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

6 TGlGCSSliliy NoIGS! One sponsor buying 17% hours weekly on one station — that’s report from KTTV, Los Angeles, where Thrifty Drug Stores chain has just added 10^^ hours of programs, its budget now running about $16,000 a week (see also Station Accounts) . . . Apace with NBC-TV network plans to expand TV day to past midnight, also to start at 7 a.m. weekdays, its owned-&-managed stations are already widening schedules: WNBQ, Chicago, reports sale of 12-1:15 a.m., Mon.-thru-Fri., to Alan Industries, furniture & radio-appliance group, for feature movies — making station’s total TV week 120 hours . . . Pittsburgh’s WDTV now signing on at 9 a.m. daily . . . Actual church services in New York Catholic, Jewish & Protestant churches will be telecast Sundays, 10-11 p.m., on rotation basis, in series arranged by WPIX . . . One-hour operas start on NBC-TV Oct. 4, to be carried once monthly 11-12 midnight EST; other dates are Nov. 1, Dec. 6, Jan. 3, Feb. 7, March 6, April 3, May 1. NBC-TV also preparing 10min. opera segments for Kate Smith shows . . . Shubert show properties, including many dramas, musicals, short sketches, reported up for sale for TV uses . . . Eastman Kodak estimates TV this year will use 300-350,000,000 feet of film, mostly black-&-white 16mm; it says 30% of all TV This encomium from one of the keenest and ablest observers of show business. Variety’s editor Abel Green, merits the attention of everyone concerned with TV. He puts into better words than most editorialists how “almost awesome in its potential’’ was the TV coverage of the Japanese peace treaty conference (Vol. 7:36). He titles his Sept. 12 editorial “The Eyes of the World.” Pertinent portions: “TV’s historical closeup on the Japanese Peace Treaty proceedings from San Francisco this past week make the Kefauver, MacArthur and kindred ‘shows’ look like road companies. Here was a big-power, parliamentary procedure that was the real thing. It was impressive in its unfolding, and almost awesome in its potentials. “Video’s omnipotent spotlight on public officials or the gimlet eye on suspected criminals in recent months — already remarkable as milestones in the technological progress of the new medium — were quickly capped by the first transcontinental hookup. ... It put power politics into sharp focus. It made Americans proud of our statesmanship. It spotlighted the hope that a world family of nations may yet be made to work. Just as it pinpointed a defeated aggressor swallowing its medicine, hoping to regain its economic position with dignity. And, above all, the iconoscope exposed the brashness and chicanery of the Soviet bloc for what it was — a dishonest, obstnictive but shrewd enemy who knows that we know his game, and also knows that we know that we must go along playing that game until we are better equipped to play the only other game a militant power understands — a superior force of arms. “All that General Sarnoff predicted about ‘entertainment being but one segment of television’ was never so fruitfully and dramatically depicted as via the proceedings from the San Francisco Memorial Hall. . . . “Showfolk, hyper-attuned to the dramatic, are the first to be heard exclaiming that they are ‘still amazed by the magic’ of modern science development. TV’s showcase of life, in all its manifestations, must remain a neverending marvel. It may be added that TV’s progress from the very beginning has been made more palatable under the aegis and flavoring of a show-wise treatment and presentation. . . .” ■ Next NBC affiliates convention set for Nov. 26 at Boca Raton (Fla.) Hotel & Club. production is already on film, with proportion steadily increasing . . . NBC’s 25th anniversary is celebrated Sept. 20 simultaneously with New York Herald Tribune’s 75th, with all-star cast on NBC-TV between halves of newspaper’s annual Fresh Air Fund football game — New York Giants vs. Los Angeles Rams from Polo Grounds. But game itself is to be carried only on theatre TV . . . Ad-packed special TV section of Johnstown Tribune Sept. 10 celebrates second anniversary of its WJAC-TV, notes growth of receivers in area from 22,000 as of July 1, 1950 to 103,000 as of Aug. 1, 1951 . . . Ultra-modern TV-radio center for Kansas City Star’s WDAF & WDAF-TV will be completed by early spring or summer, floor space in present radio building being trebled to provide for expansion, including 40x60-ft. TV studio . . . San Antonio’s KEYL, whose $1,050,000 sale to George Storer interests pends FCC approval (Vol. 7:30), joins CBS-TV Dec. 11 as exclusive affiliate . . . WJAC-TV, Johnstown, Pa., shifts representation to Katz Sept. 26, making it that firm’s 17th; former rep was Headley-Reed . . . WCAU-TV, Philadelphia (Rate Card No. 7), raises base hour rate from $1200 to $1500, one-min. from $220 to $300; effective Sept. 16 . . . NBC-TV has leased Colonial Theatre, 1000-seat movie house at Broadway & 62nd St. THEATRE-TV PROPONENTS are expected to ask FCC not to set technical standards for theatre telecasting — just to allocate frequencies. This appeared probable after meeting in New York Sept. 10 at which movie exhibitors and producers thrashed out strategy for hearing scheduled to start Nov. 26. They feel that standards — lines, fields, color systems, etc. — could best be settled among themselves, since no vast number of sets is involved as in home TV. All are looking toward color as a natural for any theatre-TV system, but they’i'e anxious not to bring current color dispute into FCC hearing. Film and theatre folk have their pro-CBS and pro-RCA factions — 20th Century is already embarked on project involving CBS color and Swiss Eidophor projection system (Vol. 7:29). Others favor RCA system, feel that one of FCC’s principal objections to it — complexity and high cost of equipment — isn’t valid insofar as theatre TV is concerned, whether or not such objections are still valid for home sets. Movie exhibitors and producers agreed to push for band of frequencies 360-mc wide to accommodate 6 “circuits,” each composed of two 30-mc channels which would carry 10-mc video signal. Engineering committee, appointed to make further study and prepare technical testimony for presentation to FCC: Frank McIntosh & Andrew Ingles, representing Motion Picture Assn.; C. M. Jansky & Stuart Bailey, Theatre Owners of America; Earl Sponable, 20th Century-Fox; Paul Raibourn, Paramount; Frank Cahill Jr., Warner Bros.; David W. Atchely Jr., United Paramount Theatres. Petition by 20th Century-Fox to broaden hearings to include possibility of theatre-TV operations on alreadyassigned industrial frequencies (Vol. 7:36) wasn’t enthusiastically received by others at New York conference, but some expressed private opinions that idea will be good one to fall back on in event FCC refuses to allocate channels for exclusive use of theatres. Benton bill hearings (Vol. 7:36) remain suspended, no date set for resumption. There’s possibility Sen. Benton’s proposals to establish 11-man TV-radio program advisory board and to foster subscription TV may not get further hearing this season, since Senate Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee starts crime-communications hearing Sept. 19-20 and Senate is straining for Oct. 1 recess.