Variety (April 1953)

30 RAOIO-TEIJKVISION PfimET? Wednesday, April 8, 1953 ♦ H» M M ♦ 4 + +H ♦ ♦ ♦ WHWM »U :: From the Production Centres :i «. *" * » ♦ ♦♦ »♦ HIM » +♦ ♦ ♦ I ♦ l-f + 4 * # itMHHUfHHHUI < »++* 1JV JVEJF YORK CITY . Pauline Fredericks, ABC news commentator, addressed Republican Business Women on the United Nations last night (Tues.) . . . Colgate has set the Ethos Organization to handle publicity and special promo- tion for soap department. . . Bill Edmonds, WMGM announcer, named chairman of public relations and fund raising for the proposed $1,000,- 000 hospital in Westwood, N. J., which just received a $600,000 RFC grant. Edmonds, a v.p. of AFTRA, was reelected for third time as rep for N. Y.’s indie stations on AFTRA . . . John Reed King returns to WOR's “Great Day Show” as emcee . . . Irene Wicker appeared Monday (6) with the Fulton Lewis, Jr. Children’s Choir at the Holly- • wood Maryland Church as soloist . . , Alma Hettinger devoting Mon- days to food talk on her cross-the-board “Other People’s Business” on WQXR . . . Bill Ryan, BAB prexy, met with publicity toppers from the four radio nets last week to determine means of publicizing the Bureau . . . Maria Caterina left Mutual as photo editor on a maternity leave last week, with post being absorbed until her return by the rest of the press department . . . Ted Oberfelder, ABC veep in charge of o-and-o’s, left last week on a three-week tour of the five ABC-owned AMers . . . WOR talent and sales toppers hosted clients and agencies irt Philadelphia yesterday (Tues.) George Wolf recovered from surgery and back at Foote, Cone & Belding desk . . . Actor Ronald Dawson sold script on life of Beethoven to Canadian Broadcasting Corp. . . . ?2dward J. De Gray moved up as CBS director of station relations. John G. Grant, ex-legal depart- ment, takes over De Gray’s station relations poSt April 13 . .. . Shirley Booth radio-emotes in “The Glass Menagerie” on NBC “Theatre Guild of the Air” April 12. Karl Malden, Katharine Bard and Douglas Watson have featured roles . . . Arnold Lawsky, production assistant at Sherman & Marquette, joined BAB production department . *. . Don Ball, CBS director of editing, back from Bermuda Monday (6) after vacation with family . . . Leo E* Kirby and John Sehneider new account supervisors with Biow . : . Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and actor John Wayne subbed for Lowell Thomas last week . . . Anderson F. Hewitt, former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Hewitt, Oglivy, Benson & Mather, Inc., now with Kehyon & Eck- hardt as veepee, account supervisor and director . . . Parke Levy, producer-director of “My Friend Irma” and “December Bride” in town for confabs . . . Basil Rathbone cut audition records on a new femme-slanted cross-the-board radio program created and written by Alan Sands . . . Murry Salberg, of CBS Radio program promotion, to London and Paris for three weeks vacation. The Joe Dines (he’s with Ziv) parents of a boy, at Madison Avenue Hospital, April 5 . . . Jack Sterling of WCBS being .tendered testi- monial lunch April 13 by the American Legion advertising men post No. 209. Next day he goes up to NCw Haven with Eliot Lawrence, Mary Osborne, Bob Haymes, and John Henry Faulk to play a bene- fit for the Connecticut trooper murdered last month. John Bosman joined Mutual news staff . . . Bill Rohn named sales rfianager of WINS, replacing Ray Holmes, who ankled the station . . . Bernard H. Pelzer, Jr., moved from the Edward Lamb station reps to ABC radio sales as account exec . . . Donald Buka set in cast of ABC’s “True Story” today (Wed.) . . . Mike Jablons, WLIB flack, back from vacation in Mexico. IN HOLLYWOOD ... It took 11 vans to move KFAC’s 36,000 classical records weighing 28 tons to the station’s new studio. Site plays only longhair music day and night . . . Maurice Hart blew KFWB fn a huff when his deejaying time was taken over by A1 Jarvis. Chafed at being used only as an announcer . . . Polly Kaufman, former fan mag rep, moved up as publicity head at KFI, where Claude Mills, ex-ASCAP, is top aide to owner Earle C. Anthony . . . Milt Samuel, now that his ticker is back on the beat, desked in at Young & Rubicam, where he is press boss, after four-month siege in sick bay . . , Jimmy Boyd taped an audition at NBC as a cjeejay, country style . . . Leo Guild, pub- licity head at KLAC, offers radio .eds .$1 for every error they find In his daily mailer . . . Radio having picked clean daily press fea- tures, the one remaining facet—the society page—has been pounced on by KNX. Christy Fox of L. A. Times spiels sassiety gossip for 15 minutes every Sunday sponsored by Park LaBrea (apartment project). IN CHICAGO ... Don McNeill will celebrate his silver radio anni at Milwaukee’s Marquette U. April 10. ABC’s “Breakfast Club” will originate from the McNeill alma mater on that date . .. Jane Pinkerton departed her trade paper post to join BAB, New York . , . Ernie Simon deejaying the 7:30 to noon slot Sundays for WGN . . . George Paul, replacing Winslow Uebel, managing WBKB’s radio program biz ... Julius Yacker, U. of Chicago M.A., to & assist AFTRA-SAG’s exec secretary Ray Jones . . . Thomas M, Doyle appointed as a midwest sales topper for Zenith Radio . . ♦ Don Dowd will celebrate his tenth anni announcing the Swift blurbs on ABC’s “Breakfast Club” . , . Frank Schreiber, WGN topper, in N. Y. for confabs ..After 12 years pf deejaying on WCFL, the WDEL-TV Wilmington, Delaware Market WDEL AM TV FM I I •t I I I I Delaware, with highest per capita income of any state, is the heart of this market which also includes parts of New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsyl- vania'. Buy WDEL-TV for an audience that buys. A Steinmon Station __ Reprcstnttdjby W 1 I m D o l a MEEKER n q * 0 n «v N«W ' Chicago lot Angtfot San Francisco ■***,.'j*. ‘ *'fc f jfr*** ***•# */,*+*#} ^ m u • 3 V Norm Pierce leaves the Chi indie in order to freelance . . . Henry Weber and Marlon Claire of WGN’s “Chicago Theatre of the Air” to vacation in Europe.' Zeckendorf Bids IN SAN FRANCISCO . . . Jack Benny trained in to guest at the Press Club and set the scene for his Variety Show, opening at the Curran, April 20 . . , KSFO bouncing its “live” air personalities—Faye Stewart, Ben Sweetland, Marjorie Trumbull, Dick Custer, etc.—and will fill with music . . . Don Sherwood, KROW, moving to KSFO to voice early ayem platter chatter . . . Mitch Miller, replete with beard and bundle of Columbia Records, sky’d in to huddle with local dee jays and music librarians . . . Phil Holman readying a KSAN dee jay show to be aired from a flag pole . . . Edna Fischer’s huhby, Milt Hayes, now managing Mis- sion Ranch, Carmel . . . Joe Klrchen, young thrush, inked into Bimbct's for a spell . . . Radio veteran Lenn Curley experimenting with teevee by “World Report” commercials . . ♦ A1 Constant, ex-KRON program director, back voicing commericals for vacationing Lu Hurley . . . Local execs in a dizzy daze converting local “live” shows to new AFTRA budget requirements. IN PITTSBURGH . . . Caley E. Augustine, formerly WSYR and WSYR-TV, Syracuse, N. Y., appointed director public relations and promotion for WJAS . . . Captain Don Worley, featured singer on KDKA’s “Welcome .Aboard” program before being recalled into the army, now commanding of- ficer of First Radio Broadcasting And Leaflet Group in Japan . . . Robert J. Shaw has accepted invitation to attend U..‘of Pittsburgh’s annual Writers Conference April 22-23 . . . Duquesne Briewing Co.’s “Time Out” series on WDTV has signed Ted Luther for “Time Out for Golf” Tuesday nights, replacing “Time Out for Photography.” He’s pro at South Hills Country Club . . .Jane Ellen Ball celebrated sixth anni at WJAS. She joined the staff shortly after coming back to U. S. from World War II service in Europe with the American Red Cross. Charles Nessler is newest addition to KQV engineering staff . . . Florence Sando of TV’s “Ask the Girls,” as well as one of her panel- ists, Helen Rauh, and her secretary, Josephine Vicari, have been set for spots in Pittsburgh Playhouse’s spring musical, “Three to One” . . . Shirley.Eckl, local ballerina on “Your Show of Shows,’’ and her husband. Jack Parker, radio sound technician at WOR, have moved into their new home in Ramsey, N. J. . . . Elaine Kerchner joined WDTV traffic department . . . It’s 15 years at WCAE for chief an-* nouncer Ralph Fallert and 16 for Bill Thieman of traffic . . . John E. Hill is added tq KDKA production staff . . . Frances Bikulege, of Rothman-Gibbons ad agency, engaged to William Shurtz, local news- paperman . . . Mayor Lawrence declared Monday (6) “Meet Your Neighbor Day” in honor of daily Charlie Baldour-Betty Carr program on Channel 2, “Meet Your Neighbor.” He was their guest on the show, too. IN MINNEAPOLIS . . . a WPBC, newest local radio station, has applied to FCC for permis- sion to double its broadcasting power . . . WTCN disk jockey Jimmy Delmonit vacationing in Florida . .. WCCO now has an all-night record show . . . John Ford, WTCN personality, vacationing in California for a fortnight... WCCO radio and TV ace back from a three-week Florida and West Indies vacation... WTCN set new sales high week of March 15 for period since new ownership took over last year... Twin Cities con- tinue to be a bright spot on radio horizon, especially in early day- time radio. Sets in use from 7:30 to 8 a.m., for example, poll shows, do not fluctuate the year around. Last summer's ratings during that half-hour were as high as in the fall . . . wTCN quickly sold Drew Pearson on a local basis . . . Ike Armstrong, U. of Minnesota athletic director, has advised Rep. D. D. Wozniak of the state legislature that he, Armstrong, is making every effort Jo induce NCAA fo alter its football TV program so that there’ll be more football games of teams in this area, particularly Western Conference, and of Notre Dame 1 on video for Northwest viewers. Wozniak staged losing fight to compel university to permit* telecasts of Minnesota gridiron contests IN PHILADELPHIA . . . WKDN, FM outlet, has named Robert S. Keller, In?., of New York, as new sales promotional rep . . . William Spier, “Omnibus” producer, will address Television Assn, of Philadelphia at Poor Richard Club today (Wed.) . . . Newspaper correspandent Margaret Higgins will guest on “Junior Press Conference,” WFIL-TV, April 12 . . . Benedict Gimbel, Jr.; president of WIP, has been named chairman in charge of radio and TV for Philadelphia’s 26th Educational Week for the Blind. Under Gimbel’s direction local stations will originate live and taped shows from exhibit . . . James Gantz, KYW news editor, has been reelected to hoard of directors of Philadelphia Sportswriters Assn. • . . Maj. C. D. Morrow, of local U. S. Marine Corps recruiting office presented special citation to Frank Tooke, general manager of KYW, for station’s aid in recruiting full company of Marines . . . WIP’s second annual showmanship award will be presented to Band- leader Billy May, at the Arena (9) . . . Murray Arnold, WIP program director will make speaking tour participating in BMI program clinics on Pacific Coast, late in June. Clinics are attended by radio program- ming persoimel in area visited . . , Anthony S. Mammarella, of WFIL- TV production department, has been upped to post of writer-packager with station. Mammarella will script and assist in production of daily “Stop, Look and Listen” and “Bandstand” shows —— For UHF Channels 1 Washington, April 7. New York realtor William Zeck- endorf, head of the firm of W-'bb & Knapp, has entered the national television picture with applications to the FCC for license to build and operate UHF stations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and LaCrosse, Wis Applications were entered sepa- rately for the two stations by the same group, which in addition to Zeckendorf includes former FCC chairman James L. Fly as counsel* McIntosh & Ihglis, Washington en- gineering firm; and Pendray & Co N, Y. public relations outfit. Two stations would operate as separate corporate entities, named Cedar Rapids Television Corp. and La- crosse Television Corp. Applications stress the syndicate is requesting UHF channels in or- der to get permits quickly and to avoid competition for VHF out- lets .with present applicants. Ap- plications are for Channel 38 in LaCrosse and 20 in Cedar Rapids. Group also emphasized it would invite local participation in owner- ship and management of the sta- tions. Neither town at present has any television facilities. Applica- tions stated stations" could be op- erating by Labor Day of this year if FCC granted approval within a month. P ft G Continued from page 25 the afternoon stanza next season on behalf of Dreft and O’xydol. To provide the revenue for the latter shift, P & G, it’s been learned, is cancelling out next sea- son on its Tuesday night “Beulah” tfilm series on ABC-TV. One of the soap company’s major stakes in nighttime TV will be its acquisition of the Paul Winchell show for the NBC Sunday at 7 slot, currently occupied by Red Skelton. Skelton is being axed. Whether or not the Sunday* night at 10 “Doctor” ankles along with Skelton is still to be resolved. Meanwhile, P & G has turned in a cancellation on the three-times-a- week “Those Two” show starring Pinky Lee 'and Martha Stewart. Only other nighttime entry on the P & G calendar Is “Fireside The-, atre,” with the client more than happy with its Tuesday night post- Berle rating payoff. In contrast to the P & G ease- off on nighttime TV, the other ma- jor soap companies, notably Col- gate and Lever Bros., appear bull- ish on the after-dark TV program- ming. Former, of course, while recognizing the importance of day- time TV with its high-rated “Big Payoff,” “Strike It Rich” parlay on CBS-TV, has another approximate $6,000,000 earmarked for next sea- son for time and talent for the Sunday night “Colgate Comedy Hour” (still top coin for single sponsorship on a show), as well as the nighttime edition of “Strike It Rich.” Lever is anxious to expand its CBS-TV “Lux Video Theatre” from 30 minutes to a full hour and is also represented by “<Big Town” on the same’web. ‘Rootie’ to Get 5-City . Gordon Baking TV Ride Weekday version of “Rootie Ka- zootie,” currently on WABC-TV only, will be beamed by the net- work to four additional cities on Wednesdays and Fridays with Gor- don Baking Co., which sponsors lo- cally, picking up the tab in the additional markets. Program will he carried in Chicago, Detroit, To- ledo and South Bend. ' Meanwhile, Johnson Candy, spon- sors of the full-network Saturday morning version of “Rootie,” has cancelled. Dropping of show is in line with firm’s advertising slow- down for the summer, and Johnson will probably return in the fall. Weekday strip is also sponsored locally by Weston Biscuit on Thurs- days and Airline Products on Tues- days. New York — Fedder’s-Quiggen, air-conditioning outfit, has bought the Friday night spot of Jim McKay's “Sports of the Night,” six-a-week strip on WCBS-TV, N.Y., beginning Friday, April 24. Sale leaves two McKay nights .. ..... Selling Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton WLEV-TV Bethlehem, Pa. the 'only single medium reaching the entire SS .> . tilin'* IClMlIIQ Yallerto Allentc ""'orP^n'A- Ji'lO °wiii vOi fhittl tillct A Steinmon Station fttprojenfeef by ^ ROBERT MEEKER Associates Now York Chicago Lot Angeltt San Francisco