Variety (July 1949)

Wrdnmdiij, July 27, 1949 RADIO-TKIJ{%’l5«IOIV 41 THE KEY TO TELEVISION By WILLIAM PALLY (CBS, Chairman of the Board) *The past year’s experience has taught us many things about television including one thing that needs to be said explicitly. The knowledge and experience and skill developed in the different major phases of AM broadcasting seem to be the key to leadership in television. Television’s on-the-screen elements are mostly a synthesis of the older, pre-radio arts but it is, first of all, a broadcasting medium. In an earlier period, television’s technological problems were defined and .solved by broadcasting organizations. In the current phase of television’s development, the practical problems of producing and distributing programs, and of raising the industry to a self-sustaining economic level, are also being solved on the basis of AM's long experience. The network structure is already generally accepted as the most efficient. economical means of distribution. In production. CBS’ current experience with such programs as “Suspense." “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” and "We. the People" indicates that the best radio programs can rank among the best television offerings. It demonstrates, moreover, that seasoned radio talent is highly adaptable to television. All this is true, not in the sense that television has tried, or wishes to fit Uself into the radio mould, but in the sense that every broadcasting am'ance is an evolution from earlier experience, knowledge, practice. And as a matter ot evolution, a certain mortality rate must be expected in program material and talent considered for adaptation to the cameras. Without the w'hole body of AM’s resources, then, it would not have been possible to., produce, in the short space of one year, a balanced schedule of considerable authority in every category — news, public affairs, religion, drama, comedy, music, audience participation, variety, sports, special events, etc. * ( ” Parent and tlffspring Television is accepted by advertisers and merchandisers because of its inherent effectiveness, but this acceptance was materially ha.stened by the long and satisfactory experiences of radio advertising. It was the radio-developed technique of the house-built package that equipped us to .solve the quandaries of many advertisers who wanted to go into television but didn’t quite know how to proceed, beyond buying time franchises. Economically television is tied very clearly to AM by the fact that the newer medium is not yet a .self-sustaining organism. Like the chick pecking its way out of the egg, it is fully formed and viable, but is not quite ready to scratch for itself. The sustenance during this period of emergence must come, to a very large degree, from the parent body of broadcasting. The public expects the best television programming from precisely those .sources it turns to habitually for the highest standards of AM programming. But it doesn’t follow that high reputation and performance in AM provides impunity for the broadcaster who fails to read aright the moods and desires of the growing television audience. Only the broadcaster who is incessantly aware that the e/es of the public are on him and his works w'ill exerc'ise his due share of television leadership tomorrow. If the Idea of the inter-dependence of AM and TV has any practical meaning to broadcasters it must be this; That none of us can any longer harbor last year’s misgivings about a deadly conflict between AM and TV. On the contrary, this interdependence confirms that the basic relationship between the two media is that of parent and offspring; that their interests and the conditions for their exi.stence are mutual, and that their joint future is subject to the normal laws of life and grow'th. Ode To a Cable-less Slalion Bv J. LKOAARD RKINSCH Save your eyes. T’m putting no cards on the table For stations linked up w'ith a coaxial cable. These verses are for the new. cable-le.ss station That’s digging for business and circulation. In programming independently your choices are four. Sometimes they are less but they’re never more. You can carry nelw'ork features by kine.scope. Run films old and new. from Chaplin to Hope. You can fill time daily from the studio. Air remotes — sports and speeche.s — as a fourth type of show. Of course, this takes money, not yet found on trees. But remember, there’s an audience to build and to plea.se. So in the new market here’s what you can do. Three po.ssible approaches arc open to you: You can plan a program schedule embracing all four, Studio and remote, films and kines galore. Keep in mind that the boss must be willing to pay If you’re going to build circulation this way. You save lots of time by shelling out dough. While advertising and audience both rapidly grow. This requires much work and costs you like blazes — But maybe, like Ferdinand, you’d rather sniff daisies. If this isn’t quite the approach for your station. You can always take it slower in building circulation. • Perhaps a lower loss spread over the first several years Will give your auditor fewer headaches and tears. You may want to skip remotes, trim your studio staff lean. And build your shows around the projection machine. There’s a third way to operate but not worth boasting. It consists of sitting back and idly coasting. Cutting dow'n your programs to a ghostly ration. Pulling all the burden on the town’s other station; Letting the other fellow pay all those back-breaking bills And suffer alone the economic ills. Yes, you can leech your way through and stay on the air On a .schedule thrown together with spit and a prayer. But it Isn’t recommended and it will not pay In the end w'hen your audience has the final say. This all boils down to a simple cycle Thai’s old as the jokes about Patrick and Michael. It’s stated on Page 84 of a book Known well to this writer; you’ll see if you look: Belter programs make listeners for viewers in this easel, listeners are circulation 'so are viewers: count 'ea< li tace>. (Peculation builds advertising: advertising builds revenue Revenue improves programming; and the cycle is through. In telecasting, a.s broadcasting, the truth Is the same; You must do a good job to be worthy of your name. Bv KLLiorr M. sain(;lr iE.iec. V.P., WQXR. WQXR FM^ If you own a radio station and harken to some of the “experts." the smart thing to do is to have your disk jockey put on a record of a swan song, lock up your transmitter and get into the television busine.ss. Maybe these prophets are right, but 1 don’t think they are. Radio is bound to be affected by television, but it is not going to be a “has been” In predicting the future of radio, too many seers think about network radio and forget about the hundreds ot successful independent stations throughout the country which have served their communities well and are going to keep on doing it as no television operation can. Beeatise of the cost of television, it must reach a maximum audience in order to pay off. Television, to I pay its keep, will have to sell a I va.st number of people at a low per capita cost. It neces.sarily will ' become a great mass medium, caI tering to the broadest possible . market. Television must aim at a fairly low common denominator of ' cultural interests. Operating in competition with the similar broad appeal of net | work radio, some independent stations have been able to attain I success by specialization. In New | York, we have two striking ex1 amples of successful specialization: WNEW, concentrating on popular | music and news, and WQXR, emphasizing classical music and I news. Each has a place in radio I which television is not likely to supplant. ; It’s the belief at WQXR that television is no substitute for good 1 music. The recent studies made by WOR seem to substantiate that I opinion.' Surveys made by The Pulse show that, in television ^ homes, good music and other specialized programming do be.st in competition. It is not necessary to see an orchestra or ailist to enjoy the music. In fact, the contrary is true. Those programs of good music which already have been televised have been interesting, but not from the musical standpoint. To watch Toscanini and his orchestra on a television screen is a dramatic, rather than a musical experience. Opera and symphonic programs on television will not be a daily occurrence, and music lovers would not want them, because watching the televi.sion image often is distracting and le.s.scns the enjoyment of the music. The same is true for dance music. It doesn’t make much .sen.se to stare at a television screen for hours just becaose you like to listen to dance music. And if you really want to dance, keeping your eye on the visual image is hard on the neck! Wanted: A Blueprint Radio Not Ready for TV To Write Its Obit-Woods By MARK ^ OODS • Pre.s., Avu’ricaii BroadcastniQ C’o.l There’s an old saying in the newspaper business that no one gets \ery excited alM>ul good news. In inan.N ways that journalistic bromide applies very pointedly to Ih* radio-television situation today. Television, like anything new' and dramatic. Is very tiuich in the news. And most of the news it has made has been gwul news both to those in the indu.stry and to the public. Its progress has l>een ptu'nomenal — in the number ot stations that have gone on the air; in the number of sets in use; in improvement and diversification of programs; in technological development. Its advance has been spectacular; its future is undeniably great. At the same time. AM radio has beeti making good news of its own. news that some of us have been inclined to t>vei‘look or to minimize in tlw face of the swift upsurge of its young relative. I’d like to take a littfe time to point out some of tl»e highlights of radio’s good news. First is the fact that the medium today is a growing and expanding (me Between I94fi and 1948. according to BMB figures, the numl^r of radio homes in the IJ. S. increased lO.T'^r^, Irom .1.1.998.000 to .17,6*23.000. and the number of families with radio .sets in the nation went up during the same period, from 90.4'’y; to 94 ‘2'’r. Within that same time the number of radio homes with more than one set almost doubh'd so that today two out ot every five radio homes have more than one set and. concurrently, the average amount of time spent listening to the radio increased Irom 3 hours and .*>5 minutes in 1946 to 4 hours and 19 minutes per day at the beginning of 1948. .\ll of this, it seems to me. adds up to a picture of a vigorous, healthy and still lusty radio industry which is by no means prepared to accept the premature obituary that many have prepared for it. At the risk of being trite, I venture to predict radio is lu*re to slay — to stay in your home, in your car. at the beach, at the summer resort, in the factory, the shop and the olTice. I tthink it’s here to stay. too. because of the techniques it has evolved for the presentation of news, drama, music, discu.ssion There will always be millions of persons who will prefer to have these pre.sented to them through the ear alone rather than both visually and audibly. With few exceptions, I don’t believe television can add much to a top-notch symphonic concert as now presented over AM nor to a straightforward resume or discus.sion of news and current events, unless it be something of an unusually controversial nature. Mark W’i>od5 1 TV’s Many Problems For. superb as has been the advance of television in recent years, the medium is still faced with many problems. There is primarily the problem of extending its coverage of the nation to the point where it is commensurate with the coverage afforded by AM. 'There are today .some 2.700 radio stations throughout the country, many of them available to listeners 1.000 miles or more away. Conversely, there are about three score televi.sion stations now operating and, with few exceptions, their range of coverage is less than 100 miles from the point of tran.smission. And the cost of constructing new TV stations is enormously expensive, as is their operation, so that it will be quite a while before large areas of the country have any .sort of television .service. Then there are the physical problems of studios and rehearsal areas — areas not e.ssential to good AM broadcasting— which good television broadcasting demands; the problems of stage settings and backgrounds; the problem of lighting; that of makeup; of costuming, and the very important one of greatly expanded personnel that Is demandtHl of the television broadca.ster, all of which make terrific demands upon his financial resources. Lest this seem too formidable an array, let may say that I am confident that all of these problems will be .solved, in time. The very dynamism of television is the bc.st guarantee of their solution. I’V-AM Reinaiirar This would seem to indicate that the future of radio lies in specialization. There is little likelihood that television will be able To specialize the way radio can. And there are many fields of specialization in radio: local sports, hot jazz, spot news, special events, pi'ograms specifically directed to large groups such as organized labor, and foreign-language segments of our population. Unfortunately, there is no blueprint for specializing in radio. Public acceptance will depend u|>on individual enterpri.se. imagination. initiative, experience and probably a degree of luck. The specialist w'ill have to make a choice. He will have to decide whether he wants to go after a share of a large potential audience. or try to get all of a smaller group which the station can more or le*s monopolize. For instance, if there are six radio stations. AM and FM. in a town and all should decide to specailize in dance music. the chance of all of them succeeding is slight. One or two will do the be.st job of giving the audience of that community what it wants and the others will have to ^oose other specialties if they are to compete succe.ssfuliy against television. Local conditions will decide whether a station can specialize in clas.sical music. In any cominunity Meantime, as it advances toward its full potential, television will have, in my opinion, a pronounced influence upon the older medium of broadcasting, particularly in its program techniques. I believe the day will come when we will have television and AM "revivals” of outstanding programs, as is commonplace today in the movies and on the stage, 'This can be accomplished largely through the use of film and kine.scopes so that an outstanding program, s(‘en and heard by only a part of the greatest potential audience, can be pre.sented at a different time to a completely new audience. The .same thing can be done — has. in .some cases — over AM by means of recordings, and I believe that this practice will be extended. So. too, I think that as television expands and crystallizes Its methods of news coverage, AM news programs will be modified to the extent that they will concentrate chiefly on spontaneity of spot coverage and more amplified analyses and commentary upon new's events. Other modifications of techniques will come as both mediums continue to grow in their respective fields. And I am firmly convinced that tho.se fields are not the .same, identical plot of ground. Television, it .seems certain, will continue to maintain the heady pace it has already .set but in doing so it isn’t going to trample AM into oblivion. I am willing to wager that for many years you will be able to tune away from an excellent television program, switch over to an equally excellent AM program and derive the maximum of entertainment and diversion fi’orn both. there are always more people interested in dance music, jazz, sports and comedy than there are in classical music. The station that expects to build an audience agains television' by concentrating on good music must first make sure that the potential audience is large enough to become a market which will support the station. Unfortunately. it is only in our very largest cities that the taste for classical music is w’idespread enough to form a big market. It is obvious that in .some large cities there will be a need for foreign language stations in the future just as there has been in the past. It is not likely that televisi((n will decrease the desire of the foreign-boin to hear progiams in then nati\e tongue. Yet. the high cost of television programs probabis will eliminate the foreign language advertiser from that medium. The great danger which the independent station operator faces at this time is the temptation to pull in his horns, lower the standards of his programs and advertising, economize at the expense of holding his audience and then blame everything on television. Nothing will stop television. It is here and is bound to become a most influential mass medium. But there is a way to keep a succe.ssful radio station successful and that is to improve its programs, increase its service to the public and concentrate on the thing it docs best and which it can do more economically than televi.sion can. By building rather than by tearing down, ladio .specialists will hold and actually increase their audiences.