Variety (Dec 1948)

WeAntxtUy, Peccmbcr 22, 1948 RADIO 35 Inside Stuff-Radio within the last 12 months the strained'factional situation in the ABC, ROONEY HU0DUNG ON NEW PROGRAM SERIES Mickey Rooney is understood to American Federation of Rudio Artists has all but disappeared and,, - - ihere's hardly a whisper now of the use-to-be "liberal" and "conserva- "J^® talked with ABC producers, ♦ive" groupings. In the recent AFRA elections for the 23 New York ^ """"^ a show series for the Uical board members, the balloting was conducted on a personality '^^^ currently doing .i insis without any discernible political issues. Commenting on the new ^ '''^ York's Roxy ilieatre, 'l^uation at the last N. Y. local meeting, prexy Nelson Case .said "we ' wa^ noncommittal on reports that Sfliii't have so much of 'side' versus 'side' because^to our great suf- -"^ e—we found we were all on one side—AFRA's side." He said the New Orleans TV Preems Continued from i>uk« 26 , knows his New Orleans and hiS|Preem performance, which whs a on' the I nice blending ot live and liliiied curtain-1 sequences. Show's standout was him this camera techniques, and . basis ot Saturday's raising ;show, the trio knows |Bon :McNeill ind his Breakfast the video score. Weighed oh ' Club gang, who flew down from Hw—-we lounu we wcic ai. u..c siu..— niixns smc. lie saiG me. '"""^ standards, it was a polished I Chicago for the inaugural (they lorf vear had-produced a unity of aim within the membership through Kooney s last regular radio stint J^b. i also did an afternoon Auditorium ««. free exchan^-of ideas. ,\^as as star of a short-lived CBS Sjiorts ; performance to upwards of 5,000 ■ •n'^V,^? ^\ath started as "Shorty To protect the station's sports i cash customers^. CBS is shooting the works in tub-thumping Jack Benny's network ' j^"^ underwent a drastic for- franchise, Weber has negotiated a. McNeill socked over a 40-minute was auditioning liowever. mat change to emerge as "Holly- wood Showcase" betoie it folded' last summer. nwitchover Jan. 2. All the flack handouts on the Benny show, which ■re beginning to roll in copious quantities, are being printed on paper Rtocfc which has been dressed with a taint plioto of the tomic holding \ violin The net's publicity stalf is currently turning out biogs on the main cast menlbe?S of the show. Jack Lescoulie probably figures the twists of all night jockeying bold few turns for him, having been WOR's 2 to 5'er for some time, but in three Jntervieviis by; hlm this corner has yet to 'earn the name ot any one of his guests. The reason is Lescoulie's refusal to identity his , his disclosures subjects at their signoff, thereby snubbing listeners who miss the start. Christmas party yesterday in N Y A recent f'rin.stance would be the interviewee precedmg' Sigmund, Hooper s outspoken comments Spaeth. Hoop's Scoop U. of Minnesota's KUOM Propping Two Series For State-Wide Station Use Minneapolis, Dec. 21. KUOM, Univ. of Minnesota sta- tion, has prepared two 13^week series of programs for broadcast hy some 20 stations in the state beginning in January; One is de- voted to Minne.sota territorial cen- tennial celebration next year. Initial series, to open Jan. 1, Is entitled "The University Reports to the People," and dramatizes de- velopments in agriculture,, medi- cine and education.'. ■ A; similar series last year attracted consider- able attention' and .app>laQse. Second.series, "Tales of Minne- sota," is a presentation of state history based on account.s ■ by pioneers. The series will begin in March. Ohio Institute Continued from paf-e 27 : five-year exclusive for all wrestling prograim, demonstrating ias he, did . and boxing in New Orleans. For ion a pifevioiis TV shot in Philadel- local news coverage; he's ellected > phia) that he!s got one of the prize. , a tie-iiv with the Item, afternoon radio packages; iidaptable to vidoo. (laily. for a two-way pictorial-news ■ McNeill & Co. and Benny Fields, .spread. who is ciirreritlyiappe^EinC^ ; The climate here ' is a nntui\il i Beverly .eotinlry ;G^^ I for. remotes. And because oi the already .done .> cgU^^^^ ' flat terrain, the Channel 6 signal on the Milton ^eri^ gets a pickup as far as Alex- dominated the first halt of the iindnai La., 150 miles away; (Nearr preem show. Fields getting a slick ■, SSt stations are Atlanta and Mem-1 accompaniment tirom ,Nat Brand- ., Lj u u . phis,: both approximately eOOmiles wvnne, also playing at the Beverly, in Which he attacked the Nielsen distant) Second half of .show comprised a ratings by name, are believed to f It co.st the Stern familv, which semi-feature length film based on pies.ifie a battle royal between ins iWDSU several months : New Orleans and half a dozen acts seivice and Nielsen's nl.is the .n" <^^° ^""^ '650,000, an additional, with strictly home-bred talent, stivite and Melsen s, plus the m-, 5^350 qqo to get its TV rolling, but In terms of off-the-beaten track ; Cpnlinued Irora paKe 2S disclosures at his annual the committee decided that in May 1. Television will have a larger share m the conference, 2. There will be a smaller'num-' ^'•'•"'n looming as an added seivice dustry's Broadcast Measurement, already it has ,10-and-a-half of its ' video.'Tt all came "across "as efle'c^ Bureau and Al Sindlmger'.s still- i20^hours a week programming sold, tive showmanship and good tele- testing Radox ' device. With tele- 1 ncludi ng the test t. p., incidentally, ber. of special . interest-groups and clinics. 3. Two, rather than one. meet- ing periods will be scheduled on each of two afternoons of the In^ stitute to make it possible for loi: the raters during the coming 1 .year, they're expected to pull all ' -stops in an effort to gain the upper \ hand within the industry. Reit( rating his steady barrage against Nielsen's audimeter. Hoop- pattern; 'rhe i vision. The New Orleans populace is one of the I is kind of happy about having a TV in its future. And the Weber- Stern combo IS putting the accent' where it belongs-^ori New Orleans.: slickest .vet.devise.d by any station, fashignedifrom N. G.'s fariied grill J ;work.'\ '; ,'.'■'■: ■',.!■ '■ Virtually all the sets available. here are going into homes; only a bare minimum are. to be found in 1 .. taverns. ■.■„' members to attend more interest I er declared the device cannot pos-i An audience 6f nearly 4 000 ^ groups and clinics and to reduce I sibly determine the effect of engi-1 packed the Municipal Audilonum I Sargcnt "who is a native still opens conflicts m interests neering characteristics on a .sta- here (approximating the size of the and closes with his familiar "For Memphis-^Kenny Sargent,; erstr while w.k. crooner with: Glen I Gi'ay's orch, is now doing a disk 1 jockey stint on WHHM, local indie. AT&T > Continued from page .27. ss cramming to midwestem stations five days weekly. Web had been bidding for full use of the cable Mondays through Fridays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the claim that it Is the only o^-«^et now offering full daytime operations. . . Fact, that the phone' company has found a wajr to open up more channels than tho.se originally an- nounced, meanwhilev points up the possibilitji that a coast-to-coast link might be effected long before that estimated .starting date of 1953. Trade observers believe that If AT&T has found a way to add channels from Philly to Chi, it will , also find a way to hypo expansion of the cable clear across the coun- try. Plans for the formal opening of the east-t(Hmidwest link Jan. 11, In which all the networks are to participate, are still being lined np. Possibility exists that two of the webs may select shows pack- aged by World Video for their part of the program. It will be remembered that at jtion's service, "The abihty of a last year's go-around television i listener to hear a station bears: an barely got its nose in the door with I absolute relation to the di.stance 1 a pre-conTercnce session scheduled and in some ca.ses. not others, the ■ at a late date. ' direction of his home trom the . Next year "there will certainly 1 transmitter," he said. "Though i be at least one general-session on I the audiemeter sample might i television,"- Dr. Tyler. said. The,! qualify as : conforming to controls I place of television on the Institute , such as size of community, size of program- will be expanded also by I lamily, income of familyt; etc; to scheduling of special groups de- i date, the necessity of collecting: voted to-television writing and pro-1 tapes and: otherwise servicing^ the duction, he said, and chairmen of [ audinvetcrs has precluded its sam- work-study and; special interest pie being distributed with true groups will be: asked to integrate | representation of the distance and: television into their programs as; direction of the listeners' homes: it affects their fields. : 1 from the transmitters:" Final day of the meeting has 1 Audimeter, according to Hooper, been set for May 8. a Sunday, on measures tuning, not listening. video viewing public) for the' You," theme. which the. annual dinner is sched- uled to wind up activities.: Last year's sessions continued: on into Monday. Members of the new advisory committee and the organizations they represent arc- Robert S. French, general' man and therefore he plans - to--use; a similar device, "when: one: is per- fected." only ' for television: and not lor radio. In tele, he pointed out, there is a coincidence be- tween tuning and looking which does not exist between tuning and iLstening. Whereas in tele people ager WVKO, Columbus, for FM | turn on a set only when they're Assn.; -Irwin Johnson, public rehi' tions ■ and public -service directc.*; WBNS, for Columbus broadcasting stations; Harry J. Skornia, radio di- rector, Indiana U.; for National Assn. of Educational Broadcasters; George. Jennings^ radio council dir rector, WBEZ, Chicago Public Schools, for Assn, for Education by Radio: Harriet Hester, Mar- shall-Hester Productions, Ameri- can Medical Assn., for national or- ganizations. Margaret M Butler president. Radio Council of Great ready to look and turn it off when they're finished; in radio "one must tune in early; select the sta- tion, adjust the volume and waity' or one will miss the few minutes of episode on a daytime program." "The result is that the audimeter produces a different proportion of tuning and listening in the rating j published for each period of the j day : and for each -network. The result is complete lack ot com-. I paratibility. of audimeter results between different daytime periods. Par Continued fiom .pane 27: ssi ticularly where the actions of Du- Mont might conflict with the in- terests of Paramount. "For example, it did not hesitate W lorce the withdrawal of the Du- Mont application for a television station in Boston when it deter- mined that it desired to serve this market The very fact that Para- iS. « * has been able to foist upon "uM<mt the pattern of corporate operations which it employs with Hs other subsidiaries is proot f^'V^il of its actual control ovei me latter corporation. „, "'^oi' have the Paiamount offi- «ais who serve as officers and di- DuMont failed to fully «k» " ..^"^'"^ responsibilities under I?f„Pa«ern of Paramount opera- "ons ... As long as Paramount er Cleveland, for local organiza-; between day and evening periods tions. and Dr 1. Keith Tyler, di rector, for Institute for Education by Radio. Present as observers were Rob- ert K. Richards, director of public relations. National Assn. of Broad- casters, and Kenneth H. Baker,; di- rector of research, NAB. An additional member to the board, still to be selected, will rep- resent the Television Broadcasters Assn: ■ ■'■. ■ ■'-.- between different evening periods and between evenings. How much more lacking in comparability can .a Iticasurement get!" Tournament Continued from page 27 : or - pro leain^ to be held in the I Yankee Stadium, N..Y, Deal is cur-.. HI : : ■ np 1 : V I ^ renlly on to tie up the Stadiuht Worcester lakes Yankee S fo,. me first Sunday in December for a number of years. ■ ■ ' TC had been consideHn^'Ibtiying Boston. Dec 21 'the Newark Bears, > jijl.-liSi'.ifankeiS- First Transit Radio The Yankee Network this week announced the signing of the Worcester Street Railway for the first installation of Trah.sit Radio in New England I Undier supervision ot Maurice. J Mahoney, formerly of the Worcester Street Railway, and now sales and service manager ot Transit Radio lor Yankee, in- stallation of receivers will begin remains the holder ol all the Class 1, 1 i'miriediatelV in 250: Vehii'Ies.; Pro- B stock of thTt"" VT^ 'gi-'im^ be beamed from WGTK- seco"d laree^i'wrr^Tn^^^^ V^n^^^ P'"*°"' stock anrt^ 1 ^ """^ 1 '^''•^^ ;^ ' out.^ide Worcester Meantime Hoh- S flow f^m /''t "«***^ ert Manb.y, tormer manager of Ship it Zp™t*"'''r.'''S?''?'^"^'^^^ Hartford, has been as- P. H does control DuMont . . .' ! ^ig„ed to the Transit Radio opera- ' tions of Yankee with the job of 4vS«" Antonio-Latest addition to I expediting negotiations with Irans- we announcing staff of KITE here I portation companies throughout >s Frank Fallon. He is well known , New England for the installation « local dramatic circles. 1 of Transit Radio m caib and buses farm team, but proposition, wasn't deemed feasible becau.se of New- ark's proximity to New York New- ark as a video property isn't too desirable because Newark TV set ouners can pick up the major league games played in New York It's doubtUil that sponsors would want to bankroll the Newark games - under such ciicumstances. Extension of the coaxial cable I to the midwest sC'arting Jan 12, is regarded as increasing the value : of any properties that TC acquires. Until more theatres are equipped for televKsion, it's regarded that sponsois VMll supply most ol TC revenues. When a sufficient num- , brr of theaties gel simiilfaneous, transmission facilitie.s, then TC- will most likely concentrate on that souite of income. Like Jack's Beanstalk TclfiyisipH toWtrs con ;':9f;9W':;;;|liy-hi9k:,' «y*l;T- night, but it takes more than just a tower to mak* a toiavision station foremost in its community. WWJ-TV, now In its third year of operation, is o firmly established leader in Mia Detroit market. It hos token full advantage of its two-year "headstart" to stake its claim on the lion's share of de^ sirable local television features. And; through its NBC Television Network facilities. WWJ-TV has stretched its "seeing power'.' beyond the horizons t9 bring Detroit- ers on even greater diversity of entertainment features. Unquestionably, WWJ-TV is the one best television "buy" TODAY, in the multi-billion dollar Detroit marhef. ■■■ ■■; ,'Nlt'.t|lt-v,iti»» N',il>»fh ■' '.fl-IS'1. irt..MI,.CHl'GAN'