung, KERO-TV & KERO, Bakersfield, reelected secy.treas. . . . James C. Richdale Jr., ex-Petry & WNAC-TV, Boston, named commercial mgr., KOTV, Tulsa . . . Harry Abbott resigns as mgr. of KTVQ, Oklahoma City, to become station mgr. of KCEN-TV, Temple, Tex. . . . Jack Pacey, ex-ABC public relations director, joins Publicity Consultants Inc. (Ben Sonnenberg) . . . Tom Harrison named St. Louis office mgr. of Blair rep firm, succeeding Richard Quigley . . . Paul W. (Fritz) Morency, gen. mgr. of WTIC, Hartford, who as youth was first field rep for old NAB, surprised by 150 colleagues at dinner Dec. 2 celebrating his 25th anniversary with WTIC . . . Clarence L. Menser, onetime NBC progi'am v.p., now directing Stetson U’s radio WJBS, Deland, Fla., appointed by Gov. -elect Collins to state’s committee on educational TV . . . Fritz Snyder, ex-director of station relations, CBS-TV, onetime Biow and Bulova Watch Co. executive, becomes v.p. of Television Magazine (Fred Kugel, publisher) . . . Ole Morby, from western mgr. of station relations, moves to N. Y. as CBS Radio mgr. of station relations . . . James M. Dolan promoted to DuMont sports director, replacing Thomas J. McMahon, resigned . . . G. Edward Hamilton, from ABC-TV eastern div., named chief engineer, WABCTV, N. Y. . . . Donald Jordan named program director of WLAM-TV, Lewiston, Me., succeeding Lester J. Richards . . . Gordon Williamson, ex-gen. mgr. of WISE-TV, Asheville, N. C., appointed operations production mgr. of WFMY-TV, Greensboro, N. C. . . . Mrs. Dorothy Albee, adv. & promotion director, W ILK-TV, Wilkes-Barre, wins first prize in Lehn & Fink’s nationwide station promotion contest . . . Donna DeCamp, ex-film director W’^OI-TV, Ames, la., named TV director of Cary-Hill Inc., Des Moines . . . Richard P. Buch, ex-CBS-TV Film Sales, now in charge of General Teleradio’s new southeastern office, Atlanta . . . John Grogan, ex-Wm. Esty agency and WRCA-TV, joins program production staff of N. W. Ayer’s N. Y. TV-radio dept. . . . Thomas J. McDermott elected TV-radio v.p., N. W. Ayer, N. Y. . . . John Scott Keck, ex-TV-radio v.p., Henri, Hurst & McDonald, named asst. TV-radio director, Needham, Louis & Brorby, Chicago . . . Christian Valentine Jr., ex-Biow, named TV art director, McCann-Erickson . . . Richard H. Soule promoted to head NBC-TV’s new special program sales unit for its optional affiliates (Vol. 10:49) . . . Ted Nathamson promoted to exec, producer, WRCA-TV, N. Y. Gov. Gordon Persons, the 52-year-old ex-radio station mgr. who retires from office Jan. 1 and who has been mentioned as possible successor to Comr. Frieda Hennock as member of FCC (Vol. 10:49), suffered a mild heart attack Dec. 9, was rushed to a hospital, placed in oxygen tent. He’s brother of White House aide Brig. Gen. Wilton Persons. On Dec. 10, he was reported “improving rapidly,” though “still in danger.” Frank H. Bartholomew becomes pres, of UP next April 6, when Hugh Baillie becomes chairman of board after 20 years as pres. Bartholomew, first v.p., has been v.p. in charge of Pacific Coast area since 1938. Profile of NBC pres. Pat Weaver, recently published in 2 parts in the New Yorker, has been reprinted in booklet form by the magazine. — ■ Gaston Grignon, 61, retired v.p. & gen. mgr. of Hearst Radio’s WISN, Milwaukee, died Dec. 6 after a long illness of bronchial asthma. Surviving are his wife and 3 married daughters. Marvin H. Creager, 72, v.p. & editorial advisor of Milivaukee Journal, identified with operation of its WTMJ-TV & WTMJ, died of cancer Dec. 4. THE NETWORK JIG-SAW (see p. 1) comprises some accomplished changes on the one hand and a lot of rumored and conjectured projects on the other. Aside from changes of major station ownerships, which we’ve reported fully as they occurred — and a record number of which will have been stacked up this year, including an extraordinary number of AM station sales by TV principals— the puzzle is difficult to piece together in the face of unwillingness of most principals to talk. Some of the developments are “iffy,” some will be disclaimed, but there’s good basis for each of the following reports — and they certainly point to a changing pattern of TV growth in the next few years : CBS served notice this week on WEWS, Cleveland (Scripps-Howard) that it’s to be replaced on that network by Storer’s newly acquired WXEL. This week, too, CBS also announced it is switching in Indianapolis next June from WFBM-TV (Bitner) to WISH-TV (McConnell). This comes in wake of revelation of CBS’s projected switch from uhf WTRI, Albany-Schenectady, owned jointly by veteran broadcaster Harry Wilder and the big Stanley Theatres chain, to uhf WROW-TV, newly acquired by the Lowell Thomas group, which is also seeking to get FCC to allocate vhf Ch. 10 to that area — moves being bitterly contested by WTRI through attorney Paul Porter, onetime P^CC chairman, on anti-trust and multiple-ownership g}-ounds (Vol. 10:49). There are reports, unconfirmable, that the Meredith stations in Omaha (WOW-TV) and in Kansas City (KCMO-TV) may switch to CBS in a package move similar to Storer’s, though it’s known that Gene Autry’s KOOLTV, Phoenix, is exerting pressure to take the CBS affiliation away from Meredith’s KPHO-TV there. Only other Meredith station, WHEN-TV, Syracuse, is already a basic CBS. There’s also the rumor that Storer’s projected uhf parlay in Miami (Vol. 10:47) looks to an eventual CBS affiliation in lieu of vhf WTVJ (Wolfson). * * * Jit For its part, NBC recently got full affiliation of WTVR, Richmond, which had been taking CBS, too; has agreed to link Indianapolis’ WFBM-TV as of Jan. 1 as a supplementary to its unexpired basic affiliation with Sarkes Tarzian’s WTTV, Bloomington; and definitely will get the WDTV affiliation in Pittsburgh after DuMont-Westinghouse deal is approved. And still very much alive is proposed deal whereby NBC might swap its WNBK, Cleveland for Westinghouse’s WPTZ, Philadelphia; NBC may even sell WNBK to Westinghouse, which is now hell-bent to get its 5th vhf and has indicated it may also go for the now-allowable additional 2 uhf. NBC also has been eyeing San Francisco for a uhf of its own, but that hasn’t deterred it from oflFering to buy the San Fraucisco Chronicle’s pioneer vhf KRON-TV. Whei'e NBC is going to acquire the 2 uhf it has stated it would, is anybody’s guess, held up possibly by the San Francisco situation. Nor has CBS yet indicated where it plans its second uhf. Either one may be behind the new