Variety (Jan 1949)

Wednesday, January 19, 1949 TELEVISION - RADIO 31 Inside Televbion Claim that all major technical problems in the use of Stratovision as •an airborne method of television networking have been solved was made this week by Walter Evans, veepee of Westinghouse, which is developing the system in conjunction with the Glenn L. Martin Co. Extensive flight tests during the last three years prove that Strato- vision is both "practical and useful," Evans said. He declared the com- mercial development of the system now awaits further public demand for expanded service offered by the system and the broadcasters' use of Stra:tovision to meet that demand. In addition^ he said, channel facilities must be made available. According to Evans, weekly test flights utilizing a converted B-29 Superfortress have brought in sue-' cessful reception reports from viewers within a .250-mi;le radius of the plane circling at 25,000 feet. j Televisiori Hgoperatings started this month in nine additional cities, I with results to be made available to subscribers . Feb. 10. New cities added to N. Y., on which TV ratings have been taken since February, 1948, include Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Baltimore, Clevipland and St Louis.. Reports are to be based on the regular coincidental telephone sample in each city. publication of a N. Y. TV Pocket Piece was also announced for Feb- rualry publication by C. E. Hooper, who said the name of the service was being changed from N. V. Teleratings to N. Y. TV Hooperatings. in addition to detailed information on TV cities, stations, afFiliations, radio and tele families in a 50-mile area, etc., the Piece will also show TV and radio listening in TV homes, number of stations carrying each network show and time allocations oh the coaxial cable. IMPPRO Seeking Theatre Dates for 'Drake' TV Pix Hollywood, Jan; 18. IMPPRO Productions, telefilm outfit now winding its first sbries of "Eddie Drake" films for CBS television, is dickering for thea- trical release of the pix. They i star Patricia Morison, Don Hag- gerty and Theodore von Eltz, and feature Luis van: Rooten, Hilray Bi'ooke, Jorja Curtwright, Gail Robbins and Whit Bissell. Films, running 27 minutes each, are readily adaptable to situations where exhibitors want a' quicker audience turnover than they .now get with double bills,, Telels Impact Keeps nC Hopping To Check on Station s Commercials Washington, Jan. 18. Charles ("Bud") Barry, recently-named exec television veepee for ABC, makes his first trade appearance in his new position as guest speaker tomorrow (Thursday) night at the monthly closed huddle of the Independent Television Producers Assn; Meet is scheduled for the Hotel Savoy-Plaza, N. Y. Barry is slated to speak on ABC-TV's plans and problems and will I brief the indie producers on how to establish good relations with the | web's stations relations. Kudner ad agency veepee Myron Kirk launched i the closed sessions last month with an outline on the packagers', rela tlons with agencies. N.Y.SOLONSTOGETBILL BANNING TV IN AUTOS Albany, Jan. 18. Sen. Seymour Halpern, Long "Island, N. Y., Republican, has in- troduced a bill which would ban television sets in ; automobiles where the viewing screen is visible to the operator. In view of the fact Senator Hal- pern is chairman of the motor ve- hicle committee in the Upper House^ it is thought probable the measure will be favorably reported. Sen. Thomas G; Desmond, Newr burgh Republican, had announced he would sponsor a similar propc sal,' as a safety measure.. Action along the same line has been taken in several large cities throughout the country. Quincy Howe Seguing Into TV as Narrator CBS radio commentator Quincy Howe makes the switch to tele- vision Saturday (22) night as. nar» rator on a weekly analysis of the news, which is to be slotted in the 7:30 to 7:45 segment over the full eastern and midwest network. Howe will henceforth devote most of his time to TV, with the ex- ception of a few AM shows^ such as his current "You and . . ." series. 'He's-the second CBS radio news- caster to ankle towards the newer medium, having been preceded by Doug Edwards,) who now handles the web's across-the-board 15- mlnute news show on video. Swezey Heeds Call of South; WDSU Veepee Robert. D. Swezey, who resigned several weeks ago as exec veepee and. general manager of Mutual as the result of a split with prexy Ed Kobak, is leaving New York and checks in Feb. l .at WDSU in New Orleans. He becomes exec veepee and a director of the station's AM- FMrTV operations. Oddly enough, .Swezey succeeds Fred Weber, who in turn was former general manager of Mutual a few years back in approximately the same top level post that Swezey held; Weber, who went to WDSU as part owner, plans to buy his own station. WDSU was sold several months ago for $650,000 to the Edgar Stern family, one of the wealthiest in New Orleans. Edgar Stern, Jr., is the station's prexy. A month ago WDSU preemed its video operation, the first in that city. Latter is affiliated with ABC, NBC and DuMont. ' Kobak meanwhile, is on the prowl for a 'No. 2 man to head up sales- program operations. It was Kobak's original insistence on bringing in another top man to supervise sales and, programming that brought about' the cleavage and decision of Swezey to resign. The impact of television, com- bining visual with audio forms of advertising. Is creating a big job for the Federal Trade Commission, where commercials— printed or broadcast—are given the once- over for possible misrepresenta- tion. The speed with which the medium is taking hold, Varietit learned last week. Is being re^ fleeted Immediately In the agency's advei-tising review. operations^ : | It's only nine months since FTC extended its radio continuity examinations to Include television, but in that time growth in the volume of copy submitted by video stations .4ias been fantastic. Last April, when PTC canvassed tele- vision' broadcasters for the first time, there were^ 22 stations in various degrees of operation. The Commission called on 14 of these stations to submit advertising copy, but only five of them had any sponsored programs. ^Involving products which move in interstate commerce, the programs PTC scru- tinizes in carrying out its statu- tory functions. In thdl^e distant days of last spring (which is ages ago in tele- vision), FTC would receive not more than IS pages of commercial script from any one of the five sta- tions in the 15-day period it specified for copy. None of the stations at that time had more than five items of advertising of a type normally coming under FTG. juris-, diction (the Commission calls ifor copy from each station four times a year for a specified 15-day pe- riod. These calls are staggered by groups among the tQtal:number of stations). In December—only eight months later-^here were. 54 video stations in viirlous degrees- of' operation 'and the average amount of com- mercial copy received from 10 sta- tions submitting script, out of 14 canvassed (the other four had nothing of Interest to PTC), dur- ing the 15-day period studied ranged from 125 to 140 pages. Each of the 10 stations, which'in- cluded some which had been on the iiir hardly a month, had: an average of about 35 items of advertising under FTC scrutiny. The advent of television added a new wrinkle to FTC's broadcast coverage—ruse of advertising film. To get at the source of this visual advertising, the Commission can- vassed 87 companies which pre* pare or place films for commer-; cials. It found that about 20 firms produce the bulk of these films and made arrangements with them to supply text. The use of slides, film, or live visual commercials has presented no great problem to FTC. Slides*' are usually employed in local ad- vertising to show a trademark op . place -of business. The spoken word usually accompanies film OP live demonstrations and text is available for this form of adver- tising. Even Sidney Stone's fa- miliar ''Tell you what I'm gonna do" routine on the Texaco: show is a well-memorized text which is submitted for examination. But not so simply with Arthur Godfrey, who takes new liberties every day with the. basic script which' FTC receives; However, the Commission doesn't. concern itself. too much with this type of com- •' mercial unless there are com- plaints, in which. case monitoring is done—after offiCe hours (with- out extra pay) by an official on his home television set. . ■ 'Operation Watermelon' Huge Success at W QXI Atlanta, Jan. 18. WQXI, Atlanta indie, garnered some national publicity last week by broadcasting appeal for water- melons needed in treatment of ail- ing New Orleans boy. Response to station's self-styled "Operation Watermelon" produced I the equivalent of 50 melons in whole form and concentrated juice. Flown to New Orleans, what wasn't I needed there was transhipped to I Wichita, Kan., to treat child therf I with similar ailment. what is a good program J% #1 0% ■ ■ Little girls are made of sugar and spice IIIQUIC \9m ■ and all things nice. Little boys are made of sticks and stones and puppy-dog bones. WOR's "Tele-Kid-Quiz" is made of little girls and little boys; thousands of them. It's packed with sugar and packed with spice and there's a good layer of verbal sticks and stones tossed around every weekday at 5:00 PM on WOR by the show's two ingenious and inventive conductors, Dan McCuUough and Bruce Eliot. It's the sort of thing that's pulled 12,188 letters from juveniles in less than, "8 weeks:itYthe sort oTlEinglTiat has lirmBess Wes'and merchandising possibilities WOR's "Tele-Kid-Quiz" is another great.program creation that can buUd greater sales, greater goodwill, greater and more economical impressions per-thousand-homes-reached than any juvenile show on at a similar time in New York today. Please write, wire, phone, or just saunter over for a recording or full description. But, quickly. -at 244P Broadwny, in New YQrk * LOngacf 4-8000 WOR