Variety (April 1953)

Wednesday, AptfI15, I953 8ffflWMA«AG£«£»? (' u I & By GEORGE ROSEN GOAL TO GO r A year ago they had practically carried the TV ball down to Radio’s one yard line. It was goal to goj and it was all over (for AM) except the shouting.. The Kilocycle Kollege kids were put- ting up a mighty terrific defense in the face of the Video super-dreadnaught and a TV blitzkrieg that threatened to wipe the Radio low countries off the face of the broadcasting map. That was a year ago. « But this year’s entries for Variety’s 20th An- nual Survey of Showmanagement offer a reveal- ing story—a story of how, in the face, of near- total oblivion, Radio bounced back in the ’52-’53 season and, registering one of its peak periods, literally took the ball away from the TV entre- preneurs to sweep down the field for amazing gains. / It wasn’t easy. It required plenty of in- genuity, team work, resourcefulness and utilizing all the prize plays in Radio’s bag of tricks. For the opposition from the TV razzmatazz was plenty rough and tough. It still is, with the Radio ball carriers, indeed, even now alerted to the likelihood of Video reassembling and reappraising its power- ful resources for that final thrust. But the story of broadcasting in the ’52-’53 season, as evidenced from the preponderance of radio stations singled out by Variety for acclaim and acknowledgement, is mainly one in which the AM boys reasserted l^hemselves and acquitted ti e medium with feats of solid, aggressive accom- plishment, while capitalizing on a period of TV inertia and practically a 12-month willingness to settle for the status 'quo, with little or no attempt to broaden TV’s scope or horizon. To accomplish this feat, it took a lot of daring and determination on Radio’s part.. And perhaps it’s not too surprising that, when it came to the flash plays, so many of the industry’s veterans, grounded in the fundamental know-how, knowl- edge and showmanship, dominated the Radio up- surge and exploration into new program-mer- chandise-promotion techniques. If Radio acquitted itself in admirable style dur- ing the past season, it’s because there was an awareness on the part of these vet broadcasters that, in a TV era, AM can no longer afford to stick in the rutted grooves of out-dated, out-run radio patterns. Thus it remained for the Cros- ley Twins—Jim Shouse and Bob Dunville—to in- ject a noble, ‘needed -experiment into the WLW, Cincinnati, program formula. Tossing out tra- dition-bound habits and attitudes, they created a sequence of* block-programming involving a re- shuffle of every major NBC evening show the sta- tion carries, to achieve a nightly mood pattern— and made it pay off .handsomely. Down Atlanta way, it was Johnny Outler who broke with stereo- types to remove the rust from radio .program- ming in an ingenious “Operations Overhaul.” In Philadelphia, it was Ben Gimbel who lit a fire- cracker to the staid Billy Penn-type of station conservatism and made the city sit up and take notice. In New York, Leon Goldstein came up with such a potent “Waterfront Story” expose on WMCA as to threaten a general strike unless the series was called off. But these old-established vets didn’t hold a monopoly on AM’s meritorious achievements. Take, for example, the brace of post-war “babies” —KIXL in Dallas and KLIX in Twin Fall^ Idaho, both of which distinguished themselves in small-station enterprise in taking the play away from strong network affiliates. Hometown sta- tions, these, patterned to keep Radio healthy and alive a long time. Despite its ascendancy into kingpin status, tele- vision for the most part took a “breather” from the frenzied tempo of the year before and the year before that. It was the “year of the reprise,”.ac- companied by the same headlines of stratospheric billings and station profits; TV pricing itself out of the market; advertisers apprehensive over ris- ing costs; programs becoming too pat and stylized; major personalities wearing out their repertoire with nothing left for an encore. True, there were some stations which fulfilled their obligations with maximum effectiveness, as in the case of WBAL-TV in Baltimore, in force- fully demonstrating how a. commercial operation can resolve a city : wide educational crisis with stunning results; or "WNBQ, the NBC owned- and-operated station in Chicago, which excelled in the art of showmanship, or again the major contribution to special events programming as exemplified by KTLA in Los Angeles. But overall it was a. season which saw Radio, moving from its own goal line, not only putting up a valiant defense, but taking the offensive in pre- serving its entity as a show business medium and as big business. TV, with its still untapped po- tential, its greatef scope and magnetic pull, can* ill afford to remain static.. Failure to forge ahead can only clip its wings and invite mediocrity.