Television digest and FM reports (Jan-Dec 1946)

m GRAFTS, SLOW BUT STEADY; FCC granted only 8 CPs for FM this v/eek (Supplement No. 41B herewith), bringing total to 239, but the rate of grants is now dependent largely on applicants themselves. For the Commission says it is caught up and acts almost immediately when sufficient data is submitted — unless, of course, application is av/aiting a hearing decision. Conditional grantees (261 outstanding) are being prodded to supply requisite additional information (Vol. 2, No. 30) so that they can be moved into CP bracket. At other end of processing line, nev; application Influx (Supplement No, 14N herewith) is only fair — 21 arriving since publication of our Supplement No. 14M. Eleven are new to radio, 4 are newspapers, of v/hich only Scripps-Howard (for Knoxville) is already in AM. SPDHSSBS GRAB OFF FOOTBALL TV: Not only best time segments on existing TV stations but exclusive video rights to ma.ior sports events, are quarry in scramble for early telecasting advantages already discernible among ad agencies and their clients. Fulfilling forecasts that sports will be backbone of TV programming, two football sponsorships have just been signed. Ford Motor Co . , which has tied up Madison Square Garden sports except boxing (Vol. 2, No. 51), has purchased video rights to Columbia U grid schedule on WCBW-CBS, through J. Walter Thompson Co., will make TV debut next month with telecast of rodeo from Garden. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has purchased N. W. Ayer's football package, consisting of 7 of Army's 8 contests and 3 NYU or Fordham games over WNBT-NBC. Five of Army's games will be from West Point, for which relay will be installed. Army-Navy classic from Philadelphia is excluded since Maxon is expected to tie it up for Gillette. GE's WRG3, Schenectady, hopes to get grid games from WNBT, depending on results with new relay system; it has no mobile equipment for local pickups yet. Don Lee Is currently negotiating for telecasts of big games in Los Angeles area. ABC also has grid deal on fire, hopes to be ready with announcement this week end. ABC's 35 mm short of National Gold Cup motorboat races, set for Aug. 31-Sept. 2 at Detroit, will be sponsored by Texas Co., making its TV debut, over Dumont's New York and Washington stations (WABD and WTTG) , plus ’WRGB, Schenectady, and WBKB, Chicago. Deal involves almost |3,000 for production, with outlets showing film gratis. With some TV sets due on market about time grid season begins, football is expected to give art big boost since it is particularly well adapted to telecasting — much more so than baseball, though even latter has its current vogue^ (over WNBT and WBKB). ra PAYS ITS WAY m TEXAS: V/hen and hov; can FM be made to pay? V/ell, here's a v/hiz of a story of commercial enterprise reported to us this week from Houston, where dealers count only about 50 FM receivers in town to date. Yet dynamic Roy Hofheinz, who at 21 was a county judge, is now co-ov/ner of KTHT and KTHT-FM, has already done these things: (1) Got a conditional grant from FCC Aug. 1; (2) went on air under STA exactly 17 days later, using composite 250-watt transmitter v/ith 27-ft. triple turnstile atop 90-ft. pole pending Aug. 31 delivery of 1 kw job; (3) starts commercial operation Aug. 31, noon-10 p.m. , v/ith 6 top-grade sponsors; (4) has enough assured revenue first month to make FM outlet pay own way easily. Sponsors are transit com.pany, bank, department store, furniture dealer plus (ever willing to push FM) Zenith and Stromberg-Carlson. Each pays S17.50 pe hour per day for institutional plugs only, at 15 minute intervals. Programs all feature fine music, none duplicating AM. Three of sponsors never before used raco. Revenue assured from 180_hours sold: $5,150. Future prospects; "Great," says Hofheinz. How he did it; personally sold sponsors on idea of being first to use FM in Texas, on appealing to music lovers with high fidelity, on "growing up" wi i their audiences, on doing it at small cost compared to promotional and good-will value. Scripps-Howard' s Houston Press is pitching in with publicity, foreseeing recrudescence of lush radio manufacturers' space advex't ising accounts of one and two decades ago. Interest will be stimulated by locating receivers in sponsor showrooms, local clubs, public gathering places.