Variety (Nov 1948)

WeAieiMblV Wovwalwaf 10, 1948 BAM* 27 PARUYING COIN WITH KNOW-IIOW Comedy Writer-Director Status Quo On Coast Leaves N.Y. TV Shdves Biffe With the top comedy shows in radio still emanating from the Coast (with no indication that the situation will change), and with Ifew York definitely established as the key' production center for i coiitedy-'yariety slanted television programs, the New York-berthed top radio directors and writers are becoming the salt of the TV earth. It would appear that, with the upped tele programming activity, the script«r$ and directors capable of translating their know-hqw into .'video are .conspicions by;.their ab- sence on the Gotham scene, About a year agOv the networks were drumming up the eventuality of simultaneous showcasing of top radio shows on television, which would have resulted in many Coast shows moving east. That would have solved the writeir-director problem in New York. " But the boys apparently guessed wrong on that one, for simultaneous AM-TV programming;; has played but a: small role in the TV picture, with little likelihood of a boom ex- pected. ' With but isolated exceptions, as in the case of the Kudner agency's Ed Cashman moving east for the two-way Texaco Star Theatre AM- TV spread, the status quo prevails. With the top comedy show writers and directors remaining on the Coast. The tele gap. in New York on that type of creative talent has yet to be filled. Th6 heightened bidding in re- cent weeks for such personalities as Irving Mansfield and Nat Hiken, who are permanently berthed in New York, has accented the situa- tion. Election Sponsors Get a Free Ride One-shot bankrolling of Election Night on the major radio and tele- vision networks^the first time ■ they've sold this public service—^ turned into the biggest sponsor free ride in broadcasting history. Nets had underpriced their Elec- tion Night packages, to begin with, evidently in the belief it was better to get partly oflf the hook than not at all, as in the past. They had counted, however, upon the vShow" , being well over liy midnight. As it turned out, of course, the show went on straight through the night and well into the following morning, with the sponsors, whose deals were effective lentil "signofi,'' getting hours more—in fact, virtu- ally triple—the amount of air time ; they had counted upon: It's impossible to calculate the actual time-and-talent value ol llie Election Night .shows, which ran f rom 11 to 14 hours, but it is a cer- tainty that, all told, it ran into .sev- eral hundreds of thousands of dol- lars more than the actual tabs. Chevrolet, for example, paid NBC about $135,000, and expected to get about four hours, but in- stead got 12. (Pact agreed • the sponsorship would be effective, "as long as public interest was main- tained" and the auto outfit could have held the net to it until 11:15 a.m., when Dewey conceded, but let web out of the obligation at 8 a. m.). Chewy conservatively got triple its money's worth, consider- ing the high-salaried talent which Went with the deal and the un- doubtedly large audience which kept tuned straight through. (Hooper checked listening only t6 11 p.m., but Nielsen and prob- ably al.so Sindlinger—latter in Phiiadelphia only-—may come up with reports on extent of the all- night dialing.) Chevvy's commercials during the 12-hout ride totaled up 10 30 min- utes 40 seconds. The story was similar on the other nets, with Nash Motors on CBS, and CBS-TV, I.ifc magazine nn NBCrTV, Kaiser-Fra.:er on ABC and ABC-TV. and Cuilis Publish- ing Co. on Mutual all collecting heavy bonuses from the upset. WNOE'sN(«rD Forum TIew Orleans, Nov. 9. WNOE is the first here to ap- point a public relations director in charge of Negro programs. Named to the post Wednesday (3) was O. C. W. Taylor, Negro school princi- .pal: ... He will act as moderator of a program to he known as the Negro Forum, presented each Sunday morning. The station will also add shortly I a 15-minute news and sports broad- 1 oast under the sponsorship of Gen- I eral Longshoremen Workers Union 1419, Negro. \ Taylor is the first Negro in the I city to handle a radio program. Buyer's Market For Stations; Prices Diving i ' Washington, Nov. 9. It's a buyer's mai'ket in broad- cast stations and the price of the outlets has. dived substantially in the past year, industry people say; Where a station sold for five times earnings before taxes a year ago, today the price is down to tiiree times earnings before taxes in tlie average deal. Situation sharpens up a point made in the proposed Hoover Com- mission report that the Federal Communications Commission be obliged to iwarn newcomers . into the field that they are liable to find themselves in an I economic buzz- saw. ■ . . , .; • Some industry people say that radio, like motion pictures, is cur- rently going through a shake-down and recession at a time when, in most American industry, profit is at an all-time high. It's, reported Irere that as many as 50% of the new stations which; have gone on. the air in the past year or so have been operating constantly m the red. Some are running out ot working capital and are expected to bC' in real trouble in coming months. Talk in Washington is that uP' wards of 100 AM Stations could be picked up immediately from own- ers if they could merely get out from under without suffering a loss. And as for KM stations, the feeling is that mosl.oC them can be had. Tliere is ahvay.s a buyer for a good; money-making station. Trouble is lliat opor,itors are hying to get rid of outlets which have never made: a dime and have, no particular pro.spects. Most o£ the new station owners, .say the industry biggie.Si dived into the broadcasting busines.s immed- iately after the war, in the belief that it was not only colorful busi- ness., but also offered fantastic profits. These people were fooled by 'the :wartime situation in which the lid was on and no new station.i could be built. At that time, the existing stations were offered more business than they could handle.; One reason was the paper shortage which diveried advci-lising from newspapers and magazines to broadcast stations. i FLING IN IV Washington, Nov. 9. -A plan to Interest banks and insurance companies in financing television stations for experienced radio station operators is being broached to the financial institu>» tions by Smith-Davis, newspaper and radio station brokers. Disclos- ure of this, came last week from: Howard E. Stark, director of the Smith-Davis radio department,; who refused, howeverv to disclose - de* tails of the firm's proposal. . Situation in TV is such that, up to now, it has been a rich man's game. A roster of those with sta- tions reveals the license holders to be almost entirely concentrated among the ; networks, motion pic- ture companies, set manufacturers, newspapers, department stores, Texas oil millionaires and large corporations like AVCO. Because-the. tab is so heavy, re^ atively few AM station owners have come forward to bid for chan- nels, despite the fact,: according to Stark, that "the FCC wants people in: television who have grown up with the broadcasting industry." "Television," says Stark, ."is the only major business being financed today entirely out of personal wealth. The reasons are that the banks and insurance companies re. gard it as too speculative andi in some states like New York, insur- ance laws hamstring that type of investment. . "The" ba'nks. and insurance 'com- panies don't ■ know television and we are trying to explain it to them, We are pointing out to the financial institutions that they missed the boat on AM radio financing. Now tliat television is here they should climb on the bandwagon. It helps thjm to get more diversification in their lending: ■ "We, know also that no major business in the United States has ever expanded to its ultimate pos- sibility, without bank credit," ' Six Stations On Block? Talk in the industry is that the Thackrey TV station in California; which is sold to Warner Bros., sub- ject, to FCC approval, is not the only one to go on the market. At least five others^two already oper- ating and three in construction--^- need additional financing .so badly that, unless they get it, they may have to be put on the auction block; Industryites guess that, up to now, no television station has made money and possibly as many as only one or two are breaking even. Reason the AM broadcasters need help to get into video is that, during the war. when they were making big money. Uncle Sam was taking most of it back in the form of excess profits; Those were the peak years and the station owners couldn't build up- a backlog of cash to take advantage. of all the new developments. Today the good AM stations are competing " for- the advertiser's dollar with FM and video. FCC Seen'Sitting Pretty; But D. C. Ponders im Guy Named Johnson Same Hymn, Different Prez; Chicago, Nov. 9. | "Club Time," the hymnal series i bankrolled by Club: Aluminum, i planned to salute Gov. Thomas E. Dewey on its Nov. 9 ABC broadcast by playing his favorite hymn^ "Faith of Our Fathers." Election returns caused an about face,'how- ever, and it was decided to play President Truman'rs favorite. ABC called on its Kansas affiUate, KCMO, to find out the C h i e f Executive's preference, KCMO couldn't reach him so they; tried his sister, Mary Truman, who said her brother's fave was "Faith of Our Fathers." Toronto Power Lack Causes 3-Way Snarl CBS, Ward Wheelock and Proc- jter & Gamble, agencies on the Campbell Soup and Jack Smith shows, find themselves in an un- usual predicament as result of a power shortage in Toronto. Due to the powei? famine, Harry Sedg- wick's 50,000-watt CFRB is being shut off to Toronto listeners for 45 minutes a day (7 to 7:45 p.m.), with the "blackout" ; going into effect Monday (8). Afl'ected by the power clamp are the brace of CBS shows. Jack Smith (P&G) and "Club 15" (Camp- bell), plus a Canadian-sponsored 15-minute musical for Imperial To- bacco. Toronto' listeners represent a third of CFRB's audience. In ex- change, for the loss of this segment, Sedgwick has agreed to a playback of the Smith, "Club 15" shows .the following afternoon. Thus, Sedg- wick paints out, the clients would be getting a: larger audience than usual, for in addition to the two- thirds (outside Toronto) nighttime ] audience, the afternoon pickup rep- resents half again as many listen^ 'ers as the station gets at night. ' I Ward Wheelock, on the other I handy wants the station to play back I the : show for Toronto audiences [ later in th'e evening. The station's i .schedule ; doesn't permit for that. I And there the situation rests. Washington, Nov. 9. A Federal Communications Com- mission in sdlid with no chance of any legislation to Weaken lt> powers is being: forecast here as a result of President Truman's sur- prise victory at the polls last week. Any thoughts that big stations might have grown bigger at the ex- pense of the; small operators and-r the: Commission can be packed In the mothballs, say the local seen (not pollsters). Here is the way it looks in radio: 1. There appears to be no ques- tion that FCC chairman Wayn* Coy will serve out his full terin and continue as a powerhouse on the Commission; On the: other hand, G.O.P. appointee Robert F. Jones, whom many guessed would Also Vs.. Sin Washington, Nov. 9. With the anticipated acces- sion of Sen. Edwin C. Johnson (D., Col.) as chairman of the Senate -Interstate Commerce Committee, the radio boys will have a lot to do with him in the next four years. And they're not too happy over the fact that, as one key broadcaster put it: "We're up against a guy who's opposed to Sunday advertising, liquor- beer commercials^and sex.", be Thomas E. Dewey's choice for chairman, will continue as a minority member of the commis- sion and its principal dissenter. 2. The pre-election talk dealt with such things . as a .possibl« ripper law to .terminate the present FCC and substitute an entirely new one. There were also reports that the NAB would make a new try- at gettiiig laws to limit-the Commis- sion :.to technical policing of the : ether and routine issuance o£ (licenses and renewals. In Com- I mission circles it is felt that ther* I (Continued on page 28) HAYWARD'S PHIlIY POST ; . Philadelphia, Nov. 9. Fred ; Hayward, former general manager of KWSC, in Pullman, Washington, has been named di- rector of advertising, promotion and public relations for the. Phila- delphia Inquirer stations, WFIL, WFIL-TV, WFIL-FM and WFIL Facsimile. Day timers to Huddle on Plea to Govt. Re Mex Easing Clear Channel Bars IWJAS, Pitt., Loses News Client After 15 Years Pittsburgh, Nov. '9. WJAS will lose half of one of, its best and oldest accounts after first of year vvhcn Kaufman's depart- ment store switches its 6:30 p.m. newscast with Beckley Smith to KQV. Program has been running now. six nichis weekly, on the lo- . cal GBS outlet for nearly 15. yeat.'S:^ Kaufmann's, however will keep Smith on WJAS in his noontime I slot. Washington, Nov; 9;, Moip than 100 owners of daytime stations have been called to a con- terencc here Nov. 22 to unite in urging the American Government to intercede with Mexico to let down the bars on nighttime use of six class 1-A clear channels on which the' neighbor country now holds priority. Support of the stations was enlisted by Howard B. Hayes, pres- ident ot the Daytime Petitioners Assn., part-owner of WPIX, Alex- andria, Va. The association is seek- ing to clear for fulltime use the frequencies 730, 800, 90U, 1050, 1220 and 1570 kc Two of the.se. 10,50 kc and 1220 kc, are used at night by WMGM, New York and WGAR, Cleveland, respectively, 'jnder . special' arrangement; The remainder are restricted to day- time use in the (J.S, and provide the signals which powerful Amer- ican-controlled transmitters send out from across the border to peddle medicines, merchandise and magazines. The association contends the agreement with Mexico which restricts the use of the frequencies is no longer valid and that the day- time stations should not be re- quired to wait until the matter is explored at future international conferences. Negotiations to break down the daytime restrictions on the fre- quencies, the association informed its members, have been delayed by problems arising under the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA). However, DPS .said, "we now feel that success may be achieved by renewing out efforts now both at FCC and the State Dept." Decision Due On Puerto Rico Grant Washington, Nov. 6. A de cision ; as to whether th« I House Select Committee to inves- Itigate the FCC will journey to I Puerto Rico soon to hold hearings Ion the Commission's licensing of » I commercial station to the island ; government w i 11 ^ probably be reached this week. Variety learned I today (9), I Although the Committee chair- jman. Rep. Forest A. Harness (B., I Ind.), was defeated for reelection< I he is understood to be seriously j considering taking a niajority of Ithc membership to the territory to rlook into the Commission's action., lit is expected the investigation j would last at least a week. I Recently, three staff investiga- I tors of the Committee visited the I i.slands on a preliminary probe of, the FCC grant of a lOkw station I on 940kc to WIPR, appropriations for "which were authorized by the insular government, ■ Private broad? I casters are opposing the station, ; which is almost ready to begin op' I eration, on the ground of unfair ] competition, ■ A report of the staff i'is now before Rep. Harness, Griffith's KEPO ye (48» for $345,000 El Paso, Tex., Nov. 9. , \ Application has been made to; the FCC by H, C. Griffith, sole oWer of KEPO,. for sale of the outlet for a total consideration of ; more than $345,000 to KEPO, Inc. Griffith would be prez of the new , 1 group with 52.25% interest. I Other stockholders are his asso- I ciates in KWFT, • Wichita Fall*,,; i These include among others, Kert- ■yon Brown, Agncs Doyle Rowley, IE. H. Rowley and Frank M. Dowed.;