Variety (Jan 1949)

so n.l»IO^TELEVI$IO!V Wednesday, Jannaiy 19» 1949 D.C Gets 4th Tele Station as WOIC Takes Air; Plans Fulton Lewis Shows Washington Jan 18. + TUe Capital's fourth television I station, WOIC, owned bv the Bam- i berger Broadcasting Co , started i regular operation Sunday (16) with I the full evening: schedule of the | SET PRICES IN CHICAGO IN POST-XMAS TUMBLE Expect Ruling Soon On Tele Soundtrack Scale Hollywood, Jan. 18. CBS network Debut ot the outlet Chicago, Jan. 18. Vd-? timed to catch the inaugui al | Although tele set installations coverdge have hit the 60,000 mark m Stuion plans to add projected cago, tele set prices ha\e been tak- Mutual regional TV network when . - its sister outlet \\ OR-TV Ne\\ York, takes to the an' in late spring! Meantime, WOIC will tele- vise beginning Feb 21 the regu ing a tumble, with retail dealers unloading holiday season surplus Musicians scale for television soundtrack is expected to be set up by the American Federation of Musicians shortly according to J. W. Gillette, international studio rep for AFM Gillette revealed that he has had definite word from James C. Petrillo that union was hard at work on the problems involved in ales f( rking i Inade Stuff-Ralo Bob Carter, Pittsburgh radio singer and m.c. at Nixori cafe there for 10 years, paid a debt of long-standing off in part to Jack Pulton last week. Back in the mid-thirties, Fulton was with Paul Whitejnan and heard Garter sing. He recommended him to Pops and the young tenor got the job. So when Fulton came back to Pittsburgh for the first time since then to play Mercur's Music Bar, Carter plugged him nightly from floor of Nixon cafe, a rival: spot, arid also sp^ guest on his (Carter's) Suppertiifae show, a Ibng-runriirig commercial on KDKA. ■■■-:■^v^■y' J. E, (Pat) Gamer, vet news comtnetttaibr for WFPW, Fort Sniith, Ark , and state senator m the Arkansas legislature, recently did ye^^^^ man relief work in behalf of the town of Warren which was struck letting up wage ^calTs for canned , by a devastating tornado Jan 3 Together with Remmel Young, the- music AFM is working on a scale atre circuit exec, and other station officials, Garner organized collec- tion depots for food and clothmg for the Warren residents and his pleas for help over special broadcasts: netted dVer 46' tons of^^^^t^^^ rtiatcriai,i WFPW was on the air around-the-clock that day doing the disasteir job. lar news broadcasts of Fulton Lewis. Mutual commentator which Will be fed to network several months hence. Lewis' newscast, with film accompaniment for tele- vision audience, will be made avail!: able later for /local cooperative music that will take into ifohsideration the number of sets in use through- out the country, the range of eacji . . „ „, „„f„ I transmitter and the number of sta- Surprisingly enough, aU the cuts ^ , programs have not been in the large •vn.-o . <• p also more in the expensive sets, but lower price field. Halhcratters cut its S179 and $189 sets by $40. -with some deal- ers even offering liberal radio trade-ins Other dealers are of- fering discounts on all brands. sponsorship, believed to be an in- leading department stores, foi novation in television for a na- /^^g time, mentioning manu- tionally known commentator ' facturer's name Kmerson, Philco, Opening of WOIC prompted the , Admiral, GE and RCA-Victor have Washington Post to prepare a spe- 1 slashed as much as $60 or more by WTTG Gives Washington^ Regular Daytime Video With New Program Setup The Federal Communications Commission, the only agency in gov- ernment which IS subjected to a Congressional investigation every two years like clockwork, is apparently due for another probe during the 81st Congress. There is considerable sentiment, particularly on the Senate side, for a thorough look into the matter of moving FM up in the spectrum. A number of Senators are convinced that the FCC blundered badly when it shifted FM upstairs to its present slot. Dr. Edwin D. Armstrong is still fighting to remain in the old section of the ether. Fact is, after FM moved up into a Supposedly interference free band, new gimmicks: inteiiering witt> reception began to occur. Some of these had been predicted by private radio engineers such as Dr. Arm^ cial 16-page supplement for to* morrowj'-sue (19i welcoming the new station The Post lecently ac- puirod control of the CBS kev st.'indard station in the Capital, Addition of WOIC to the Capital scoiic lorccd a revision of program- retailers. Higher-pnced receivers have also been hit, with Farnsworth Tele- vision announcing a $50 to $200 cut on Its Capehart models Al- though^ several thousand sets were sold for the opening of Chicago- New York tele web, apparently Washington; Jan. 18. Regular daytime television pro grammihg began here yesterday i strong; FGG engineers insisted there would be no interference, (17) when the DuMont station, „, , _ , ,, ,. ■ . . i. * i,. i i, j. ' ^ 4 , i « ■ t in I Phil Silvers will emcee the entertainment at the annual Radio and Wl IG, took to the air at lo a m | Television Directors Guild ball to be held Friday (21) at the Astor hotel, ana. y Among the others slated to appear are J«wy Fayc. M Henry Morgan, Cardinit Morey Amsterdani, Katheriici^ puhham d^^ Ray Block's, orchestra and « rhumbii b^ri^ ;«^l be: on the podium,^^^ ;f niinff on the Washins'lon Evening most of those were sold during the Siar television station. WMAL^TV. holiday season and since then the an ABC affiliate, which had also: sales situation has become stag- been carrying CBS shows. WMAL- nant. TV added 13 ABC shows, five com-, in"? over the new coaxial from Chicago, . ; ■ • ■ Manager of WOIC is Eugene S. Thomas,* former sales head of WOr, a D C native James S Mc- Murray, formerly with WBAL-TV, Baltimore,' is program director. William D. Murdopk, formerly with WOL, Washington, is sales man^ ager. John 1 with Mutual, director. Whiting Making Vidpix Hollywood, Jan. 18. Newest vidfilm producer is Art Whiting, who is converting his re- cording and rehearsal studio into a telepic sound stage, Biilk 'of the Hardesty. formerly ] product will be 16m comrnercial IS- pubhc relations: strips and Whiting also plans to : . I rent his facilities to other pro- I ducei s Miami—Bill Terrv formerly with Partnered with him are Elwood'i ^ Fort Industrv's butirt in Atlanta -'^^^^holson,, who quit a cameraman s i base tuture charges. A with 4Mi: hours of morning afternoon shows on a Monday through Friday schedule. Outlet is now carrying 50 hours a week,' plus 17 hours ol musicale and test pattern. All of the daytime programs originate from DuMont's New York station, WABD, which also feeds the schedule to the com- pany's Pittsburgh outlet, WDTV, which started operations last week, DuMont affiliates m: Balti- more and Chicago were- expected to take the schedule, which is be- ing offered affiliates on the east- raidwest coaxial hookup. ; Provendie as production chief, WTTG is offering its daytime | Harry Brent as talent director and programs for local sponsorship at I Dick Shack^as. business manager. SAYO HEADS LIST OF 5 TV HOUSE PACKAGES Group: of five new television shows,' topped by Jimmy Savo cast fs a detective in "Sheflock Jones, r," has been packaged by TV House, Inc., new indie firm, and Is being peddled to ad agencies apd networks. Outfit is headed by Zina the current station time rate and It' not charging for cost of talent or production. Contracts are for not more than 13 weeks,; after which time the station hopes to have audience data on which to 15-minute WAG A, has loined staff ot Fort's VOi,t with Vallee Video to go into sistor-CBS afliliate. WGBS, Miami, | business with Whiting, and Jack as news editor and special: events j Weidman: whoy it's undei'stoodi director. I furnished most of ihe coin. show is being offered on a once-a week basis at $60.8 day, twice*-a- week for $57, .and so on to a mini« mum of ^48. iilil Day 4«Mi^night a 600% incr«ot« in the number of people in our area of consistent, perfect reception. Featured in the Savo show, which will carry a week-to-week story continuity, is songstress Janie Ford. Other shows on the fire Include "And in This Conner,'' narrated by Barney Ross and Harry Balogh and featuring the most embarrassing moments in the ring history of name boxers; "Teen Fry," half- hour show featuring Miss Ford, Ethel Shell, Betty Jane Smith, Mike Manners, Al Kelly and Peter Gray; "Over the River," 15-minute spot plugging Brooklyn, to be con- ducted by the N: Y. Mirror's Brook- lyn columnist Eddie Zeltner, and "TNT and a Shell," 15-minute mu- sicale with the Teddy Napoleon Trio and Miss Shell. . SOdOOwatU KSTP, Mpls,, to Operate On Seven-Day Schedule Minneapolis; Jan. 18- KSTP-TV on Jan 21 will close the Fiidav night gap in its tele- vision schedule to operate on a seven-day weekly lineup, the new program to continue at least until the end of the hockey season.- Then President Stanley Hubbard announced. Saturday night tele- casting ^may be discontinued. Seven-day schedule will include some 40 hours of operation Heading new Fiiday night shows will be Admiral's "Friday Night Fiplic," as well as;American To- bacco Co's "Youi Lucky Strike" Other netwoik features will be broadcast from film. An NBC affiliate KSTP also starts Wednes- day (19) the bioadcast of CBS' Arthur Godfrey "Talent Scouts" show. Vandalism Takes K^W, St Louis County Indie Off Air For 6i Hours St. Louis, Jan. 18. 4n' act of vandalism last week cut KXLW, indie St. Louis County station; off the air for 6<^ hours and' added another chapter In the trouble that has beset the station during the .past year. The vandalSj .' according to Guy Runnion, station' president, scaled a six-foot fence- around the 205-foot tower to short- circuit the juice by wiring together two wires at the base of the tower. Some equipment was burned out and the station was silent until new parts could be located. Run- nion said, ''It obviously was done by someone thoroughly familiar with radio broadcasting equipment and most likely KXLW installations in particular." Last week Runnion and two of the station engineers were arrested by the marshal of Olivette, a resi- dential community m the county, on charges of violating the zoning ordinances by erecting the tower : without a perinit. Efforts of the station to erect I another tcwer on a different -site I in the county have been halted by a strike ot AFL engineers which I started last month over a wage in- I crease dispute. I TED LEWIS' TV PACT I Chicago, Jan. 18. I Ted Lewis, currently appearing here at the Chez Paree, has pacted I a tele contract with the William I Morris office. I Deal is for one year only, with IWM packaging video offering as I "Ted Lewis Show " Usteri fq: \_ ROBERT SNYDER '.. It. ■ :dn:-- ylfPTIt-Albany feature Grade Rdd's London Record Ml® mwn PUBLICITY WRITER EDITORIAL STAFFER BacliKrininil: All ptia!iM i>iibli«ii*i»n work, piiMUilty and iiruniorlun wrlll»I. -J<I«[|^'inan,-i^jcpf>rl«ni'«<l - 111 IxMik, riM-. ord, muHln, th«atr«. iiilv^rtlnlnit fl<il<1*>. Cniitni't Hohert Wronksr, SI r:liarl«» Hlrret, >>w York It. I'll. il-7»:;ii. Radio Station Wanted WANT TO ACQUIRE OWNERSHIP. INTEREST OR CONNECTION IN ES- TABLISHED NETWORK AFFILIATED STATION. CASH AVAILABLE. Writ* Box N-32. Varitiy, 360 N.'Michi^aii Chicago 1, Illinois