Variety (Jul 1946)

Wednesday, July 24, 1946 flABIO 87 FCC Prying Into Permits to See If FMs in Woodpile Washington, July 23. The FCC is readying questionaires to holders of FM station permits on conditional grants, , to see whether they are actually, moving ahead to get their stations on the air. Move is part of FCC's campaign to see that FM gets under way faster and that standard broadcasters aren't .using FM franchises as long- . term insurance against the day that AM starts becoming a drug on the market, Spot check among broadcasters showed that even with FM grants in their pocket, a lot of licensees haven't exercised ordinary ingenuity in getting ■ approval of the Civilian Production Board to put up FM. affiliates. Commission records show there are 160 companies with FM construction permits: 174: others have received FCC okays to order equipment, and 460 other companies have conditional grants ■ which re- quire more information. Pratt Vice foil In Petrillo Suit Washington, July 23. Attorney General Tom. Clark will announce this week appointment of John S. Pratt to replace J. Matthew Woll as Government prosecutor in the Dept. of Justice's pending suit against Petrillo and his AFL musi- cians'union. Clark acted, it was understood, to free the department's-suit against Petrillo fr«m any criticism of "preju- dice or favor" up on Capitol Hill. Rep. Clarence Lea of California, author of the. bill under which Petrillo is being prosecuted, had called on Clark to replace Woll. who is son of AFL's second v.p. Although Woll earlier insisted he would stay ■ on the job, and the National Assn. of Broadcasters informally told the Justice . Dept. they were satisfied with his appointment, Clark, it was revealed, wanted to make his peace with Capitol Hill. Pratt, who will take over Wbll's job. is a. trial specialist in Justice's Criminal Division. At the same time, the 1 Department'is naming two co-counsels to work with him on the case. They are: Irvin Goldstein, an attorney in. the criminal division specializing in FCC violations, and Robert Sterne, of the Solicitor Gen- eral's office and an expert in con- stitutional proceedings. . Petrilio's counsel filed a motion to dismiss the Government's criminal information against him in Chicago last.Monday, but has until Aug. 5 to file a supporting brief; The Gov- ernment's reply brief must be sub- mitted by Sept 9. KQW'sSaletoCBS, FM Grants in D.C., Set For Argument July 30 Washington, July 23. FCC last week called for oral ar- gument here July 30 on FM station grants for Washington, D. C, and the proposed purchase of Station KQW, San Francisco, by CBS. Commission earlier issued pro- posed findings denying CBS the right to buy KQW on the ground it might create "undue concentration of con- trol" of standard broadcast facilities. Net already owns outright six clear- channel stations and 'regional outlet WEEI, Boston. Both CBS and Ralph, Mott and Sherwood Brunton, present owners of KQW, asked FCC for oral argument in an effort, to win final approval for the sale. At the same time, WWDC, local station, here, sought oral argument on FM grants in. Washington in at- tempt to reverse the Commission's BMB SEMINARS TIE RESEARCHES DOWN Broadcast Measurement Bureau Inc.; having amassed data at a cost, of' $1,230,000 to its subscribers, is now ready to tell its customers what to do With the mass of material which BMB will start releasing come next October. . In order to tie the research down to practical matters,. BMB will start a series of seminars at its N. Y. h.q. today (Wed.). Advertisers and agencies have been invited to the sessions as well as retailers, stations, networks, and station reps. Philip Frank, executive secretary of BMB, will discuss practical appli- cation of the BMB data with those who attend. Sessions will be held every Wednesday afternoon through Aug. 28. The seminars will take up specific problems of application of the data to be published in Station' Audience Report which is being distributed to individuals stations in October; as well as the materials to be included in the forthcoming U. S. Area re port and network book. Philadelphia—Horace Wade, for mer Mutual sports gabber, has been signed by WFIL to handle. broad- casts from New Jersey's three horse racetracks. He started yesterday •Mon.) airing races from the new track near Atlantic City. CBS' Hooper Hurrah With 3.5 the mid-July median for all commercial, programming, on all networks,.according to the latest Hooper tallies, CBS is cur- rently engaged in some mild handsprings over the. 6,0 and better ratings registered by some of the new "house built" sus- tainers. Network points with pride to Milton Berle's 6.7; Arthur God- frey's ("Talent Scout" show) 6.2, and Jack Kirkwood's 6.0. earlier ruling barring it from FM operation here. FCC has awarded permits to eight bidders—WMAL, WOL,. WINX, WRC, Commercial Radio Equipment Co., Ted Granik, Metropolitan Broadcasting Co. and Potomac Broadcasting Co. Commis- sion proposed to refuse permits to WWDC and the Chesapeake Broad- casting Co. _ The commission refused CBS the right to come in on the oral argu- ment, Arm tfrth Discusses Swiss Radio, Reports AU-Around Need for Hypo By ARTHUR BRONSON Demands for reorganization of the Swiss radio service are increasing, now that the govt, is jacking up the tax on receiving sets from 15 Swiss francs, (f3.75) to 24 fr. (6) a year. Although all European countries are having their radio problems now, the case of Switzerland—according to Dr. Arno Huth, authority on in- ternational radio, who recently ar- rived in the U. S. after six. years in Geneva—is unique. The country has a problem nio other nation has. It has three languages, and three cul- tures, with . different tastes, tradi- tions, etc., necessitating different types of programs for . its various language groups. Switzerland has three transmitters, one at Beromunster for the German language, one at Sottens for French, and at Monte Ceneri for Italian. The country has six studios, pro- grams, originating in Berne, Basle aijd Zurich in German, in Lausanne and Geneva, in French, and in Lugano in Italian, In addition there is a shortwave transmitter at Schwartzenburg. A central organi- zation, the Societe Suisse de Radio- diffusion, operates the entire service, being a semi-official organization, un- der govt, control'. There is a strong • attack now in Switzerland, according to Huth, against govt control (as elsewhere in Europe), listeners demanding less control and more varied programs. As is now, each language group gets just one. program,- and lias no other (Continued on page 44) illiilSSli it 1* mm '0U with Our President? Yesterday, Our President lunched with a top agency executive who knows his networks. To the consternation of O.P., he d iscovered that his friend's conception of Mutual dated way back to 1945! So what else could O.P. do but tell the story of today's Mutual (today being July 23). Among other things O.P. pointed out that... * Mutual added 46 stations in important markets in the past year. * Many Mutual outlets in major markets (such as Washington, Minneapolis, Jack- sonville, Pittsburgh and Canton) are going to more power and will enter more homes. WLW, KOB and WNAX are now carrying Mutual programs. . * Further improvements are around the* bend, in about 15 major markets. * The increasing popularity of Mutual's more than 200 single-station markets has revised old coverage ideas. * Mutual is continuing to sell tested pro- grams to alert sponsors. Typical of these are: Queen For A Day, Special Investiga- tor,Twenty Questions, House Of Mystery, Real Stories, True Detective Mysteries, Mystery Is My Hobby and Nick Carter. * We have many other low-cost sponsor- able shows, such as "Married For Life," "True Confessions," "Leave It To The Girls," "Alexander's Mediation Board." * In the past year, 19 advertisers increased to Full Network — including, a few who. are taking a summer vacation,, but will come back full blast. There was much more that O.P. told his friend. For instance, he pointed.out thai the World's Largest Network is the Nation's Least Expensive network buy— an important consideration in these days of rising distribution costs. He empha- sized that your problems are Mutual's problems because our success depends on your success on our network. As Our President can only eat one lunch- eon a day, he is deputizing our 25 sales- men to take some of you to luncheon and to feed you these and other statistics along with meat and potatoes. These salesmen will try and get the point over to you that in these "new model" days, it is the "new model" Mutual which will give you more for your money. Bn System