Variety (December 1950)

Wednesday, December 6, 1950 New TVA Scale Puts kal Fix Set COAST TVA LOCAL RADIO-TELEVleSlOIV Coast Originations For 10 Top Tele Markets OKAYS STRIKE VOTE U A11 I Aral Racic « Chicago, Dec- 5. Hollywood, Dec, 5. Ull liUl/<ll Uooio Kaufman & Associates. Chi ad Aufti rw?'7ofir»ri •Fr»T> q ctr'iVa trrtfo I'f CIRCLING THE KILOCYCLES Hollywood, Dec. 5. Increased budgets caused by the new TVA pact has resulted in can- cellation by ABC of three locally- originated network shows. LAy-1 outs will be beamed for local audi- | ences only. j Net officials pointed out That the i shows* 'Teloz and Yolanda Pre-1 sents . . “Sandy Dreams’' and i “Soap Box Theatre,” have been laying out approximately $400 weekly. Cost on each would jump to between $1,200 and $2,000 un -1 der the new pact, a figure deemed too high to attract sponsor inter-' cst. Latter two shows use about 15 juveniles each on each layout and have been paying $15 to $25 to each of the new performers. New pact would boost the pay scale to $125 if the shows re-1 mained on a netw'ork basis, ' “The Buggies,” packaged by Bob Raisbeck for eastern distribution,; will continue to be kinescoped, the j budget jumping only a matter of, about $1,200 from approximately $2,000 to $3,200 per frame. READT ‘JOYFUL HOUR’ , FOR ALL TV STATIONS i Hollywood, Dee. 5. i Every telestation in the country : i.s expected to use “The Joyful j Hour,” hour-long video film being' produced by Rev. Patrick Peyton at Jerry Fairbanks Studios for Christmas lensing. Rev. Peyton made “The Triumphant Hour,” first 60-minute vidshow which all major ; networks beamed last Easter. j Cast for “Hour” hasn’t been set, but Don Ameche, Ann Blyth, Pat O'Brien, Ruth Hussey and Jane Wyatt, who appeared in the first film, are expected to repeat. ‘In “Triumphant Hour” they merely made appearances. This time, they’ll act, with Frank McDonald directing. Color Issue, Credit No Deterrents in Chi Sales Chicago, Dec. 5. Neither confusion over color nor imposition of credit buying restric- tions were reflected in Chi-area tele set sales which continued at record pace during October. Re- ceiver sales during the month totaled 57,990 for the highest figure hit to date. October sales brought the Chi tele set circulation to 731.407, ac- cording to monthly Electric Assn, survey. Layton as Nasht Sales Rep for ‘Paris’ Vidpix Jerry Layton Associates has been Inked by John Nasht Productions as sales rep for “Holiday in Paris,” vidpic series-^lensed on the Conti- nent with Edith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Las Gompagnons de la Chanson and Dolores Gray. Nasht has finished 13 of the pix and is readying another series of 13. Move marks the initial effort by Layton since his partnership with Wilburk Stark was dissolved. Bar Sets From Busses Washington, Dec. 5. Potential danger of television in highway travel received Federal at- tention last week when the Inter- state Commerce Commission pro- posed to bar sets froni the driver’s view in interstate busses and trucks. Under a recommended re- vision of highway saftety rules, which would take effect early next year, TV sets in such vehicles would have to be located behind the driver and beyond his view. Many states and cities have, al- ready adopted regulations which prohibit installation of sets in automobiles. In most cases the I’e- striction applies to installation on the dashboard but some ordinances ^ay nothing about location. Pittsburgh —- Demetria fJimic) Spanos, who headed publicity de- partment of indie station WWSW couple of years ago, has returned to her home; town to join staff of WDTV, the lone teevee channel here. For the moment .she’s shut- tling between programming and sale.s, with a permanent berth ,i.n.the makiiig. Chicago, Dec. 5. Kaufman & Associates, Chi ad agency, pacted with. Snader 't’ele- scriptions last week for exclusive package rights to the company’s briefie musical films in 10 top tele markets. Agency plans to package the three-and a-half-minute films in flexible formats of varying lengths. Kaufman will pitch them to adver- tisers directly but will also make them available to other agencies and stations. Over 200 of the shortie pix made especially for video are ready for distribution, with another 200 scheduled. Agency’s rights Include N. Y., Chi, Philadelphia and Detroit. WIS Plans TV Station Greensboro, N. G., Dec. 5. WIS at Columbia, S. G,, has an- nounced plans to build a lOO-kilo- watt terevision station, the first in Central South Carolina. WIS is Operated by the Broad- casting Co. of the South, which also owns and operates WSPA iri Spartanburg, and WIST in Char- lotte, N. C. Hollywood, Dec, 5. Authorization for a strike vote if further negotiation difficulties are encountered was given Television Authority at a local membership meeting which also ratified terms of the TVA network pact. Meet -1 ing expressed the sentiment that' local stations are stalling unneces- sarily and that negotiations must; get under way immediately. i Three local stations, KTTV, KFI-TV and KLAC-TV, have re- I fus€|d to negotiate until TVA gets certification from the National La- ; bor Relations Board. Harrison I Dunham, KTTV general manager, ' declared that only 10% of the thesps at. his station are TVA | members and more than 80% aren’t even aware of the organiza- tion. Ciiiciiinati—-6. R. “Jim” Bellamy ! has returned to the radio-TV field I I here a member of the WKRC-TV j I sales staff. He was with a Pitts- j { burgh station after being associ-: 1 ated with Clncy stations several • I years ago and came back to this! I city for. partnership in a retail! I appliance firm, which interests he 'sold. . ' St. Louis—KXOK last week ex- tended its broadcasting operations but starting at 5:30 a.m. instead of 30 minutes later. The station leads off with Charles Stookey’s “Town and Country” program which has been extended to 2}^ hours with a 15 minute new’s break at 7:30 a m. Harlingen ,Tex. — Harbenito Broadcasting Co. here is changing frequency of KGBS from 1240 to 850 kilocycles and increasing power from 250 watts to 5,000 watts unlimited time/ Outlet is owned and opierated by McHenry Tichenor^ Houston — Gene O’Bannon has been named news editor for KLEE here.-returning to the city after an absence of six months. O’Bannon came here in. 1947 from WMAQ, Chicago. Montreal—The Canadian Broad- casting C 0 r p . ’ s “Opportunity Knocks” returns to Montreal, Dec. 18 and will be aired from the stage of the Imperial Theatre each Monday night at 8:30 over the Dominion network. Director-con- ductor John Adaskin will continue ! to emcee show with Lamont Tilden doing the gabbing. Beaumont, Tex.-r-Marion (“Tex”) Durham has joined the staff of ; KRIC and will be featured on “Hillbilly Jubilee,” He was for*- I merJy with the Blue Danube Net-^ 'work in Europe while in the arhied services. Atlantic City, N; J.— Nov. 29 is- sue of Variety erratumed that “WFPG, Mutual outlet, was off the air” due to the big storm. WMID is the Mutual affiliate which was off. St. Louis-KMOX, local CBS out- let, is again jointly sponsorin" the Salvation Army’s Tree of Lights campaign at a prominent down- town intersection. A huge Xmas tree is festooned with electric lights one of which is illuminated every time donations reach $100. Cleveland — Way ri e Johnson, formerly Sohio news voice, WTAM, now has a Carling five-minute, Monday-thru-Friday 5:55 p.m. news spot on WERE, v.r.v .’i.C.; "/A i J giVM'y ^ ferityf<»; i % I Mi