Variety (October 1954)

Wednesday, October 13, 1954 v RADIO-T F. LE VISIOX 27 .V Although- K9C p?exy Pat. Weaver says “to my knowledge no such thought 4? ibeing (entertained ” there's conjecture in some well-informe/i quarters as to whether the recent moves to’ estab- lish a closerjctentity between the NBC owhed-and-operated stations and the parent, Bapio Corp. pf America may not result soon in the scrapping t of the NBC call letters completely and changing it to tne\ BGA Network. Obviously' the ( added values from a promotion standpoint and otherwise that would accrue to the parent “it’s-bigger-than-opth-, of-Us” corporation, with its soon-to-be-realized billion-dollar annual gross, , would be incalculable; The move to achieve the closer link lias alreadjr resulted in: WNBC and WNBT, N.Y. becoming WRCA and WRCA-TV and KNBC becoming KRCA in Hollywood, with the. station-break picture featuring the RCA tagline to-th exclusion of NBC. , Naturally, such a move on* a network basis would invite its problems, principally with affiliates owned by rival manufacturing companies stich as the Westinghouse stations in Philadelphia and Boston. ’ . Since both stations are dedicated to perpetuating the parent Westinghoiise company, it’s a cinch they wouldn’t go for the “RCA service’’ tag as presently pertains to the o & o outlets. Some say board chairman David Sarnoff has long cherished such a fulfillment, for his network; Chi Moppets Most Pampered in World as Clients Bid For ‘Diaper Trade' The 10-man committee appointed by the Advertising Research Foun- dation two years, ago to investigate the whole rating picture in radio- television in an all-out industry ef- fort to end confusion, is ready to make its report, it’s. been learned. It sets forth 10 criteria for the ideal rating servicp and hastens to add that none of the existing serv- ices can meet all 10.* Here are the 10 criteria “which none of the measurements today Can deliver in all its elements”: Accuracy specifications: 1. A representative sample of an entire household. 2. Minimum error of recording. 3. Total broadcast area coverage. 4. .Minimum conditions of- timing behavior/ 5. Adequate sample size. Information specifications: 6. An average' instantaneous au- dience. 7; Total tuning (autos, portables, etc.) Used Blurb, Anyone? A footnote to the I). P. Brother Agency woes ; accruing from ‘ that $18,000 pricetag for three one-minute . tinted. Olds- mobile commercials used on the Max Liebnian “Lady in the Dark” spectacular, is the some- what awesome fact that after next month the agency won’t be able to use the color film blurbs: Reason is that fact that Olds is bringing .out its new 1955 models, thereby dating the footage completely. Agency, loses out completely on the residual pr replay value of the filmed blurbs because of the model changeover. New commercials . employing the '55 riiodels will be good for all of. next year, of course, but those filmed for the first spec will be useless—unless Olds wants pitch used cars. Chicago, Oct. 12. It’s estimated there are about 400,000 kids of pre-school age in the Chicago area. In terms of tele- vision time devoted to them, these tykes .are undoubtedly the most pampered in the entire nation.' Everyone of the four Windy City stations have entered the “baby sit- ter’* act to the extent that some of the ..advertisers and agencies angling for the'infant trade are be- ginning to wonder if the diaper field isn’t being exhaused. It all started back in 1952 .when Chi NBC education director Judith Wailer and * program manager George Heinemann launched “Ding Dong School”, as an experiment on WNBQ. .Conducted by Dr. Frances Horwich, a' specialist in pre-school teaching, “Ding Dopg” set the pat- tern for what has become a virtual; flood of baby tender tv formats. I The show was taken on by the net- work and Miss Frances soon be- came a national celeb to" probably the youngest following in show biz annate. ' The problem of how to plug mer- chandise oh a program aimed at a clientele whose vocabulary and bankroll are nil is skirted with the hope that the mothers will react sympathetically to the sponsors of ( Continued on page 32 ) 1 Lowell Thpmas is sans a sponsor for a rare occurrence in his long career. The CBS Radio commenta- tor-globetrotter-author lost his un- derwriter; Kaiser Cars, just 24 years after, he landed his first check-payer .'This was Funk.& Wag- nails, the publishing outfit which w as then -— Sept. 29, 1930, to April 25, 1931 —, plugging its Literary Digest, long, defunct;. . . Thomas rqd<5. sustaining to June of the next year, then put in a long period, to 1947, fdr Sunoco, and: thereafter until kaiser’s.entry for Procter & Gamble (Ivory Soap). Kaiser hopped the Thomas Itanza over, a year. ago. Barry to Wm. Morris? Don’t be surprised, goes the re- port, if. Charles (Bud) Barry winds bp as: an exec at the William Mor- ris Agency, Barry reached a settle- ment on. his contract with NBC last Week after being on the “Inactive list” since the ascendancy of Pat Weaver as prexy. During his NBC regime in pro- gram and sales and his longtime prior identity with ABC, Barry has had a dose association with the Morris office and it’s understood that’ talent agency factotum Abe Lastfogel-has always had a high .regard for Barry’s capacities. Buttons Does It Top rating surprise Of the week was Red Buttons, who in only his second time up (8) in the Friday at 8 slot oh NBC- TV, topped the six-year old “Mama” display on CBS-TV on the basis of the overnight 10- city Trehdex report. (Previous, week’s initialer gave “Mama” much the best pf it.) Buttons copped 18.9, With “Mama” trailing with a 16.4 and ABC-TV competition, “Oz- zie & Harriet,” bringing up the rear with a 6.9. NBC’s and CBS* outsize and “baby” specs, respectively, took" a Trendex pasting from the rival lineups (meaning the same webs in juxtaposition). Max Liebman’s third 90-minuter for NBC, the Judy Holliday-Steve Allen-D.idk Shawn “Sunday in Town” (10), was behind Columbia’s “Private Secretary” (Ann Sothern), 18.4 to 20.2 at" the- 7:30 mark “Toast of Town” came in at 8 o’clock with a 34.2 vs. NBC’s 18.7 to the .8:30 anchor, and in the final half-hour opened the gap even wider with 47. to 12:5 (apparently the NBC. tune- outs jivere caused in part by the- specbla’s “Filling Station” batllet, a longie displayed to conclusion). “Toast” average for the hour was 40,9, while NBC’s hour and a.' half score was less than 17. In the Thursday (7) sweep- stakes, CB.S-Chrysler’s preeming hour-long ‘‘Climax” melodramatics, with Dick: Powell, Teresa Wright and Cesar Romero in “The Long Goodbye,” averaged 18.9 against NBC’s 30,5, getting a 20.6 against 24.5 for “justice” and a 17.2 vs. 35.6 for “Dragnet,” (“Justice” score was for nine cities of the measuring outfit’s 10-city cluster.) The 8:30 “T-Men In Action” on ABC teed of in the spot (having switched from NBC) to jack up a 6.3. ’Chuck’ Holden to CBS ^Charles (Chuck) Holden will join CBS-TV in about three weeks as production manager of the web’s Coast setup. He’ll operate out of Television City , in Los Angeles as soon as he. settles his affairs in the east. Holden, longtime program pro- duction manager: at ABC-TV, was cut loose about three weeks ago there in, the economy Wave that engulfed many of the webte top, ?** C *f6 t ei i o all 8. All broadcasting hours. Mechanical specifications: 9. Adequate frequency. 10. Reasonable speed. Report is still being kept secret, with the industry alerted to the imminent publication of the com- mittee's findings based on hun- dreds of pages of testimony started back in 1952 designed to end: the present chaotic, confused state of ratings. (Just what the industry will do after it digests the study is something else again.) Nielsen Fares Best Nielsen, It’s understood, comes off best in the study, the report showing his Audimeter failing on only two counts—inability to meas- ure out-of-home listening and the likelihood of the presence of the Audimeter device, psychologically affecting a family so that they’d watch tv more than they otherwise would. .On two Nielsen counts (pos- sibility of mechanical failure and small number of homes sampled) only a conditional okay is granted. The_ committee will recommend a minimum sample of 400 homes for an independent station and -1,200 households in terms nf, gaug- ing national audience measurement accurately. However,’figure of 1,200 Is based on selection methods so tightly controlled that the present Nielsen sample (of. 700) may have to be expanded to as many as 1,800 homes to meet* the report’s stand- ards. Bath on the diary and telephone method of sampling, the committee report is said to be far more criti- cal, the “diary boys" taking the rap chiefly on Points 2, 4, 6 and 7, and the telephone samplers get- ting the negative . treatment on .points 1, 2, 7 and 8. Article on tv ratings in upcom- ing Collier’s by Bill Davidson quotes the Committee chairman, Dr. E. . L, Deckinger, of the Biow agency: “We have a feeling that the study will be the Kinsey Re- port of the tv industry." tornwell Jacks* n, J. Walter Thompson topper on the Coast doubling as executive producer on the agency’s “Lux Video Theatre” full hour Thursday night show- case on NBC-TV, has been in New York the past; week attempting to resolve difficulties with the Holly- wobd-originating program. It’s. something of an emergency expedi- tion for Jackson, involving huddles with the sponsor. Lever Bros, who, by virtue of the fact that they have a $4,000,000 antiual stake in the show, are far from happy with the end results. Also sitting in on the huddles is Fred Coe, who is on the Lever- JWT payroll at a $40,000 fee to serve as the eastern “trouble- shooter” on the show and act as liaison between agency, sponsor and production team. (Since Coe (Continued on page.32) IRVING MANSFIELD IN NBC-TV HUDDLES Irving Mansfield, tv producer, [has initiated talks with NBC prexy Pat Weaver and tv program chief- tain Tom McAvity which may re- sult in Mansfield joining the web’s production ranks in an exec cap- acity. Nothing as yet, however, has been finalized. Mansfield resigned from CBS-TV a few months ago after a long- time association with* that network. However, he's, still getting royalties from his incepting of “Talent Scouts” and the Jane Froman show." IJe * also produced the de- funct “This Is Show Business.” \It happens on an average of once a season, and apparently The ’54-’55 versions are now in full swing. First it was Jack Van Volkenberg, prexy of CBS-TV, with the widespread rumors hav- ing him leaving Columbia to (1) j*in ABC; (2) enter into an agency partnership, with Terry Clyne, who is checking out of the Blow agency, with the $5,000,000 Bulova billings as the initial account. It took a couple of weeks, and some strong denials from corporate prexy Frank Stanton for this one to simmer down. Then came along the report that Hubbell Robinson was checking out of CBS as tv programming chieftain to go to ABC. This, too, took some undoing. Simultaneous with the two previous reports was the practically^ coast-to-coast rumor that “it’s just a question of days” before ABC prexy Robert Kintner is handed his walking papers;from the “Paramount gang.” Leonard Goldenson’s refuta- tion of this one not only: has Kintner standing pat but : actually solidifies his position. This week’s version has veepee Robert O’Brien* another of the “three ABC ’ Bobs” ’ (Kintner, O'Brien & Weitman), exiting this fold (whereas previous rumors had him superseding Kintner). Actually, of'all the aforementioned stories* the. O’Brien one comes closest tp approximating reality* with his future status in the ABC-Par combine in the next-five-weeks-or-so trek of crystalliza- tion. 9rt t i i 1*1 CBS has cleared the decks for its St. Louis and Boston VHF ap- plications by disposing of its mi- nority holdings. Sale of WTOP (AM & TV) in Washington was consummated last week (although actual cash transaction is set for Dec. 15), with the Washington Post, owners of the majority in- terest, paying $3,500,000 to obtain full acquisition. CBS owned 45% with the Eugene Meyer-owned daily controlling . the remainder. Total valuation of the station is $7,500*000. . Meanwhile, CBS ’prexy Frank Stanton flew to Minneapolis Monday. (II) to complete negotia- tions .for. transfer of. Columbia’s 47% holdings in the lucrative Rid- der-McNally WCCO (AM & TV) stations, Which will , fetch CBS* $4,000,000. (Actual value of sta- tions is $8,400,000.) Thus the D. C.- Minneapolis divestments Will bring in $71500,000: In addition, CBS has also disposed of. its minority inter- est in. KQV, Pittsburgh. Station’ re- verted back to its original owners, Earl F l Reed, Pitt attorney, and I, D. Wolf* department store big- gie. Transaction won’t affect KQV’g CBS affiliation, Stanton also has opened negotia- tions for a tv property in a major city, although the network isn’t tipping what station, what city or wliat part of the country. With stations in New York, Chi- cago and Hollywood, CBS hopes to attain its V maximum on o&O's by moving into St, Louis and Boston. However, it faces spme rough com- petition in both cities from others trying to grab off the same V chan- nel. !• I *1 William H. Fineshriber, NBC veepee helming the radio network, is reported out in front as the choice of the new Quality Radio Group to head up the operation^ Latter berth, it’s understood, car- ries a fancy salary figure, with a number of key industry figures mulled for the directorship. Quality is the group of high- powered AM operations through- out the country, virtually all of them with NBC and CBS affilia- tions, though most in the NBC camp, banding together for an ' lerchange of transcribed program- ming; with their own sales divi- sion, etc. While not designed to replace the major radio networks, none- theless it’s the expectation that “this might be the answer” in re- solving national sponsors' prob- lems 1 seeking to penetrate a limited number of major markets at rea- sonable costs. Closed Circuit Programs William Morris Agency is delv- ing into - closed-circuit television.- Department being started under' the direction of Sole Shapiro, will package programs for meetings. They are attempting to Work through such organizations as Box Office Television and Theatre Net- work Television, Jake Evans’NBC Exit Jacob A* Evans has submitted his resignation as NBC's director of advertising and promotion.. While the network is not com- menting officially on Evans* exit- ing, merely to say he’s on a “leave of absence,” it’s known that dif- ferences between Evans and hi# boss, Ken Bilby, veepee in charge of public relations, on advertising- promotion plans, cued his decision to ankle the network,