Variety (Dec 1948)

24 TELGVISIOIW Wednesdiay, December 29, 1948 Saraoff, DuMont Bullish on Tele, Envisioning Bigtime '49 Operation Television, starting off the New+ Year with terrific momentum, will -move ahead even faster in 1949. That's the optimistic prediction, as e:<pressed in year-end statements, of two of the topmost industry offi- cials—Brig. Gen. David R. Sarnoif, RCA board chairman, and Dr. Allen B. DuMont, prez of DuMont Labs. Part of that growth, accord- ing to Dr. DuMont, must come with an early lifting of the current FCC freeze on station allocations, and. exploitation of the' ultraThigh fre^ quencies. "So appealing is television to the American public in all walks of Jife and at all ages," Gen. Sarnoff declared, "that the industry at the opening of 1949 will be two years ahead of the dates set by the most optimistic ' forecasts made at the, ■end of the .. war. This accelerated progress has lifted radio and tele- vision, in combination as an in- dustry, to a $2,500,OQO,000-a-year enterprise. If the rate Of growth continues as the market indices and public acceptance indicate it will, radio-television should rank as one of the 10 foremost indus- tries in the U. S. by 1953." : Dr. DuMont, with no radio in-, terest, to take into consideration, put tele' by itself into the billion- dollar class. "There are well over 1.000,000 TV sets in use, with more being produced at a rate in excess of 130,000 monthly, for at least 2,750,000 sets in use by the end of 1949," he said. Aside from tele's spectacular growth in 1949, Dr. DuMont said, its most outstanding development ; must incur the lifting.of the freeze and. early exploitation of the UHF channels. He conceded there would be* many technical angles to be ironed out first but declared that UHF alone "'means the opening up ; of many more TV channels, which in turn means TV stations for the Making History . Brig. Gen. David R. Sarnoff, RCA board chairman, empha- sizing television's rapidly- growing importance to the . country, estimated that at least 10;000,000 people will eye.? witness President Truman's in- auguration Jan. 20 by means of TV. That, he pointed out, is "more than all who saw the 31 Presidents from Washing- ton, to Roosevelt take the oath ; of office." Television coverage of the inauguration, Gen. Sarnoff noted, will be equally impor- tant for schools. "This tele- cast : will mark an historic milestone in civics as well as in broadcasting;" he said, "for it is the first event of its kind to be televised." " ■ . RMA Spot-Freeze Plan Not Expected To Influence FCC Bernard Loudon "The Role of the Mobile Crew in Video'' on' infermaliv*. feature: In . the. fertheemiiig . 4id Anniversary Number of P^BIEff Out Next Week Washington, Dec. 28. Combined with a plan for allo- cating teievision frequencies,' a ptopQsal ioijend as quicWy as posr silile the current "freeze', oh video applications was submitjtied; in-^ formally to FCC last week by a eofemitliefe. of: the Radio • Maniifae- tuters AsSn:;;. :■■:<■ ^ . There was little, likelihood, how- ever,- Vaijiety learned, that the Commission will swerve from the schedule it announced last Sept. „ 30 in freezing issuance of construc- smaiYer cities" townsr viiiag*e~s and I . Permits pending a compre- TV COMPOSERS WANT ASCAP TOPAYMORE . Pointing up video's spread into ■the various facets of show business, a move is under way to register original musical scores cut, for television programs with the Amer- ican Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Initial step to pro- tect the repeat rights to special TV cleffing was taken this week by Harry Sosnik, musical director of the "Philco Television Playhouse" on NBC-TV. ASCAP registry of the scores is aimed at preventing their utiliza- tion for other purposes without the composer receiving additional fees. Iconoscope recordings of television shows for replaying on other than original stations would fall into this category. As with scores for Hollywood films, TV- composers are also looking ahead for additional revenue from re- peated performances, of.' their mu- sic. , rural areas." In addition, he said, it can mean two or three stations in every section of the country for. -an. adequate choice of competing programs.' ,2,000,000 Sets Output In '49 . Gen. Sarnoff predicted TV set production for the entire industry in 1949 would total about 2,000,000 receivers. Production will be stepped up in succeeding years and by 1953 the industry's annual tele- Vision set production is expected to reach close to 5,000,000. "By the end of that year," he said, "the hensive review of video engineer-i ing problems. It was indicated the timetable will be adhered to, with the like- i lihood that processing of television I applications will not be resumed until March. The determination of allocations, which involves the use of the ultra high frequencies (UHF), will follow later, it was learned. RMA's • stop-freeze plan was predicated on the basis that it would be from one to three years before establishment of televiision total number of sets in operation i stations in the UHF band and sup vould be nearly 18,000,000. Also, i P'y of transmitters and receivers by 1953 it is believed that a coast-! to-coast television network service i will have been made possible by i fadio relays.and .eoaxial cables.'' for the UHF service would be available. The Assn., therefore, wants FCC to go ahead with maxi- mum development of television in the present. very high frequency (VHF) band, before: it proceeds with specific, allocations in the UHF band. Plan would retain the present VHF band for the expansion of ) video service in the larger cities and use the UHF band for the i small cities. RMA said the pro- I posal would prevent obsolescence I of television receivers nojv in the j hands of the public and largely I avoid , costly future "two-band" I sets. Webs Still Disagree On Channel Compromises Still another unsuccessful chap- ter was written in the channel al- Pitt s TV Set ToRollJaall Pittsburgh, Dec. 28. Pittsburgh's first TV station, DuMont-owned WDTV, will be launched Jan. 11 with hour-long program, featuring civic and state officials, prominent Pittsburgh business leaders and stage and ra- dio personalities, from 3,800-seat Syria Mosque, local home of long- hair music. Later same evening. WDTV will join new east-west coaxial cable which will tie New York with Cleveland and Chicago., locations serial Monday (27) when This will be the focal point for the the television broadcasters bidding connection. i foj. ^ime on the east to midwest co- Following the live TV show, in- axial cable again failed to agree on Vited guests at Syria Mosque will the compromises. Situation now is go to, lower level of Mosque for right back where it started several an exhibit of actual television sets - weeks ago, but a spokesman for In operalion, where they'll be American Telephone & Telegraph, treated to number of network pro-' which owns and operates the cable, gtams. Leading manufacturers . expressed hope that some arrange- are to be represented, di';playing' ment suitable to all would be their sets in operation and pre-, worked out before the Jan. 12 eenting first New York-to-Chi pro-, deadline. grams ever to be transmitted by Definite date hasn't been set for coaxial cables Programs will come another meeting of phone company Irom NY, Chi, Washington and i reps with those handling the nego- Boston on opening night. , tiations for ABC, CBS, DuMont, ■ Petey WasSer, formei; manager; NBC and the ,N. Y: Daily News' of WJAS-KQV and later head of WPIX, all of whom are competing KQV, but now In agency business, for cream time on the single cable has been appointed to handle pro- that will link the east and midwest - motion and production for the in- networks. Phone company will nUgUral, He'll act as coordinator, continue efforts to establish the working closely with Donald Stew- time schedule on its own and then art, newly-appointed general man-[submit it to the webs for their ap- ager of WDTV. I proval. METOP ON TV ONLY AS SPORADIC 1-SHOTS Further telecasts from the stage of the Metropolitan-' Opera Co.; N, Y., if done at all;, will be aired only as sporadic one-shots and not as a regular series. While toppers of both ABC-TV, which carried the Metropera's opening several weeks ago, and Texaco, which bankrolled the show, are still undecided as to future plans, they reportedly have^ ruled out offering-the remote pick- ups as steady fare because of the: heavy costs involved, ABC-TV nsed seven cameras on. the opera's opener and Texaco was forced to pay extra.fees to the reg- ular Metopera unions to make the telecast possible. Preem show,- consequently, was aired mainly as a stunt, with the payoff involving the heavy publicity and promotion the show grabbed off. . It's believed extremely unlikely that the same amount of ballyhoo would attend- I subsequent shows and thus; Tex- .| acp, if it comes in again, plans to do so only as another one-shot. New York John B. Cron, formerly associat- ed with Monogram Pictures, named ; film procurement chief for NBC- •rv. He'll report to Rtiss Johnston, head of the web's film division, . . . Theatre Guild co - director Lawrence Langner, and Jose Ferrer and Paul Crabtree; star and direc- tor of the Guild's "Silver Whistle," scheduling a special one-^hour. ver- sion of the show Jan. 19 at the Biltmore, N.Y., .where amateur! ■photogs will shoot stills for a contest run by "Photographic Horizolns," DuMont web show. ; . . Warren Hull replacing Bud- Collycr as emcee on CBS-TV's "This Is The Missus" Wednesday i afternoon airer. . . . N.Y. Daily News' hand- writing analyst Shirley Spencer set to preem . a video version of her column Tuesday (4) on the News' WPIX. ... Ted Steele auditioning an all- blond male orch for his new half- hour vaudeo ^show, scheduled to preem soon :on the duMont 'web, on the beljef the light-skinned musicians .won't, have that un- shaven look on.the viewing screens. . . .- CBS-TV scheduled two-hour. New. Year's Eve vaudeo show; starting at 10:30 p.m.- Barry Wood: and More^- Amsterdam will co- emcee, with the Raymond Scott Quinteti the Three Stooges, Larry Deu'glas, Bill Skipper and Carole Coleman already lined up, . ; . Alan E. ("Bud") Brandt joined Martin Stone Productions as assist- ant, to exploitation-^publicity chief Dick Doan. . ; . Bob Smith and "Howdy Doody" will have a full hour on NBC-TV Friday (31), from 5 to 6 p.m., giving the kid viewers a chance to celebrate .New Year's Eve early. Arnold Stang and Paul Winchell set for guest shots. . .:; • Ronald Dawson is: expanding his lend-lease script library into tele- vision. He . has a "stable". com- prised: of practically; all the top writers in radio, with his radio service now extending to 500 sta-^ tions . . . Frank Goodman resigned as district sales manager - for Andrea Radio , . . Frances E. Solow, until now- Emerson Radio's ad • manager, named director of public relations and research for the outfit . . . Brewster: Righter, formerly • associated ".with .: :Conti« nental Can,-joined Films for lndusK try as sales veepee on tele accounts . Josh Binncy, pioneer film director, named prez of the newly- formed Tele-Talent Pictures, tele- film production outfit., : Tri-Video Prod. Co. Group of single reel films of the silent era are being readied for tele distribution by Tri-Video Pro-, ductions, Ltd. Shorts have been revamped: : with a modern com- mentary. Firm is headed by Edward H. Bryant, John D. McGrail and Jack Gold.stein. Latter was one- time Selznick publicity topper and more recently was with RKO. He's now doing special promotion -for Walter Wanger on "Joan of Arc." Sam Chotzinoff '.' diicuste*.' - "Music find Television" on iditorial feotHre in the forthcoming 43d Anniversary Number of Out iV««t Week Hollywood KFI-TV has leased 20 feature films from Film Classics. Station began scheduling pix Saturday (25) .. . Bob McLaughlin's "I'icture Album'' will bow on KLAC-Tv' Jan. 7. Artie Wayne, Skylarks ami Roc Hillman have .been .set to do the half-hour show. Weekly TV shot will handle the top tune of the week with background mate- rial. McLaughlin will emcee video show Dec. 31 over station pres- enting top tunes of .the year to tele-audience . i . KTTV has ob- tained exclusive rights to the Los Angeles Open Golf Tournament Tourney gets under way here on Jan. 7'. . . "Hail the Champ" goes back on KLAC-TV, starting Jari. 14 . . . Harrx R. Lubcke, head of Don Lee's KTSL, has been elected president of the Academy of Tele-' vision Arts and Sciences. Lubcke succeeds Charles S. Brown, Video Broadcasting Company topper ... Robert Hoag hds been appointed sales manager of the Don Lee tele-' vision outlet, KTSL. Hoag had ' been functioning as television sales ' co-ordinator for the ^station. Chicago Lyn Connelly, former radio and film columnist for Western News- , paper Union, joins WBKB's flack department Jan; 3: . . .; Admiral Corp,; plans to turn out 400:000 tele receivers during .1949: Current -production is 20,000 sets montlily. .i i . Fox Head Beer eyeing "Kup'g: Show-Up" for probable bankroll- , ing . . ; :,Ted Mills, program man-* : ager of NBC central division video, :. in New York last week for TV'- briefing ... Don Bohl, WBKB crew, member, joins WOC-TV as tele director Jan. 1 ... Film of the Cardinal-Eagle grid game arrived a scant half-hour before'its sliow- ing on WENR-TV last week, follow- ing an airmail delay ... Additions to NBC's tele staff include Marshall I Head; film librarian; Mirth "Dur- I bahn, script girl, Francis Scott. I assistant operations mgr., and Bob Banner and Charles Hobin, assist- ant production directors . . . John ' Alexander, former CBS producer,, and Jim Taylor, ex-manager ot the ^ Chi School of Expression and Dramatic Art,- are joining WBKB as directors , :. . WNBQ program and operations staff occupying new ■ quarters on the 11th floor of the Merchandise, Mart,. pending com- , pletion of permanent offices' in April. .. WBKB Xmas Eve telecast of Mass at the Holy Name Cathe- dral was the first church service - of its kind on local tele screens . .. Bob Hibbard, WGN-TV assistant chief of operations, teleclured - members of the Public Relations Society of America Tues. (21) ... John Norton, ABC veepee, named tele chairman of the Chi Safety: ' Committee. Par Won't Dump DuMont Stock Loosely, Despite FCC Divest Decision Despite the possibility that. Parar mount may be forced by FCC action to divest its stockholdings in DuMont television, TV industry of- ficials are confident that the Du- Mont stock will maintain its pres- ent market stand. Belief is . based on the assumption that Par won't dump the stock on the market in wholesale fashion, which might tend to depress its market value. FCC ruled two weeks ago that Par, despite its stockholdings amounting to less than 40% of the total, exercised control over Du- Mont Asf a result; the Commis- sion decided to toss out seven ap- plicatfons for tele stations now pending by Par, DuMont and vari- ous Par officials. Ruling was based on the: Commission's edict of not niore than flve owned-and-operated TV stations to a single customer. Par has already indicated it will again fight the action, same as it did when the FCC rendered a simi- lar decision two years ago. , Stock, for which Par paid $164,000, is now assessed at be- tween $7,000,000 and $10,000,000. If the film company decides to .sell out, it's believed certain that Du- Mont itself will buy the stock in a package deal. Under that arrange- ment, however. Par would be ta?ed 25% of the profit under the capi- tal gains setup. As a result, it's believed likely the film company might distribute the shares to its own stockholders as an extra divi- dend. Such a move, while repre- senting a divestiture by Par, would be more profitable to the company. No matter What action is taken, tele officials believe the stock will not be adulterated. FCC s 'No Can Do' Ends Pauley Bid Washington, Dec. 28. Last hope of Ed Pauley's Cali- fornia. Southern Television Co. to. acquire the Thackrey video station KLAC-TV, Los Angeles, by match- ing the Warner Bros, purchase ' offer was ended last week' when . the Federal Communications Com-: mission returned the Pauley' appli* cation to acquire the outkil. Pauley had previously failed to get the Commission to break up the. package sale of the Tluickrey California, radio properties to en- able him to bid separately for the , television station. Nonetheless, he filed a "bid" for the station with- out stipulating the pride. 1 Warners are awaiting approval of their lump purcha.se ot KLAC and KLAC-TV in L. A. and KYA San Francisco for $1,045,000. Ac'' tion on the transfer is expected, soon, how that the' 60-day period allowing for filing competitive bids has expired. COAST MORRIS OFFICE BEGINS TELE ACTIVITY Hollywood, Dec. 28, West coast office of William Morris agency has been made aware of television. The medium has been given its niche in every; department following the eastern , setup of the agency. George Gru.s- kin, radio head of office, has been placed in charge of o-wrall video, scene. Dramatic, stage, literary, picture, nitery, radio and band seilions will each handle the new medium where it directly affects depart- ments.