Variety (April 1953)

/ 26 iAMO-mEvxsio?r April 22, 1953 TV ‘MONSTER’ VS. RADIO APPRAISAL TO LURE RECORD TURNOUT AT L A. 444 4M-4+ 4 -44 4 ♦ 4 44 + + 4 M M I » 44 - !! From tk Production Centres 4 4> ♦ •4» "Washington, April 21- | In an atmosphere of calmer ap-j praisai of the seleristen “moust'er” j nation's broadcasters "will meet ] nerf; Tuesday <28 > In Los Angeles' in what appears to be shaping npj as the biggest convention in their] "fc^cloiy. Pre-registrations received up to today at. headquarters here of the National Assn, of Radio and J TV Broadcasters indicate a rec- ord attendance. To television broadcasters, the NARTB's first animal get-together since the lifting of the freeze ac- i centoates a new era in the growth of the medium — an era of com- petition as new outlets spring up in single, double and triple sta- tion markets. It brings an aware- ness that the days of "easy money in TV may be over and that from j now on out it will ta ke better pro- gramming and merchandising to bold audience and attract spon- sors. *■ To the radio broadcasters who see little ■ chanra of getting into | the promised, land of video—and j that in eludes about 1,500 of lhem| —year’s soiree in I*. A. re-.' Sects a rather relieved feeling that j TV is not such a "monster,’* that] radio cam get along with it, and ' eren grow with it. In contrast with last year’s ses- sions In Chicago, the 2953 conven- tion will see a new kind of TV; jirpma^ branded with the letters "CP.” It cft’n be expected that there will be some 300 of this spe- cies, wealing fres h auth orizat iohs from the FCC for VHF and USF ^stations. This new vanguard of television will bring many new faces in the broadcasting industry -—oil men, theatre men, realtors, liquor dealers, actors, politicians and <to be sure } educators. To Stress Showmanship To these TV permittees, a good- ly portion of the L. A. sessions wR3 be directed. Showmanship, a word but recently introduced into broadcasting jargon, will be stressed. Film distributors In greater numbers than ever will be on hand to sell their special prod- uct for video. And there will be a symposium on low-budget TV op-; erations, a rundown on latest \ technical developments in the art; (including color TV and 3-Dimen-j s ion TV), a panel discussion on UHF and a report on the TV Code which should prove of high in- terest to this group of delegates. To the 600-plus TV applicants who are waiting for the FCC to act on their applications, three members of the agency will be on hand to throw light on efforts and hopes to speed up the hearing 'procedures on contested cases. For the radio broadcasters, par- ticularly those who axe not TV permittees or applicants, the big interest will be the "Five Cities Report” to be presented by Rich- ard M. Allerton, NARTB research manager. This document will provide the first comprehensive survey of the effects of TV on ra- dio. It’s contents will be re- vealed at L. A. for the first time. This year’s convention will have (Continued on page 36) 444 4 HtHtt 44 4 4 44 ♦ ♦ "♦ * 4 M IN NEW YORK CITY ... miOYft «* i Ethel Klfsner, formerly of CBS press info and Margaret Eitinger’s DOD & M? MStamer New York office, now with NBC press department . . . Olin (Spike) , _ 3 , _ . - ] Saunders has joined Compton agency- He was veepee with Hewitt, Bob Elliott) and Ray (Gouldmg) * 0gii Benson & Mather . . . CBS Radio newscaster Allan Jackson ^ lectured in Atlanta and Washington, D. C., last week . . . James R. on XBC-TV Monday, ApnlJlj m ; ^ lirf , now ^ charge of radio-TV research at Young and Rubicam 7-30-7:45 P;E: jg * 1 ,. Jules Green resigning May 15 as veepee in charge of James forecast to’ T>i& Doherty, vee- j the cancelling Those Two- j sarihier’s N. Y. office after five and a half years. He was formerly pee of the National Associ- The Wednesday and FTiday hones ,j “ ^oo^er-buyer m Warners theatre dept- . , . Arthur Fardell, formerly ; have ateadj- be^ take^ itotog ’ sSh^ Ste^ cSlweU & Bayles agency, has become dire=toi jnext week. by £dd» F&et for J 3“ratod mediT at Foote, Cone & Beldmg ... Arch B. Bag Doberty’s Bine Skies \ total radio-tele revenue of* about $1,700,000 000, 25% of nation’s total .advertising budget, within a few years is alien of Radio and Television Broadcasters. He made the prediction last week at- the Worcester, Mass., Advertising Club. Most effective way of over- coming growing consumer re- sistance, ^Doherty said, was- through radio and tele, adding that a billion annual TV in- come could support at least 600 TV stations and four net- works. St. Louis, April 21. an named manager of Raymer Co. office in Atlanta. He had been Radio and Television Director of Burke, Dowling & Adams Agency ..n Atlanta . . . Julie Stevens substituting for Florence Freeman on "Young Widder Brown” during Miss Freeman’s convalescence from an operation ... Charme Allen, Sydney Smith, Cathleen Cordell, Florence Robinson in the new “Front Page Farrell” sequence. loon Goldstein, WMCA programming veepee, back from Miami Florence Greenwald, secretary to WMGM comptroller Frank Schwartz, unanimously elected the first woman co mman der of the j N. Y. County Jewish War Veterans. She’s an ex-WAVE . . . Merrill Bustling Bill Veeck. St Louis; E. Joels set for on “Greatest Story Ever Told” Sunday (26) . . . Brad j!™ i Phillips, WINS deejay, wall present awards to Eddie Fisher, Browns’ owner who started the en- ; tire hassle in the major leagues on ■ demands for a cut in home teams’ A Sales Preview ^ _ _ Perry Como and JenI James as winners of his popularity poll today <Wed.) at the Hotel Governor Clinton ... A. Carl Bigrod, radio-TV director , torSaSSS *! of Donahue & Coe's film division guest-lectured at^GM publicist ithe cycle. His Browns* games will ] Jo Hanson’s City College radio and tele class last night (TuesA James Seward and George Crandall of CBS Radio both on jury duty this week . . i Marian Carr appearing on WABC’s “Whispering Streets” today <22) . . . Ralph Barrett, WQXR engineer, a newlywed. His bride is the former Dorothy Todd. ABC-TV Is doing its autumn selling early this year. Web is em- barking on an all-out sales push for its sax new post-merger proper- ties, with greatest emphasis placed on the Ray Bolger, Danny Thomas j and George Jessel packages. televised this year, starting May | 25. when the new DuMont affiliate, : WiV L, Belleville, HL, across the I river from St. Louis, goes on the lair. 1 Veeck signed rights for pickups ] of a maximum of 50 Biown games this year to Falstaff Brewing Corp. Brewery, already a major baseball advertiser on radio and television, will air at least 30 of the games on WTVI, and is trying to clear time jon KSD-TV. Buddy Blattner, who j handles the Brownie games on AM \ for Falstaff, will simulcast for TV. tu ] Veeck, vrho prior to the beginning Web plans to sell each snow t° j the season threw a monkey SX 1 ' « • a a n . a • -f a single sponsor, if possible. That’s not to say it won’t accept an al-1 temate-week or co-sponsorship deal if a bankroller. wants it that way, but it’s actively peddling the shows as smgle-bankroller deals. In the case of the Bolger and Thomas shows,, web up to now is selling strictly on a name and past-performance basis. In the case of Jessel, ABC-TV expects to cut a kinnie in* about a week of his ‘‘The Last Word” participa- ] tioner. Pilots are arriving from the Coast on the Paul Hartman situa- tion comedy, “Pride of the Fam- ily,” the Barry Sullivan meller, “Expose,” both Music Corp. of America vidpic packages, and of the Cesar Romero ’Tassport to Adventure,” being filmed by Wil- liam Morris office. Consequently, within a couple of weeks, the web’s sales staff, under veepee wrench into the American League schedule with his demand for a share of TV coin from home teams | which the Browns played, now is in the position of being one of those home teams. Hassle was eventual- ly won by the other clubs, with Veeck submitting after they threat- ened to cut out night games with the Browns. It’s-expected that he won't- raise the issue of video coin in the future, now that he’s getting some too. IN HOLLYWOOD . . . Hal Rorke, former radio-TV head of the’Thompson agency in Chi- cago, moved into the Glasser-Gailey commission house with his frozen food’account . . . Betty Boyle, who used to write the Lum and Abner scripts, now owns a chain of dress shops . . . Jim aod Marian Jordan now on their way to 20 years as “Fibber and Molly” . . . For “One Man’s Family” it’ll be 21 years this month-end . . . ABC’s program director. Dresser Dahlstead, framing a gossip program with Fanchon DeVoe for the radio network . . . Harry Maixlish landed a sp onsor for Drew Pearson within an hour after buying the tapes for KFWB . . . Art and Dotty Todd stripping their family musical on ABC . . . No talent goes unnoticed around BUI Ballance's all night show on KNX. When word got around that Je*iy DeHann, engineer on the program, dabbles in hynotism, he was called in to “trance up” volun- teers from the audience . . Jack Bailey, emcee of “Queen For a Day,” ran into one of those bloopers last week when a mother of five said her wish was to be married. Asked Bailey, “to whom?” Unabashed, she rejoined, “to the father of my children.” It broke up the show but Bailey escaped without further embarrassment • • Chick Abry, will have actual prod uct to selL But the Bolger and Thomas pix will be sold on a pres- tige basis, at least tiU pilots are finished sometime this summer. GEN. HILLS CANCELS ABC’S ‘SILVER EAGLE’ Chicago, April 21. General Mills last w^ek notified ABC network that Wheaties is bod- ing out as bankroller of the twice- weekly half hour “Silver Eagle” as of June 1. It’s currently in the 7:30 pjn. slot on Tuesday and Thursday, and has been on the GM-sponsored list for two years. ABC is scurrying around looking , for another tabtaker. Packager However, web toppers point out | James E. Jewell is not, at this time, that they have a number of factors j entertaining ABC’s offer to sustain (Continued on page 38) * the high Nielsen-rated show. D.C.’s 31 Outlets (AM, H & TV) Washington, April 21. With authorization by the FCC last week of an AM daytime outlet in Wheaton, Md., the Washington metropolitan area "will soon have its 15th AM station. This, with the area’s 12 FM stations (three of I which have no AM auxiliaries) and four TV outlets, will make for a total of 31 broadcast signals avail- able to the local audience, which is more than in any major market In the nation, except for New York and Chicago. The newest AM’er, which will be operated by Everett Dillard, will be unique in that it will not only help “pay the freight” fozvthe owner’s FM station, WASH, in the Capital hut will be the vehicle by which WASH will become a fulltime FM operation. Instead of starting at (Continued on page 38) BAB to Whoop It Up for Radio With Army-Backed Military Display As promotional hypo to hard-to- ] Charles C. Caley, WMBD, Peoria, sell nighttime radio. Broadcast 111., and BAB execs Kevin B. Advertising Bureau will present a Sweeney. John F. Hardesty and military display called “Opera-] Gail BlockL tions Sales Weapons” April 28 at ] in a preview of the L. A. cam- the L. A. convention of the Na- ? paign, Rvan said it would be tional Assn, of Radio & Television j aimed at '“wishful-thinkers among Broadcasters. 3 broadcasters who sit on their kilo- Last year, BAB set a wild west ] watts and still wait, for the angels theme encompassing* bullwhip j to help them sell nighttime radio crackers, cowboys and live steers, as in the palmy davs of 1945.” He For its two and a half hour exhi-jsaid he would lash out at those bition in the 1.600-seat Biltmore Theatre on the Coast this year, BAB has received the cooperation of the U. S. Army to display on- stage old and new war weapons. Idea is that, just as the Army no longer fights a 1953 war with with 1945 artillery, so broadcasters should streamline their sales ap- proach to selling modern radio. As part of the hoopla, BAB prexy William B. Ryan has just veals Ryan, garbed in a helmet and battlefield clothes, pointing a stem, gloved finger. “BAB wants you!” the copy reads, urging broad- casters to attend the Biltmore D-Day (“D for Dollars”) at the 2 p.m. H-Hour (“H for Harder Selling Days AheaH”). Free exhib will include short i broadcasters 'who “keep returning emotionally to the past, instead of facing the present hard facts of life.” Ryan said that broadcasters in TV cities would have to recognize the fact that AM advertisers now reach fewer persons per program. What would now have to be evalu- ated, he said, would be the degree to which audiences in these com- petitive situations have now stabil prepared a special poster. It re-rized their viewing and listening habits. As an indication of these altered habits, Ryan cited a recent Pulse study showing the change in ra- dio sets in use in N. Y. TV homes. It showed a rise from 8^3 in 1949, 9.6% in 1950, 12.3% in 1951, to 17.6% in ’52. At the convention, he said, the . J* 1 _ \ ** V VVMIVUUWII, iic oaiu* U|C nlms, sales displays, and talks by ■ BAB, now operating at a $642,000 Ryan, BAB board chairman j (Continued on page 38) IN CHICAGO Lynn. Burton to deejay at three-hour, early a. m. disk show via WCFL . . . ABC’s Johnny Desmond to Denver for a guest spot on a cerebral palsy telethon . . . Former WBBM flack Stu Slorflan joining the sales department of ABC’s Central Division Radio . . . Trav-Ler Radio sales up $2,000,000 over first quarter figures for 1952 ... A new moppet show “Children’s Party” debuted Saturday (18) via CBS’ WBBM. Program featuring Jade Taylor is bankrolled by Shapiro’s Shoes . . . Teevee retailer Berman’s bankrolling 90 minutes of WMAQ time . . . Ernie Stern, ABC’s New York flack, huddling with the web’s Central Division brass regarding the “Breakfast Club” eastern tour . Semantics is the theme of the WMAQ new quarter-hour ‘The American Language.” Milford Mathews, University of Chicago lin- guistics teacher, win be featured on the series . . . The Chi NBC staff to launch their “green network” operation April 26. Daylight savings time service for all web affiliates will provide tape recorded delayed broadcasts . . . Lenny Kaye, record librarian, celebrates his fifth anni with CBS’ WBBM. BV SAN -FRANCISCO . . . Jack Benny prefixed Curran theater run with special premiere for local Newspaper Frolic. Gisele MacKemie and Sammy Davis, Jr, featured in show . . . KJBS owners, *Ed Franklin, Stan Breyer. etc.) bought hunk of KG1L, San Fernando . . . Radio Free Asia will stop shortwaving, April 30. Local and overseas staff, directed by John W, Elwood, included Paul Speegle, Tony Freeman, Jim Day, Bill Minnette, Dick Rertrandias and Dick Barnett, all formerly of KNBC . . . Visitors: John Wald, the “Richfield Reporter.” for a sponsor’s sales session; Be nj am i n Abrams, president of Emerson Radio and Phonograph, for business talks; Ted Oberfelder, ABC vice president in charge of owned and operated stations, for inspection of local ABC properties; Henry J. Taylor, ABC commentator, to air two programs and address Press Club . . . Bert Winn launched daily KYA quiz, “Fill The Bases,” to precede ball games . . . KNBC will expand Doug Pledger’s platter show to an hour and a half daily, plus three hours on Saturday ... Judy Deane, KNBUs record-spinning pianist, will shift to the evening side with a 45-minute pre-midnight session . . . Kirk Torney leaving to become Eastern Sales Manager for MCA. IN PITTSBVRGH . . . Shirley Summerville, of WDTV staff, and David VanDeever, photog- rapher, are getting married May 1 . . . Announcer Chuck Xuzoxn has resigned at WCAE to join the staff of WTVN in Columbus, where his younger brother. Bill, is with WBNS-TV . . . Carl Ide, who quit KDEA here several years ago for radio work in Newark, has returned to the local Westinghouse station . . . Pressure of his evening law studies has forced Mead Mnlvihill to quit* his nighttime announcing chores at KQV* He’ll continue to work week-end assignments, however . . - Pearl Rogal has resigned as p. a. for Jan Andree’s WPIT “Star Show- case ’ . . . Mary pee, WHOD disc jockey, now has her name on a package of locally hand-made chocolates ... Norman Krochmal, whose “Jewish Gems” program has been on WHOD weekly since 1949, has been assigned a daily spot in the evening at 6:30 . . . William Warfield came in a day ahead of a concert last week just to do the "Holly’s House deejay show on WMCK for Holly Graham, an old friend ... Florence Sando, moderator of TV’s “Ask the Girls”; Helen Wayne Rauh, one of the panelists, and Josephine Yicari, her secretary, all set for the new Playhouse revue, “Three to One.” IN MINNEAPOLIS . . . Bennett O. Knudson, owner of KATE, Albert Lea, Minn., back after a visit to Moscow^ as a member of a press and radio party which toured Europe and Asia . . . Six Twin Cities radio stations carried . . ,r * radio program produced by federal Civil Defense Ad- ministration to show what could happen if an enemy atomic attack (Continued on page 28)