Variety (December 1954)

Wednesday, December 15 , 1954 RADIO-TELEVISION 33 NETWORK RADIO- CAPSULE BIZ ► *■■■* ''!■■■ 1^ I I ■ ■■ ■ ' —■——————————————————i——^ Linkletter Defends Star ‘Sell’; Performer ‘Owes It to Sponsor Network Radios ‘New Look’ Following represents the number of commercial program units in hour, half-hour, quarter-hour and five-minute categories on rich of the four networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m. weekdays ahd 5 to 11 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Figures in parentheses denote total commercial minutes. Figures marked with an asterisk (*) represent participating sponsorship programs, but not necessarily fully sponsored. Hour shows Half-hours Quarter-hours . Five Minutes .. ABC CBS MBS 0 2 0 ( 120 ) 4 12 1 + 6* (120) (360) (30+180*) 10 4 (150) (60) 26 10 (130) (50) 11 (165) 5 (25) NBC 2 ( 120 ) 12 (360) 11 + 10 * Totals 4 (240) 29+6* (870+180*) 36+10* (165 + 150*) (540 + 150*) 0 41 (205) Totals 40 28 17 + 6* 25 + 10* 110 + 16* (400) (590) (220+180*) (645 + 150*) (1855 + 330*) Shakespeare’s Two-Hour Sonnet WCBS-TV’* ‘New Year’* Eve in New York’ Something of a Precedent Couple of weeks ago Sam C. Digges and Hal Hough, general manager and program director of WCBS-TV, N. Y., dreamed up a New Year’s Eve entertainment to end all N. Y. E. packages. It would be an hour’s show starting at 11:30. with a huge cast and a time-talent price tag unprecedent- ed in .local commercial show an- nals. Who would go* for a stanza of such length during a time slot when the whoopee mob is at its peak at home and abroad? To an- swer the question meant calling in Frank Shakespeare Jr., general sales manager of the CBS flagship and one of the prime trouble-shoot- ers in the drum-’em-up business. Not particularly known for his shy- ness, “The Bard" gave first re- fusal to Piel’s Beer, one of the station’s foremost clients. Would Piel’s be interested in taking over the whole period for a mere $13,* 000 (the highest price, ’tis said, ever put on a local one-shot in the variety or any other groove)? Piel’s, not particularly known for its spending shyness, would let him know. Station, which mean- time was firming the format and talent components win, lose or draw another one from the spigot, had a few days of jitters before the answer came. No, Piel’s wouldn’t be interested in a 60-minute show, but how about making it a two- hour session—and let’s make a deal for the added hour. (Report- edly in the neighborhood of $23,- 000 altogether.) So “New Year’s Eve in New York’’ will go until 1:30, to be followed by the regular “Late Show” and “Late Late Show,’' clos- ing out about 4 a. m. of Jan. 1. There’ll be two dance orchs (Continued on page 40) Amoux’s Addenda To Norfolk Story Norfolk, Dec. 14. Editor, Variety: We note with interest your story ^ he Hec. 1 issue concerning vWKC-TV in regard to the strides made in the past 14 months by that station. We do not wish to take anything away from a friendly competitor but we feel that there has been a considerable “sin of omission’’ committed in the story. It is our feeling that the actual results of the VHF-UHF competi- t'on in the market where the fa- mous “Operation Norfolk” took Place has the makings of a good story and we are therefore giving ;. ()U the facts in the situation with >c thought that it will make a good followup on the Dec. 1 story. lie story on Dec. 1 made refer- ,1( e to a comparison of the Janu- -• !954, and the October, 1954, (Continued on page 41) TV Producer Ted Mills an axponaiit of tha Loop vidao circuits is of tha opinion that The Chicago School Carries On—Far From Chicago * * * on# of tha many aditorlal faaturas in tha 49 th Anniversary Number of OUT SOON Hooper, Nielsen In New TV Tack; To Rate Conunls With characteristic competitive- ness, two of the rating services have jumped into the broadcasting- telecasting pond with the same kind of new bait. Last week C. E. Hooper announced its new kick— a breakdown (on its own hook) of tv commercials, including plans for their audience rating and share. This week, A. C. Nielsen announced that he’s taken an option to buy Broadcast Advertisers Reports, Inc., the outfit that’s been doing to some degree for two years what Hooper proposed to do now. To make sure that nobody’d get the idea Nielsen was playing “copycat,” it was carefully stated in Nielsen’s declaration that an agreement was reached as a result of “negotiations dating back to February, 1954.” The BAR reports, which by no means have been purchased yet by Nielsen, have been going on in N. Y., Chi., Pittsburgh, Philadel- phia and Washington. Info is se- cured by means of continuous and simultaneous tape-recordings at “leading stations in each market for a full week” at about six times a year. The report makes no at- tempt so far to measure visual aspects of commercial (as Hooper promises to do) nor has Nielsen (Continued on page 42) Cy Howard to NBC Cy Howard returns to NBC after a 15-year gap during which he was linked with CBS and built several click shows thereunder, and has been assigned to work up a com- edy series. He was tapped for the chore by Fred Wile Jr., program v.p., for the web on the Coast. Howard’s prime radio-tv credits were “My Friend Irma” and “Life With Luigi.” By BOB CHANDLER The face of commercial night- time network radio, plagued with its own unique problems, has changed considerably over the past couple of years. The com- mercial hour-long program has vir- tually disappeared and the new phenomenon (new for the prime 8-11 p.m. hours) of the five-min- ute strip has gained momentum. The half-hour unit, once kingpin of nighttime radio, has been re- duced to a minor status, and the quarter-hour reig.is supreme. Need for new selling approaches has brought on the quarter-hour and five-minute units to the point where they dominate radio think- ing. Sold on package arrange- ments for strip or saturation grouping, they are designed for their cumulative effect and are planned on a low cost-per-thou- sand impressions. Furthermore, they fall into the service or music categories that are not likely to conflict with tv. Similarly, the participating sponsorship program, though not as strongly entrenched as a year ago, is still a major fac- tor in nighttime radio, and the philosophy behind it remains flhe same—lower cost-per-thousand on a cumulative basis. So much has the complexion of nighttime radio changed that a glance at the accompanying chart, based on current information sup- plied by the nets, reveals that only four hour shows remain on the air (two are musical, one dramatic and one sports) between the hours of 8-11 p.m. weeknights and 5-11 weekends. These four account for 240 commercial minutes out of a total of 2,185, or only 10.9%. In the half-hour situation, there are a total of 35 shows out of 126, and six of these (Mutual’s) are par- ticipating. The half-hour units comprise 1,050 commercial minutes out of the total of 2,185, or 48%, but if the participating shows are eliminated, commercial minutes account for 43.7% of the total of non-participating commercial min- utes. On the quarter-hour side, par- ticipations also play an important role, via NBC’s two late-hour strips. Overall totals, including participating shows, give quarter- hours a total of 46 program units out of the 126 total, or 36.5% of total units. In terms of commer- cial minqtes, quarter-hours take up 31.6% of the total. It’s slightly less when participating shows are eliminated, the commercial minutes then accounting for 29.1% of the total. 41 Five-Minute Shows But the most surprising gain is for the five-minute shows, in all cases newscasts, which now ac- count for 41 programs out of the nighttime total of 126, or 31.8% of total program units. In terms of commercial minutes, the five-min- uters have to suffer by camparison, but they account for 9.3%, by no means a negligible proportion. If the five-minute shows, which in- clude no participation arrange- ments, are applied against the total non-participating shows, their com- mercial minutes then account for 11% of the total. Taken together, the five-minute and quarter-hour strips completely dominate the face of commercial (Continued on page 38) Vt( Scripttr Alan Lipscott finds that tha batehar, tha baker, ate. aftaa call on him Above and Beyond the Call of Duty * a * ana of tha many bylina places in tha forthcoming 49th Anniversary Number of ySRiETr OUT SOON Mutual Wielding * a Axe on 9 Co-ops; Billings Blamed After some extra-heavy year’s end thinking. Mutual is axing nine of its cooperative stanzas. Though early maneuverings in the co-op de- partment seemed to indicate that the radio web was casting out what was once so important a part of its daily sked and so important a means of filling affiliates’ cof- fers, web execs deny that revamp- ing constitutes the end of co op shows. Instead, they say only the chaff has been eliminated for which replacements are now be- ing mulled. Even keeping the web plans in mind, it’s common knowledge that co-op shows are way off in ability to draw local advertisers for each Mutual station. Shows cut com- pletely include Sam Levine, “Mu- tual Newsreel” and Allen Pres- cott’s “Wife Saver.” There were other casings, dropped from the co-op lists and put on sustaining: Edward Arnold, Ruby Mercer, Ted Steele, “Luncheon at Sardi’s,” “Rod and Gun Club” and “Merry Mailman.” In most of these cases, only four or five of Mu- tual’s over 500 affils carried each of the shows. Although the 1 hetwork will not confirm it, it is reliably under- stood that the entire co-op setup is off in billings. The key co-op shows remaining are all of the news variety and they are way off from former years in billing. That would include the top few, mean- ing Fulton Lewis Jr. and perhaps Cecil Brown and Cedric Foster. In all, there are only 11 co-op stanzas (Continued on page 42) TV’s ‘New Acts’ NBC-TV’s Overseas Press Club “Dateline” spectacular on Monday (13) had at least three rather un- usual dressing room pairings “forced” by limited backstage fa- cilities at the web’s studio. Fol- lowing were the “accidentally on purpose’ ’mismatches: Henry Ford 2d with Bob Hope, Marian Anderson with Martha Raye, and Lawrence Spivak with Sid Caesar. Sugg’s Ugh! P. A. Sugg, president of WKY-TV, Oklahoma City, last week addressed the following letter to H. Austin Petersori, veepee of Ted Bates agency, with a copy of the letter also going to Colgate prexy, Joseph H. McConnell: “It was indeed refreshing to read in the Dec. 1 issue of Variety that you interceded in behalf of the viewers, the television sta- tions and, of course, Colgate, in insisting that Debra Paget change her routine for “Colgate Comedy Hour.” Many of the woes of the stations could be greatly reduced if other sponsor representa- tives would insist on the same degree of morality that you did during the Colgate rehearsal. “I sincerely trust that other stations will take time to commend you for your actions, and speaking for WKY-TV we heartily sup- port your position.” Tele performer who isn’t willing to personally do the commercials on his show ought to “find an In- stitutional advertiser for his spon- sor or look around for another business,” opines Art Linkletter, who handles all the pitches on his multiple radio-tv exposures. Rea- son the sponsor has bought tele- vision and the particular star is to “sell goods,” and if the show and the star don’t sell, then the busi- ness as a whole is harmed, says Linkletter. Performer “owes it to the spon- sor” to do the pitches, in the light of the kind of coin the bankrollers put up in television, Linkletter be- lieves. Most people buy certain products because of suggestions or comments from their friends, and when viewers tune in to a per- sonality, they do so because they feel the personality is also a friend. That being the case, it’s up to the personality to deliver the blurbs, because they are the most effective means of moving the goods. When a star refuses to do this, the spon- sor isn’t getting his money’s worth,, according to Linkletter. Tele is different from the early days of radio in this respect. When the top stars in the mid-’30’s re- fused to touch commercials, the announcers became highly impor- tant, so much so that they soon as- sumed stature as personalities and they became the audience's "friends.” Subsequently, they be- came integral personalities on the show, as straightmen as well as announcers, and their commercials were integrated into the scripts. On television, this is difficult to do (although there are exceptions like Don Wilson on the Jack Benny show and Harry Von Zell on Burns & Allen). Consequently, says Link- letter, it’s up to the star to deliver. Linkletter himself admits that (Continued on page 42) NBC’s ‘Gotta Find Fred Allen Slot’ Fred Allen’s status for ’55 is one of the still-to-be-resolved items on the NBC agenda. The comedian is in good health and apparently is rarin’ to go with his own show again (he’s lacked a regular slot since the cancellation of his Old Gold-sponsored Tuesday night en- try last season). Presently Allen is doing occa- sional pinch-hitting as a panelite on the CBS-TV “What’s My Line” show and it’s conceded that he’s been registering with greater im- pact on this stanza than on any previous program. But Allen is under exclusive contract to NBC and he’s appearing on “What’s My Line” only by the grace of NBC’s okay, since there is no serious rivalry contention in the Sunday night 10:30 to 11 spot. Allen is all for throwing in his lot on a new Goodson & Todman quiz package (a variation on the Groucho Marx stanza), but until it’s sold and a time slot found, all talk is just academic. Meanwhile, he’s just biding his time and doing guest shots. BLOCK DRUG SCRAMS AS ‘DANGER’ SPONSOR CBS-TV’s . Tuesday night com- mercial pattern received a Jolt in Block Drug Co.’s shelving of the longtime “Danger.” Show has had multiple changing of the produc- tion and direction guard in its nearly five seasons, and only a week or so ago was earmarked to go back to its old 10 p. m. slot (from 9:30 current) with the drop- ping of “Life With Father,” latter to ride at 8 o’clock for a while (with Red Skelton ousted from there to go at 9:30). Apparently undisturbed, how- ever, is the alternating sponsor- ship of “Danger” by Nash-Kelvina- tor.