Variety (Mar 1949)

34 ltAllIO.TEI.I!VISION Weduea4ay» Blarch 23, I949 Govt. Eyes Set Price Scramble Contiiiued trom p»e« thev have been' squeezed, espe-, tion of the business'in the hands ciaily by tie-in sales. They claim ! of relatively few retailers. This tliey have, been forced to take quantities of table model radio re- ceivers to obtain television sets, They add; that they have been pressured for quick payment, al- would eventually hurt the public, itself, despite the present benefit temporarily resulting from the price cutting. Meanwhile, this economic side of thougli their large competitors are I television will continue to be care- not being similarly squeezed. (Sec tion 3 of the Clayton anti-trust .act outlaws tie-in sales.) This situation exists in Washing, tori, New York, Philadelphia, .Chl- cagp, Los Angeles and many other cities. Principal complaint all over the country, however, is that special discounts are being given to der partment stores and large retail chains by the radio and television manufacturers, These favored dealers are given the title of "as- sociate distributors," which is sup- posed to justify the special melon cut for them. (Under the Robinson- Patman Act, price discrepancies .— unless based on lower cost to the sellers —are outlawed.) The overriding discounts to "as- sociate distributors" run about 25%. more than the trade discounts to ordinary retailers. In the cur- rent market, where sets are being sold well below list, or with large trade-in allowances for old radios, that is business murder. When the independent retailer tries to compete, he finds himself selling at cost, or even at a loss. His "asso- ciate distributor" competitor has enough extra margiUL -— thanks to the special discount "^ to keep his fully scanned by the Government. Only AFRA Continued from ;page 29 i video performers themselves tak-, ing over control of their own af- fairs after a period of one year, or possibly longer. But Equityj AGVA and AGMA are for continu- ing the 4A;s TVA permanently, with, their representatives in 'charge..,,- Nixes TV Members' Merger Equity also opposes permitting the tele membership to merge with any other- 4A's union at any fu- ture date. This is presumably on the ground that sueh an' action would in effect give the other union jurisdiction over the video field. Equity claims the tele jurisdiction, but is willing to share control of it with the other unions. AFRA wants to leave this and all other' policy matters to the TV perform- ers themselves. " Equity would require that the executive head of the 4A's TVA.not be an executive of any union in- volved. This is apparently aimed at George Heller, AFRA national down, AFRA would probably go along. AGVAj with a membership of 9,000, is insisting on proportional representation in the makeup of the TVA. This would give it an edge over AITRA, with 8,000 mem- bers, Equity with 4,000 and Chorus Equity with 2,000. The latter unions are. apparently agreeable to- the proportional idea. All the un- ions agree that there should be a specific definition of a video per- former and preliminary steps are being taken to formulate one. ■ It was admitted by a ■ member of the AGVA board last week that al- though the group opposes certain aspects of the proposed TVA plan, the board members had not yet read; more than a few paragraphs of it. That came out during a spe- cial AFRA board meeting on the subject, with members of a joint 4A's television- committee present. One of the committee, a member of the AGVA board, made the admis- sion. Tele Chatter Continued from page 31 Film Producers Assn. and Screen Writers Guild will begin contract negotiations this week. Meetings will be held in the SWG offices... KTTV has inked a cooperative deal with Pasadena Playhouse whereby station will telense spe- cial stage productions set up by the playhouse. KTTV will tele- vise one play pec month from Us own studios. head above, water and make a little I executive secretary, who is figured profit. I the probable choice to head the Still another complaint is in sit- uations where manufacturers have set up their own : direct factory distribution units,, instead of using local jobbers. In some instances, these factory branches have sched- ules of discounts in which the diS' video setup. It is an expression of the suspicion on the part of Equity and AGVA against AFRA and is related to Equity's desire to forbid an ultimate'*merger of the tele organisation with AFRA. . AFRA, which would like, to re- SLATE TO COAST FOR BBC AIRER ON DISNEY FILMS Sam Slate, program director for ! BBC in the N. Y. office, leaves for i the Coast tomorrow (24) to pro-1 duce a half-hour documentary show | built around the Walt Disney Pro- ductions. It's lor the BBC "Chil- dren's Hour" program. : Slate will record the program, both In Los Angeles and San Franciscb, and ship it to England. He will be joined on the Coast by Warren MacAlpin, who heads up North American programming for BBC in the London office. Latter is currently on a tour of U. S. and Canada for BBC produc- tion ideas. Chicago Morris B. Sachs Amateur Hour simulcasted Sunday (20) via WEINR-TV for first of 52-week series , . . Chi AFRA to present television satire June H at annual antics . , . Illinois governor Adlal Stevenson guested by newscaster Clifton Uttey over WNBQ ... An- swer man John Kleran .made debut Sunday (20) on WENR-TV in 15- minute series produced by Paul Moss . . . Quiz Kid Darice Rich- man crowned queen over WBKB "Kiddie Parade" . . . WGN-TV "Stars of Tomorrow'' show offer?, ing Hollywood sci'een test to talent , . . Chi Relays track meet Satur- day (19) televised by WENR-TV for Hotpoint appliances through Maxon agency..; WNBQ's Beinald Werrenrath, Jr., on two-week cruise with Navy . . . Tony Rizzo new WENR-'TV director. New .staff additions include Joe Byrne, Dick . Ortner and Richard Wyatt . . . .Panl Moore < named tele opera- tion snpervisor for .NBC central division. .'. counts are not justified on a cost I tain Heller as its top executive, analysis basis. The price spread i favors leaving the choice of 4A's between the favored and the gar-| TVA head to that group to decide, den variety retailers varies by as i with no strings attached, just as •inuch . as 20%, in violation of the I it wants to do with other matters. RobinsonrPatman Act. Net result, some government of- ficials fear, may be a concentra- It will ask the Equity council for an explanation for its stand on the question. But In case of a show- CONGRATULATIONS TO "The Girl With the Voice You Won't Forget" on tk« occasion of our 250" JOAN BROOKS SHOW From Your CAST and ORCHESTRA SPIKE JONES, Gutfsts and Adds His Good Wisliot to JOAN BROOKS for .Contlnuod Success on fh« TOP REGIONAL RADIO COMMERCIAL IN AMERICA Sponiorad by C. F. SAUER CO., RICHMOND, VA. Managcmmt: BOB KERR-^RKO BLD6.—NEW YORK ABC Sheds Light Continued from page 28 ; be developed differently from one for theatre projection. It should have less contrast, because TV tends tor make dark areas darker and light areas lighter." Another reason for special TV lighting is that the tele screen is so much smaller—80%; of sets in home today having 10-inch tubes, Marx saysr< with the small size of the average'living room placing a limit on screen size. : One of the problems which Back hopes to solve'is the determination of the critical lighting point for each camera—the point at which best results are obtained. The task is complicated by the fact that chemicals in the tube are not com- pletely stable, but may change from hout to hour. Equipment developed as a result I of Back's consultative research | with ABC Will be offered first to that net, then to "the industry gen- erally. Pilot models will be field tested In the web's studios, with operating personnel passing on sug- gestions to Back. WBAL Continued from page 28 U. of Minn. Continned from page 29"; another from more than 220 non- disabled veterans. KSTP's offer to televise the games, scheduled for March 24-26, was rejected.'' The university also had refused to .permit televising of its own ba.sketball games the past season although all of the contests were sold out in advance. It, however, made a deal with KSTP for the televising of football games—all of which were sellouts^last season. No contract has been signed yet lor next fall, In the present instance, the uni- versity officials put the responsi- bility for the no-televising on the state high school league which "runs the tournament" and which, they declare, voted- against tele- vising. An investigation is now un- der way; . goes for all the major TV mar- kets) to embrace video. After a year of experimentation, however, Hutzler's has come up with a formula that may ^ell set a pat- tern for the future. This is strictly a "Hutzler Produc- tion," put together by Pam John- ston, a store employee', who also does the running commentary, and utilizing its own models and mer- chandizing wares. A 15-minute program cued to the season and fashionable trends, it comes off so ingeniously that it's packed with showmanship, yet adds up to a quarter-hour trailer for the store, without so much as' a single out- and-out commercial plug. (Last Thursday's (17) presentation of "Easter Album," featuring Harold Burke's daughter, Marilyn, was-a topflight fashion exhibition with maximum show values). In its "Hi Jinx" noontime AM- TV simulcast program, with its three-way talent spread featuring exrsports4Rnnouncer-turned-comed- ian Nick Campofelda and singers Gloria Halliday. and Bob Berry, WBAL feels it is incubating a po- tential NBC parlay. Just as Garry Moore and Mary Smiall came out of the station, WBAL is taking the NBC talent development idea seri- ously.. In Campofelda th.e.,station has nurtured Baltimore's No. 1 "talent of the year." WBBM'sMorey Promotion Cues Shift to Low^Cost Musicals to Combat TV Chicago, March 22. Promotion of vet producer Al Porey to job of WBBM program di. rector emphasizes that station's shift to low-cost musical shows in order to combat Chi's fast grow Ing television field. WBBM has no tele outlet. In line with shift, ex-program director Val Sherman will concen. trate on his own 15 min., six a week show titled "Pick Up Time" formerly the "Patrick O'Bile'y Show," which has been sold to Chi" Laundry Owners Assn. WBBM has canceled its expen. sive "Music Please," an houMong ' live talent musical, and broken up station musicians and talent into small groups for cost-wise sponsors. No, direct saving to station was involved > in .move, since union con- tracts called for a set quota of both.'- Morey pointed out that more time and energy would be spent on small shows. Instead of cumber- some half-hour and 60-minute pro- grams. O'Halloran's 12-Year D€t.-Chi Round Trip Detroit, March 22. It took announcer Hal O'Hal- loran 12 years to complete a round trip between. Detroit and Chicago stations. He returned to Detroit Monday (21) as emcee of CKLW's "Dawn Patrol" platter and chatter pro- granii Twelve years ago, he left CKLW for a job with Chicago's WLS. During his 12-year-stay at WLS, he emceed the coast-to-coast Na- tional Barn Dance show. CBS to Stress Continued from page 27:; aired in June, is based on* a world citizenship idea as exemplified by several contemporary doctors and scientists who have done humani- tarian work in undeveloped areas. : In late August, the documentary unit win air a show,'written by Arnold Perl, which will examine the workings of the country's penal system. Michel accented that neither this show, nor the one on Congress, will be designed as muck-raking exposes but rather as analyses of existing institutions. Two remaining programs have not been defined as yet although Michel said that Walter Bern^, stein7- a- freelance—mag—writer, i slated to script one of them. ' Bernstein, who. did two public service shows for CBS last year, is one in the stable of young writers which the web is cur- rently training for major assign'', ments. Battle Hooper i Continued from page 28 s Pike's WJBK-TV Post Detroit, March 22. Lanny-Pike has been appointed I supervisor of television operations I at WJBK-TV, it was announced by ! Richard E. Jones, general manager of WJBK and WJBK-TV. Pike formerly was exec tele pro- ducer of WXYZ-TV in Detroit. Previous to that he was staff direc- tor of WTMJ-TV, fn Milwaukee. Pike began his radio career In 1935 at WRDO. Augusta, Me. whether they have a TV receiver or not. By doing this outlets esti- mate only 1.2 video homes will be reached each 15-minute period. Don Fedderson, general man- ager of KLAC-TV, has also stated his opposition to the census along the same lines as Witt. Klaus Landsberg topper of KTLA, would like to have a factual reading of audience reaction but feels it must be separated from the radio count- ing. Frank Samuels, general manager of the western division of ABC, related that surveys must be identical here and in New York. Unless the separate survey is dropped in N. Y.; Samuels related, ABC is not in the market for'dual census here. Vice-president in charge of the western division of NBC, Sidney N. Strotz, said that he liked the combined- survey?—Strotz- ^ated" that he'd like to know "What's happening in radio and television as an overall picture." Carlton Wlnckler, program director of KTSL, would like to see the sur- vey enter L. A. Ward Ingram, sales manager of the outlet, is re- serving his judgement until he sees the initial report from Hooper. BUFFS lfi,291. SETS Buffalo, March 22. Total of 3,134 new TV Installa- tions were made here during Feb- ruary. . This brings the total residential and commercial sets-In use''I.0 I61- » 281.- M.G-M— 'On an Island with You" Tlfl? CAMF.I. SHOW Kvery Friday NMe. »::«» V.B.V. Mgt.: LOU CLAYTON AGENT WANTED Top radio comedy writer now Willi bit; network show w.Tntii agent who Is aggressive and on the ball —one Who will (five personalixed service. Write Box 248, Variety, 134 W. 4Stb N. CSee.iiaee 44)