Variety (February 1951)

Wednesday, Fehrtiary 14, 1951 v Cincinnati, Feb. 13. Things weren’t too "George” for Jerry Lester when he and his “Broadway Open House” troupe invaded Cincy last Friday (9) for a WLW-T origination in helping the video station celebrate its third anni jubilee. The trouble started when, in the course of a quickie guest ap- . pea ranee on Ruth Lyons’ noontime show,, the “Open House” comic nla'de the mistakfr of taking’ a swipe at Miss Lyons; who happens to' i be just about the most idolized personality on the Cincy scene since she, .wentTV^hTL.a Rig w,ay,witl\ hei;.byae.e.,.of .3RO.. day time shows, No sooner had Lester gotten off a crack to the effect that Miss Lyons needed more TV experience, than the Lyons partisans in the studio rallied to her defense with hoots and jeers for Lester. Miss Lyons herself did a slow burn but refrained from answering. Fact that Lester kept several hundred persons waiting for- his' appearance in the jampacked lobby of the Gibson hotel, while he Slept on till noon,* didn’t particularly contribute toward getting his Cincy stay off on the right foot. v*'. Washington, Feb. 13. Chances of some kind of legisla- tion affecting the FCC emerging from the present session of Con- gress, picked up considerably last week with the passage of the Mc- Farland bill in the Senate. The fact that the measure, which had passed the upper body late last year but got no further, went through so early this session gives the House more time to consider the question and possibly come through with something. But the most that can be expected is a compromise bill. Sem Ernest McFarland (D., Ariz.), author of the bill and now majority leader of the Senate, is represented as willing to give' up certain sections, if necessary, to ob-> tain passage. He recently conferred with FCC Chairman Wayne Coy, who opposed the measure, as pres- ently written, before the House last session. Coy was reportedly agree- able to some kind of legislation. Before action can be taken by the House, it is likely that new hearings would be necessary, inas- much as the composition of the House Committee on Interstate Commerce has been changed by eight new members who are un- familiar with the measure. How long it would take before hearings could be held, a bill approved, ac- tion taken by the House, and a compromise worked out with the (Continued on page 34) Cumberland, Md., Feb. 13. Sale of WTBO here to Maryland Radio Corp. has been completed, subject to FCC approval. Among the principal stockholders of the new corporation are Ben K. Baer, of Charleston, W. Va., Howard C. ChernofT, formerly manager of WCHS, Charleston, and George Clinton, manager of WPAR, Park- ersburg,: and WBLK, Clarksburg, W. Va. Station, an NBC affiliate, is now owned by Aurelia S. Becker and Charles Z. Heskett. Sale at $115,000 was arranged through Blackburn-Hamilton Co. WNLK’s 42G Sale Norwalk, Conn., Feb. 13. WNLK here has been sold to Davicl W. Jefferies, of Washington, (Continued on page 26) Hollywood, Feb. 13. CBS announcers have not been doing too well with their side lines, station ownership. .Bob LeMond last week sold KSPA, Santa Paula, Cal., to a group of businessmen there, and previously Dick Joy, also a stafter, unloaded his Palm Springs transmitter, KCFJ. Both figured the treks back and fourth Weren’t worth it, and inter- lered with their earning capacity as announcers. Coals to Newcastle Peter Donald, quizmaster on Kroger Stores’ “Share the Wealth,” does a double feature on Friday (16) when he broad- casts first before a civilian au- dience in Louisville, and then for a GI audience. He’ll be giving away “Wealth” prize money to sol- diers guarding the nation’s gold at Fort Knox. Director in N.Y. v . Lester Gottlieb, CBS-TV produc- er currently identified with the “Sing It Again” and “Show Goes On” programs, has been given the nod as the network’s director of programming in New York, as suc- cessor to .Robert P. Heller, who resigned several weeks, ago. Lat- ter has signed a film writing deal. Oddly enough, appointment of Gottlieb by program veepee Hub- bell Robinson. Jr., represents a “Y & R to CBS parlay,” with the Robinson-Gottlieb-Harry Ackerman (CBS Coast program topper) tri- umvirate of the old Young & Rubi- cam days now entrenched in the Columbia program saddle as a three-way team, Gottlieb was given the-nod after Robinson had sifted about 35 can- didates for the post, and was chosen on the basis of his show biz background, knowledge of tal- ent, creative programming flair, public relations and the manner in which he’s integrated himself into the overall. CBS production pattern. ES Cincinnati, Feb. 13. One of the most ambitious talent hunts engineered by a local broad- casting operation, gets unc(er way here this week,When WLW, the Crosley (Avco)-ovned “wopder sta- tion,” begins the task of exploring every hamletj village and city in its four-state coverage area in a bid to bring new faces, and voices into radio and video. With a recognition that the same goes for today as applied back in ’28-’29, when WL 1 . , set the ground- work for its eventual emerge nee as the “Cradle of Stars,” through an exploration of the talent avail- abilities in the grass roots sectors, WLW is now determined to reprise its contribution to radio and show biz in general. Just as Little Jack Little, Eddie Albert (then part of a singing trio), Jane Froman, the Mills Bros., Ra- mona, Red Skelton, Gene & Glenn, “Fats” Waller (then known as Tom Waller, when h i was grinding the Cincy organs), Virginia Payne (“Ma Perkins”) and a flock of others ^ame out of those early WLW tal- ent quests, so, too, the station, with a collaborative assist from 200 film- house exhibitors in Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky, un- veils this week its new and more elaborate bidjto project fresh tal- ent on the kilocycles. This time, however, the stakes will be higher, for the station is dangling video (as well as AM) contracts to those who shape up as potentials for the bigtime. This is no amateur con- test, nor are there any of the as- sorted gimmicks or attempts at ex- ploiting the contestants. Film Exhibs Tie-in During the next eight weeks the 200 film exhibitors will invite all the semi-pros and promising tyros on to the stages through the four- state area, with the hundreds of contestants as the talent source for a permanent file for use by WLW, as well as the Crosley chain of video operations—WLW-T in Cin- cinnati, WLW-D in Dayton and WLW-C in Columbus. All the*film chains and indies have been whipped into a state of enthusiasm by Bill Robinson, WLW’s program manager, and Jack Keating, who is supervising the talent search, for to the exhibs it takes on the aura of a “community project” designed to bring the customers back into the theatre in the face of TV’s ascendancy and declining b.o. grosses. ’ A series of regional contests will wind up with the semi-finals in the major cities through the four states, out of which 11 will be chosen to play a downtown Cincy house for a week. Out of the 11 the No. 1 candidate will get a WLW radio and video contract (plus $1,000), with contracts also going to second and third bests, !\vith lesser coin. However, the station (Continued on page .32) AFRS’ Exclusive Hollywood, Feb. 13. Soldiers and sailors overseas heard, a radioed description Of the Louis-Agramonte fight last Wednesday (7) although there was no broadcast from the ringside for the benefit of fight fans in the U.S.A. Fred Hessler, member of the Armed Forces Radio Service sport staff in Hollywood, took the details of the battle off the wire from Miami and broad- cast them to distant camps and ships with appropriate sound effects. " ' .*■ . NBC’s plans for its summer; schedule, now being readied, will be pitched for originality, economy 1 and an emphasis on American tra- 1 ditions. Many of the airers are ex-' pected to have relatively low price ' tags. ' . ' , 1 •- i Among the unusual shows being , mulled by program v.p. Charles (Bud) Barry are vehicles for Judy Holliday, Maurice Evans and Carol i Channing. Also being auditioned i is “The Perils of Paulette,” in ; which Paulette Goddard will play a Hollywood columnist who feuds with another femme Coast eolum-, ' nist. i ‘-Johnny Madero” whodunit may i be reprised with William Holden in the title role. Web is also prep- ping “Shock,” a psycho-mystery by Harry Junkin. In the Americana department, chain is whipping up “I Pledge Al- legiance,” which will deal with the contributions of contemporary Americans to the country’s growth. It had previously announced a new series, “This Is My Own, My Na- tive Land.” The “NBC Theatre,” | which will probably be shifted back ! to Sunday afternoon from Wednes-1 day evening, with Margaret Web- j stcr working on an hour-long ver- sion, will dramatize the works of American authors. Attack which C. E. Hooper made against “aided recall” rating serv- ices at the N.. Y. Radio Executives Club last week was an attempt to drive a Wedge between advertisers and broadcasters,, some radio re- searcher v feel. “Aided recall” dif- fers from coincidental telephone methods in that those polled are asked to recall what programs they listened to. Hooper, feels people “remember” listening to more shows than they really do. Hooper hit out at The Pulse, Inc., data for the San Francisco-Oakland area which he compared with his own service’s ratings. He cited cases in which Pulse rated stations from 13% to 200% higher than his out- fit did. and tagged the Pulse meth- od “inflationary.” “The average inflation is 81%,” Hooper said. “This is the amount of shdrt-weight the advertiser may anticipate if he accepts this “aided-recair survey as a size measure. In the long run it will cost the advertiser more money—81% more.” What Hooper was doing, accord- ing to some industry statisticians, is to try to put pressure on the bankrollers, via the argument that aided recall will nick them more in time costs, to force the networks and stations to drop services such as Pulse. In New York and in some other markets Pulse has wooed many customers away from Hooper, Hooper said that while aided re- call and diary methods “are mis- used when they masquerade as rat- ing services,” they can provide an indication of relative program pop- ularity. He said they should be called “indexes,” not “ratings.” Latter term he feels should refer only to size measurements. Call- ing things by their right names, he (Continued on page, 32) Colwell’s ESA Post Washington, Feb. 13. Nathan Colwell, in charge of ra- 1 dio and TV promotion for the sav- ! ing bond division of the Treasury I Dept., is quitting to join Erie John- ston’s staff in the Economic Stabili- zation Administration. , Colwell will direct the radio-TV 1 information programs for ESA. Local stations in industrial cen- j tres are feeling an upbeat in au- diences for their all-night shows, based on the increase of defense production arid the expansion of ! swing and graveyard shifts in war plants. In New York WINS is adding an hour, of air time to the end of its daily sked and will sign off at 3 a m. instead of 2 o’clock. Fred Rob- bins, who has been airing from 11 p m. to midnight, gets an extra 60 j minutes, which will be sponsored by“ the Village Crier, Greenwich Village publication, Big Joe Rosen- fleld moves from a midnight start to 1-3 a.m. In Detroit WWJ has added an in- timate platter stanza, “Lovingly Yours, Laura,” in the 2-6 a.m* slot, six nights weekly. Show is design- ed to latch on to the growing wee- hours market as the Auto City’s , industrial activity goes on a round- the-clock basis. On Sunday nights show is taken over by a femme tagged Lorraine, Station is cur- rently propping a study .of the all- night audience for presentation to advertisers. Jean King, billed as “The Lone- some Gal,” was picked up last month by Philip Morris for seven big eastern markets. While riot skedded in a post-midnight spot, her transcriber taps a slumber- time audience. The Witching hour broadcasts, it’s fifured, benefit from speeded- up production in several ways. Not only do workers tune in before arid after their late, shifts, but also many plants pipe in the music as a tonic and aid to efficiency. Then, too, with an overtime boom there’s an increase in jitters that cues many stay-up-laters to listen for relaxation. An added influence is the grow- ing interest in news that keeps many dialers glued to their sets for late developments. Last war ush- ered in a boom in all-night broads casting as an aid to civil defense. If . the trend becomes more marked, it may bring a shift in emphasis in the insomniac pro- gramming away from gab and in- terviews and toward more tunes. WNEW, N. Y„ whose “Milkman’s j Matinee” was one of the pioneers in the field, feels that its continu- ing format of straight music with little chatter is now more than ever in step with the times. WMGM, N. Y., said that AM will benefit from the multiple listener- ship as the all-nighters are put into factory public address systems for background music. Indie, which airs Jack Eigen and Bea Kalmus shows until 4 a.m., speculates that selection of tunes may be altered to fit in with the preferences of swing-shifters who prefer melodic songs to brassy swing while they 1 work. CBS’ lineup of Household Pro- tective League shows is going in- ternational. Web this week set in motion plans to take the partici- pating programs, in which the prod- ucts of all sponsors must be ap- proved by a panel of testers, into Canada, Mexico, South and Central America and Cuba. Fletcher Wiley, Originator of HPL and from whom CBS pur- chased the idea for $1,000,000 in radio’s first capital gains deal, is scheduled to leave soon for Mexico to establish the first foreign-lan- guage edition of the shows. Wiley expects to have the lineup com- pleted in the other countries with- in the next two years. CBS, which retained Wiley as a consultant when it bought the idea in 1947, has granted him full license to ex- pand the program line'llp to the other countries. Wiley plans to conduct auditions to find the Mexican, French and Portuguese editions of HPL shows in the various countries. In the U. S., HPL programs are now /-aired via CBS Stations, most of them owned and operated and the others serviced by the web’s Radio Sales* Lineup now includes the Galen Drake program, the Sunrise Salute and Starlight Salute. NEW BAER-KAIMANOFF OPERA IN RADIO BOW “Noah and the Stowaway,’’ new satirical one-act. opera, will receive its initial performance, with or* chestra under the direction Of Sieg- fried Landau, Sunday (18) oil WNYC, N. Y. Composed by Martin Kalmanoff, with libretto by Atra Baer (daugh- ter of “Bugs” Baer), it’s the sec- ond opera by this team, whose first work, “Fit for a King,” won the Robert Merrill Opera Contest last year.