Variety (Jan 1949)

104 TBLEVIISION Forty third Z^S^iET^ Annherfmy Wetlnesdajr, January. 5, 1949 Local Station Sees No Black Ink, But If You've Got Your Teeth—Hang On Milwaukee. | I'll start with an understatement, j A television station cannot be ] operated on a shoestring. That ^ means regardless of how you pro- | gram your station. It takes money, ■ gentlemen. Lots of it. : First, television takes am invest- ! ment of close to $400,000. But that's only the beginning. Before | you get on the air, you'll find that Bv WALTER J. DAMM (Vice-President and Gen. Mgr. If Radio and Television, ihe Journal Co.. Milwaukee) of simultaneous AM isnd TV shows. Simultaniebus broadpastiflg looks good on paper but .1 am coriyinced tliat it is far from satisfactory. ! Either TV or AM suffers ahd tal- ent asks double salarieis; At The Journal bur AM hour-long Gren- adier variety: show., iS; an. entirely: separate Shw, . .and treated. SUC.ft: ^v'::.v''"; t''^. ''^-'A"..' Can a television station show a | vounek^aiaVVr'prVgramToperat-l profit at the present time? Well, fng and miscellaneous television on that subject and on the entire staff than you ever figured. Frank- ' sub.iecl of TV financing, you get ly (and I sav this from experience) , a different answer from every vou can wok vour head off for a person interviewed. The individ- vear getting readv, convince your- ; ual's answer is also usually based self vou know what you're facing ! on what the person being ques- and iiow vou're going to meet it, , tioned wants you to believe. 111 but until you get on the air and , say this much: There is no such are commtted to a daily schedule thing as black ink in operating a haven't even got | television station right now, aiid 1 probably for some time to .come if 1 you're honest in your bopkkeep^ 1 inig. By that I njean if you ; make *-^brothei-, you . haven't even got your feet wet. Then, once you're on the air, it commences. You may have de- cided to load your station with film. Think you're going to get off cheap? You'll find out. Film—any kind of film—-costs money. . I mean this kind of money: To mi a ftve-minute nim features at $5 per additional help, feature, or $60 an hour. AU of !■ " which means that using only film on a four-hojjr schedule costs you , $240 for program material alone. I To sum up, our. first year of But. wait. Five-minute shorts. , television operation at WTMJ-TV won't satisfy yo.ur audience for- ' has taught us these facts: ever, and from there the price , It takes money to start a tele- really goes up. A 15-minute travr vision .station; more money to op- the proper chargeoffs for every- : thing; 1*6' TV ■■ station- irianager ; who does not makfe Such charges lis siniply kidding himself and .is I in for a shock when video takes can u...-, «x ... •'•'"rmore and more time and per-, quarter-hour you buy Jhree , ^^^^^j becomes necessary ' e Learneil These Facts PROBLEMS OF SElllNG TELEVISION By HOWARD S. MEIGHAN ( CBS Vice-Presidc7it and General Ex'ecutiveii, Among alert-minded businessmen, interest in television is high. Thev are aware of its power to help their enterprises. The crux of our effort ■ to sell television as a going medium lies, therefore, in converting this interest into network billings. Any advertiser's decision to use or avoid television is determined by his belief about the medium's ability to produce increased income tor his product or service. This is the scratch from which we have to start in selling television as a practical proposition to sponsors. Accordingly, it behooves us to conduct energetic education among agencies and heads of business on several vital points: (1) That television is not just another advertising medium, but a new and strikingly efficient form of selling (lhat it embodies the difference between information about a product and a personal demonstration by ' a live salesman, or a compelling counter display). Or, to sum it all up, a product actually in use. (2) That in spite of admittedly higher per-thousand audience costs in television at this moment, the trend is downward, and that in some cases these costs are beginning to compare favorably with those of other ' media. A heartening cocnparison of TV and newspaper costs in New York City can be made in this connection. (3) That right now, and into the luture, television gives the business I enterprise that uses it a powerful promotional lever because distribu- tion and retailers as well as the public generally,are sharply attuned to television happenings. Tclevision^tsclf is news a nd will contin ue to be, I Eslablishinjw Franrhises I ALLEN PRESCOTT "Any Offers" elog: sets you back $45, a one-hour feature film costs $100 to $150. SOj you turn to live local shows and you may try a man-on-the- street series. This is when you discover that. In addition to those Who appear on the show, it takes I erate it. There is only one way to op- erate a television station even though you run in the red every month . . . and that's the right way . . . in the public interest. Television and radio are two I (4) That the: early television advertisers, thpse who are-g^^ in I now, are investing in more than contractually defined ad\fe^tising and ■ I selling services. They are also getting the: opportunity to' establish ' I time and talent franchises which they'll ne^'Iater, l>ecause n I tiser of any importance is going to be able to stay out of television I permanently;.■ ■ (5) That the speciaUied techniques of . TV prograiriih duction make demands peculiar to television alone, both in entertain- ment content and commercials. Another part of our selling problem lies in getting the. adyertiser to cooperate with us in building the mass audience which will, w the perrthousand viewer-cost to his satisfaction. . Production costs in television are highet toeGaus,e ;.you're sho things as well as talking about them. .'This fact; has tp. be translated for advertisers into the fact that televisioh is. gofng tb save: them substan-V tial outlays in personal demonstrations by their Sales staffs. : ' Unlike the practice in older niedia. televisipn costs: cannot be bas^ on "guaranteed circulation." Each advertiser, according to his own needs and budget, must style his television campaign not only to enter-, 1 tain the present audience; but to assist in the; increase of the. television; Confronted with the problem of I audience as a whole, wiping out a 16-year sponsor iden- j Concurrently with our selling efforts, we -must never neglect- the Crosby, Boyer Et AL, Aid WW Into K-F Groove tificatlon, one of the longest in network annals,- William H. Wein- traub agency, which handles the Kaiser-Frazer account, came up a crew of five or six techincal men entirely different fields. The same ' with the slickest trick of the sea practically eight hours to spt up, t gtandards of operational procedure ] i5on in commercial radio when do the show,, and tear down for ! cannot be applied, your quarter-hour man-on-the- | pioneers in tele- ''''^^"Ibout public service P-/Ji^^^/.^'^rr^'n^tL^^^^^^^^^^ =Tt "^'^ 0°n \ M in Mifwaukee and in the there's the set to be prepared, re hearsals with a full technical and production crew, all costing money and all taking hours of time; Now, let's look at this' question nation. All of us still have so much to learn about television station op- eration. And experience remains the best teacher. Television Via Fili^ Faces Rocky Road By J. L. VAN VOLKENBURG (CBS Vice-President, Director of Television Operaiions) Walter Winchell went on the auto- maker's bankroll last Sunday C2). For the teeoft program, Weintraub had Bing Crosby, do the K-F com- mercial. On the three subsequent WW's 2-Web Coast Ride ; able to attempt network's own programming. Practical workaday demonstrations that Creative, imaginative programming-will build and hold the total tele- vision audience, is the most effective reassurance we can give to poten- tial users of television; Almost equally important is guidance, based 1 on our experience, in the development of the proper commercial for i the given product. Television: is too intimate a medium for the classic copy cliches. The advertiser has to dig for the real-life levers that 1 will move: customers toward his product or service. And tlie broad- caster has to help in the visual formulation of these reasons. Given the kind of education described herein, television will still have problems in selling itself as a going medium but they will be; greatly simplified, because there will be general understanding of the fact that television is doing a selling job no medium has ever been; A hookup deal probably un- precedented in character has been set for Walter Winchell's new Kaiser-Frazer commercial seriesv which teed: off last Sunday (2). The Coast repeat, heard at 8:30 p.m; Pacific time, not only embraces all ABC stations, but the. full facilities of the Don Lee-Mutual net- work on the Coast In addition^ there will be Alaska and Hawaii pickups. Let's face it. For the next five years or so television recordings (film) are going to be a big factor in network program distribution. No matter how you slice actual, ; pUis anticipated, cable aftd micror wave relay facilities, it looks like What are the technical problems in process of being surmounted? They fall Into five groups: l_Availability of equipment. Most apparatus used in TV film re- cording is of recent origin and doesn't come through very last. 2—Mechanical problems. Tele- a-half nighttime hours a week on the cable to Chicago is obviously not enough for the combined needs of all broadcasters. The 90-day periods for which these allocations are made also give small cause for comfort. Even if the east coast to Chicago cables are quadrupled by 1950, that still leaves the west coast unlinked. the number of stations will KeeP ,v^si^n recording growing faster than available cable | moving parts of cameras and and microwave relays. Three-and- other equipment. Until television there Were virtually no cameras that would TUn eontinupHsiy ; for a; half hour, or moife, without reload- ing. \:'^'-•;.■■■;,;.;■;■ ■..;;:vi;'::;;;:.■,'; . 3-^Phbtpchemlcal COhttols. Neg- atives and prints ;for television de- mand far more critical prpcessing, On much tighter delivery schedules,, than for any other use. ; The con- trols, ilncidentalli', a^ply to .the visual image as well as to the rahge and fideltty . of sound.: . > 4— Speciai - lenses, ; fineir : film emulsions and improved' camera and prbiector designs are al;;Q :hOW: 'tj.hd^l',-'-. ep.iisi'deratip'h..'■ ^ 5- ^Perlbi'mance of the elebtrbhic elements in television film record- ing must be carefully maintained at peak .standards. CThis goes for ojperational manpower, . too). : A detailed report of what tele- vision; engineers ;and those in re- iated ;flelds are doing: would turn this simple attempt at ah outline, intb a dry and Scientific paper; But on the basis pf such reports,: tele' Only One Choig^ ■ Delayed broadcasts are the prac- tical answer, not only operationally but ecPnomically. The industry as a- whole must choose, for the mo- ment, between accepting film- recorded programs as a "second- best" method, capable of quick and gratifying improvement, or re- nouncing much of the revenue it needs to insure the new medium's rapid and healthy development. This factor of economic necessity Theatre Technique Inlieis^^^^^ ; By .4RTHl'H KNORR (Producer, "Texaco Star Theatre"). \ : -''I As new as television Is, it is nevertheless merely ahother: phase: of. show business, which is as old as ciyilizatioh./Putting "^^^ television will help this -medium just ais it: has been ;a' big ;assist ti motion pictures and radio. By- -"theatrjS" I mean all the devices that. ; have been developed through the ageS to attract, amusb and amaie the;; paying public.. The audience: must be. ehtertained and eybiy effort pn the part of the produc?er must be made to: ihake the productiori out?;; standing. A star, cast, play, director, et;;!al,:are as feood as their last show. ■ ' Lighting, for instance. For a long time the quality of the "TV: picture : has been flat and without depth, like a snapshot taken oil a gray day; Good lighting is becoming more critical by the :day^ is required to transmit: the picture; hut there IS missing in -many .ShOAws'/; lighting .that -adds character: and dramatic -emphasis to that picturft, Lighting can help the picture and the Scene by enhancing; the dramatic ■ or serious^comedy or amusing—musical, comedy or novelty—myste- I rious or tragic. I Lights and shadows can submerge or accent any part Or all bf the I picture so desired. Shadows should be Used tb; establish depth aiid .^ interest and can be.created in many ways such as: ; ■ : J Silhouette or back: lighting, foreground or fr'Piiit Hghtihg,- atraPS-: ; into a strictly commercial pUch, i «'«verh«ad and floor lighting, highlights or s^^^^ except for the integrated plugs ' I'Shting through transpftencies and translucencies, broken shadows oy projecting light through cutouts and foliage. There are many wayjs of designing with lights atjd . shadows biit at all times, visibility is of great importance;; The audience must always see ti,«,.,.„„ „ ' 'he performer, particularly in TV as the video is often more-vital than ^^^^v i„ «1hL n,.f nf th "m^ f„ne ' a"*^^"- Therefore one must be careful not to underlight although crack in getting out of the lotions | ^jg^t mean sacrificing an effect. ?h» whi^en^;^?-1 The very nature of television is conducive to the development of the highest sponsor identifications | effects that would be peculiar tp it. S?iooting through cut-out mats or in radio, particularly in view of the various fabrics has proven interesting Double image pictures and the superimposing of same by the use «f two catAeiras at one time can^^ :: interest and help to tell a story. ''■lA' -I'-i In television we cannot cut and edit as in mbtiPh pictures; ;The cut- ■ ting and editing is done from the control room as: the director calls the. camera shot.s. The success of a good telecast is due to timiiig. of .the ..: ingredients-—exits, entrances, curtains, light changes, music;: and pa«* '' pf entertainment. The attention of the audience iimiist be focused on the performer who is entertaining them Ajna theiit;*^^ caught and pointed by lighting, action and camera. ; ^ Television is exciting. It offers unexplored territory for experimenta- tion, and, with the development of color, its posisibilities will be practi- cally limitless. We should make it new, vivid and unhabkneyed but at the same time it must be "good theatre." ■ • Sundays Charles Boyer, Joan Crawford and Jane Wyman will handle the announcer chores and get in the K-t plugs. While each of the stars is ber ing: paid -the minimum $30 AFRA fee, actually Kaiser-Frazer is al- locating ah. additional total of .$4,000 for WW's pet charity, the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund, "in honor of" the four stars doubling as announcers. Last Sunday marked the first time that Crosby had detoured worked into his own Philco-spon sored ABC show. ^ Weintraub agency, and WW , is, in itself; a guarantee for raising film recordings of programs to a i vision executive personnel profess high and satisfactory level. ithe same firm faith in U. S. en- It is my belief that the present j gineering know-how that the aver- attitude of audience and advertiser [age television set owner: is display- give the television industry a rea-1 ing. sonable amount of time in which to I think that television film re- ^ make film recorded programs the.cordings are here for whoever' his Sunday show until the spring practical equal of the live show. I needs them; and right now practi- j or the fall, although it's definitely ;:ow is this time being used, and'cally everybody does. on the upcoming agenda. "Jergens Journal" tagline It-s: for that reason that the agency. hasn't any particular mis- givings about losing Ben Grauer as announcer. on the show; al- though recognizing that WW has: parted company with one of the ace salesmen on the webs. In- stead, Cy Harrice has taken over; Latter, a freelancer, also has "Quick As a Flash" and "Sherlock Holmes," as well as the announcer berth on Procter St Gamble's "What Makes You Tick" and "Por- tia Faces Life." Grauer, like Winchell, did the Jergens show over the whole 16- year stretch, and as such has been indelibly linked with the product Winchell, incidentally, will hold off; on a. simultaneous televising of St. Louis—^Veterans of Foreign Wars, through the Missouri organ ization, presented a citation of ap Witmer Kesign* NBC Roy C. Witmer, for nearly years an NBC veepee 15 charge staff preciation to KXOX, local ABC 1 "f sales and in recent ycjrs a sia> outlet, in appreciation of the gen- i v.p. carrying out as.signmtnih ^ eral contribution of its lime and Piexy Niles rrammell, itsiB"'=» facilities to the presentation of la-: last week due to ill heaj n. dio broadcasts sponsored by the Witmer joined the neivvoiii. »■ VFW, ' 1927.