Variety (January 1950)

80 R AlliO^tELBVlSlON Wednesjay^ January tl, 1950 Washingtc^nV Jan. 10. 4. Great strides in television, imposi- tion of the freeze, developments in theatre video, continued gro\yth> in AM, and falling were highlighted in the ISth' annual rev. port of the FGC subniitted today (10) to Congress.^ ^ While the report cdncerhs pperatiphs - during the fiscal year: ended June: 30, "49, a: Eummary of subsepiient events noted, that: by. iaW fall more than 3,()p0,pG0 TV sets were in use and that 24 cities were linked, by yideo network facilities,, puring the four- month period following June 30, the agency reported, 50 hew AM station authorizations W bringing the total as ,.df Qct. 31 to 2.229. In the same: period, 50 FM permittees dropped out,, leaving' the humberudf authorizations at 815. Five television permits were also withdrawn, . leaving 112 T^V stations authorized^ • ' Although ho recommendations were made, a letter of transmittal to Congress pointed to problems, faced by the Commission because of the “booming interest in tele- vision” and thejattendaht demand for Video expahsion and improve- inent. The agency said it is “hard pressed to;keep abreats of kaleidO;- , Bcbpic techhical, developments af- fecting both wire and radio 'com- munication,7 and that some of its operations have been somewhat ctirtailed.' . :\ “Though its moiihting adminis-:| trative and regulatory . work has ; necessarily suffered from persoh- ‘ nel.; arid other budgetary restric- tions,” it advised,^ “the Gommis- sion’s aecbmplishments in this year of unprecederited electrical com*- munications progress con.stitute a fritirig i5th anniyersary record,” The fiscal year, the report said, “was riiarkod by such a rush for teleVision facilities that action On applications for new* TV stations were deferred pending proceedings looking toward extending TV oper- ations into the ultrarhigh fre^ ■ouencies. ad opting a natioriwide channel assighmerit plan covering comriietcial; yideo broadcasting in both bands and, at the same time, Inquiring into tile possibility of color, 'Even so; the (fiscal) year closed with; 71 television stations; serving 42 cities and metropolitan districts;” . . Because of difficulty in finding usable frequencies in the ‘-very Baturated” AM band, the Commis- sion reported,/fewer AM authoriza- tions were issued than in 1948. Stiil, the number of stations in this category climbed by 145 to nearly 2,200. ; f As for FM, the report npted that While 150 additional stations went on the air during the fiscal year, the total number of.authorizations, decreased by 155.. “Hovveyer,” it added, “I’M service was available over almost all of the eastern half- of the tJ.. S., over most of the Coast area, and in a number of cities and adjacent rural areas In the West. Thus; more than I00,d0(),000 people were within range of one or more iFM'stations.” - The sharp falling off in FM. sta- tion applications , (only 43 Were filed .during the year, the report said) Was largely due lo economic problems. and uricertainties, the. felatively small number of FM re- cieivers . (3,500,000 owned, . by the- public), competition from: AM broadcasting ’ and TV stations (as well as, other FM stations), and high costs of station constructiori. “Some FM. permittees withdrew; from the : fie.ld,7 : the report de- clared, “because of their aciiVie de^ sire to engage in: television broad- casting;”'/' The report rio.te.ct in ter ek of th e iriotibri picture industry in theatre television, it pointed, out that since continued froin page 23 numhet of hours lopped off AM schedules. Chain informed FCC that he» “like inany other veterans, put j money, blood, sweat, tears and years into FM because I believed L/ tha--Cunxriiis$ipn was /sincere about 1 FM and would do ever pos- sible to ^ foster its growth. The COinmissiori has been very kind arid liberal in relaxing rules to ; mkke.it possible for us to continue' ! i sweatirig, but where is the epn- \ Crete action, to Jet the American. pany-owned side of the pperatipn,; know that FM was intended and Merle Jones ^ pne o| the. ^ AM? ' • “Why cannot AM statidris^^d^^ eating pri FM be required to use some AM time to explain FM to. Coast braintrusters, are also jgrads of the “Atlass Schpol.’t The Atlass influence has asseri ed itself in :<>ther directions ,1.81 tolxS I Are Art stations who do'^notWng for example,. Columbia was Pitch-1 +1, iiig hard to get “Life With Luigi” ; Off the sustaining hob.k. it rernained ; ‘n ‘he pubhc interest? for Atlass to corivert it into a corn-• niercial commodity by wrapping Up the Wrigley sponsorship deal. JItlass* Chi Realighmerit ■ Chicago, Jan. 10. ; Announcement by Les Atlass, head of WBBM, that Frank Falk- mbrrgerieral-riienagerHvduld^^moy^ to Ne\y York Jari. 15 as a CBS vee- pee caused a sriowballing effect in job realignment: for this midwest Web affiliate. ^ '. Federaition of Radio Artistis ap- John Akerman was called back , An all-night disk jbekey network is -in the works, if the Airiericari IN mw YORK Jde .Laurie, Jr., lopka set f^ liighttime N. Y. disk jockey show called“Shpw Riz,"’his pwri.package; whick^^V^btegrate questipris and answers, * interviews with celebs, revival of riiostalgic disks, etc.,;;. Bill Hedges, Radio Fibrieers preky, has called a nieeting of the club for Moriday (16) at the Hotel Roosevelt ; 1 .Harriet Van Horiic, World- Telegram-Sun columnist, requests this pensorial: “Received, two Christ- mas gifts (two bottles of jFrench champagne arid a musical clock.) with no; cards;/ Simply Want to say ^Thanks”,,.. Charles Boyer; arrived in Ibwn this week to cut auditiOri records for new. dramatic s.eries pro- duced by Jacksori Lfeighter arid Walter % Pick. Boyer/ would play the^ role oi a soldier of fortune in scripts by Larry KHngman . George (Tom) Fry, ABC national network: sales director, has switched to Keriyon & Eckhardt ; ; Arine^^^^S^^ added to WHLI script dept.;... Ernest and Eya Callaway; WWRL^s erpss-the-hoard gahb^s, have launched a charm contest for Negro women in the .metropolitari. area ./ AHan Stevenson, recently in ‘/The Paragon,” which Closed in/Wii- iriingt.oh, plays one of. the leads on “Crime Fighters” Saturday. Sy Merris, ex-WINS, now program director of WMON, Montgomery. W. Va.;. John W. Varidercook to emcee Muntz-TV’s “Rebuttal” on Mutual. John ileddy is directirig for Mastersori-Reddy-Nelson produc- tinris William R . Seth, former, ad-promotiori director for Muzak, added to (j’Brien & Horrance as AM-T V direct o r ..: / J ohnnyrttlsen^pW:- transcribing his ABC “Ladies Be Seated” to avoid conflict with his DuMont “RumpUs Room’! show. . « Oh the day last week that he was scheduled/to mOye into his 19th floor off ices as n ew hhsd'tof iadio=TV^sMes/jto^CBSif=iJack^/V^^ berg was called to • Iowa due to serious illriess 6f father .. Joe Ream j John Karol and Herb Ackerberj: “playing’' the District Affiliate Cir- cuit again,: leaving on Friday (13) .for New Crlearis meeting.Howard uuiiig rvAcitiiaii yvaa vaixcu ■ nrnvAs: tha incnmniiip wph tirn- Meighan's N. Y. stay apparently TrOlongcd .Indefinitely, With the name from his WBBM sales rep post in i r ® soipn aq we , P of CBS’ Coast topper now restored; to the 485 Madison ave. registry.... New York in Order to take over! 3bV Harold Ksye!s Mail Or- j WNEW’s publicity chief, to become a papa again . Madi- •Falknor^s position: At the Sairie * her Network, which has Jjeen pra time a new job was created to abr v fringe/: time of W/OR, sorb some of the ex-rnariagbr’s du-i Chi; arid Other sta- tics, as executive, assistbrit to At^ lass, and filled by Kenneth Craig, radio and television director with. McCarin-Erickson agency. Replac-i caU for feeding platter spinner / ing /Akerman is Gilman Johnston, fnanager at KMOX, St. Louis tioris with ;“per Inquiry” commer- cials;' ■ • ton- ave. stroller: A. W. (Jess) Willard; recovered from serious opera- tion. V . Hal Tiihis, WMGM jock, riariied national enteHainment Chairs man for grbup/supporting orphanages iri Israel.. . . M*^* Helen Newmati^ WVNJ station manager, readying a daily women’s series under her for- mer mike name, Helen Sritton. . . .Boh Lewis added to WAAT aririburi- Kaye's wUcMngljour :web plans j eery. . .‘rteade b^^ dropi Cleyii. Iiididns Continued from page 24 and a desire to continue the pres- erit status.; yictor from WOR .other outlets./ Kaye aired OU” /WGN, is coming to New York to/replace “Big Joe!’ Rosen- I field,; whose cycle with WOR ex- I pifes this week. AFRA’b, na- j tional council, meeting, tomorrow CThurs.), will decide whether it will be okay for WOR to feed the other stations and grant Kaye a Should WJW secure baseball rights, ABC is saird to be ready to offer network facilities to WEEK In fact, some WERE stockholders, mindful of network sponsors, etc., are inclined towards ABC’c offer, j waiyer allowing hirii to pay Victor a weekly rather thkn the hourly network announcing rate.. Both Rpsenfield’s and Victor’s shows have been commercially suc- cessful and . have been continu- The network, scorched in the past ; .oUsly. sold put, with six items twp years by cancellations and pro- plugged every hour of their stan- gram shifting because of local ball j zas. Results from the 50kw sta- games, is reported as not wanting.! tioris have been “phenomenal,” any tie-in again with a baseball-1 Kaye reports, with mail orders carrying local Putlet. ' 1 coming from the Virgin Isles, Fan- : Still unsolved, too, is television ' ama, Canada, Mexico and even Ha- I rights for the games:'- WEWS; as well a all the states, which carried the gariies. la.st year, Victor's slant on WOR will be reported a loss of $75,000. The a continuatiori of ,his WGN for- ball club’s dollar , demand might I mat, hill couritry and western well be the deciding factori on re-i disks. KayC says that ?‘This isn’t •_ 1 ' ^ ■ -• 1 ' J • • X • J I 4 J ill 1^4 ll«v CC ^ ^ M A ^ riewal. WXEL is also int^ested in the TV rights, but WEWS has the inside track; the old hillbilly, stuff that some people Used to shudder. at. : It’s jukebox hill country music, and Harum” player .. / Charles Seel joins “Stella Dallas” . Joe de Santis added to ‘‘jLorerizo Jones’! .., CBS associate sports director John/Derr lolling in Miami for two weeks.. .. K&E’s Herb Laridon to Chi on Fri-. day (13). . . / Cafltbn Morse flies to Coast arourid’Feh. I to launch initial “Gne Man’s Fariiily”, broadcast for M^ids Labs..Nancy Ranson, frau of the WMGM flack, having her second one-man show at the George Binet Gallery, .; Jim Brown haridling radio piibllcity for BBD&Ov vice Jim McGarry (now assisting Ben Duffy)... /WNEW’s Art Ford arid tub-thumper Buddy Basch saw Bermuda, sopping up island mUsip . . . .Frank Hopkins, ex-Kudner, has jbiried K&E as a commercial Scripter.... WOR’s Joe Rosenfield getting four kudos in two weeks, from Servicemen’s Cheer Cliib^ Vets of Foreign Wars, Uriiformed Fire- men and Council to Prevent Blindness . . ; . WCB$’ Jack Sterling vaca- . tioiiing in Miami, returning Monday il6).. ... WJZ’s Pegeen Fit^^erald into, and out of Lenox Hill hosp . Merrill E. Joels doing the heavy, ori “Life Can Be Beautiful.’’/ M disks for Admiral and Caravan Records; K IN^ftOLLYWOpn Fletcher Wiley was rushed into the breach of Housewiyes Protective League last week \vhen Knox Manning pulled up hoarse. For the one- time owner and now manager of HPL it was his first mike . warming in eight years ... Robert Arden, whose “America Looks Abroad',” was one of the most popular commentary programs dUiing the war, is resuriiing l^ort two stations with a credit dentist again taking up the tab ..NorUiau Brokenshire came to town with his coritest wiriners for “Double Or Nothing” and immediately riiade the daiH^^^ With some cracks about the smog, a popular subject hereabouts .. James Stewart \vas taken the City of Cleveland, which owns ,j lists; the Stadium. Mayor Toiri; Burke; now engaged in negotiating a con- tract with the, Ball Club, is kriOWn to be Casting a covetous eye on the estimated $200,000 the club re- ceived last year from radio and television. FCC-FM . Continued from page 24 prising if raorC FM. stations call it quits. . Already about 30 have turned in their licenses, in addi- tion to nearly 200 who surrendered permits or conditional grants after; going to considerable trouble, and expense to get them. How. lohg the'YOQ piuS; FM st.atibh.s in opera- tion r,\'ill coritinue to $tand a loss is.'anybody’s guess; , • / Secondary Use Seen ' Unless, there’s a great upsurge: iri sale of sets, which nobody ex- pects, it’s already being taken for granted: in some /radio circles ;that, aside from a few areas where AM is riot available, FM will be rel- , egated :t0 such, secondary uses as 1945 certain frequencies baye been | Transit Radio, storecasting,. and, l^niA nn an * pVnhrimontnl -i' ■ — L-- WSVA, IND., FOR p , Louisville, Jain, io. Three Louisvillians, L. C. J. j Yeager, Gordon Ford and James ! C. Warren, last week disposed of j their ownership in WSUA, Blpom- ' ington, Ind., to Sairkes'Tarzian of Bloomington; Louisyiilei princi- pals are partriers in a certified ac- countant firiri, and started .WSUA; l.pOOrwatt AM station in October, Iriterested in the outcome, of the I the kind / that the nation, is push- into Pruderitiat’s Family of Staf-s to sit at the table in the chair giveq . broadeasting-televising decision IS ! ing to the top of most-played i up by Roiiald Colman for his own show, “Halls of Ivy” ;. ; . KFWB s. J i,r.fo M bought 3 pHonc llnc to Helena; Montana, to carry half-hour of a picture premiere there. Of course Warners owns both the station and the pic- ture. .Art Linkletier has been told by his sponsor (Raleighs) he can tape “People Are Funny” rest of the season. / Three^week trial was the clincher .; : Ed Gardner has written friends he has no intention of pull- ing stakes in Puerta Rico after the current radio season Says he likes it and hopes to develop his project into a. successful business venture .. . . Bing Crosby taping six Shows in Frisco so he can rest up between pictures at his Monterey home..ju.st a piece south of the bay..: Pete Jaeger around for a few days to line up some radio and TV packages for his, new .sales and merchandising flrin .. . Bob pollock arid Eileen Prince will t? " ;hese fertile charinels with their talent (and looks) after a year abrbau with their own program, ‘•Americans in Paris”.. . .Dee Engelbach will direct Joan Crawford in a transcribed drarnatic series for. Robert Kenneth James.... . Jack Smith made it an even thousand broadcasts for Procter & Gamble; ThM's a lot of songs .. . Eleanor I Corrigan of CBS flackery ■ bo.oted“a .hard . object” and is'now crutched. Ifnr'fhrAA u/aoL-c isMtU- o ’Kiic.AAri' j • n.si — ' available bn an. experimental basis for deyelbpmierit of the service arid that two companies contiriued ex- periirients in relaying events of iri- ter'est to theatre audiences. Adop- tion of rules to re.strict giveaway programs and postponement of their effective date because of court action' was given brief:men- 'tiohi: ' San Antonio-—Harold H, Carr has been named program director and production manager of KTSA- AM^pM, in an arinouncement made by Charles. D. Lutz, gerieraLirian- ager. He comes .here from Alex- andria, La. possibly, low power non-commer- 1946, whci e there was. 'rio - other-.for. three weeks, with a busted toe.Mildred Bailey has been, moved St^ion in :i^oomingtori. ^ . to St. Jb.lins hospital in Santa Monica arid Bing Crosby hopes her many Tar2ian,JY^arts .manufacturer, friends in radio wall pay her a call;. . .Hay McCliiitoB due out the 25th. owns another Bloomington station, WTTV He paid $83,750 for the LouisyilliarisV Blobmington equip- ment, leases; and goodwill,: Town’s third radio station is two-year-old WTpM, 25Q^watler. Kate Smith Disk Show on mmicAGp _DuMbnt TV receiver distributors will iriCet for a ohCVday confab Wednesday (ID- at the Prake hotel . . New secretary for MBS’s Ceri-. tral pivi-siph. Sales department is Virginia Malatin . /. Phil Bowman, & ; Rubleam^; ari^^ j NBC sale.s exec, both planCd to the Coast for : preerti of NBC’s “Halls I of Ivy ’ program;. . ; Johnny Baker left WLS to bkoriie into chief I for imarketing- adniiriistratibn of U. S, Dept, of Agriculture Nbrppian ; commercial manager bf WKJG, Fort /Wayne, /joineil radius. / Will the PeC allow FM to suffer such a slow death? Sbriie who ventured into the field with the encourageinerit of the Commission, think the agency has a responsibil- ity to them. One such, Sol Chain of WBIB-FM in New Haven, sug- gests that the agency reduc AM schedules as proof of its ‘’aVowed iriterition” to let FM displace AM* The exclu$iye. FM statipris, Chain says, would he happy to add the y ■ y#*, WCFL a.s staff advertising salesman... .Date originally skedded for vate. Brriith | Henri, Hurst: & McDonald agency to move into its new. LaSalle street 1 bjr ABC; o^eejT^rhas. been changed to the 14th:, . •“Matinee With Murphy,” cial stations Iri the last catefiorv 1 l^riety 1 with Ed Murphy, disk jpCkey, sponsored by Pat Stevens Modeling wbuiathe' prbDosSd “stelrte '°„"osegment sked, 3:30-4 p m. and 4.30-5 p.'m. Sins" ODdratfngTlth 10 wartk' -T* 8‘8;55 p.m.v startmg on WON. - The 15 mmute WAAF .Reports program wiU have a' liew ; .stations opcraimg w.u^ 20. Stanza, like her ABC , bankrpller .Tan. 20. wheri it hits the airwavs at 10 30 a m “The power and: reaching a five-mile | show, will feature Mis.$ Sriiith and - Torn BaiUett Show,” which : debuted Jari. 9 bveri WGN frbiri- the Ted Collins. Singer dpesn t want. Home Arts Guild,, is. a I'evi^^^ of a::similar afternoon Interview program, to^do a ^ow witri/liveTalent^d wriich he used to emcee from the samb plac/iri 1946. will use disks by herself an^ other Z<mit;h directors elected Paul B. H. Smith a Veepe« and director of vooSlists. ■ thc-Lsnsd'S brsnehBowing out "111 from .'licnri. ifiirst Ai'rtoDonSld The ABC Show, which; started Was Robert E. 2eh, vbepee and copy direSotv while sWp^^^^^ lasVAugust as a^ 105-minute Stint executive capacity; i^ ...t .n .n ! on, ABC Central Division general and sales manaler, returned from a two-week holiday wRh his family ih Minneapolis ... Lee Honl WBBM In charge of operations, returned from a Ky. . .300,00b viators attended ABC's various broadcasts on Art atations during 1949. Biggest record was titudio wRhin”fS«ie?r^^ -H5,00Q,.,jpeol,l« th,e Civia and was later cut to an hour, was pitched: for multiple sponsorship, but never inked any backers. Built arourid a' telephone iroutine, series was caught in the anti-giveaway fire, lyeb 1$ , ireplacing U :■ With sorric orchSe