Variety (July 1949)

WednMday, July ^ 1949 KAIIM t9 CBS MOLDS ‘SINCERE’ HUCKSTERS Lo, the Poor Radio Ed Radio editors around the country, on the basis of complaints being received, are in a tailspin over the increasing mail load now that those two items known as FM and TV have projected them- selves into the picture. In key cities such as New York and Chicago (he radio eds squawk (hat they're burdened down with 75 to 100 mailing pieces of pub- licity a day, so that it’s actually become a physical task in opening the envelopes. Healthy aspect of the beefs is that it has already cued a stream- lining technique, notably at NBC, Orders have gone out to bear down on the volume of stuff, to trim and condense wherever pos- sible; to lay off the puffs (even at the risk of incurring the enmity of agencies and sponsors* and re.strict mailing pieces to news- worthy items. As result radio eds receive six envelopes a week less from NBC. Actually, the reaction from agencies has been surprising. In.stead of complaints, they go along with the premi.se that ladio eds, con- ditioned to “no puff” envelopes, will be more apt to scrutinize the contents. r ‘Pat’ Weaver in Y&R Checkout To Head Up NBC-TV; WOe Also Switches In one of the major switchovers ♦ of the year, Sylvester (Pat) Weaver. radio-TV programming veepee at Young & Rubicam, is moving over to NBC to head up the web’s TV operations. Weaver is taking along with him Fred Wile, Y & R pro- duction supervisor. Weaver, who prior to his Y & R regime was radio veepee for Amer- ican Tobacco under the late George Washington Hill, was named to the NBC post by Charles Denny, Jr., the network’s No. 2 man, as part NBC-Y&R ‘Swap’ Just- as, some years back, there was a continuous ex- change of personnel between Young & Rubicam and ABC • Chet La Roche, Hubbell Rob- in.son, et al,), the major “swap” routine of the year now in- volves Y & R and NBC. Sylvester (Pat) Weaver, ra- dlo-TV program v.p. at Y&R, moves over to NBC as the No. 1 tele man. In exchange Y&R is inheriting Ken Dyke, who was administrative pro- gram veepee at NBC. of the current sweeping realign- ments designed to give NBC pro- gram supremacy in tele. Weaver gets a veep tag and moves in Aug. Weaver moveover is doubly sig- nificant, providing a partial answer to the ultimate fate of key agency braintrusters in the face of dwin- dling radio properties. Once top- dog among agencies in the big-league nighttime network sweepstakes, Y&R comes up in the fall with only two major Holly- wood originations — Bob Hope )ac-tually a non-agency package) and "My Favorite Husband,” in this instance, too, a CBS-developed (Continued on page 36) 4 By Carrington On Comml Sked Kraft, moving into da.\’time radio in fall, having bought the t0:30-10:45 morning strip on NBC. has acquired “Marriage for Two" as the vehicle to showcase. This is ' Ki Carrington-owned serial roc sustaining service for a D last season. Because of contractual restric- *h(is involving the sponsors of her f ^hree daytime shows—I’roc- ^-f’hmble and General Fooils— | Uss C.arrington will only be identi- hed with the new package as the owner. The production has been Pa^rcelled out to the John Gibbs lice, which in effect takes over ne property on a lend-lcase basis. Wolf will do the scrijiting. . starts rolling with "Mar- •aKe July II on a sustaining ‘‘SIS. with Kraft stepping into the sponsorship picture Oct, 4. .Staals of.sworth and Terry Keane have wj*n parted as the leads. Mi.ss Carrington’s other propor- les are “When a Girl Marries." Hepper^ Young’s Family ” and Rosemary,” IVIihoii Berle, for ebvioiis rtotons, in rnlotion fo tnlnvision, •ipevnds on The Public Be Right ★ ★ ★ on tditoriol fnotwr* in tli* 4tli Annual Radio-TV Rtvitw & Previtw Numbar of P^KiEfr Out Thig Month Roi Tan Cigar Buys Davis Show On CBS Fri. at 9 .^merican Tobacco, in a radio budget expansion, has negotiated a deal to buy the Friday at J time on CB.S. being vacated by "Ford Theatre. ” along with the new CBS house-huill Joan Davis show-, "Leave It lo Jane," u hich preemed Monday night (4) on the 9:30 “Lux Theatre" hiatus period as a summer sustainer. Show has been packaged by CBS at $8,500, whicli includes agency commis.sion. Columbia won out over NBC. which had been pitching up a less e.xpcnsive show about Treasury agents called "T-Men." Davis show- will check in commercially in Sep- (ember on the tobacco company’s hoi Tan (‘igar account, Roi Tan ha.'-n t been in radio in nearly a (•ecade. Unusual aspect of deal is that .American 'Idbacco grabbed the show "cold ” from an audition rec- ord. withiuit benefit of the usual sustaining ride attending such house-built packages. Unlike her previous “stand up" joke shows, the new Davis stanza • see Radio Reviews) is a situation .comedy (levclojicd by the Columbia program biaintrusters. Sale represents a time-and-talenf splmge of about $850,000 a jcai. By GEORGE ROSEN CBS for the past seven months has been quietly engaged in a . unique contribution designed to put (he "human equation" into j radio commercials. The effective- ness of "sincere” plug.s has been put through the testing mill at \ycCO. the nework’s o & o sta- I tion in Minneapolis, where the an- ; nouncers have been schooled in I new techniques. Since then the idea has been broadened to include ) all of the CBS owned-and-operaled stations. Eventually it is the net- work's goal to adopt “sincere huck- , stering ” as a standard practice on I all coast-to-coast commerciaLs. This represents the first major and constructive move within the industry to rid radio, commercial announcements of the “insincerity” stigma that’s been attached to them for years. It’s the culmination of an idea conceived some time back by Howard Meighan, one of the 'web’s upper echelon veepces. Idea stems from an awareness that the I advertising agencies, entrusted ; with the task of preparing clients’ copy, have, through the years, sloughed off radio commercial I treatment while the men of bril- liance within the copy-writing fra- ternity have always channeled their energies into the black-and- white medium. : This has applied to practically every top agency and every man worth his salt in the business, with perhaps the single exception of Bob Colwell )now partnered with Sullivan, Stauffer. Colwell & I Bayles), who in his longtime re- gime at J. Walter Thompson, vest- ed radio commercial copy with a t CBS. slickne.ss uncommon to the indu.s- try. j It was ca.se of CBS deciding to I take the bull by the horns. The informal, off-the-cuff treatment ac- corded Lipton Tea commercials by Arthur Godfrey, and more latterly the “human values” brought to the Sanka plug.s by Gertrude Berg on TV convinced CBS that patterning the commercial to the personality of the "huckster” could go far to- ward giving commercials new j meaning and a heretofore unrec -1 ognized sales impact. ' In the case of VAX’CO, where CBS j spent months trying to divorce the "insincerity” element from com- irwrciais. it frequently meant toss- • ing agency copy out of (he window, or doing a complete revamp job to fit the pejsonality of the particular announcer. But. surprising enough, there wasn’t a dissenting voice from (he agency or the sponsor camp. This has given CB.S suffi- cient heart to go all out on the campaign. Petry Control Feud Jeopardizes Cream Accounts; Station Reps Alert Selves for Grabolf of Choice Plums ('has. Mortimer, Jr. (Vice'Vrenidvut, Marketinf*, (ienvrul Foods Corp.) •xpoundft on why ht call* T vlevision—JoUyll and Mr. Hyde ★ ★ ★ in tho forthcoming Rodio-TV Revitw & Pravitw Numbtr of f^KiEfr Out This Month Mutual, Next For Axings, To Swing Lightly Mutual is reported to be next in line in the current wave of econo- mies sweeping llie networks and radio in general. However, it’s un- derstood that the axings wouldn’t be anywhere near as drastic as those initiated by ABC, NBC and Mutual’s new p r e x y, Frank White, has been studying the ad- ministrative setup closely but has bided his time on personnel deci- sions. waiting until the other webs resolved their retrenchment pat- ter n. The economy sweeps have met with mixed reaction among key in- dustry men. On the one hand it’s argued that the webs, for the most part, have been overstaffed; that (he streamlining attuned to chang- ing conditions reveals a healthy at- titude which should pave (he way for the lower-cost radio formula of the future. Others maintain (hat, with radio listening at its peak this year and networks still enjoying strato- spheric billings, the economies are unjustified and are predicated on a “tear of fear.” ♦ Practically the entire .station rep field is keenly eyeing an inner-or- ganizational conflict going on at the F.dwaid Petry outfit which finds iVtiy and Hcnr*y Christal. re- garded a.s the No, 2 man. fighting it out to determine where control shall be vested. There’s a lot at stake, even in- volving what sonre see a.s the dis- integration of an outfit that’s been top dog in (he whole station rep operation, what with 39 of the na- tion’s key stations, along with Texas Quality Network, Vankee Network and five TV operations on its far-flung schedule. Already two of the major and lucrative accounts, involving the 50-kw WSM in Nashville, and WSH I in Atlanta, are in jeopardy. WSM, whose five-year contract has ex- pired. r-eporiedly has returned its ! new contract~to the station rep j outfit, intorming I’etry & Co. that 1 they had better first set their I house in order if they want to talk I business. Meanwhile WSM is do- ing business with Petry on a month to nronth basis. WSB’s automatic extension (contract ex- pires next June D gives the Cox station a bi’eather on deciding whether to let Petry rep it again, j A couple weeks back the man- ' ageis of (he I’etry-repped .stations met in emergency meeting in I Chicago, alarmed over the widen- ing breach between Petry and j Christal. which has been waging in the courts. The .stations frankly admitted that the feud has been af- fecting their business and they wanted to know “what gives?” I It’s almost axiomatic among the big station operators (hat "if you want to share the spoils on na- tional spot campaigns you’ve got to do busine.ss with Petry.” A flock of other station reps wouldn’t j mind inching into the bigtime pio- ■ ture and grabbing off some of the choice plums. In addition to Petry and Chris- ! 'Continued on page 37) FCC Shy One Member Washington, July 5. The i'C’C is currently operating with .‘«ix. instead of a full eomple- ment of seven Commissioners. Term of Commissioner Edward M. Webster cxpii’ed midnight June 30. without (he Senate acting to con- firm Wchstor for another term. Webster has br'cn renominated by President Truman and the Se-n- ate Interstate Commerce Comnrit- tce w ill be r ondutting a hearing on him tomorrow. Indications arc that he will gel the green flag. However, in the meantime, ''cb- stcr is off the payioll and waiting I'ur llic Senate to act. Colgate Strategy To 'Go Daytime’ Television or no television, the soap companies ar*e as bullish to- day about davtime radio as they were a decade ago. Evidence of the continued “go daytime■’ thinking is reflected anew in the negotiations currently under w.'iy by Super .Suds 'Colgate), via William Esty agency, for two quar- ter-hour CBS (laytime strips, with expectations that Colgate may finalize the deal shortly. Client re- cently dropped its nighttime "Rlondie" show on NBC and is sei i- nuslv eyeing the 3:30-4 p.m. Colum- bia cross-the-board slots for a pick- up of "Woman in While” and a ,\l()ria Kent serial. NAB’S NEW ‘FORMAT’ WHIPPED INTO SHAPE Lancaster, Pa., July 5. Plan to reorganize the structure of the .National .Assn, of Broadcast- ers is being worked out by a com- mittee headed by Clair H, McCol- lough, prexy of WG.AL here. Final recommendations will be whipped into shape this weekend at Port.s- mouth. N. H.. for presentation to the NAB hoard on Monday ill). The committee has received sug- gestions from various sections of the industiy and IMcColIough is still in process of .sorting and col- lating them. WQQW Conunk Tag Repudiated Wa.sJlington, July 5. Pinning a Red tag on station WQQW by innuendo was attacked in a statement last week by the station's presidenr, Morris Rod- man, who al.so denied tliat he was in any way connected with the Commies. Earlier in the week, the House Un-.American .Activities Committee had before it two women witnesses, Mrs. Bella Rodman mot Morris Rodman’s wife), and Mrs. Ro.se Anderson, both of whom refused to answer questions on whether they had any Cbmmunist affilia- tions. The women were then asked whether they were stockholders in WQQW. Both said they were. Sta- tion said Mrs. Anderson owned 30 of 1.338 shares, but that Mrs, Rod- man was mistaken, she owned none 'Continued on page 37) I Un-Radio TV .^umo of the r.ldio fraternity .imiind ^'c^v York were dis- cii'^ing ;a'>t v\cck the advisa- bility ot setting up a Wash- ington lobby lo invite a Con- prc‘>sional probe of television. Tbci claim it’s un-radi". Ex-Mountie Gets Canada’s Juiciest Newscast Plum Toronto. July 5. Following unexpected death of J)m Hunter, juiciest ncwcasi plum in Canadian radio goes to .John (’oIlingw()(>(| Hcadc u ho will handle the two-a-day 'a.m. and p.m.) lu'vvs- casts fill' CFMM, largest-powered indciiendcnt station in Canada. Ex-,Mountie and war correspond- (‘nt. Hcadc was I.ittcrly public rela- tions man for tlu* Hydro-Electric Commission, is still consultant to latter in addition to his newsca.sting chores. P&G’s Agency Realignment Having axed two cross-the-board davtime strips. "What Makes You Tick’.’" on CBS and the repeat of "Ma Perkins ” on NBC. Procter & Gamble is shifting agencies on throe soapers. as part of its bud- getary realingnment for the fiscal year that started July 1. "Big Sister" moves from Comp- ton to Blow. "Life Can He Beauti- ful ” from Biow to Benton & Howies and "Welcome Travelers’’ from Compton to Dancer-Fitzgerald- Sample. Soaper moves become ef- fective July 15. "Welcome Travelers." half-hour audience participation strip, cur- rently on .ABC, will move over to NBC the latter part of September.