Variety (January 1951)

Wetlnesday^ January 8, 1951 Formula for Future; Change By NILES TRAMMjELL (Chairman of Board, NBC) Looking back in retrospect if becomes cleiar that change has always been the order of the day for radio. Change has been its one dominant tharacteristic. Change has been the secret of its success. Change is the formula for its future expansion. Change may be the key for its survival at the end of the next 25 years. The problems coming up for all of us in 1951 and the years beyond that will give us a chance to pioneer anew and to go forward into new fields of service to the people, the government and business and industry. I recommend this view to all my colleagues in broadcasting and especially to those who become unduly alarmed and hara.ssed in their thoughts over, the eventual future of radio .against the onrushing expansion of television. One who listens as much as I do to broadcasters, advertisers and government olTicials receives about as many variegated views of the future of broadcasting as there are convcrsalionalists. Sometimes there is so muclv unjustiried pessimism and unlu-;tlthy optimism that it’s difficult to obtain a perspective. .And per-' si)ecli\ e . is wliat is needed most in pur harried and hectic world of hroadcasling, . ; Tlu' truth of the matter is that no. one today knows exactly just what tlu', futLirc of radio will be' precisely Just, as no one can predict with (•()nvi)k'te certainty the future of television. About the only thing we know about both is that they .will undergo great Changes in the next C)uVirtcM‘ of a century and the changes will be pretty exciting. Forty^fifth Anniversary RABIO-TV By FORTUNE POJPE iPresidenP, WHOM; N. YA Nik'S Trammell Looking Aliead to 1975 f.ookin.g. ahead to 1975 , we can pretty well accept the foregone conclusion that by then television will be a mature medium which blankets the cotinliy. saturating all major niarkets and extending even to rural area.s. Television will be available night and day jii'st as radio is today. 'rherc will be two or tln*ee television sets in millions, of homes and the \ oungsters will be equipped with portables. Anyone with, any jniagiiialion can begin to see What , an overwhelming elTect. this powerful nuvdlunv will have oh the country. . Suiiie of us get the shudders at this stage of day-dreaming when we .get down to considering the future of radio. What will it he in. 1975? Will radio be a supplementary service or a specialized service? Will only the high-powered stations in major cities survive or will only the rural stations operated on skeleton bases be the style of the day? Or w ould you bet with me that the whole radio system may he patterned on lodajs ’s and that radio will be shld in combination with television, on'ering an overall service to the American home? These are some thoughts to think about vvhen vve indulge in daydieaming, but you and I know this isn’t the time for day-dreaming. We. are. after all, business men and we should take a business nian’s approach to the problem. Do you know that there are j hundreds of radio, advertisers in ■ New York who couldn’t teU you i the difference between a Nleilsen , and a Hopper or BMB ^ and Adyer! test? Most of. them are big adver Aisers too, including spores of major retail stores as vvell as manu•' f acturers of . nationality products^ IThey.’ve been using foreign language radio for years. . Accounts that have been with us ..consistently for 15 years or more have never asked us for ratings. As long a.s they keep getting results, they are perfectly content to let others worry about sets in use and shares of audience. Do we We certainly do.I We ve done more in audience than ma,n>’ Of our 1 colleagues. We’ve invested in elab; orate pantry •. surveys as well as socio-economic studies of the prin• cipal language groups in the New ; York market. We’ve done this, not Blow-By-Blow Sit-In 1 on Bigtime TV Production Bv BOB STAHL This business of staging a bigbudgeted, fullblown musical show on ' television week after week, complete with singers, dancers, a I full orchestra, etc., is actually more than an eight-day-a-week : ^.'operation. | Case in point is N-BC-TV’s “Your ; Show of Shows;” second houi>a,ndm-lialf of the “Saturday Night Re' ‘ vUe.'’ For, in addition to putting : in a full seven days each . week in lining up the production, ])roduCer-director Max Liebman and -his crew of writers, design ors.l technicians, etc., as well, as the stars, take time off during ..Ihc . week whenever possible, to kick services? probably research ,, ■ around ideas and line up the script VA/^ following week’s operation. With work in progress on the current week’s program. as well as perhaps one or two In advance, the accumulated time can easily foLal more than eight days a week. While “Show of Sliows” naUirally is confronted week in and to convince our hardy hut" tn tjalisjfv flcrpnCv eveeiii vtAing piooieius inai . 0,-SCi Uves vrtl inSt oiv se^ ''ideo program, the Lieb and ng es. I u every case ?he dnd' htb" .T ,ing.s have juatifled our eonndence I .vvhich set ,it apart from . and that of the longtime users oJj Mel. Tolkin and Lucille Kailen, and even one for the Billy Williams Quartet. Music department is also housed in the building, with separate rooms for conductor Charles Sanford, the . arrangers, j copyists, etc. ■ • ' ■ Owns and Controls Scenery j , Liebman owns and cdnirols. aR sets and scenery: He has a , book • constantly on his desk of pholostatic copies of all . sots ever, used on the production. ' wlih .another copy in. the hands of designer Fred i Fox. All. scenery IK stored at the Nolan studios, where it is readily available each week. This 'arran."i;e . ■mont. according to Liebman, .^aves a great deal of money each week and . also makes it po:s;l)le to utilize as many diiierenl sets for each program as de.sired. Cos-. iLimes are rcnlcd weekly froin the Eaves Costume Co, Liebman is also belie\'ed to be ■the only indie producer owning an(t controlling a kinescope print of every show he has ever proto the original Revue.” He ; all others; This is because Liebjman is an, indie producer , in the I strictest sense of the word, with ! his setup, probably resembling that ' of a Hollywood indie more than any other TV impresario can I boast. As Liebman himseif put I it. “we turn out the product and NBC acts as our distributor.” Under this setup, Liebman is in the happy* position (fora producer) ■ foreigri lariguago facilities, J A few months ago wo did a very elaborate study of the Italian population in New York and came up with some revealing facts; illuminating information about 2.000,000 Italians, actually mox'e than reside in Rome., Here are a few of i the findings, some of which you ! probablv never knew. till now, . . . ^ . . ,, , , . One^third of the highest paid ,«! having virtually no contact with Ijobs in New York are held by Reflections on Patterns Here arc a few of them, as I see them: We must start programming radio for. television homes and develop new t.N'pes and forms of radio entertainment which will hold on to listeners in TV homes for as long as possible. We must priee our programs and our medium realistically and in keeping with the times. Radio’s low cost efficiency is still unmatched by any other medium and we should keep it that way, forever, if possible. Wc must develop new and $p3ctac‘ular methods of promoting radio to attract new listeners, hold the old and hold our own as long as we can against the inroads of television. We must develop new and different sales plans to attract new advertisers and give greater flexibility to our present cu.slomers. There are literally thousands of American businesses which can make profitable use of network . radio on specially devised bases, seasonal and otherwise. An inspection of any major American magazine will tell youwho they are. Let us not, for a moment, believe, however, that television has no problems other than those airising from its growing pains. It has a few of it.s own, too, and we. should pay attention to them now, before it is too late. . First of all. we have the daily problem of tempering our enthusiasm and imagination for this dynamic new mediiinv with the views of the business man. That means keeping television within business bounds and continually lowering its cost and increasing its efficiency to the advertiser. Secondly, let’s make sure television attains its intellectual destiny without hindrance from us. We all know what a great medium for entertainment and enlightenment we have in the scientific miracle of our age. Let’s endeavor to make certain that the television screen is lit in the homes of America w'ith the type of programs that will create an intellectual miracle in the minds of our people. I Italo-Americans employed in the ineedlecraft and building trades, land as teamsters and longshoremen. Their purchasing power has risen almost 250% in the past 10 years. The Italian family with an ; average size of 3.97 Is larger than I the non-Italian family with 3.64. There are three wage earners per his many sponsors and' their agen cies. Several times in the pa.st he has objected to agency demands such as where a certain commerciaV should be slotted during the program. But, instead of taking his argument to them, Liebman gives it to NBG to fight out. “I don’t want to go to the agencies,” he said, “because as soon as I give them that entree to the show. I’m Italian-American family as com ; , . , • , 'pared with less than two in all : ‘hey might want to stop in voTvHeTfi r*i 1 n 1 Yi fT r n i n rrt; ' A c? 4 i* ' families in New York City. Translate these statistics into consumer needs and they loom very large! Wine is consumed more liberally in Italian homes vyhile whiskey used compares with the New York City average. Beer and ale enjoy about more popularity, among j Italians than non-Italians. Cigar I smoking too is more characteristic of the Italian male. Exploding: Old Myths and start running things.” As far as the bankrollers are concerned, he compared his show to a magazine. “We publish the magazine,” he said, “and the sponsors take out the ads. That way they have as little program control as advertisers have over the , editorial policy of a magazine.” While other TV producers arc forced to hold their dry-run rehearsals in reconverted beer-halls, bowling alleys and almost any other available space they can The extent of shopping in. food, ! ! drug, and cosmetic stoi’es is higher j find Liebnian, in his capacity as { an indie producer, has four com1 plete floors of space in a building on Manhattan’s W. 56th street. There are special studios or of among Italians than City average. Every name in these fields pantiT shelves and chests. Ownership the N(Jw York known brand was found on in medicine in appliances HARRY BABBITT Radio:— CUy— Hollywood i Television : — Piiramount’s K'lT.A Recording: — Coral llecoiUs ” ' Pei'so.nal Managonient Frank Cooper Associate* is higher, while apartment dwellballet ing is lower. If the survey did nothing it helped to explode the old myth that foreign language families consume a few Staple food items to the exclusion of practically any^ thing else. It demonstrated also that Italian homes are using American food and. drug products just as much as, and in some cases even more than, their neighbors, What does all this mean? That the foreign language listener is a very good potential customer for practically every advertised product. A good many agencies have begun to see the . light,; judging by increased national billings which language stations are enjoying. Of course, a lot of smart national advertisers have been using the market quietly for years. The type of research outlined here should prove attractive to many other.s. Progressive language stations have geared their programs to a plane which, compares favorably with the best in network and independent standards. New and. improved research techniques are constantly being sought to satisfy agency , deniands for neW' statisticail data. The results, should prove beneficial to all concerned. .Specialized formats are achieving a new place in the competitive radio ‘Spectrum and the future of foreign language radio looks brighter than ever. To quote an advertising executive vylio has been using Italian radio for years; “To reach the Italian market, we have preferred the high-powered riflle of Italian media to tie buck-shot of English language.” jfices for each group, including the vocal chorus, stars Sid ■ 1 Caesar and Imogene Coca, chore else, i ographer James Starbuck, writers i.s inclio controlling every sliow cluce.d, dating back “Admiral Broadway arranged this in his NBC cdnlract. ; Any time lie wants to repeat a , ■ number aired as much as tv\o : years previously, he. ha.s only to cair in his crevv and then run through. the kine for reference lo :‘the costumes, choreography; sets, etc. He revealed that, to mask a repeat,' he sometimes changes the , title and lyrics of a certain num■ber but retains the. same music, choreography and oven the sets. All talent on the show, as well as the writers .and others; in the production crew, are under contract Lo Liebman, rather than, to NBC. Show carries a full cast of • 30, including the singing and danc! ing ensemble, in addilioh to 22 ; production staffers and 20 musicians. These, added* to the NBC and theatre personnel, who step ■ in each Friday when the rehearsals ; first move to NBC’s International theatre, bring the number of personnel direcLy involved with each week’s production to about 100. Program’s weekly talent and production budget has been upped to about $32,000 with the new Television Authority contract, from it.s previous ,”30.000. Wiiile his production setup may be unique, Liebman’s rehearsal schedule is probably illustrative of all similar video shows. With the show aired Saturday night, Licbman starts work each week on the following day, when he and his two scripters, Starbuck and some others come in for preliminary huddles. Out of this is evolved a bare outline of the numbers, with such weekly staples as Caesar’s solo comedy bit referred to merely as “Sid’s specialty.” Cast treks in early Monday tContinued on page 184) i NELSON CASE LoyveR Thornat Program Armstrong Circle 'theatr* Ken Murray Show Frigidaire Comedy Hour