Variety (May 1954)

22 RAma-TELCVISION ’• 1 * FCC Told: Seek Toll-TV (or l)s Only Washington, May 4. 4 Separate petitions have been I filed with the FCC to force all video networks ultimately to "use UHF stations as sX least 50% of the affiliate group, and to restrict subscription tv to UHF operators. The two proposals are. part of the four petitions to alleviate the UHF problems made by Joseph Brenner, an attorney, in behalf of a group of station operators. Should the plans be okayed, it would mean that after a period of one year at least one-third of the web affiliates would be U stations, and after two years the U’s would be as strong in affiliate numbers as the VHF’s. The Brenner pro- posal would deprive the webs of all affiliations for failure to com- ply. Brenner’s other major petition requests that “the subscription television service be restricted to UHF television stations so that in- stead of having the effect of with- drawing ’free' broadcast service from the general public during subscription telecasts, as would be the case on most VHF sta- tions, the subscription television service would generally be the means of providing a new and addi- tional service to the community." He adds that “the conventional broadcast service by the UHF sta- tion could be safeguarded by per- mitting UHF subscription televis- ion only where the station other- wise satisfies the minimum pro- gramming schedule required." FCC hearings on UHF have now been scheduled for May 19-21. The remaining petitions, filed by Brenner for FCC consideration, concern making provisions for ste- reophonic (3-D) sound transmission for use among the U’s only and that the IFs be allowed to program music with their “fixed visual im- ages," thus ^allowing them to col- lect coin for broadcasting music with “unrelated pictures or test pattern while assisting dealers in the demonstration and installation of UHF converters and all-channel receivers." The lawyer cites that the same privileges were given VHF telecasters prior to June, '51. Under existing FCC rules all tele stations are prohibited from utiliz- ing music with demonstration test patterns. If UHFers are allowed by the FCC to install stereo sound it will enable them to “claim and demon- strate a sound transmission system superior to the established VHF system and consistent with th** *m- perior visual transmission of UHF in its inherent freedom from local ’“electrical interference,” the peti- tion reads. ~ — Of the estimated 28,500,000 video receivers in U.- S. homes only 1,645,000 are UHF sets. An addi- tional 2,000,000 are believed to have been converted to receive the U signal. Sue Ohio Station oh Ads Refusal as Ruining Biz Toledo, May 4. "Conspiracy charges have been filed against the Fostoria Daily Review Co., publisher# of the Fos- toria Times-Review; Seneca Radio Corp., owner of radio station WFOB, Fostoria, O.; the Fruth Hardware Co., Nye Implement Co., and Lowell Ballreich and George Chapman, Fostoria retailers, by Richard Lehman, operator of the Fostoria & Rural Supply Co., who claimed the defendants “are plot- ting to ruin my business." Leh- man, of Risiitgsun, O., filed a suit in U. S. District Court at Toledo, seeking damages ofi $15,000, plus an Injunction requiring the news- paper and radio station to carry his advertisements. Lehman operates a discount house, offering goods at below usual retail markups. He said the newspaper and radio station had originally accepted his advertise- ments, and later suddenly refused ro carry them any longer. He charged that the merchants, all of whom were competitors, conspired together to get the newspaper and radio station to refuse to accept his ads. DuMont to Beam Mary Margarets Strong Bowoff Mary Margaret McBride, about to exit ABC and with it the radio sphere after a 20-year run in the medium, will leave behind her a kind of legacy via a dramatic finish. This week (4-5), in her second survey of femme achieve- ments in the U. S., she is "giving the air" to a quartet of women who rate the national awards in the 1954 Mary Margaret McBride Project. In addition, eight other women cited will have their stories told by Miss McBride. Winners are Mrs. Frances Mor- ton, of Baltimore, founder of the “Baltimore Plan" for slum clear- ance; Martha Priscilla Shaw, mayor of Sumter, S. C. f first female chief exec in that state's history; Mrs. Fred Weser, of Hunt- ington, W. Va., who raised $1,000,- 000-to rehabilitate the state mental hospital there, and Mrs. Edith V. A. Murphy, of Covelo, Cal., a 75-year- old botanist who worked out con- trolled grazing plans and has de- voted many years to Indian affairs. Of the eight receiving citations, trade interest centers on Mrs. Clara Logan, founder of the Na- tional Assn, for Better Radio & Television, Los Angeles, and Anne Holden, commentator of radio sta- tion KGO, San Francisco, and founder of Friendship Forum. Tint by Next Fall Simultaneous with announce- ment pf a 19-inch color tv tube, Dr. Allen B. DuMont, prexy of Du- Mont Labs, said that by next fall WABD, N. Y. key for his network, | would begin transmission of color programs. Programs will com- prise tint films, and will be airwise ! by September. The tube itself, the first color type Inade for general on consump- tion by DuMont, is considerably larger than the 15-inchers being made by competing companies. The picture area on the DuMont tube amounts to 185 square inches, as compared to 88.5 square inches for the 15-inch tubes now available, according to DuMont. The DuMont color sets will be on the market in 1954, about the time RCA breaks out with its own 19-inch set. Samples will be sent to DuMont receiver customers shortly. Price of the tube has been estimated between $150 and $200. Receivers will be initially priced around $1,000, but.Dr. DuMont foresaw a decline to $500 within a couple of years. He had refused to manufacture a smaller screen, but * with the 19-inch tube, we are . ready to turn out color receivers and push them." MMM will leave next week (15) for her first holiday but will re- turn in the fall.' There’s been talk of setting her into a tv format. WCBS-TV Revising Sked With Three Shows Axed; ’Name’ Feature Films Set WCBS-TV’s “Saturday Feature Report,” the Paul Killiam oldtime films and “Art Linkletter & the Kids" will be cancelled. With CBS’ New York flagship revising the 6 to 7 p.m. schedule starting May 29. Quarter-hour “Six O'clock Report” will consist of Ned Calmer on the News, Robiil Chandler with a fea- ture capsule and Jim McKay’s sports synopsis. “Early Show" film will go for 40 minutes at 6:15, fol- lowed by Carol Reed’s weathercast, with “Mr. District Attorney" re- maining in the 7 p.m. slot. Station, incidentally, has pacted for three “name" feature pix from Major Television Co. They are the Bette Davis-Gary Merrill “Another Man’s Poison" (1951); “Capt. Kidd," with Charles Laughton, Randolph Scott and Barbara Britton (1945), and “Whispering Smith vs. Scot- land Yard,” with Richard Carlson (’51). 35,000 FORD DEALERS AT ‘TELECONFERENCE’ An estimated 35,000 Ford dealers and salesmen witnessed the second closed-circuit teleconference staged this year by the auto company Monday (3) in theatres in 39 cities throughout the country. Lineup was the largest yet obtained for a theatre tv business session. Ford’s first teleconfab, presented in Janu- ary, was seen in 32 cities. Telecast, originating in Dear- j born, Mich., Was arranged and pro-! duced by Box Office Television in conjunction with the autofbTn’s ad agency, J. Walter Thompson. In New York, the telecast was seen at the RKO Fordham Theatre in the Bronx. Two-hour program in- cluded appearances of Ford execu- tives, Imogene Coca and Sid Caesar in a filmed sequence, visual dis- plays and filmed portions showing the company’s cars in action. Web Affils Still Carrying Probe, At Coin Loss While NBC-TV has returned to commercial status quo via its drop- ping of the Army-McCarthy hear- ings, several of its and CBS’ af- filiates are continuing to sacrifice coin from network and local spon- sors in order to carry the hearings. Most of them are picking up the ABC feed, and are not only losing out on their regular commercial time charges but paying ABC pro- gram and line costs. Aside from the many NBC and CBS affiliates which-have second- ary affiliation contracts with ABC < they carry some ABC shows, but none during the daytime, since ABC has no daytime network serv- i ice except for early morning), there are seven stations completely un- affiliated with ABC that are paying the web for the program. They’ are the three WLW’s, in Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton (with WLW-A. Atlanta, carrying in part), all NBC basics; WSYR, Syracuse, another NBC basic; WSTV, Steu- benville, 5., a CBS VHF basic cov- ering the Pittsburgh area, and KSLA-TV, Shreveport and WSEE- TV, Erie. _ . Other top NBC and CBS outlets carrying the hearings as ABC sec- ondary affiliates are: WNAC-TV, Boston; WJAR-TV, Providence; 1 WTMJ, Milwaukee; WHAM-TV, Rochester; WBAP-TV. Fort Worth, and WFAA-TV, Dallas. In all, some 70-odd stations are carrying the ABC feed. For the non-affili- ates, the program charge is under- stood to be $100 an hour, with line charges varying with distance from Washington. CBS ‘Keen’ Longrmmer Also Crossboard Strip “Mr. Keen," longrunner on CBS Radio as a half-hour entry,»will become a crossboard strip in the 10 to 10:15 p.m. slot starting about the first week in June. Friday show will continue under Procter & Gamble in the web’s Power Plan. Network now has half - hour “Capitol Cloakroom" Fridays at 10, but the discussioner will shift to 7 p.m. Saturday after May 22, when Johnny Mercer’s music stan- za will be dropped after being aired for a year. With the Mercer show slotted 7 to 8, the other half will be taken by Stan Freberg’s “That’s Rich," now a Friday night- timer. Steve Rides Again Irked at seven-day shutout stemming from Army-McCarthy “Speaktacular" out of Washing- ton, Ruppert Knickerbocker Beer finally put the persuader on, WNBT, N. Y., to resume the Steve Allen show Monday (3), 11:20 to midnight. The NBC tele key fol- lowed with the George Banghart capsule and, networkwise at 12:05 a.m., with filmed highlights of hearings, though at this hour pick- ups were considerably reduced. NBC had slotted the quiz pix at 11:15 p.m. aft^r ankling the live edition week before last. CBS-TV then countered‘by moving up from 11:30 to 11:15 to - coincide with 4 NBC’s spotting. WefliWdqy, May 5, 1954 WHO-TV, Des Moines’2d TV Station, Takes to Air Des Moines, May 4. The city’s second television sta- tion—and the ninth in Iowa— went on the air a week ago when WHO-TV started its 6 a.m. to ap- proximately midnight Monday through Friday telecasts. The sta- tion will have from noon until ap- proximately midnight on Saturdays and from 11 a.m. till midnight on ' Sundays. The station, operated by WHO- [TV, Inc., has the same officers as Central Broadcasting Co., opera- tors of radio station WMO. B. J. TPalmer, Davenport, is president; D. D. Palmer, vice-president and treasurer; Ralph Evans, exec v.p.; Paul A. Loyet, v.p.“ and resident manager, and William D. Wagner, controller and secretary. Jack Ker- rigan will be program director for both WHO radio and television and Kenneth Gfeller will bfe tv produc- tion-manager. WHO is an affilate of NBC-TV for the network programs. Qears to Oppose FCC‘Protection Washington, May 4. FCC’s proposal to give greater protection to clear channel stations is likely to be opposed by none other than the “clears" themselves, through their organization, Clear Channel Broadcasting'Service. In a statement issued by its .head- The Army-McCarthv hearing may be beginning to pall on those prosperous tv stations who have had to cancel commercial pro. grams to carry them, but the hearings have come as a blessina in disguise to UHF stations tele- casting the* sessions exclusively in their cities. As far as the UHF’ers are concerned, the row can con- tinue indefinitely. * Reason is that the hearings are the biggest'single hypo to set con- version the industry has experi- enced to date. With only ABC and DuMont feeding the hearings live and with many of the affiliates of both nets UHF (NBC and CBS are solidly entrenched with post-freeze VHF operations in.,most major markets), the U’s .are, the only sta- tions in many cities carrying the hearings. And ratings to the con- trary, viewers still .want to see the subcommittee sessions. Result is a rush for repairmen in some 37 cities where U’s are carry- ing the ABC feed. Reports from Milwaukee, where WKOY-TV is carrying, indicate heavy conversion since the hearings began. Ditto WAKR-TV, Akron, where set changeover to UHF has been on an upbeat since the start of the hear- ings. ' Hub Switch In Attitude Boston, May 4. A quick- switch in the public’s attitude toward the McCarthy- Army telecasts was reported here over the weekend, with WNAC-TV revealing that protests wei*e mount- ing hourly and the station on the (Continued on page 35) Head in 4 Years quarters here last week, CCBS con- tends that the Commission’s pro- posal, which is based on new find- ings on interference caused by ra- dio signals during the daytime, would be of “insignificant" benefit to the clear channel outlets. The catch, ifi the proposal, de- clared CCBS, is that the new rules which the Commission would pro- mulgate—to require daytime sta- tions to start later and sign off earlier—applies only to “existing” stations. Analysis of the proposal, CCBS claims, would have no effect what- ever on Class II stations presently operating on Class I-A clear -chan- nels. (Class II stations are second- ary stations operating on clear channels which must restrict their coverage so as- not to interfere with Class I-A stations. Most day- timers are in this class.) But even if the Commission plan did cover existing stations, CGBS* asserts, in only two instances out of 58 would a change in operation be necessary and- this would be minor. Oral arguments have been sched- uled for June 7 oh the subject mat- ter of the report (Daytime Sky- wave Transmissions) but will not include the proposal to limit Class II stations. Stations Wanting Army Hearing Can Carry Them, Sez FCC, if Available Washington* May 4. Stations desiring to carry the McCarthy-Army probe . hearings can, in cases, do so whether or not they are affiliates of ABC or Du- Mont, an FCC official said last week, commenting on squawks re- sulting from NBC’s dropping of the telecast. It depends, he said/ on whether the broadcast is tech- nically available. If the cable facil- ities are preempted for other pro- grams, there’s nothing, it was in- dicated, that a station can do. In a community within reach^of the cable, It was explained, ABC or DuMont would be required to make the program available to any other station if neither of its affili- ates were carrying it. Under FCC rules, it would he called on tp ex- plain a refusal to do so. Where there is no ABC or Du- Mont affiliate in a community—an unlikely situation—the program must be made available to any sta- tion, again if it is “technically” i available. 4th Chi CBS’ Pub Chicago, May 4. The Chi CBS operation is on the prowl for its fourth public relations director in as many years. Chuck Wiley was given the bounce in a sudden move last week, after a little more than a year in what ap- parently has become a “hot seat." Wiley inherited the post in March, 1953 when Stu Riordon was pink-slipped. Prior to. getting the flackery assignment, Wiley had been WBBM’s special events chief for two years, during which period he produced the award-winning “WBBM Was There" documentary series. Riordon had taken aver the slot in 1951 when. Dave Moore was let go. Moore, in turn, had taken over In 1950 from Don Kelley. Linkroum Vice Rayel As NBC-TV ‘Heme’ Reiner Richard Linkroum has been moved in as producer of NBC-TV'a “Home Show" with the resignation of Jack Rayel. Latter, however, is serving temporarily as exec pro- ducer during the * vacation abroad of Richard Plnkham. Linkroum was I oped from associate reiner, with John Green, erstwhile senior unit manager, taking Linkroum s spot. Green’s post goes to Carl Llndemann in a shift from his as- sociate producer berth on the Kate Smith show. There’s another “Home" trans- fer. Jack Fuller, one of the edi- tors, is now in charge of special projects, with Beryl Pfizer as his aide. Maschmeier Named Exec Asst, to WFIL’s Clipp Philadelphia, May 4. t Howard W. Maschmeier has been named executive assistant to gen- eral manager Roger W. Clipp. of tlie WFIL stations. He succeeds John £). $qheuer Jr., who left re- cently .for St. Louis, *nd will work closely with George A. Koehler, who holds a similar post in the ex- ecutive administration of the sta- tions. Maschmeier was formerly assist- ant to the general sales manager of WFIL Vadio, and prior to com- ing to this city last fall was gen- eral manager of WPTR, Albany.