Variety (Mar 1949)

Vedncaday, March 23, 1949 Britishers Find Yankee Twang Better'n BBC, Sez Radio lux's Mpls. Jockey Minneapolis, March 22. BalBh Moflatt, localite who be* came a European disk jockey and i« now here on a visit, says that European listeners don't care too much for the stuffy and superior BBC broadcasters, and that he has rpceived letters from Britishers who told him his easy-going yan. itee voice makes them nostalgic about thf American troops who used to be there. „ ,. A» platter spinner for Radio Luxembourg, Moffatt told news- naner interviewers here he har- vests some 1,000 fan letters a week. He says he's tempted to give the Arthur Godfrey treatment to com- mercials, but so far hasn't dared, He once was an announcer on radio station WCCO here. Detroit Spring Training News Aired Over WJR Detroit, March 22. Harry Heilmann, WJR's baseball announcer, has started a weekly summary of news direct from the spring training camps. The half- hour broadcast is being beard until start Of the regular baseball sea- son. WJB's sports director. Van Pat- rick, supplemented Heilmann's re- ports with local baseball news. Pat- rick will share the Detroit Tiger broadcasts and telecasts with Heil- mann this year. Goebel Brewing Co., through Br«oke, Smith, French & Dor- i-ance agency, is sponsoring the spring training series. .As in the pasti Goebel will sponsor broad- Casts and telecasts of the games over a web of other Michigan sta-. tions. CBS Gets Fort Wayne Outlet After 14 Y«ars «r*i.,T?"°J,* Wayne, March 22. WANE, Port Wayne, joins CBS on April 1. , It will mark the first time in 14 i years that the network will be I heard over a local station. WANE has 250 watts power. P^Sriett BADIO-TEfJBVISION 35 EDUC'L B'CASTEBS CHI MEET ChicagOj March 22. Educational Broadcasters Con- ference 'is skedded for Chicago Oct. 1&-20 with better than 2,500 expected to attend^ 700 more than the 1948 turnout, : Sherman Hotel ts the site; 4 A's Kills APRS Plan ForNation-WideVidshow Hollywood, March 22. Associated Actors and Artistes, of America has scotched Armed i Forces Radio Service plans for a' nationwide video show to rie pre-1 sented on Army Day, April 1. | The local AFRS reserve unit! went to Hollywood Co-ordinating | Committee to obtain talent for' planned program. Committee was informed by Four A's that guilds do not want talent appearing over television on kinescope, because the system of recording, to date, has been extremely "unkind"' to thesps in projecting their like- nesses. The reserve unit planned to record program on a closed Cir- cuit video chain and ship show to stations throughout the countryi Unit now has narrowed plans to production, of a live program for Los Angeles only. Rosenstock Heading New Musical Package Unit . A new video packager. New York Television Productions, is special-. Izing in intimate 15 and 30-minute musicals, Including revues, variety and book shows.. Director of the outfit is Milton Rosenstock, musical director of the legiter "High But- ton Shoes," and formerly con- ductor of "Finlan's Rainbow," "On the Town," "Billion Dollar Baby" and other Broadway musicomedies. Live, auditions were held re- cently in the Barbizon Plaza the- atre with Avon Long, Dolores Martin, Lorenzo Fuller, Betty Ab- bott and others taking part. Coby Ruskin directed -. and - Leonard Btrausberg . was production .< as- sistant. : . WOWO Preps for TV Fort Wayne, March 22. WOWO, Westinghouse station in Fort Wayne, is planning to oper- ate a television outlet here, hav- ing asked the FCC for Channel 2. -The Arm plans to build a 548rfoot tower and antenna in the south- eastern section, to cover more than 4,000 square miles in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, Westinghouse has WBZ^TV in operation in Boston, and applica- tions for video stations in Pitts- burgh and Portland, Ore. DICKER UA RELEASE ON mVITlES' VIDPIX Hollywood, March 22. Sam Coslow, George Frank and the Nassour Bros., producers of television musicals^: "Hollywood Brevities," are negotiating a deal with United Artists' video depart- ment for distribution of pix: With 25% distribution cut for UA, pro- ducer group, is assured at present of getting their money back from UA's present coverage of tele sta- tions. Average cost for the two- reelers is $10,000. Producers plan releasing the shorts one a week, starting this summer.. It's planned to use the same cast used in the pilot picture throughout; including Lina .Romay, Trudy Marshall, Gene Baylos and Derry Filligant, adding others as they go along, if necessary, with Joe Berne continuing in the direc tor's chair. First pact will be for 13 weeks. UA is setting slate on a regional basis, with different ad- vertisers in each territory. Juanita Wilcox WLW-C Post Columbus, O , March 22. Juanita Wilcox has been named manager of promotional activities for WLW-C, Columbus television station of the Crosley Corp., which plans to begin broadcasting video programs March 27. She directed continuity work at WCOL, Colum- bus, for two years, and served as director of continuity and-publicity, for WHKC, Columbus, for three .yearsi .■ • , ^ j'.' State Dept. to Farm Out Disked Documentaries to Private Agencies Strindberg Short Story For TV Fdms Via Media Media Productions, :a recently formed film productioni outfit headed by John Houseman and Howard Teichman, has negotiated a deal 'whereby it will film for television a 15-minute adaptation of Strindberg's short story, "The Stronger." Vladimir Sokoloff will direct the film, with Valerie Bettis and Geraldine Fitzgerald doing the thesping. Associated with Houseman and Teichman in the firm are Tele News Corp., T. Edward Hamble- ton and Alfred Stern. Outfit has completed another telefilm, "Day in the Life of a Chorus Girl," which is the first in « series of 26 contemplated features dealing with different, aspects of American life; Army Sending 13 GI's To Stations for AM Training Thirteen; enlisted men will re- port for duty at radio stations across the country April 1 as part of the U; S. Army's experimental public relations'training program. Aim is to give the GI's three months of on-the-job experience. The men are part of a class of 35, the first to be graduated from the new public information school at Carlisle Barracks,; Pa. . The trainees, who enlisted for three yearsj are high school grads be- tween 18 and 25 years old. Follow- ing their tour of duty with the sta- tions, at which they will work at Army pay but in civilian clothes, the men will return to Carlisle to write a thesis on their experience. They will then be assigned to a regular installation. New York stations to train the GI's are WNBC and WNYC: Army will expand the project if the first group is successfuL- t The State Dept's International Broadcast Division (IBD) is plan- ning to. farm out a series of tran- ; scribed dramatic and documentary programs to private agencies on a purchase order basis,; At first the broadcasts will be bought individ- ually, but if the plan works out the State Dept. will handle the transcribed program project on a contractual basis. ^ -'-x- Specifications for the airers have been drawn up and . a large number of package houses have alreally sent in bids. Scripts will be furnished by the IBD in Eng- lish, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and German, with the pos- sibility of other languages being; added in the future. . . The transcribed' shows will be sent to U..S. missions, for distribu- tion abroad; and .will also be used to some extent for shortwaving by Voice of America. The plattered programs are of a type that the Voice is not able to produce under the limitations of its present setup. According to a Voice spokesman, the farming out plan is aimed at getting the best in radio technique from private agencies; and is in keeping with the idea of Congress that/thC' Voice Should cooperate with private enterprise in achiev- ing its aims. Kids Get WJEK Kudos In Traific Safety Program Detroit, March 22. Traffic safety for school ehildren is the theme of WJBK-TV's newest program; "Green - Pennant Pa- trol," inaugurated last week in cooperation with the Detroit Times, will televise that paper's weekly award to one of metropoli- : tan Detroit's 10,000 patrol boys« . . Fourteen»year-old Larry Schmel* • zer was the star of the first tele- cast. Larry grabbed a little girl as she was falling' beneath the wheels of a car and pulled her to safety last Feb. 7. 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