Variety (August 1950)

M RADIO- Wednesday f August 9, 1950 TV’s ‘Let the Chips Fall’ Continued from page 31 night at 8 slot, planning to launch the show several weeks before Berle returns in an effort to tie down an audience which will re- main for the season. CBS last year had Wednesday nights sewed up with its “Godfrey & Friends" show. This year, NBC Will launch the first of two series of expensive variety shows to be em- ceed by rotating comedians direct- ly opposite Godfrey. Emcee line- up will probably include Ed Wynn, Danny Kaye and perhaps Danny Thomas. On Thursdays, CBS will have an hour-long dramatic series sponsored by Buick, with Cecil B. DeMille as potential producer, bucking the Kay Kyser show on NBC. Latter has never had top ratings, but represented NBC's big- gest show of the evening. With Grpucho Marx taking over the 8:30 to 9 slot on Thursday nights, ABC may have a fight brewing to re- tain its “Stop the Mu«ic" hold on the 8 to 9 hour. Fridays, with both NBC and CBS taking it relatively easy, DuMont is opening up with a bid for top honors. Web is inserting its new Buddy Rogers vaUdeo production, “Cavalcade of Stars," “Hands of Destiny" and “Roscoe Karns, Inside Detective" on that night. ABC, meanwhile, will have its “Pulitzer c Prize Playhouse," sponsored by Schlitz, in the Friday night 9 to 10 slot opposite CBS’ “Ford Theatre;" Saturdays, with CBS’ Ken Murray show bucking the first hour of NBC’s 8 to 10:30 “Saturday Night Revue," CBS is also slotting an hour-long production starring Frank Sinatra from 9 to 10 and a simulcast of “Sing It Again" from 10 to 11. In addition on Saturday nights. DuMont will have its ticket of Madison Sq. Garden sport events. Sunday will see NBC’s second Series of vaudeo shows with rotat- ing emcees, this one sporsbred by Colgate and grooved to take the play from Ed Sullivan’s “Toast of the Town,” long a top-rater on CBS in the 8 to 9 period. WWJ-TV Continued from page 30 will reflect off-campus adult edu- cation courses and will be general- ly classified as ‘‘modern living.’’ Less formal than the first part of the program, it will draw on uni- versity resources to stress “how- to-do" tips to appeal to a wide 1 audience. j The final 20-mlnute portion of! the projected program will show 1 the university at work. This will ■ take television classes into research laboratories, workshops and rare book vaults from which all but a few accredited students, usually engaged in graduate work, are barred. ; This segment also will transport television students to distant quar- ters of the globe where university expeditions have probed the icy wastes of Greenland to the jungles of Central America. , » At the beginning, many of the programs will originate from the station’s studios in Detroit. When necessary and, perhaps entirely in the future,; telecasts will be beamed from the Campus Using technics employed at football games, Waldo Abbott, director of the University Broadcasting Service and Station WUOM in Ann Arbor, recalled that 28 years ago members of the faculty were transported to Detroit to WWJ to entertain and instruct the crystal-set owners of that day. Harry Bannister, general man- ager of WWJ and WWJ-TV, char- acterized the joint project as “a serious effort to employ the latest offspring Of the mechanical revolu- tion in the field of education. It should prove an answer to those who criticize television for its en- tertainment ‘lure’." Record companies, realizing the value of exploitation on radio, are releasing some albums for broadcasting in toto, although this involves the grand rights. In most cases, playing of the complete recording of a dramatic show (e,g.; “Death of a Salesman” and the “Cocktail Party,” both of which are on Wax) is termed a commercial performance and prohibited unless permission is obtained. However, CBS on Sunday (6) aired the Columbia recordings of Gian- Carlo Menotti’s “The Medium’’ and “The Telephone," and WNBC, N. Y., will air them next Sunday (13). In the case of WNBC, a “nominal sum" Was paid for the rights. The Menotti works, incidentally, are currently on Broadway, at the Arena theatre in the Hotel Edison; WNEW, N. Y,, last Sunday preemed the Columbia album of “Peter Pah," also current on Broadway, with WNBC alsd skedding the show soon. The NBC key has also lined up the preems of the third volume of “I Can Hear It Now” and the disks Margaret Truman is cutting for RCA Victor. Minneapolis—- Jack Horner, KSTP TV and AM sports director, passing the cigars because of the arrival of Thomas, a 11-pourtder, the Homer’s fifth; child—all of them boys. vsvJiw-vi ^<>)W ?■ wmmmm. + , i t ‘y* \ >> J' And on this farm he has peed for new implements, fencing, paint and electrical appliances for his home. Farmer MacDonald also has the money . . . plus the incli- nation to spend. Just where can you find this potential customer? Right in the heart of WLW-Land. Arid there are 689,999 other WLW-Larid farmers just like him. All together, they plan to spend $890,000,000 in 1950.* it 9 9 the greatest farm market in history And the . quickest, surest way to reach this rich market is via WLW, which attracts one-sixth— 1.7,0% —of all rural radio listening throughout WLW’s four-state area.** THE GREATEST FARM MARKET IN HISTORY ,THi GREATEST SELLING MEDIUAA IN THE MIDWEST dough ,Of all farm families in the WLW Merchandise-Able Area, 38.7% listen to WLW more often than to any other station (with 219 stations competing). WL\V reaches... 81.7 % »l all rural radio homei In four wteki 66.31% of all rural radio home* during an average week And; the average rural home reached listens ONE HOUR AND FOUR MINUTES PER DAY to WLW. For further information contact any of the WLW Sales Offices in Cincinnati y New York t Chicago or Hollywood . ♦ Special farm consumer survey—now availably * *Nielsen Radio Index, Feb-March, 1950' A plan to spread per inquiry (PI) business has been incepted by the Sommer &, Son Co. of Mount Vernon, N, Y. Outfit advertised in the ' N. Y. Times classified section, and those inquiring received a letter | offering them a list of 400 stations which accept PI deals. List sells for i $100 of which $25 is payable in advance and the rest bn the basis of 2% of net profit from sales consummated as a result of the service. Sommer also offers to handle complete campaigns, writing to the 400 outlets for $225. Letterhead of the company describes it as “Export & Import, Manu- facturers Agents, Real Estate Brokers, Efficiency Counsels, Wholesale Specialists, Industrial Analysts and Vocational Guidance." Despite Dan Golenpaul’s suit against Mutual, which alleged mishan- dling of his “Information Please" as a co-op show, the stanza is now returning to WOR, Mutual’s N. Y. key and a leading stockholder in the web. It preems tonight (Wed.) at 9 p.m., with Fred Allen and Howard Lindsay as guests. New edition of the stanza, with Clifton Fa diman, Franklin P. Adams and John Kieran on the panel, will be transcribed and syndicated. In addition to WOR, it will be aired over KNBC, ’Frisco; WIBA, Madison,: Wis.; and WGY, Schenectady. For the, first eight broadcasts a quali- tative analysis of its audience reactions will be made, ' Mutual, for the first time in Tecent years, is doing no broadcasting from the Saratoga racetrack—due to the network’s “Game of the Day" ballcasts, but CBS and ABC are covering the feature event on Satur- days. Joe Palmer, New York Herald Tribune turf writer, is at the CBS mike; Jack McCarthy, at the ABC amplifier. Bryan Field handled the Originations for Mutual. The top race daily at Saratoga is being broadcast over eight upstate N. Yi stations, via WABY, with Fred Capossela, official course an-* nouncer, as caller. Two events daily are described over WRTR, Albany, by Roy Shudt. Charge by Albert Sindlinger that A. C. Nielsen’s estimate of video penetration into radio audiences is excessive is being answered, by Nielsen. Sindlinger had said that Nielsen indicated radio about 24% off nationally in the evening with 10% of the nation owning a set. Nielsen replies that his index has never shown radio off by 24% na- tionally, that this is more in line with the loss in metropolitan areas in evening hours. “Actually," he adds, “the overall national evening loss for April, 1950, as compared with April, 1949, was of the order of 12.%." Nielsen said that the TV-ownership in April was between 12-13% rather than the 10% figure quoted by Sindlinger. The Seattle local of the American Federation of Radio Artists is mak- ing four 15-minute dramatic radio shows to plug the coming “Seattle Seafair," Aug. 11-20. The four shows will be transcribed and used by all Seattle stations between now and Aug. 16, when the Seafair Coro- nation will be held. AFRA members are contributing writing, produc- tion and talent for the four shows. Seattle stations are going all-out to plug the celebration, with a radio committee consisting of George Dean, KOMO; Roland Bradley, KJR, and A1 Morris, KRSC, handling arrangements. “Directory of Radio News Programs," now in preparation of the NAB’s research dept, with the aid of National Assn, of Radio News Directors prexy Jack Shelley (of WHO, Des Moines), will be ready for release in October. Broadcast Advertising Bureau’s new desk-top presentation on radio newscasts—similar to “Radio’s Feminine Touch" book—will be ready for release Aug. 18. It will sell to NAB members for $7.50. National Assn, of Radio Station Representatives ha$ published its second annual directory of the 500 outlets repped by its 15 members. Booklet has a separate tele section which lists 71 video stations handled by 13 NARSR members. i Leo Burnett’s $22,000,000 Continued from page 26 itself essentially a Chi agency, al- though it has branch offices in N.Y. and Los Angeles. It also prides itself on its slow staff turnover.. Most of the group of eight persons who joined the outfit when it was formed are still numbered among the present 280 employees. Some measure of the agency’s growth is found in the fact that as of June it had placed a total of $100,000,000 worth of advertising since its founding, while this year’s total will amount to nearly a fourth of that figure. During the past six months Bur- nett has grabbed off four new bill- ings, the largest being the Mars candy account, totaling better than $1,509,000; which moved oyer with Ralph Ellis from the Grant agency. Also new . since the first of the year are the Bauer & Black and Kellog Rice Krispies billings and a special project for Procter & Gamble. The. new teevee shows to be launched through the agency this fall are the Smilin’ , Ed McConnell weekly half-hour show bowing Aug. 26 on NBC for the Brown Shoe Co., and “Life With Linkletter," weekly half-hour starting on ABC ’ Pet, 6 for Green Giant Co. Pure 1 v4 -Co. hqs. picked .up, NRQ’s “WfcQj Said That?" in 15 markets for a September . teeoff. Mars has or- dered three quarter-hour segments, and Kellogg. Rice Krispies billings ments weekly on NBC’s “Howdy Doody." Pillsbury is taking the 8:15 to 8:30 period on Arthur God- frey’s Wednesday night show on CBS. The new radio- billings going on this: fall are . “Falistaff Fabulous Fables’’ moving into the 5:55 to 6 p. m. slot cross-the-board on ABC for Mars, and the 10:15 to 10:30 segment of the morning Godfrey show on alternating days on CBS for Pillsbury. Other Pillsbury shows handled by the agency that are starting a new season on CBS this fall are the cross-the-board Linkletter “House Party" in the 3:30-3:55 period; the Cedric Adams strip cross-the-board at 3:55 to 4 p. m. and 12:55 to 1 p! m. on Saturdays, and the “Grand Central Station” show on same day from 12:30 to 12:55. Shows continuing on NBC are the cross-the-board “Pure Oil News Time” and the half-hour Saturday Smilin’ Ed McConnell stanza for Brown Shoe Co. On ABC its also a half-hour Saturday stanza, “Club Time,” for. Club Alujnunum . .. •-