Variety (April 1953)

47 195$ IWlUWBSQSMI HADIO-TFXKVISION Zenith Won't Call Quits In Quest for Hearing In Chi TV Channel Bid Chicago, April 14. Zenith Radio Corp. intends to «APk court action in an attempt td aet the FCC to hear its petition for hearing on Zenith’s application for commercial operation of chan- nel 2 Chi. On Thursday (9), the commission, in a fout-to-three de- cision, refused to reconsider its earlier decision dismissing without a hearing Zenith’s application for channel 2, and granting a CRS re- quest for transfer from channel 4 to channel 2. Channel 4, currently being used by CBS o&o WBBM-TV, is being deleted from the Chicago alloca- tions, and is being moved to chan- nel 2 under the new blueprinting. CBS acquired the channel from Balaban & Katz, a United Para- mount Theatres subsidiary, for $6,000,000 as a result of the recent ABC-UPT merger. « Zenith prexy E. F. McDonald, Jr., termed the action of the com- mission ’'arbitrary’and unjust” in the FCC refusal to hear his appli- cation for channel 2, pointed out that Zenith has been operating ex- perimentally on that channel since 1939, and has had on file with the FCC since 1948 an application for commercial operation on that band. During that period, McDonald added, more than $1,000,000 has been spent on experimentation and research. If the FCC’s decision Is allowed to stand, McDonald said, “it will mean the commission has approved a sale by Balaban & Katz ‘ " $6,000,000 of the right to operate on a channel to which Zenith has had long-standing prior claims, without even bothering to hear Zenith’s case on the merits.” McDonald notified the FCC of his plans of legal action last Friday < 10 >. 221-Station Network For Falstaff Ballcasts St.' Louis, April 14. A network of 221 radio stations, the largest baseball network ever assembled under one sponsor, will broadcast games this season for the Falstftff Brewing Corp., local suds makers. Karl K. Vollmer, v-p and director of marketing said the total will be 54 more than were used last year. The Falstaff web has 187 stations in 21 states airing Mutual’s Game-of-the-Day and, in addition, has two smaller webs of 17 each, one airing all home and road games of the St. Louis Browns and the other games of the Chicago Cubs. A six-man Falstaff sportscaster team is headed by Jerome “Dizzy” Dean who, with A1 Heifer and Gene Kirby will do the Game-of- the-Day gabs while Bud Blattner, former major leaguer and Bill Durney, traveling sec. of the Browns will air the games for Bill Veeck. Bert .Williams is assigned to the Cubs’ stint. Houston U. TV mmm i Continued from page 31 SmSSSm high cost of construction and main- tenance. Opening of the station comes at a time when Congress is looking into the whole field of educational TV and, particularly, policies of the FCC with respect- to the reser- vation of channels for non-commer- cial outlets. This Thursday (16), the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee meets in executive session with members of the Commission and the National Citizens Committee for Educational TV (a Ford Foun- dation organization) to consider feasibility of legislation to safe- guard the reservations against en- croachment by commercial chan- nel-seekers. Under FCC policy, commercial applicants may petition for unassigned educational chan- nels after June 2. of the 244 channels set added to the original 242), FCC has 22 applications and grant- ed 14, However, the National Citi- on.s Committee, which is mobiliz- JO? su PP 01 't for educational TV among business, labor and agricul- u inu groups , re Ports that 57 more vii 1 , within <the 1 next two L ars * or stations' in major cities, ti In Cor nmittee expects that even- r y about 150 of the channel reservations -Will bfclta’kcn’up. ’ Cecil Appraises Radio Continued from page 30 ^ Canada TV tkss Continued from page 32 - i l tawa and Halifax as nucleus of a proposed comprehensive trans- Canada chain in key cities. In Toronto, three TV channels have been allocated under interna- tional agreement but only one, Channel 9 to CELT, is currently being used, with the CBC holding the other two in abeyance, despite hefty applications from private en- terprise interests. Meanwhile, CBLT is linked to Buffalo by mi- crowave, with the Bell Telephone currently installing a series of 12 microwave relay stations between Toronto and Montreal, via Ottawa, this initial cross-country step also to' be in operation in June. Apart from the thumbs-down to Famous Players and Cooke, the CBC last week granted TV licenses to private operators in Ontario, largest population concentration in Canada, for station setuffe in Ham- ilton. London, Sudbury and Wind- sor; St. John, New Brunswick; and Sydney, Nova Scotia; these -all spots where the CBC does not plan to establish its own TV stations. These private stations, however, will be required to carry CBC sustaining programs, free of charge, on the CBC radio and TV policy of keeping sponsored pro- grams to the' minimum. On com- mercial programs, the CBC will pay private stations a part of the revenue received. 60,000 TV SETS SEEN FOR HUB’S SEPT. UHF Boston, April 14. Plans to construct Hub’s first UHF TV station are. currently, un- der way, following recent awarding of channel 56 to WTAO, indie AM- FM station in neighboring Cam- bridge. v According to Fred S. Bailey, general manager of Middlesex Broadcasting Corp., owners of the station, TV will hit the air next September. Bailey predicts that by that time at least 60,000 of the more than 1,000,000 sets installed hereabouts will be converted to re- ceive the higher wavelength. Figured to be the first UHF sta- tion located in a major market, it’s estimated construction costs will be in neighborhood of $200,000. Studios and transmitter will be lo- cated at site of station’s AM and FM antenna in nearby' Woburn, and will operate on 1 kw. with ERP of 20.2. " Station will operate with local programming plus a network af- filiation, identity of which is cur- rently undisclosed, but figured in local radio circles to be Dumont, which has no exclusive outlet here, although its programs are carried occasionally by both WNAC-TV and WBX-TV. St. Louis—Otto Bremers is the new publicity and exploitation di- rector at KMOX, local CBS outlet. days requires astute time juggling and considering the ppposlng TV programs,” he said. As an example, he cited “Suspense,” which his agency handles for Electric Auto- Lite Co., on CBS-Radio Monday from 8 to 8:30 p.rp., and on CBS- TV Tuesday from 9:30 to^ 10 p.m. The radio version, he pointed out, was matched against the AM “Railroad Hour” and was pitted against the TV programs “Voice of Firestone,” “Science Review” and “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” Latter stanza was its biggest TV competition, he said, but nonethe- less it garnered a respectable 9.8 Neilsen radio rating. He said a comparison of the qost and audience of the AM and TV versions of “Suspense” was not the real criterion for a hep agency. (Radio “Suspense” cost roughly $15,000 for time and talent and reaches 4,386,000 families; TV “Suspense” cost about $30,000 for time and talent and reaches 5,000,r 000 families.) “A glib comparison,” Cecil said, “overlooks the fact that the commercials on the TV ver- sion of ’Suspense’, being visual, have 10 times the selling impact of radio.” Cecil, whose agency also handles Amm-i-dent’s sponsorship 6f “Dan- ger” on CBS-TV, Sylvania’s “Beat The Clock” on CBS-TV, and Ben- rus Watch’s segment of “Your Show of Shows” on NBC-TV, en- visioned three innovations that will be necessary to pare down network TV costs: 1. The webs* when acquiring 175 stations oil their skein, will have to establish a regional or divisional network. This would allow the medium-sized $500,000 bankroller direct TV to a limited market he wants to reach. 2. The webs will sanction “part- nership advertising,” with two bankrollers manufacturing related products (cooking utensils, and a gas range, say) tying in on the same program. 3. The webs will permit “mag- azine-insertion” type sponsorship. With a minimum of six weekly commercials during one year. This would follow the trend now being established on “Show of Shows’* and the “Jackie Gleason Show.” t “One thing' is certain,” said Cecil. “There are definitely not enough blue-chip advertisers to support.four TV networks Under the present programming status quo. Certain medium-scale adver- tisers, like a manufacturer of iodine, say, simply have no need to reach the mass market as expen- sively as TV now dictates.” In one man’s lifetime When Dad was a boy, it was the stereoscope that made a hit in most parlors. But how the picture has changed since then! Existing intercity television channels make it possible for live network programs to reach' over 92 million people. The Bell System^ nationwide network of television channels now totals more than 32,000 miles and interconnects over 120 television stations in 75 cities. Eight thousand miles of channels were added to the network in 1952 to meet the growing needs of the television industry, • • • • Any way you measure It, providing inter- .city channels for the expanding television in- dustry is a big job. Building the radio-relay and coaxial cable routes for television takes lots of time,, special .equipment and skill . . . and money-v ... Yet the cost of the'service is low. Bell Sys- tern charges, for .the use of its intercity tele- vision facilities," average about ten cents a mile for .a half hQiir of program time.,, fr M BELL TELEPHONE "SYSTEM •• PROVIDING'.TRANSMISSION CHANNELS TOR.'INTERCITY RADIO AND TELEVISION TODAY AND TOMORROW «