Television digest with AM-FM reports (Jan-Dec 1951)

6 Station Accounts: Snow Crop Marketers is switching from network nighttime (NBC-TV’s Sahirday Night Revue) to local daytime TV with half-hour filmed show to be placed in about 40 cities one or two afternoons weekly, starting next month, thru Maxon Inc., N. Y. . . . Curtis Publishing Co. w'hich has been sponsoring Tex & Jinx McCrary New York Closeup on WNBT, Wed. 6:30-6:55 is buying other TV markets for show, thru BBDO . . . Latest merchandising stunt, cashing in on Hopalong Cassidy popularity, is children’s savings clubs being worked out by Bar 20 Inc., Chicago, franchise holder, with promotional package being assembled by Bozell & Jacobs. Individual banks will be franchised in each city, with children being encouraged to join thru commercials on 63 TV stations carrying Hoppy movies . . . Los Angeles Evening Herald & Express will use series of filmed TV messages to promote $35,000 circulation contest, thru C. B. Juneau Inc. . . . Getting viewers to tell about their most prized possessions is tied in with display of rare jewels and commentary on them by authorities in new Gem Session on WTOP-TV, Washington, Mon. 7-7:15, sponsored by Charles Schwartz & Sons, jewelry store, thru Kronstadt Agency . . . Vim Television & Appliance Stores, New York chain, March 10 will start new show on WCBS-TV, starring violinist Flo rian ZaBach, Mon. 11-11:15, thru Frederick-Clinton Co Wine Growers Guild (Guild wine) March 2 starts new filmed series Front Page Detective on KTTV, Los Angeles; WABD, New York; WXEL, Cleveland; WGN-TV, Chicago; KGO-TV, San Francisco; WCAU-TV, Philadelphia, thru Guild, Bascom & Bonfigli Adv., San Francisco . . . Among other advertisers currently reported using or preparing to use TV: Fisher Bros. Co. (Fisher foods), thru GriswoldEshleman Co., Cleveland; Glenwood Range Co. (ranges, washers, refrigerators), thru John C. Dowd Inc., Boston; Drake America Corp. (food importers), thru Colman, Prentis & Varley, N. Y.; G. R. Kinney Co. (Educator footwear), thru Gordon Baird Associates, N. Y.; Apple Distillers Ltd. (Apple Vat 36), New York, thru Ben B. Bliss Inc., N. Y.; U. S. Fifth Army (recruiting), thru Schoenfeld, Huber & Green Ltd., Chicago; Oakite Products Inc. (cleaners), thru Calkins & Holden, Carlock, McCilton & Smith, N. Y.; Parsons Ammonia Co. (Parsons’ Sudsy ammonia), thru Brisacher, Wheeler & Staff, N. Y.; Boyer Bros. Inc. (MalloCup candy bar), thru Hening & Co., Philadelphia; General Foods (Post Krinkles), thru Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago; Southern Biscuit Co., thru Lindsey & Co., Richmond; National Textile & Chemical Laboratory (Pernia Starch), thru Henri Hurst & McDonald, Chicago; Prince Macaroni Mfg. Co., thru H. C. Rossi Adv., N. Y.; Seapak Corp. (frozen seafoods), thru Gordon Baird Associates, N. Y. * * * * “TV Heaven,” where video fan Virgil H. Ruppenthal pulls in 15 TV (and 60 FM) stations, was subject of Feb. 11 illustrated Sunday AP feature. “Heaven” is $10,000 “shack” built by Cumberland juke-box distributor Ruppenthal atop Dan’s Rock (elev. 3000 ft.), highest point in western Maryland. Where co-channel interference occurs, Ruppenthal brings in the station he wants by means of directional antennas placed on opposite sides of a boulder, which blocks out unwanted signals. He claims perfect reception on 6 channels, with other 9 giving “perfect reception only about 95% of the time.” Ruppenthal’s “Heaven” is about 190 air miles from Philadelphia, 170 mi. from Wilmington, 160 mi. from Richmond, 135 mi. from Lancaster, 130 mi. from Baltimore, 100 mi. from Washington, 85 mi. from Pittsburgh, 50 mi. from Johnstown. FCC last year ran 400 me. tropospheric tests from Dan’s Rock. Criticizing Big Ten TV ban, Ohio House of Representatives Feb. 14 passed 39-36 resolution demanding Ohio State U permit televising of all football — at home and away. Telecasting Notes: Films “actively booked in the past I year” by theatres are to be sponsored on KLAC-TV, Los Angeles, by Hoffman Radio Corp. Among them: The Macomber Affair, with Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett, Robert Preston; Girl from Manhattan, with Dorothy Lamour, Charles Laughton, George Montgomery; The Crooked Way, with John Payne, Ellen Drew, Sonny Tufts; The Chase, with Robert Cummings, Michele Morgan, Peter Lorre . . . Daytime New York Yankee games, Ballantinesponsored, will be carried by both W^ABD and WPIX, but only by latter at night — DuMont having night time network commitments. WPIX has 5-year contract to carry games, beginning next year, since DuMont dropped option. WPIX will also carry Giants (Chesterfields) for third consecutive year . . . CharlesWalcott fight, in Detroit March 7, 10 p.m., will be sponsored on CBS-TV by Pabst, which did same for Charles-Louis fight in September and LaMottaRobinson bout Feb. 14 . . . Hooper plans expansion to “all major cities” of city-by-city TV & radio program ratings, giving monthly reports, most ready by October . . . Interchange of ideas by 14 southern TV stations, via monthly confidential letters, is proposed by Lee Ruwitch, WTVJ, Miami. Similar plan is used by Assn, of Independent Metropolitan Stations (AM) . . . Two new studios, one with model kitchen, have been completed by WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee, as part of $200,000 expansion program. Station now has 4 studios and will soon finish 2-story, 86x35-ft. addition which is to be used for TV scenery storage . . . Telecasts of Kefauver Committee hearings on crime in Detroit last week, over WWJ-TV and V/JBK-TV, had bartenders reporting attendance rivaling that achieved by World Series . .' . Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles, is picking up regular 10 p.m. TV newscast from KLAC-TV, projecting it on screen via theatre-TV equipment; commercials remain . . . Novel survey by New York’s WOR-TV comprises station breaks asking viewers to write in and express AM preferences — what they’d like to hear on radio and when . . . KTSL, Los Angeles, Feb. 20 raises base hourly rate from $600 to $900, one-minute announcements from $120 to $190 . . . WCAU-TV, Philadelphia, March 1 raises base rate from $900 to $1200, announcements from $150 to $220. * * * * TV film will be $10,000,000 business in New York area alone this year, in opinion of Robert L. Lawrence, v.p. of Jerry Fairbanks’ East Coast branch, while Fairbanks himself ventures the belief that 1200 hours of TV film will be • shot this year — twice output of entire Hollywood movie industry. TV’s appetite for film, even -with mere 107 stations, is well-covered in Feb. 12 Netvsweek which illustrates < success of films by pointing out that Amos ’n’ Andy will start (June, CBS-TV) on film, that Fireside Theater (NBC-TV) is third most popular TV show, that Groucho Marx (NBC-TV) gains greatly in film editing, etc. Such successes, magazine says, have even encouraged some to deprecate need for coast -to-coast networks. But growth of films-for-TV has been rough: “Since the TV Neanderthal days of 1946, upward of 800 promoters had tried to set up the business of making TV film. Most of them had closed up shop with the first rent bill. For movies made by Hollywood standards were at first more expensive than live shows.” i Denver-San Francisco microwave link of AT&T’s transcontinental TV-telephone network, comprising 37 stations, is now under construction. AT&T reported that whole Omaha-San Francisco hookup should be ready for ^ telephone by summer, for TV late this year. Stations aver . age 32 miles apart in last leg, with highest on 10,000-ft. j Mt. Rose, near Reno. I