Variety (September 1952)

Border Trouble ^ >» Preem of Canadian tele next week may be clouded as a result of t dispute between thejCanadian Broadcasting Corp» and NBC-TV and OB^MV over bew* the revenue from time sold north of the border is to be divided, CBC has told the Americaij chains that it can't accept their "last offer” and may go on the air Monday (8) - sans Yank video feeds, NBC and CBS, however, have informed the Canadians that they'd like to have them as affiliates and would welcome further discussions. Problem stems from the fact that the U. S. chains want a bigger share than they get in radio. In AM the networks take only a 15% commission when CBC piejes up an AmerieJan network com- mercial show. In tele, they feel, production costs are so high .they want a; bigger split. A Canadian source said that the Yank networks were asking *70%, but a U. S. web official said that was an "over-statement of the Americ^ demand,” Typical network affiliation contract has the outlet giving the skein 24 hours monthly of time without com- pensation ^ind getting 33^% of the income after that. Non-basic affiliates get a 30% divvy. However, the web spokesman pointed out, the web's share is not actually 70%, since it has to pay line charges, discounts and agency commissions. These ligures wouldn't be applicable to the Canadian situation, since CBC-will pay.the line charges. NBC and CBS therefore will give the Canadians a higher percentage than the 33V6% ,ot 30% Yank outlets get (in view of the webs’ not having to foot the line charges), but feel they need more than a 15% commission to cover tlieir expenses. 4 (^da Set for TV Preem Sat (6), After Hardfing Multi|de Obstacles Montreal, Sept. 2. Following a series" of test pro- grams which started in July, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. will Inaugurate regular television serv- ice this Saturday (8) with a three- hour stint from their Montreal sta- tion CBFT. Two dfiys later (8) regular programming will start In Toronto over CBLT. The eventual introduction of TV to Canada climaxes several" years of intensive, research, program cull- ing, political sniping and hard work on the-part of CBC's gen- eral manager Dave Dunton and his staff. Called a government monopoly (as the BBC), ridiculed and abused both by owners of pri- vate stations in Canada who figure they can offer better programs than the CBC and the editorial writers and columnists of the op- position papers throughout the country, CBC has come through with their original intentions and may eventually produce something unique in TV offerings. Biggest problem to face when Dunton eventually wheedled $6,- 000,000 from the gpyemment (which is in the form of a loan and must be paid back from com- mercial revenue) was how to ade- quately cover a country such as Canada which i? strung along a narrow, 4,000-mile strip. To put stations across the country was put of the question financially so To- ronto and Montreal were the obvi- ous selections because of popula- tion density (one good station in (Continued on page 30) Toni Exits "Bank’ For‘Drake Serial Toni is cancelling out of its Tuesday and Thursday bankroll- ing of “Break the Bank” on ABC. Home permanent firm is buying the other two days on CBS Radio’s "This Is Nora Drake,” which will give it cross-the-board representa- tion on "Drake.” It. was on "Drake” five days a week last spring, when Seaman came in as an alternating sponsor. On "Bank” (which Incidentally was just renewed by Bristol-Myers for the Monday-Wednesday-Friday editions), Toni was getting a 4.1 in the 11:30 a.m.-to-noon spot. On "Nora,” aired in the 2:30-2:45 p.m. strip, Toni has been garnering a 5.5. Last Tpjai cpmmercial on "Bank” will be Sept; 18; ABC meanwhile got a healthy renewal of the Gillette Fights on Friday nights in the 10 p.m. hour, via the Maxon agency. Renewal is important to ABC, since NBC has the television end of the business and that web was making a pitch- for the r-ad-io billings as well, i WilkeyasKMOXMgr. Gene Wilkey, general manager of WCCO, Minneapolis ahd St. Paul has succeeded John L. Acker- man as general manager of KMOX, the CBS-owned local outlet. Wil- key took over his new" duties yes- terday (Mon.). Ackerman, who has been in St. Louis since 1950 is moving to CBS* radio spot sales in New York. NBC, CBS Set Fall Radio Lineups In Battle of Ratings NBC and CBS will be battling it out hotter than ever this year for the top radio ratings. CBS, which has copped the majority of the Nielsen Top 10s for-the last sev- eral seasons, purposely stalled any finalization of its new fall program lineup this year until the . NBC shows were'set, and CJBS program- ming execs frankly concede that a number of their choices on what, [goes where were based on an at- tempt to head off any NBC com- I petitive threat. On Sunday nights, CBS has been strongest since board chairman William S. Paley’s fullscale talent raids of several years back. This year the web hopes to continue that rating edge and so will con- centrate again on a Come^ block. Lineup leads off with “December Bride” at 6, to be followed by “Our Miss Brooks,” Jack Benny, “Amos 'n’*Andy,” Edgar Bergen, Philip Morris Playhouse and (Continued on page 32) 'Kukla' to Hit the Road On RCA Merchandise Junket as Steady Diet Chicago, Sept. 2. Now that they are doing a week- ly rather than a daily show. Burr Tillstrom, creator of “Kukla, Fran & Ollie, ” and Beulah Zachary, his producer, plan to hit the road with the production this season on a more or less regular basis. Several junkets have already been lined up extending into March and the present schedule calls for at least a jaunt a month. In practically e>iery case the p.a.’s around the country will be tied in with the local RCA distributors and retailers. RCA bankrolls KFO alternate weeks in its Sunday af- ternoon spot on NBC-TV. Till- (Continued on page 33) 1 f By GEORGE KOSEN Mexico City, Sept. 2. Televicentro, Mexico City’s new- ^ est addition to its constantly-ex- panding and advanced architec- tiiral creations, stands today, on the. eve of its official inauguration, as a $3,600,000 monument to one of Mexlco'a outstanding showmen —^Emilio Azearraga. The home of XEW^TV, the video counterpart of one of the most flourishing radio stations in the world boasts a multitude’of inno- vations calculated to draw gasps of astonishment from even the most seasoned TV vets from^ above the Rio Grande conditioned to the “bestest and the mostest” in the advancement of television. ■ For with the exception of the more elaborate and costly TV City nearing completion in Los Angeles by the Columbia Broadcasting Sys- tem, which “preems’^ on Oct. 1, Televicentro ;stands as a unique edifice, .with little else to match it in the vast expanse of TV-happy United States.,. But Televicentro, with its mam- moth studios seating 3,000 each and which can be converted Into arena-sfiaped auditoriums per- mitting for all types of sports as well as entertainment spectacles through the simple device of col- lapsible grandstands in the rear • of the stage, is perhaps Mexico's No. 1 paradox. As it stands today in the peso economy of Mexico’s TV, it is possibly years ahead of its time—a monument to the video of manana. For TV in Mexico is in a set circulation strait jacket. None But the Rich In a city boasting a population in excess of 3,000,000, there are but 25.000 to' 30,000 receivers in circulation. None but the rich can afford it. They’re all here— Zenith, RCA, Admiral, Westing- house, General Electric, et al.^— but the cheapest models cost 3.000 pesos ($4()0), with the larger sets retailing in the States for ap- proximately $400 to $500 carrying a 10,000 to 12,000-j)eso ($1,000) price tag. And since pesos don’t come easy to the average Mexican, those kind of fancy prices (the re- sult of a 25% import duty Imposed On U. S. goods, plus a determina- tion to milk every possible peso out pf the upper-crust spenders before contemplating any down- ward revision) makes TV set own- ership almost prohibitive. Azearraga knows he's got a tough nut to crack, but there’s nothing can do about it—except to build and plan for a manana that will embrace mass circulation. When that day comes he’ll be ready for it, and he’s already set in motion plans for a network of TV stations in the major cities that will be serviced from Televicentro by both microwave relay (requiring trans- mitters on the highest mountain levels) and by kinescope. But even in Its present 25,000- set economy, XEW-TV is making sufficient strides to convince Azear- raga that within the next 12 months he’ll be operating" in the black. Presently geared to a 5 p.m. to midnight, seven-days-a-week program schedule, XEW-'TV is about 90% SRO. The list of spon- sors for the most part reads like a CBS-TV or NBC-TV scratch sheet; Celanese, RCA, Admiral, Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, Goodrich, Bourjois, General Electric, Gen- eral Motors, Ford, Nestle, etc. P&G Bows In And now Procter & Gamble which is setting up business in Mexico City for the first time and is in the process of building a vast plant for the Latin American mar- ket, looks set to move into XEW- TV as kingpin among advertisers, duplicating its topdog status among American advertisers in radio-T.V (Neil McElroy, P&G prexy, was*., in Mexico City last week where, as international presi- dent of the Harvard Clubs, he was elaborately feted by Latin Ameri- ca's Harvard alumni.) No small consolation to Azear- (Continued on page 33) Lo(h Like It s Ben Dutf y s Show On Ike Campaign, Despite Ku^r Nod Ad[lai4ke Debate Off Projected face-to-face de- bate between Presidential nom- inees Dwight D. Eisenhower and AdlaJ Stevenson, which was to have been staged spe- . cifically for TV, is definitely off. Idea was proposed by Stevenson’s backers but Elsen- hower thumbed it down, at which iwint Stevenson also said he was no longer inter- ested. All four of the TV networks would have- jumped at the chance to air such a show. As pointed Out by CBS-TV news and special events chief Slg Mickelson, however, any such move would have opened the webs up to demands for equal time from all other parties, under terms of Sect. 315 of the'FCC code. Chi Sets Rally To Regain Status As ^ Production Centre Chicago, Sept. 2. First formal organization meeting of Chicago Unlimited, projected industry-wide non-profit corpora- tion designed to promote the Windy City as a radio-TV produc- tion centre, wffl be held next Tues- day evening (J9) in ABC’s Civic Theatre. The group’s backers are seeking a prominent name, either in the civic or the advertising fields, to keynote the rally. Although the outfit has been moving slowly during its pre-or- ganizational stages the past sev- eral months since It was first out- lined by an informal group spear- headed by freelance announcer John Weigel, it has iflready re- ceived nearly ■$10,0(X) in pledges toward its goal of $25,000. It’s ex- pected when officers and a board of directors are picked at the mass meeting next week and the organ- ization takes more definite shape, the pledges will gain momentum. Unlimited hopes to embrace all facets of the Chi radio-TV indus- try to launch a drive to revive! broadcasting output here. It’s plan- ned to hire a fulltime director to conduct the campaign which will place special emphasis on the ma- jor industries in the Chi area who use the media for their advertis- ing purposes. CBS Blinks Toni Off On Wrong Triick In Axing 'Grand Central’ Toni has cancelled “Grand Cien- tral Station” on CBS Radio, one of the toprated daytime Saturday pro- grams with, a 5.3 rating currently (above the median of nighttime programs). Sponsor will hold on to the time slot and insert an audi- ence participationer, probably "Take It or Leave It.” CBS is unhappy at the move be- cause not only' has “Station” a strong point that bolsters the whole lineup, but it fits In with the dramatic mood the skein feels is best for a Saturday afternoon audience pull. Beamed at 1 p.m., it is in the block of Armstrong’s “Theatre of Today,” Carnation’s “Stars Over Hollywood” and Car- ter’s “City Hospital”—all dramas. Weiss St Geller agency, however, feels that it can get more of a com- mercial ride from an audience par- ticipationer, with Toni’s testi- monial copy more suited to the game format than to drama. Last “Station” broadcast will be Sept. 20. Veteran show had a 6.3 rating in June, the highest rating of any Saturday daytime airer on any network at that time. In A surprise announcement last week, J. H. S, Ellis, president of the Kudner agency, revealed'that the BBD&O agency would collabo- rate on handling of the advertising program in behalf of the Eisen^ hower-Nixon campaign for the Re- publican National Committee, Ellis’ statement expressed his hap- piness over . BBD&O’s acceptance of the Kudner “invitation” to co^ opei'atc, and cited the approval of the move. by Arthur E. Summeir- field, chairman of the National Committee and campaign manager for Gen. Elsenhower. What the statement left unsaid, however, was how N. Y.’s Gov. Thomas E. Dewey moved 'In and, turned the show over to his long- time friend, Ben Duffy, prexy of BBD&O. Dew^, who had played one of the key Eisenhower roles in the pre-nomination campaign, had championed Duffy for the approxi- mate $3,000,000 in GOP radio-TV billings, and it was considered M rebuff to his own efforts when Eisenhower turned around and gave the nod to Summerfileld'a choice—^the Kudner agency. (Sum- merfield is an important man in the General Motors picture, and Kud- ner handles the GM business.) Duffy is an old hand at master- minding GOP radio-TV campaigns, having handled the Dewey Presi-' dential bids in previous elections. While, on the one band, BBDAtO has .experienced personnel with a knowhow on politico agency activ- ity, the Kudner coutfit by its own admission is unequipped to handle the Eisenhower assignment. There’s speculation as to what happens to- the .New York ^tate GOP account, which is a separate Duffy-BBD&O “baby.” Its under- stood that Duffy Is turning this over to Kenyon Sc Eckhardt. It was handled at BBD&O by Wick Crider, who has since shifted over to K&E. Robert Humphrey, publicity di- rector for the GbP National Com- mittee, pointed out that broadcast- ing-film expenditure this year would be far greater^an the ap- proximately $800,000 spent for that (Continued on page 32) NBC on the Prowl For Info Director Without any fanfare or public pronimciamentos, veepee Edward A. Madden, assistant to prexy Jo- seph H. McConnell at NBC under the return - to - integration opera- tional pattern, is also- taking over the public relations reins vacated by the resignation of William F. Brooks. Web considers Madden M'ell qualified for the role, in view of a similar status enjoyed during his years of agency activity. Meanwhile, Madden is on the prowl for • a “director of Informa- tion,” His duties, specifically, will I be to write speeches for prexy McConnell and other high NBG brass. SALES VEEPEE MADDUX BOWING OUT AT WOR-TV R. C. (Pete) Maddux, veepee ever sales at WOR-TV, N. Y., is re- signing after 12 years with the WOR operation- He joined the out- fit in 1940 and had been handling sales for both the AM and TV outlets. In the recent reorganization of the station, following the Thomat’ If’. O’Neil, Jr., takeover and the in- tegration of WOR and MBS setups, Maddux was moved exclusively into the tele sphere. The TV sales reins are being taken over by Robert Mayo, TV sales topctor. Maddux is currently on ^vacation. Befor# joining WOR, he was head of the New Jersey development council.