Variety (May 1953)

.Wednesday, May 6 f 1953 TV Weapon For Attack, Defense Hollywood, May 5. Television has been developed as a potent,,defense weapon, and may be used in combat warfare. This W as. disclosed here by Lieut. Col. Mel Williamson,/former Hollywood TV producer, now in command of a video production squadron of the V. S. Air Force Photographic and Charting Service, stationed at Bur- bank, and adapting commercial TV to meet military requirements. Colonel Williamson said- another Air Force branch, the Research and Development Command, is now working on a number- of proj- ects involving video, such as use of TV in guided missiles and rock- ets. enabling Air Force to eye stratospheric, altitude never before seen by man. Unit under Colonel Williamson’s command has found a number of uses for TV, including tactical ap- plications; use in psychological warfare, rapid process (40-second) production of kines; kine revision of outdated pix; supplement to public info activities; testing and instrumentation photography; ad- vise staff officers in TV techniques; mass training, indoctrination, medi- cal studies, training for technical units, combat crews, reserves, and other members of the services. Operational only since January, the unit has found one of its most effective uses in the dissemination of weather info for pilots. At a recent test at Hamilton Field, unit set .up its own microwave to the various jet squadrons in the area, and televised weather data to the pilots as they were about to take off, with pilots able to ask ques- tions of the weatherman in the Closed circuit relay. It’s estimated this method saved a half-hour in getting the all-important data to the airmen, but -Colonel William- son points put qven if only seconds were saved this would be vitally important in event of an enemy at- tack. This one use alone, officers aver, more than compensates for the $321,000 the mobile units cost. TV has. also been used in nose of robot panes; is used to guide missiles and rockets;' in drone planes, and may be used for recon- naissance. ' As more units are constructed, it’s planned to scatter them around the country, and utilize them prin- cipally for training purposes. When and if TV will actually be used in combaj; warfare is a matter cloaked under security regulations. Colonel Williamson was formerly a producer at KTTV, and pro- duced “Pantomime Quiz” with Mike Stokey. Weldon, Wallace to Sub On Leonard’s WCBS Shows Bill Leonard of WCBS and WCBS-TV; N. Y., is off to Europe for a one-month vacation this week. While he’s away Martin Weldon, of his “This Is New York” staff will substitute on the Monday-through- Saturday radio show. Weldon, who produces and is a baseball reporter on the “Little League Baseball School” program on WCBS-TV, also has a new radio series starting this Saturday (9). It’s called “Port Parade,” aired at 10:15 a. m., and is an exploration of Gotham as the largest seaport in the world. Show is taped and done in cooperation with the Port of N. Y. Authority. Mike Wallace will sub for Leon- ard in. the latter’s news feature spot on the tele “Six O’clock Re- port,” beginning today (6). • Muncie TV’er Bowing Muncie, Ind., May 5. WLBC-TV,' Channel ’49, Muncie, started airing test pattern IQ hours daily Thursday (30). It will' tele- cast regular • programs starting 8 p.m. Friday (8). Affiliation agreements have been signed with CBS-TV, NBC-TV, ABC-United Paramount and DuMont television network for coverage of a 500,000 population area. First-day reception reports in- dicate good to excellent reception 50 miles away, in . Indianapolis, Kokomo, Buffton, New Castle, An- derson, Marion and other points. Muncie is first city in Indiana With AM (WLBC), FM (WMUN) and TV service. Vancouver Will Get Its Coronation Pix Via M. Tele Due to CBC Snarl Vancouver, May 5. This third largest city in one of tlie British Commonwealth’s larg- est countries will see the crown- ing of an English queen, filmed by a Canadian crew, through the courtesy of a U. S. television out- let. The international muddle is the latest result of Canadian gov- ernment TV policy that forbids the establishment of private TV outlets in major centres until the government - controlled Cana- dian Broadcasting Corp, sets up the first station. So far, only Toronto and Montreal have CBC-TV, with Winnipeg next on the list and Vancouver scheduled for next September, if the CBC can find a transmitter site. Public and press outcry against government reluctance to grant a private license here has led to the unique arrangements to bring the Coronation to Vancouver and neighboring Victoria viewers. Rogan Jones, who is in the process of completing KVOS-TV in Bellingham, Wash., 55. miles south of here, said last week (30) that his statioh will broadcast both U. S. and Canadian films of the June 2 pageantry. Having "been approached by CBC offi- cials, Jones announced he would broadcast the full CBC Coronation film June 3. Until the Bellingham station goes into operation, Vancouver setowners must depend on freak reception of KING-TV, Seattle, 155 miles south. Fringe area re- ception has been available only in higher areas of both Vancouver and Victoria. Three Vancouver radio station operators have applied to the CBC for permission to build TV stations here, but their requests have been turned down repeated- ly. Vancouver radio men have been leaders in the campaign of the Canadian Assn, of Broadcast- ers to end CBC control of TV. 1ST KAYCEE UHF TV’ER SET TO PREEM IN JUNE Kansas City, May 5. Telecasts of town’s second. TV statioh, KCTY, and first ultra-high outlet, will begin here in June, according to announcement by Empire Coil Co., New Rochelle, N.Y., the license holder. • Station personnel will include John Kinsella, commercial mana- ger, formerly sales manager for WXEL; Richard Ostrander, pro- gram director, formerly program director for WKRC-TV, Cincinnati; Robert Artman, chief engineer, for- merly with ABC and Ellen Barker, office manager, formerly with R. J. Potts-Calkins & Holden agency here. R. G. a Freeman, Empire vice-president, is here from the homeoffice • supervising the organ- izing and installation of equipment and other details. KCTY will be the fifth station for Empire Coil, which has UHF in Portland, Ore., and VHF stations ,>in Cleveland, Denver and Indian- apolis. KCTY has Channel 25 and one^-kw power, . Big 10 Could Lose Illinois U. in Proposed State Bill Chicago, May 5. The latest teevee bill to find its way ihto the hopper of the Illinois State Legislature is one that would in effect eliminate the U. of Illi- nois from Big 10 competition, if passed. The legislation contends that no state tax-supported educational in- stitution could refuse to televise Illinois sports events if such tele- casts would be gratis to the insti- tution. Consequently, the U. of I. would be compelled to telecast its games if some sponsor would bank- roll the events. This would be con- trary to the Big 10 arrangement prohibiting such unlimited telecast- ing. The university might there- fore be dropped from the confer- ence* Doug Mills, Illinois’ athletic’di- rector, said that If the bill is passed “perhaps the legislators could schedule games for us with ' Canadian, Mexican or Hawaiian teams.” RADIO-TELEVISION 31 Texas Station Offers 50G, Pins Staff, to Aid Eduel TV Setup McCANN’S 5-YEAR WOR PACT COULD NET 500G Alfred and Dora McCann, WOR, N. Y., food and nutrition experts, this week signed a five-year pact with the Mutual flagship that could net them $100,000 a year, depend- ing on sponsorship status of their shows. Pair start a new four-days- weekly 15-minute afternoon stint next week, in addition to their cross-the-board morning half-hour and their once-weekly 15-minuter. New program will have the hus- band-and-wife team discussing all phases of household problems. Morning show is a food discussion, as is the Thursday afternoon seg- ment. McCann started with WOR, 22 years ago, succeeding his-father, the late Alfred W. McCann, Sr., who inaugurated the “Pure Food Hour.” Program was renamed “The McCanns at Home” following de- cision in 1947 by the couple to originate it from their home and extend the scope of the t show. Inti Market Still Radio, With Tele 3 Yrs. Off: Towers The international broadcasting market is- still mostly radio, with television three or four years off from showing a profit. So says Harry Towers, head of the Towers of London organization (with 20 companies throughout the world), largest international distributor of transcribed programs. Towers’s business, estimated at $1,000,000 annual gross, is 99.9% radio, he says, and most of it is in the English-speaking countries. “When and if there is commercial television in England—and in Aus- tralia, where there is no TV at all —then the market will open up,” Towers says. The British business- man, who returned, to England this week, had stopped off at New York at the end of a six-week tour of the Far East. In television, he says, “dubbing for foreign countries sometimes is more expensive than the product warrants.” He envisions eventually that dialog sheets, for reading abroad, will be, sent along with telefilm prints. Actors will read the lines and not worry about lip movement on the screen. While in New York, Towers, who sold blocks of radio transcribers to Australia and New Zealand, also concluded several pieces of Ameri- can business, among them sales of his own British productions. He sold (1) “The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel” to NBC for the summer; T2) sold “Horatio Hornblowe^,” starring Michael Redgrave, to ABC for summer and fall runs on the “Playhouse”; (3) arranged for Joseph Cotten to start this summer an English transcriber based on Eric Ambler’s thriller “Journey Into Fear,” and (4) | started last week, in Ottawa, a new radio series, “The Queen’s Men,” on authentic case histories of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, for -which he is negotiat- ing a network deal. A pilot film of “Queen’s Men” will be shot next month in Canada, when Towers returns after the Coronation bn one of his frequent (every six weeks) trans-Atlantic visits. Special WNBT Broadcast To Test Real Estate Sale A test of tele selling power, and particularly that of WNBT, N*. Y., will be tried when the New York NBC flagship does a remote from a General Electric “Wonder House” in Hartsdale" N. Y., Saturday, May 23 (from 5 to 5:30 p.m.). House is completely GE equipped, from air-conditioning to dishwash- er, and is a three-bedroom affair selling for $23,000. Site is to be a Westchester County development. GE has 11 such “Wonder Houses” around the country. There Will be no advertising of the house except on the special broadcast by WNBT. Idea is to see how many queries and orders will come from the tele broadcast. If successful, it may start a new jeal- estate selling' pattern* - * NBC Preps Exploitation Stunts on Coronation NBC is unwrapping a special bag of exploitation stunts on its radio- television coverage, sponsored by General Motors, of Queen Eliza-1 beth’s Coronation, Tuesday, June 2. Series of postcards, signed by Romney Wheeler, the web’s Lon- don bureau chief, will hit the desks of some 350 editors of the trade and general press, with first one, of Buckingham Palace, in last week. A study guide on the Corona- tion, collated by Stanley A. Ap- plegate of the National Education Assn., is being distributed this week by NBC affiliate stations to schools throughout the nation. Later distribution than CBS-TV’s study guide is figured to keep NBC- TV coverage prominently in school children’s eyes before the big day. Besides gaining cooperation of The English. Speaking Union of the U, S., the Newcomen Society in North America, and the British In- formation Service in working with affiliate stations on advance exploi- tation, NBC also will unveil next week (15) a two-thirds life-size, seven-ton replica of the Coronation coach in Rockefeller Plaza, New York City. The exhibit, coach and horses will take up 90 feet of space. Minn. Solons Adjourn Without Action On Educ! TV Proposal Minneapolis, May 5. Despite the fact that leading civic and business groups and many of the state’s prominent citi- zens urged the project, the pro- posed educational TV network, un- der University of Minnesota opera- tion, is virtually dead for at least two years in consequence of the state legislature’s refusal to make the requested $2,192,000 appropria- tion to get it started. Adjourning without taking fa- vorable action, the legislature in effect is leaving the matter up to the next lawmaking body, which convenes in 1955. However, in the hope that it would influence the FCC to extend channel reservations beyond June 2 and the state could qualify for a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foun- dation, the solons did vote a $200,- 000 appropriation. Sponsors sought the $2,192,000 for the immediate construction and operation of three statiqns. Plans called for the eventual expenditure of more than $5,000,000 for an en- tire network of TV stations throughout the state. AFTRA’s 13G Year’s Loss Hollywood, May 5. Net loss of more than $13,000 for year ended Jan. 31 was° re- ported by AFTRA, but exec secre- tary Claude McCue emphasized that while the loss was of “grave concern,” it’s not necessarily a crisis for the union. He explained that income doesn’t include local dues hike effective last Feb. 1. Separate report for AFTRA lo- cal before merger with TVA last October showed serious decline in revenue to extent where sans merger AFRA would have needed much higher dues. McCue says AFTRA has surplus to offset con- tinuing losses caused by higher operating costs, etc., and hinted there may be need for further dues hike. — i KTYll TV’s Pubservice phoenix. May 5. KTYL-TV, Channel 12, covering Phoenix and Central Arizona, made its air debut Saturday (2) with a 17-hour benefit show, “Celebrity Parade for Cerebral Palsy,” for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation of Central'Arizona. The all-night telethon had Vin- cent Price as master of cere- monies, assisted bly "Warren Hull and Jane Pickens. San Antonio, May 5. An offer of $10,000 per year for a minimum of five years toward the operating costs of an educa- tional TV station here was made by H. A. L. Halff, prez of WOAI and WOAI-TV, on behalf of his stations. The offer was accepted by the San Antonio Council for Educa- tional Television at an organiza- tional meeting held Friday (29), when it was decided to file an ap- plication with the FCC for Chan- nel 9 within the next 30 days. W. W. Jackson, vice-chairman of the state Board of Education, is chair- man of the council, which Is com- posed of educational, scientific and research institutions. In making the offer, Halff also volunteered the services of WOAI- TV staff members in advising and otherwise assisting the council in the establishment of the proposed station. The council also received an of- fer of surplus equipment from KEYL-TV and of free legal serv- ices by C. Stanel Banks, Sr., and R. D. O’Callaghan, local attorneys. O’Callaghan is a former general counsel of Radio Corp. of America. Five-Year New Orleans Pledge New Orleans, May 5. A five-year financial guarantee towards operating costs of an edu- cational tele station here was voted Friday night (1) by the Orleans Parish School Board.. The board, originally prime movers in the plan to secure chan- nel 8 (VHF) for educational tise, thus became the first institution hereabouts to guarantee financial backing for the proposed station. No exact amount, of money was promised by the board for main- tenance of the facility, estimated to cost $125,000 a year to maintain after initial construction costs of about $300,000. All educational institutions and various cultural groups in the city are being asked to help underwrite the maintenance cost of the sta- tion. A citizens TV committee is at- tempting to get pledges from all of them this month, since the FCC has placed a deadline of June 1 on applications for available edu- cational TV channels. Acting Supt. O. Perry Walker told the board that the citizen-led committee has already secured $10,000 in pledges from private sources toward construction costs of the station, and that the com- mittee. was sure the rest of the money could be raised. Of the construction cost, $100,- 000 will be provided by the Ford Foundation if the community raises the other $200,000, Walker said. Banker William Fischer heads the committee seeking to raise the funds for the educational station. YOUNG’S‘FATHER’RADIO SERIES INTO VIDPDC Hollywood, May 5. Robert Young’s radio series, “Father Knows Best,” makes the transition to television via vidpix next season. Exec producer Eugene B. Rod- ney will offer.the tele version to General Foods, AM sponsor. Un- derstood U. S. Steel and Pruden- tial Insurance also are being of- fered the package. Plans are to can the vidpix by July 31, since Young reports for a theatrical film, “1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” in August. Wick Into Vidpix Field With Brit Crime Series t Charles Wick last week extended his efforts from personal manage- ment into the vidpix field with the acquisition of American televi- sion rights to “Fabian of Scotland Yard,” series of half-hour films being produced in England for the- atrical distribution by Anthony Beauchamp. Series is based on the cases solved by Robert Fabian, retired superintendant of the British police agency, and on a book of those cases. Wick, in the field of personal management, reps, among others, Sarah Churchill, Beau- champ’s wife. r, « -’'--I*