Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1952)

8 Telecasting Notes: Hates are going up, but actual cost of telecasting time has decreased 72% since 1949, said CBS-TV’s Edward Shurick before Baltimore AAAA chapter last week. He showed that night costs, due to great increase in receivers, have gone down from $8.68 to $2.40 per 1000 viewers . . . “Summer Hiatus” titles new DuMont programming plan involving special summer rates, free feature films with each purchase of series of features or shorts, other film packages, being offered to affiliates, sponsors, agencies . . . Success stories of 196 TV sponsors are digested in Sponsor Magazine' s 1952 edition of TV Results, just published; companion Radio Results gives 189 case histories of radio successes . . . Regent Cigarettes shifting its $1,500,000 ad budget from Brooke, Smith, French & Dorrance to Hilton & Riggio agency April 15 following decision to drop alternate week sponsorship of Cameo Theatre on NBC-TV and buy 3 spots weekly on Today (Vol. 8:13) ... CBS-TV scored beat on President Truman’s unexpected announcement March 29 that he would not run for re-election, being only TV network to carry JeffersonJackson day speech; all radio networks carried it . . . Atomic blast will be televised direct from Nevada proving grounds for first time sometime this month if networks can arrange relay facilities; AEC has given okay . . . Remote telecasts from 16 Southern California community fairs will be regular 2-hour Saturday afternoon summer series on KTTV, Los Angeles, beginning April 19, titled KTTV Goes to The Fair . . . Film stars Charles Boyer, Rosalind Russell, Dick Powell, Joel McCrea and Robert Cummings have signed to make half-hour TV films for Isaac Levy’s Official Films Inc.; Cummings will star in Robert Cummings Show, others will appear alternately in Four Star Playhouse . . . TV rights to 18 films, most of them fairly recent, acquired from United Artists by George Bagnall & Associates, Hollywood . . . College credit courses will be offered this summer by U of Omaha on KMTV, Omaha; 5 quarter-hour “classes” weekly, station absorbing all costs . . . New 5% tax has been slapped on gross receipts from TV-radio rights to prizefights in Virginia . . . Pay raise of l/i% given 1200 New York CBS office workers April 2, subject to WSB approval . . . CBS-TV and Los Angeles Press Photographers Assn, sponsoring “TV City Photographic Contest” for best amateur and professional photos of network’s new Hollywood studios . . . Margaret Truman renews contract with NBC for 1952-53 season, calling for 9 guest appearances . . . Edward Petry & Co. TV div. is publishing A Handbook of TV Advertising , which it will make available on request . . . NBC-Radio Rate Card No. 34, just out, covers all changes up to March 15. CBS-TV took justifiable umbrage at April 4 leadingarticle in Wall Street Journal, replete with erroneous statements, reporting that “rash of sponsor cancellations” has hit TV networks and that "more of the same may be on the way.” “High-climbing cost of video shows and a conviction among some advertisers that regular network programs are not the best way to promote their products,” were given as reasons for alleged wave of program washouts. NBC-TV, also sore, didn’t deign to reply, but CBSTV sales v.p. Fred Thrower, commenting on alleged dropouts (some dropping shows but retaining time), said such “shifting around” of clients was normal for this time of year. CBS-TV is at all-time high right now, he said, with time sales for first 2 months 95.7% ahead of last year [see PIB figures, p. 16] — not including added $5,000,000 in new business just signed, which embraces 11 quarter hours sold to Lever Bros, and Pillsbury. CBS-TV night schedule, he added, is now virtually sold out, with only 3% evening hours per week for sale, meaning 84 quarter hours of commercial programming at present. Daytime is almost double: 67 quarter hours per week now vs. 35 in 1951. Network Accounts: Pillsbury Mills Inc. (Cake Mix, Pie Mix) will sponsor 2:45-3 Mon.-thru-Thu. segments and Lever Bros. (Surf) 3:15-3:30 Mon. -Wed. -Thu. portions of Art Linkletter’s House Party when it starts Sept. 1 on CBS-TV, Mon.-thru-Fri. 3-3:30; Pillsbury agency is Leo Burnett, Lever’s is N. W. Ayer . . . Mystic Foam Corp. (rug & household cleansers) April 9 starts Wed. 8:15-8:20 segment of Today on NBC-TV, Mon.-thru-Fri. 7-9 a.m., thru Carpenter Adv., Cleveland . . . Pearson Pharmacal Co. (Ennds deodorant pills) April 7 becomes sponsor of Lights Out on NBC-TV, Mon. 9-9:30, thru Harry B. Cohen Adv. . . . Hazel Bishop Inc. (lipstick) April 2 started Your Prize Story on NBC-TV, Wed. 10-10:30, thru Raymond Spector, N. Y. . . . Aluminum Co. of America will use Draw Your Own Conclusions as summer replacement for Ed Murrow’s See It Now on CBS-TV, Sun. 6:30-7 (new time starting April 20) . . . Pepsi-Cola Co. April 19 drops Faye Emerson’s Wonderful Town on CBS-TV, Sat. 9-9:30, but will retain time for unannounced program. Station Accounts: First all-night TV schedule, Swing Shift Theatre, begun March 17 on Pittsburgh’s WDTV (Vol. 8:11), is off to flying start, reports sales mgr. Larry Israel. Full-length film feature starting 1 a.m. is sponsored Mon. by Rand Drug Stores (chain), Tue. by Brewing Co. of America (Carlings), Wed. by Charles Antell (hair lotion), Thu. by Central Drug Co. (chain), Fri. by R. M. Hollingshead Co. (auto accessories), Sat. by Herbert’s Jewelry Co. Spots are also scattered through night, sold in packages of 10, carried in succeeding programs which are Superman or Flash Gordon serials, then full-length westerns, features, shorts, alternating to 6 a.m. Rates are 15% below Class C. Schedule is aimed at defense workers quitting work at midnight, has won such favorable response that WDTV management thinks it can also be made to pay off in other industrial cities . . . Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., one of nation’s biggest, signs to sponsor Sunday baseball scores on WPTZ, Philadelphia, advertising for specialized labor and technicians, thru Benjamin Eshleman Co., Philadelphia . . . CIO starts Issues of the Day Api'il 18 on WMAL-TV, Washington, Fri. 10:30-10:45 p.m., may go on other stations later, thru Henry J. Kaufman & Associates, Washington . . . Palm Beach Co., subsidiary of Goodall-Sanford (men’s suits) using WLWT, Cincinnati, with 1-min. & 20-sec. spots, daily 12:20-1 a.m. Night Owl, Tue. Family Theatre, Sun. 15min. Goodall Sports, totaling more than 5 hours per week, may also try similar “saturation” campaigns in other markets, all thru Ruthrauff & Ryan, Chicago . . . Jewel Food Stores buys Noontime Comics on WNBQ, Chicago, Mon.-thru-Fri. 12-12:30, Johnny Coons narrating oldtime comedy films; 52-week order was placed by Herbert S. Laufman & Co., Chicago . . . Tidewater Oil Co. (petroleum products), thru Lennen & Mitchell, and Melville Shoe Corp. (Thom McAn shoes), thru Neff-Rogow, will share sponsorship of Happy Felton’s Talk to the Stars after Bi-ooklyn Dodgers games on WOR-TV, New York . . . Among other advertisers reported using or preparing to use TV: Wellington Fund (investment trust service), thru Doremus & Co., Philadelphia; Table Talk Pastry Co. Inc. (pies & cakes), thi’u Reingold Co. Inc., Boston; N. Y. State Dept, of Commerce (vacation booklet), thru BBDO, N. Y.; Coty Inc. (instant beauty liquid base), thru Franklin Bruck Adv. Corp., N. Y. Complaint against American Television Laboratories Inc. (U.A. Sanabria), charging misrepresentation in sale of TV-radio correspondence courses, was dismissed this week by Federal Trade Commission. FCC’s report on 1951 AM-FM revenues and expenses, due next week, will show that in 5-6 top markets TV revenues exceeded radio for first time.