Variety (December 1952)

’ Wednesday, December 10, X952 ______ P'SrIE’TY IIADIO-TKIJEVISION 25 TV NEEDS I CENTRAL SHOP The Trai Hill ell Era Niles Trammell’s resignation as NBC board chairman marks the end of an era in broadcasting. While his resignation doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be lost to the industry, the fact remains that the shifting of his base of operation to Florida as a TV sta- tion man will come as a personal loss to the NBC affiliate membership family, the agency man, the sponsor and the others who daily were exposed to the Trammell thinking and charm. On the human equation side, Trammell over the years has been one of the best liked men in the industry. All too vividly are recalled the periods of crises within the rebellious NBC af- filiate ranks when the southern-bred Trammell could translate his traditionally famous hospitality and charm into a vote of confidence, as happened two years in a row at White Sulphur Springs. By the same token, it’s conceded that through the years of helming the NBC operation Trammell won a reputation as the industry’s greatest salesman, and even after relinquishing the presidency to become board chairman it was Trammell who car- ried the ball on the flash sales plays. The sponsor and the agency preferred it that way. Nor it is a trade secret that in his 30 years of NBC leadership Trammell played a major role as one of the great builders of the radio-television industry in shaping the patterns and the policies as we know them today. Trammell-Cox-Knight Miami Bid Seen 1st More Toward TV Empire Affiliation of Niles Trammelltl’ ' - . with John S. Knight and James M. Cox. Jr., in their bid for channel 7 in Miami is seen as the opening move in what may eventually emerge as a Trammell-Knight-Cox video empire. Those close to Tram- mell say that a man of his energies obviously won’t sit back and be content to bask under the Miami spectrum. Because of his 30-year NBC-RCA association, it’s also con- sidered a fair certainty that a close affiliation kinship with the network will evolve from the new partner- ship. Although In some quarters the question has been raised whether the FCC would condone rival radio and publishing interests (Cox and Knight i teaming up in video, it’s generally believed that the appli- cation filed with the FCC Monday (8) has been prefaced by some as- surance that the Miami grant is in the offing. Trio filed under their new corporate title of Biscayne TV Corp., with Trammell exiting his $100.000-a-year post as NBC board chairman to participate in the setup. It was stated last night that RCA board chairman David Sar- nofi would act as NBC board chair- man. Trammell is to be prexy and 15% owner of the company. Knight, publisher of the Miami Herald (which owns WQAM, the ABC Ra- dio affiliate in the city), and Cox, veepee of the Daily NeWs (which owns WIOD, the NBC Miami af- (Continued on page 28) Lowell Thomas Faces P&G Axe In addition to its lopoff of the ‘Beulah” and Jack Smith-Dinah Shore cross-the-board 7 to 7:30 p.m. CBS Radio shows, Procter & Gamble has indicated that it also intends cancelling out on its spon- sorship of the Lowell Thomas five- times-a-week newscast on Colum- bia. Thomas* contract, however, doesn’t expire until next June, giv- ing him a firm hold on the P&G commitment for the 6:45 to 7 p.m. period until that time. Thus P&G will have called it quits with its several-year experi- menting with evening or nighttime radio programming. Sponsor, for years the heaviest spender in radio (as with TV today), has through the years directed its sales pitch at the housewives with the bulk of its broadcasting expenditures go- ing into daytime radio. Thus far P & G has made no move toward relinquishing its valuable daytime network franchises, particularly since morning-afternoon program- ming on AM has taken on an in- creased importance since the ad- vent of television. Sam Levenson reveals some amusing Personal Relationships of Television * * * a bright byline piece in the forthcoming 47th Anniversary Number of P'SHIETY TV Webs’Daytime Dilemma; Locals Rack Up Ratings Television networks, still fearful of the economic hazards involved in expansion of their daytime pro* gramming operations, are begin- ning to get a feeling of frustration at the high ratings and sponsor payoffs being racked up by local stations’ daytime shows. Nets would like nothing better than to grab off a chunk of those daytime profits but are presently caught in a vicious financial cycle in which a losing gamble in daytime program- ming might shove thefn back into the red. Situation presents something of a paradox. Webs, on the one hand, will be operating in the black for the first time this year, hut on a margin of profit so small‘that any hefty new investment which doesn’t pay off can put them hack on the wrong side of the ledger. At the same time, though, with their nighttime availabilities virtually SRO, the only way they can in- crease their profits is to expand into daytime operations. Whether (Continued on page 42) Milo Frank New Casting Director for CBS-TV Milo Frank is the new casting director for CBS-TV. He suc- ceeds Robert Banker, who is check- ing out to ABC-TV, in charge of program development, Frank was recently hired away from the William Morris agency in Hollywood to handl* talent devel- opment for CBS-TV* In addition to his casting chores, he’ll con- tinue in ih« ‘talent spot* By GEORGE ROSEN An estimated $3,0(50,000 to $4,- 000,000 is going down the drain annually, because of the failure of the television networks to set up a central agency through which trucking, carpentry, costuming, props and other auxiliary services could be expedited on a pro-rata collaborative basis. That there is an increasing need for such a service in order to avoid duplication of effort and expense has long been recognized among those responsible for getting the TV shows on the air. Particulary in the past season, when costs have reached new and staggering highs, the question of setting up a central shop for New York originations among the four TV networks has been bandied about but, chiefly be- cause of the competitive nature of the major network operations, there has been a reluctance on high echelon levels to do anything about it. . Yet with the increasing aware- ness that the TV networks are faced with a slim profit era unless they find ways of whittling ex- penditures on services, it’s conced- ed that the establishment of a central agency to eliminate such duplication could go a long way toward brightening up the year- end profit sheets. Big Trucking Charges On ithe trucking aspect alone, it’s known that CBS-TV spends in exces& of $500,000 a year, with the NBC-TV figure approximating the $750,000 mark. Accounting for the heavy outlay is the fact that the theatre-studio Qriginations of the two networks are so widely scat- tered through all parts of New York. ABC-TV and DuMont, with more centralized studio layouts in Manhattan, have less expensive trucking tabs. A unified plan for hauling, it’s estimated, could save the webs, particularly NBC and CBS, con- siderable sums annually. Two other sets of costs are in- volved, running into much larger figures. These are (1) materials, including costuming, props, etc., and (2) personnel handling, involv- ing the unions. The need for a combined operation on costuming and stage properties is recognized as the most imperative in terms of coin saving. While through acci- dent of schedules it’s assumed that hassles would arise as to which network and show will get priority on sharing sets, and costuming, nonetheless it’s conceded a one-big- service setup could be established on a workable basis, with the costs pro-rated to each of the webs based on their needs and requirements. On the item of union-scaled per- sonnel alone, it’s estimated that untold thousands could be saved annually through elimination of time and man hours. There have been talks in the past, both in New York and on the Coast, of setting up a combined costuming business, but nothing came of them. Just who would operate such a service (whether an independent corporation or an outfit under- written by the advertisers and the broadcasters) could easily be re- solved, it’s felt. Navy to the Rescue Chicago, Dec. 9. NBC-TV’s WNBQ will at- tempt to salt down the lofty ratings racked up by CBS-TV’s “What’s My Line” in the Sun- day night 9:30 slot by shifting its parent web’s well-received “Victory at Sea” documentary into the same time period lo- cally. 'It’s something of an experi- ment to see if some of the edge can’t be knocked off the CBS Nielsen big leaguer carried here by WBKB. “Victory” switch is possible because it’s on film. Nothing to Get Panicky About, Sez Radio—‘Just Another Transition; Gotta ‘Educate’ Clients on Ratings I NBCe Sylvester L. (Pat) Weaver has his own ideas of TV 9 s Future Horizons * * rt an informative editorial feature in the forthcoming 47th Anniversary Number of P'Sriety Toni’s $12,000,000 Billings in 5-Way Split; FC&B Out Chicago, Dec. 9. With Foote, Cone & Belding re- signing its share of the billings, Toni Co. has blueprinted a whole- sale reshuffling of its ad account. No less than five Chi agencies fig- • ure in the shifting of the split bill- ings which last year totaled $12,- 000 , 000 . Effective March 1, FC&B drops the basic Toni Home permanent account, roughly half the overall billings, and the Tonette and Toni- Creme Shampoo portions. These checkoffs completely remove FC&B from the Toni picture in which the agency has played a prominent role during the firms’ T rise as a leader in its field. Weiss & Geller inherits the Toni home wave and the Tonette spendings, and Price, Robinson & Frank gets the sham- poo account. It’s understood relations between FC&B and Toni have been uneasy since last spring, when the Prom (also a home permanent) account was moved over to Weiss & Geller. At that time Don Nathanson re- signed as Toni’s ad manager and joined W&G as an account exec. In the forthcoming moves, W&G gives up the Prom biz, which goe9 to Leo Burnett, to make room for the Toni and Tonette account. This makes W&G practically the king- pin in Toni affairs with a lion’s share of the billings. It’s exchange ing the $2,000,000 Prom biz for the Toni coin, which last year ran around $6,000,000. Leo Burnett releases the Bobbie Home Permanent to Tatham-Laird, who also has White Rain. With its farflung and constantly changing radio-TV enterprises plus its growing list of internally com- peting products, Toni has done a great deal of agency jockeying the past five years. Bill Henry TV Sunday Sponsor Set for NBC Bill Henry has been sold by NBC-TV as a 15-minute Sunday afternoon commentator, starting Jan. 4. He goes into the 5:45 to 6 p.m. slot, with Sunbeam Shavers picking up the tab. Henry continues with his long- time news strip on Mutual for Johns Manville. Present occupant of the 5:30 to 6 Sabbath segment is “Meet The Masters,” alternating weekly with “Recital Hall.” Both, however, are going off. What goes into the 5:45 to 6 period, however, Is still to be I resolved. Pondering the state of the radio industry in the wake of several network cancellations during re- cent weeks, top network execs feel the picture isn’t nearly so bad as it’s been painted. While they haven’t been able to fill immedi- ately the time slots on which spon- sors have checked out, the • nets have rung up much new biz dur- ing recent weeks and have also solidified the status quo via lu- crative renewals on major ac- counts. As a result, top network spokesmen claim the industry isn’t entering another period of panic, but instead is going through another state of transition. Nets’ primary objective in the present era, according to industry execs, is to convince advertisers that they can no longer expect ratings in the 20s or 30s. Instead, they must settle for the 8s and 9s now being drawn by the Nielsen radio leaders. In line with this, however, the nets have trimmed their program costs and reduced their nighttime rates so that spon- sors actually are able to get bet- ter buys now than before. In ad- dition, the nets are continuing their specially-evolved sales pat- terns and new program techniques to accommodate advertisers on al- most any terms they want to buy in. Pros and Cons As for the claim that most of the recent network cancellations are due to sponsors ditching radio to concentrate on TV only (a la Pabst on the CBS fights and U. S. Tobacco on NBC’s “Martin Kane”), radio toppers concede they have a problem on their {Continued on page 38) Thrower Exiting CBS-TV Sales , Fred M. Thrower, vice-president in charge of sales at CBS-TV, is parting company with the network at the end of the year. Thrower tendered his resignation several days^ago after he and Jack L. Van Volkenberg, CBS-TV prexy, “agreed to disagree” over conflicting views on sales policy. Thrower’s successor is expected to be William Hylan, at present eastern sales manager for the TV network. Thrower joined CBS about a year ago. He was formerly head of sales at ABC. Van Volkenburg himself held down the key sales post prior to his moving into the prexy seat, and for that matter he’s still in there for most of the flash plays oh sales deals. Thrower is a stockholder in Audio Video Products and will engage himself in this facet of TV activity while mulling a new post. ‘CATHOLIC HOUR’ IN JAN. NBC-TV BOW ' & Washington, Dec. 9. After 23 years on radio, “The Catholic Hour” will make its TV debut on Sunday, Jan. 4, over a 47- station NBC-TV hookup. Series of four programs in January will be carried from 1-1:30 p.m. on TV, followed by a half-hour on same network on radio. Narrator on video program will be The Rev. Vincent Holden, fre- quent speaker on the ABC Cath- olic radio series, “The Christian in Action.” Assisting Holden will' be members of the Catholic Actors Guild of America who played in October series of TV shows pro- duced by National Council of Cath- olic •'Menr u »si *n««t;.•*