Variety (September 1952)

S«ptenil>cr S, 1952 HABIO-TEIJS VISION SI Minueii]l^li«—John Iford, one of the town’s top newscasers, is re- maining with radio station WTCN, with which he has been associated for many years, but will do news programs on WCCO-TV three nights a week as a freelancer, now 'that WTCN has new ownership and WTCN-TV has merged with WCCO into WCCO-TV. Jack Thayer, a leading local disk jockey, has re- signed from radio station WLOL to join WTCN, on which he'll Have his* own musical and variety shows. ' Kenedy, Teat.—^Application has been filed with the FCC for a new standard broadcast outlet to be op- erated by the Kenedy Broadcasting Co. Group is seeking facilities on 990 kilocycle^ with a power of 250 watts, daytime hours only. Principals in the new Company, each with one-third interest, in- clude Charles W. Balthrope, own- er of KITE and KITE-FM, San Antonio, and applicant for another standard AM outlet at Corpus Christi; Stan Nelson, program di- rector of KITE, and Charles Har- ris, owner of a San Antonio radio parts company and former man ager of KCOR there. New Orleans — Pat Michaels, former Mutual. network corre- spondent, joined the announcing . staff of WDSU and WDSU-TV re- cently. He was formerly with WNOE. Former Coast spieler came here about a year ago, when he was invalided back to the U. S. from Korea. Another, recent addition to the • WDSU staff is dee jay Goodrich Flowers. He Was formerly with . WTPS. Phil Gordon, singer-pianist • on WDSU-TV, resigned last week Singer’s heading for California for . night club and video work. Hartford—Edward C. Christ, general manager of WNHC-TV, New Haven, has been named chair-1 man of radio and TV public In-i formation committee of the 1952 United Fund drive in New Haven. He will be assisted by Charles Wright, program director of WELI, Sol Chain, manager of WBIB-FM and Richard Miller, program direc- tor of WAVZ. &id ^Game of Week’ On Mutnal’s Fall Agenda Mutual’s ^'Football Game of the Week” is being pitched as a co-op project for local sponsorship. MBS sports director Raul Jonas has lined up a number of games in- volving Big 10 squa'^s, either in in-Conference or out-of-Conf er- ence contests. Series will be beamed .on Satur- days from Sept. 27 through Deco.6. Latter date will feature the Milk Bowl game of kid grldders at Rosenberg, Tex. Louis Bromfield Badio Series to Bow on MBS Pulitzer Prize winning author Louis Bromfield turns moderator on a new series to preem over Mu- tual on Saturday (6) at 11:30 a.m. Show will consist of forums be- tween agricultural experts and farmers and will originate from state fairs, expositions and other points where the rural population gathers. Airer is presented in a tieup, with' Successful Farming mag. RTMA RENAMES CRAIG . AS FN POUCY HEAD , Washington, Sept, 2, Radio-Television Manufacturers Assn, has reappointed John W. Craig, veepee of Crosley Division, Avco Mfg, Corp., as chairman of its FM Policy ^Committee for the 1952- 53 fiscal year. The committee has been working with National Assn, of Ra41o and TV Broadcasters in efforts to stimulate interest in FM. RTMA’s participation in two forthcoming test campaigns—in Philadelphia and Alabama—^will be under Craig’s committee which In- cludes H. C. Bonfig of Zenith; J. B. Elliott of RCA; L. F. Hardy Of Philco; H. L. Hoffman of Hoffman Radio, and E, H. Vogel of General Electric. Baseball Bonus RCA Thesaurus has sent its sub- scriber stations a special bonus show on baseball, "World Series Cavalcade," Stanza comprises 10 quarter- hour baseball programs, built around highlights and anecdotes of past World Series games. Each segment features a mall-pull mer- chandising gimmick as a hypo for local sales to sponsors. Intermountain Repacts Utah Oil Sports Spread Salt Lake City, Sept. 2. Intermountain Net'v^ork has inked Utah Oil Refining Co. for the fifth straight year to pick up the tab for broadcast of all U, of Utah basketball and football games for the coming season. Games will be aired over the web’s flagship, KALL, and six additional Utah stations, with Mai Wyman again handling the play by play, assisted by Kay Richins taking care of color and production. Deal was wrapped up by Lynn L. Meyer, v.p. in charge of net saleif, Marion Nelson for Glllham Agency and Ashby Badger for the oil company. Package will cost about $35,000. Sale Slump; Aug. May Set New High Washington, Sept. 2." Television receiver manufactur- ing Industry is feeling the impact of the lifting of the video freeze, it appears from the July report of the Radio-TV Manufacturers Assn.' issued over the weekend. Although Industry output In the first half of 1952 was far below the same period of 1951, this year’s July production was considerably higher than .July of last year. And preliminary reports of factory operations for the first three weeks of August, furnished RTMA, show that production in this period Is already more than double that of the whole month of August of 1951. A considerable part of the In- crease is due to opening of one Important new TV market—Den- ver—where the, first TV station (KFEL-TV) got on the air the lat- ter part of July. Sets are also be- ing shipped Into other new markets where dealers are stocking up in preparation for the new stations being built as a result of FCC pei> mits* issued during the last six weeks. An added stimulus to sales was the coming of the cable to 10 TV cities In time for the political conventions. While TY output usually takes a dive during July and August, when factories curtail operations for vacations, the lifting of the freeze apparently has reversed that sit- uatlon this summer. August out- put will probably reach 500,000 sets, compared to 146,000 last year, and may exceed the production of MarCh, the highest month so far this year, when output totaled 510,661 sets. Until June, monthly productlnn this year has been far behind the corresponding' months of 1951 when fears^^f shortages because of the Korean war- and imminence of higher excuse taxes pushed sales to peak proportions. In the first five months of 1952 production ap- proximated 1,960,000 sets as against 3,100,000 sets in the same period of 1951, The trend changed in June ;whm factories turned out 361,000 sets, which was about 9,000 more than in the same month of 1951, And in July, when TV came to Colorado, output totaled approximately 200.000 sets as compar^ to about 150.000 sets in July of/last year. With more station^ due to get into operation in the ensuing months and new markets opened up, prospects are that the trend will continue and that 1952 output may considerably exceed the indus- try’s earlier expectations for the year. Detroit—Fred W. O’Brien, Jr., has been appointed merchandising and publicity manager of WWJ- AM-TV-FM, O’Brien formerly was associated with KVOD, Denver; Sasser Publications and Radio City Music Hall. ► PICTURE PLAYHOUSE the television show that gives you Milwaukee—WISN, the CBS af- filiate here, has set up a public service and education department with George A. DeGrace, former promotion manager, taking over as director. Gerald S. Cohen has been appointed sales promotion manager. Cohen joins WISN after a hitch as promotion - publicity chief at WDGY, Minneapolis. Cleveland—Cleveland Board of Education and WEWS will offer series of adult education programs in first effort to reach public with televised educational classes. Sta- tion has allocated two weekly 15- minute spots Tuesday and Thurs- day at 7:15 p.m. as "public service for schools and citizens." Cleveland—TV set sales in this area now over the 600,000 mark | > . . . An attempted fire in WEWS studio was thwarted when a watch- man discovered a piece of smol- dering string leading to a box of kitchen matches . . . Purchase of WJMO by company known as United Broadcasting Co. headed by Richard Slaton, is causing con- fusion of names sinte there is Ohio company already known as United Broadcasting Co. of which H. K. Carpenter is president Minneapolis—After seven years during which she has been affili- ated with KSOO, Sioux Falls, S. D., Bee Baxtei* is rejoining KSTP and KSTP-TV as women’s editor. Winner of the McCall’s Magazine award last January for her work that led to the opening! of. the first'mental health clinie in South Dakto, Miss Baxter was with KSTP for 10 years before resign- ing to join KSOO. She’ll have her own radio and TV shows on KSTP, featuring her commentaries on current affairs from a feminine slant, celebrity interviews, fash- ions, etc. New Haven — Charles Bell, Jr,, has joined the sales staff of WNHC radio and television here. Bell was formerly sales manager for WBRK in Pittsfield, Mass., served in a similar capacity at WABY, Albany, and is a former account executive for the Yankee network in New England. Salt Lake City—Donna Norton, formerly with KDYL, ha* taken over the continuity department at KALL, local Mutual affiliate, and flagship of the 44 station Inter- mountain Network, She replaces Barbara Crouch, who returned to Oregon. Five big bouncing baby spots-^in addition to your one-minute commercial—and It costs you nothing extra, it’s your “economy buy^’ on TV in Baltimore on PICTURE PLAYHOUSE* (11 to 12 p.m. daily). Here’s how it works: Besides your regular one-minute commercial you also gel five extra billboard announcements. This means complete sponsor identification throughout the entire hour tbow. UsO ' 5 " , your billboards as you see fit-^lther to rej^al one selling message or for 'multlple'product promotion ♦ This some package is available on HOLLYWOOD PLAYHOUSE (2 to 3 p.m. daily). WBAl-TV Television Baltimore e NBC in Maryland Nationplly Represented by Edward Retry Co.