Variety (Sep 1946)

32 Tfil.KVlS10?f-RAD10 Wednesday, September 18, 1946 Everybody, Induding Video, Going Through Motions on New Louis Bout SpeoLiUUion that television take, 9- ,gfoal slice out ot the receipts-at lap' sports . events expected to receive much of a test ■tonight (Wednesday) when NBC will televise the Joe'Louis-Tami Mauri- ello heavyweight championship fight from Yankee Stadium, N. Y. Just as the telecast of the Conn- I.ouis fight last June tied on to the general ballyhoo given the fight it- self, and so gave video its most im- portant boost to date, so interest in tonight's transmission is eliciting as little interest as the actual event at the Stadium. Fight has received hardly a line of publicity or straight copy in even the N.Y. dailies and, with promotei" Mike Jacobs charging only a $30 top, prospects of a gate gross totaling anywhere near that taken in at the June aflfair looli stim-; ■ NBG will make. fight available 'to just as many viewers as were able to look in on the Conn-lLouis bout, but it's expected the number will come nowhere near the record esti-. mate of 300,000 who watched that one. In addition to WNBT, the web's N. Y. tele outlet, the fight will be carried by WRGB (GE, Schenec- tady), WPTZ (Philco, Philadelphia) and WTTG (DuMont, Washington). Radio relay transmission will carry the images to Schenectady, while they'll travel to Philly and Wash- ington over the Bell System's coax- ial cable. Telecast is sponsored by Gillette Safety Razor through the Maxon agency, under the deal signed will I last June by N6C, Gillette and Ja- gate I cobsi' , ■' ■ r ,. . Instead of the five cameras viifcd isn t by NBC on the Conn-Louis . fight, only two cameras will be used thi.< .| time. Both have the RCA, Image , Orthicon tubes and the newly-de- | vised turret lenses,, permitting four | different-length shots with a single ; camera. Scanners will be placed 83 , feet from ringside in the right field j section of the Stadium. I Bob Stanton, NBC's ace tele sports announcer, is slated to handle the blow-by-blow commentary. Inter- views with ringside personalities, conducted between rounds, at the last big. fight by Ben Grauer, have been discarded for this event. by NBC because of the general lack of interest:'in the bout. Between-round spots will be given over to Gillette commercials, or the cameras will re- 1 main fpcuseti on the fighters to give viewers a chance; to watch them being worked over by their handlers. Mut. . LOU CLAYTON UNIT£U BISXAIX DRCG CO. VrJday—CHS—»>S0 p.m., KIIT M-<i-SI—"Thin Tim» for Kevits" ''It HaVpelifd hi Itroaklyu" Roberts, Micket Quit IBD Two more top execs of the U. S. State Dept.'s International Broad- casting Division (combining the shortwave operations of the former OWI and Office of Inter-American Affairs), have resigned. They are Wilfred Roberts, associate chief of the division, and Werner Michel, chief of the program branch. Roberts has been in Government broadcasting since 1942, when . he joined OIAA. Previously, he was national production manager for NBC. Michel, who's been with OWI from the beginning, is going to CBS as a producer-director. His first assignment will be the Wednesday show of American School of the Air, tabbed "March of Science." Michel's.place is being taken over on an "acting" basis by Mucio F. 1 Delgado, who had been in charge of I Latin American .. broadcasts for ! OIAA. Ziv Plans Packaged Film Shows as Tele Version Of Radio's EI. Service Frederick W. Ziv, the transcrip- ! lion outfit, has begun long-range planhuiR prior, to steppiii.J! iuto tclo- vi.'ii.on . as a protlucer of packaged aim programs; for video, While; no actual prbgfanri plans have begun as yet;; Ziv Coast reps; art', currently; [ studying motion pictui'e. production] atid^ techni^yes as background for video programming. I Platter company execs have ex- pressed opinion that the majority of dramatic and variety programs in the future of television will be turned in order to cut costs and ob- | tain the greatest coverage, and tlvat their experience in the radio tran- .scription field equips them to oper- ate a parallel business for video, es- pecially since they have the distribu- tion facilities already available. In Hollywood Ziv has been asso- ciated in the production of several low-budget pictures, notably with Monogram, in an attempt to edu- cate its producers for future tele- vision programming via films. While none of the: films have been major productions and Ziv's association in their making has not been important motion picture-wise, it's felt by the company that the experience gained from the association will be invalu- able in its television future. No concrete programming plans have been developed, nor will they be, according to company toppers, until there are enough stations in operation to- make production some> what profitable. They say that Ziv hasn't the wherewithal to make heavy cash layouts like those of nets and manufacturers without promise of reasonable return. Also, because their typo of show is tailored for the small bankroUer rather than the large national sponsor, the company must wait until outlets are in busi- ness in some of the smaller markets throughout the country before im- mediate plans are laid. Arrival of big corporations on the television scene as bankrollers has little effect on the video e.t. future. CBS Color Continued Irom jiage 30 Denver r- Western Air Lines, through West-Marquis, Inc., is spon- soring "CBS Morning News Round- up," over KLZ, at' 7 a.m. Monday I through Saturday. Contract is for 52 weeks^ Dallas—The FCC has given its ap- proval to the KRLD Radio Corp. for the operation of a television station here. Pending is application of the Interstate Theatres Circuit which has its equipment already set. up and ready for operation. ( YOUR GREAT OPPORTUNITY L HAS FINALLY COME ( TONIGHT YOU PLAY AT CARNEGIE HALL screen were also blurred. Scene showing two boxers was intended to demonstrate that there's no color breakup in fast action shots, making the system feasible for all remote sports events. Breakup was visible, however, if the viewer blinked his eyes or looked away from the screen for an instant. . , Images were to ,have been carried by coaxial cable fi'om the GfllS labs to thevtransmittier atop the Chrysler Tower, and then flashed back to the receiver. Coax, however, reportedly sprung a leak sometime during the day, so that the. pictures were .car- ried via straight line from the Ifibs to the viewing room, only two floors above. Film images were transmit- ted .successfully over the air last spring, and the live pictures would supposedly be just as clear under the same conditions. To achieve the bright pictures, which were clearly visible in the fully-lighted viewing room, CBS used a new aluminum-backed tube in the receiver that concentrates the light on the viowmg screen and pre- vents it from being dissipated into the interior of the set, Tube was made by the Rauland Corp. to CBS specifications. No Extra Cost Use of the color equipment for live studio shows will not add to produc- tion costs, according to Miner, since sets mu^ be painted in the same way for black-and-white video. In addition, he claimed, ' the color equipment requires less studio light- ing and less complexity in camera manipulation, since a camera can be held on one shot for a much longer time without the audience getting bored. This would do away with the necessity for continually cutting from one camera to another, he said. In line with this, CBS proxy Frank M. Stanton declared that the orthicon tube requires only one-half as much light as a standard black- and-white iconoscope, and disclosed that CBS is presently conducting live color tests with an Image Or- thicon tube that will require one-: tenth as much light as the orthicon. I.O. mobile equipment is presently being eon.strueted for CBS, Stanton said, which is .scheduled to be used for. remote pickups of outdoor sports and Madison Sq. Garden events by the end of the year. Demonstrations, Stanton said, round out CBS* color video equip- ment facilities and should enable the web to "broadcast in full color every conceivable type of television program." CBS has shown, he added, that "we have convincing empirical answers to the theoretical questions raised in certain quarters concerning the practicability of color television as a broadcasting service." Tele's Mexican Bow On XEIGC Hailed by Chief; Programs OneHr.aWk. Mexico City, Sept, 10. ■ Television has been succesisfully introduced to Mexico with the iiii auguaration of .station XEIGC hei-e, Gcii. J, Fernan,do . Rainiroz,' chiol -of the telecommunications section of the Ministry of. Communicatioris and Public Works, superintended the in- auguration, .which featured an hour of broadcasting. Station is in the headquarters of the Mexican Radio Experimenters League at Lucertia, No. 1. Programs are given tor an hour every Saturday night. Chief of the station is Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena; radio engineer.- He built the sending and receiving apparatus in Mexico. Gen. Ramirez said in the inauguration speech that XEIGC will popularize television in Mexico. Phil Lasky Drops Agcy., Returns to Dunun Firm San Francisco, Sept. 17." Wesley I. Dumra, prexy of Associ- ated Broadcasters, inc., has named Philip G. Lasky as veepee-general manager of the firm, which operates KSFO and shortwavers KWI0 and KWIX. Lasky is disassociating liim.^clf from the Lasky Co. ad agency which he organized with Wallace F. EUiottj and the latter takes over the ad- vertising business. With Lasky coming back to Dumm's organization, Rey V. Ham- ilton, former exec veepee of Assoei- ate<l, takes over ftilUime direction of Universal Broadcasting . Co. oE which Dumm is also presideint. NO.' I MUST STAY IN THE HOTEL AND LISTEN TO WOV's PRAIRIE STARS. AT 10:15 P. M., HEW YORKERS WHO LIKE OLD TIME MUSIC SWING THEIR DIALS TO WOV .. . ]t|ETROP«IJTAN, y«i . : i|,c luteal, ilWiM iinil .hislib "A concciiiriitnl meir<>|tulilan Mntcr In ihe world.' Yrt, Nc» Yorkeri are nol Hcccwurily MphlMlcaIn in Iheir rlioicc of mnk ■nd nitaiamBMnl. An exaaiiplc ia "Prairia Slara" with Bo«ali« I "VPf"""*' ">'«rla«i»g, ttearM altow that ha. •a d iiadl lo New York> vau ra<lw audiowc. And ii can, do » aellinx. joh far you ... Mendajr ihrougli Friday aVIOilS p,ni. , •''I'M N WEIL. 0.n.ial Min«5«, . .JOHN E 'CAISON CO, N<>l.l '!«p. Tele Reviews SB Continued frDm paee 30 may be a comedy, romance, murder mystery or adventure. A good program when first heard on the air over WENR a couple of months ago, the audappeal is en- hanced by television. Sydney Mason ably handles the emcee chores heck- ling the experts and .jumping the conversation over the hurdles. Jack Payne, short .story writer, developed first story, a comedy, with a string of hot-dogs for a prop. Dorothy Day, radio scripter, produced a touching love story from a pair of baby shoes and a telephone and Louis" Zara, best seller, dreamed up a mystery from a skull, a gun and a bunch of bananas. The whole thing has a lot of gepd chuckles especially from some of the histrionics the authors affect to dramatize their stories. The direction was good with ex- cellent cooperation from the camera m a combination of close and far shots to catch the expressions of the experts. This was one spontaneous program that planning and - a good emcee developed. LEE SEGALL'S GEEEN LIGHT Washington, Sept. 17. Lee Segall won FCC approval here la.st Thursday (12)- to set up in busi- ne.'is tis an operator of his own sta- tion in Houston, Tex. Segall, who now runs an ad agency in the town, will operate on the 1430 kc wave- length with 1 kw power, daytime :only. THROUGH A FINE Minneapolis — Vandals smashed 17 window pane.') at the home.of Stan- ley Hubbard, KSTP part owner and general manag-jr. He discovered the broken windows when he and his family retuMied home from spending a month at a lake resort. SALIENT FACT: OlclaAofflo's Dominant Station Is WKY Oklahoma City Owned and Operated by The Oklahomo Publishing Co* Representative The Katz Agency^ Inc.