Variety (December 1954)

20 ■AMO-TBmiSION WedalMday, December 29, 1954 ‘RUNAWAY RATINGS’ THING OF PAST AS AGE OF EQUALIZATION SETS IN *♦ A look at the Nielsens for the fall ot ’54 shows that television’s “age of equalization" has set in. No longer do the "Lucys" (and Milton Berles of the earlier era> pull 20 and 30 points ahead of the opposition; it's now more of a bat- tle all along the line of late “kings" for supremacy during their time periods, with rating tops being in the low 50’s, not the 70’s. The average once-a-w-eek half- hour evening video rating is slight- ly off f.om last year, meaning that all shows are getting a more equi- table share of the whole national viewership. That doesn’t mean, however, that the number of homes watching ls off since the number of tv sets in operation has in- creased from ’53. It marely means that the share of audience (actual rating; has evened off. The rating picture also indicates that neither CBS nor NBC can per- manently call any night its own. Big example of "the share and share alike" of video time is “1 Leve Lucy," which until this sea- son gave CBS complete supremacy on Mondays. Evidently, NBC’s Sid Caesar-‘‘Medic" did more damage to the CBS 8 to 9:30 period than was originally discerned this fall. This November (for last two weeks- "Lucy" dropped to a 48.9, no mean figure but far less than the 83.5 managed last year against Dennis Day for the same period. B&A, Godfrey Affected The rest of the Monday night lineup has been affected too. The charmed lives of "Burns and Allen" and Godfrey’s "Talent Scouts" weren’t so charmed in the latest Nielsen. B&A was down 3 points, Godfrey down 15 (according to Nielsen minute-by-minute rating* against the still-not-so-spectacular- but-stroi\g-enough status of the "Caesar Hour." ' Taking Thursday as another ex- ample, "Dragnet" could only get 43 in the police lineup. That's a drop from 58.6 in ’53. Groucho Marx Ls down from a 46.5 on NBC that same night to a 39.1. Last year’s Ray Milland "McNutley” show didn't cut much into the quiz stanza, but the new formated Mil- land casing is up to a 16.6, while DuMont's late "They Stand Ac- cused” managed an 11. Here the spread among three networks is in- dicative of the more even sharing of audience honors also. (ABC's "Quick As a Flash" last year didn’t do over about a 5.) It was evident to the industry last season that the Godfrey ratings on both Mondays and Wednesday* were suffering. He’d already begun to lose his toprated spot, but ’54 shows him to be even more deeply in trouble, or so read the Nielsens. First off, Walt Disney via ABC has not only whittled down Godfrey but upset the whole Wednesday night applecart. The Holly wood- based film show cut a fancy 44.4 in the last two rating weeks, with Godfrey dropping to a 25.4, and on an average per-minute rate, Dis- ney got 36.7 vs. Godfrey’s 22.2. Yet, while ABC copped the lead on Wednesdays via its big entry, the entire picture is a three-way one. NBC is in there fighting (typi- cal of all three networks on all time fronts) with moderately rated "I Married Joan" and "My Little Margie,” though ABC has hurt "Joan," as against last year. Seen as a chief cause for the equalizing of the rating pictuie— something nearly as evident in the less dynamic hours as with the former "big big” rated stanzas— is the fact that ABC is coming more into its own as a "major." Since there’s more programming to choose from, the audience lat- ing figures on one show have dropped from the colossal to a more even spread. WRCA «n«f WKCA-TV V»«p Hamilton Shea waedort How Local Can You Get? * * * on* the many editorial features' in tha fortkeoming 49 th Anniversary Number •f OUT NEXT WEEK TV Reprieve For life With Father Affiliates of CBS-TV have appar- ently been screaming loud enough to cause the web to drop-its plan for slotting "Adventures of the Kingfish” in the 8 to 8:30 Tuesday time following the shift of Red Skelton from there to 9:30. The “Kingfish" series is the “Amos ’n’ \ndy" skein under a new tag, al- though emphasis was to be on the sidebar character’s exploits via a new batch of 13 films to mix with the old celluloiders. Squawking affiliate stations took the position that In giving "King 1 fish” a network ride, the web was not playing fair-in that the “Amos- Andy" show* is in local syndication, via CBS Film Sales, and that the national slotting would affect cur rent and future status on the re- runs. As result, Columbia has rein stated “Life With Father,” which has been cancelled in its 10 p. m. berth, and will put it into the 8 o’clock time starting Jan. 4. Not known, however, how long "Father” will remain in that slot, although there’s talk that the show will con- tinue there in its new vidpix dress • it’s been a live show since open ing last season). H’wood Legion Stadium Fights Packaged for TV New packaging firm of St. George & Gale has wrapped up video rights to the weekly fight calendar of the American Legion Stadium in Hollywood. Firm is dickering with ABC-TV to carry the bouts, but there’s no deal In eight yet. According to George Gale, partner in the firm, bouts would have fllm stars appearing during the prelims to pitch their favorite charities. Second package controlled by the new outfit is a Saturday a. m. kidshow which would feature a new clown character, Peppo the , Clown. Chi Biz ‘Insertions’ Chicago, Dec. 28. NBC-TV’s magazine concept con- tinues to lure rookies into network tv. Central division veep Edward R. Hitz’s crew last week brought In two first-time clients for the web’s “Today" and "Home" strips. Culligan water softener ordered 13 inserts in "Home" starting in April and the E. L. Bruce floor wax firm bought 20 participations in "Today.” Good Music—& Loud Washington, Dec. *28. Washington’s “Good Music Sta- tion.’’ WG]\JS, will soon become the most powerful outlet (up to sun- set) in the District of Columbia area as a result of an authorization by the FCC last week to increase its daytime power to 5,000 watts and to operate nighttime with 1,000 watts on its 570kc frequency. Station will spend approximately $100,000 to erect four towers, each 450 feet high, and a new transmit- tei on a 100-acre tract near Bethes- da, Md., where auxiliary studios will be established. Present trans- mitter is in Falls Church, Vs. KXEL’s 500G Transfer Chicago, Dec. 28. Stockholders of WOPA, Oak Park indie, are shelling out $500,- 000 for a minimum of 80Tfc interest in KXEL, Waterloo, Iowa. Sale re- sults from the decision of KXEL founder Joe DuMond (Josh Hig- gins) to retire from the radio biz for reasons of health. Egmont Sonderling, prexy of WOPA, will take over as general manager of the Iowa station. Kintner, Lewine Set Coast Disney Huddle ABC President Bob Kintner and tv program chief Bob Lewine plane out to the Coast late next week for a weeklong huddle with Walt Dis- ney on the latter’s projected one- hour children’s strip tentatively set for 5-6 p.m. cross-the-board. They’ll discuss matters of format and production on the strip. Show', tentatively titled “The Mickey Mouse Theatre," will be all film, which would easily make it the largest physical film project ever undertaken. Thinking thus far calls for the use of a multi- camera system employing the nat- ural backgrounds of the Disney- land amusement park for back- ground footage. Into new footage would be wound some of the Dis- ney theatrically-released cartoons and short subjects. Project is still In the earliest of stages, with im- mediate problem one of meeting the enormous physical and format demands the undertaking would exact. Video Espanol Madrid, Dec. 28. This country, rich in program material, is moving slowly in television. Although receivers are displayed in store windows, there are only about 500 in use in all Spain, all of them in Madrid W’here the government operates an experimental station. Broad- casts are limited to two evenings a week, Thursdays and Fridays, with,less than four hours in all. Film, interviews, variety and puppet shows make up the schedule. Sets cost from $400 up. Jose Luis Colina, director of tv programs for Radio Nacional de Espana, is planning for an expansion in 1955 when a new transmitter is to be installed and a studio building is to be pro- vided. He expects the transmitter, to be purchased from Phillips, to be ready in March. It will have 500 watts power. Television Madrid will then up its schedule to four evenings a week for a total of eight hours. Just how tv will operate in Spain is still to be determined. Colina points to three approaches to finance programs: taxes on receivers, advertising, and outright government subsidy. He thinks it may evolve into a compromise by which half the programs would be supported by advertisers and half by the government. Colina plans to put bullfights on tv next year and is not greatly concerned as to the possible impact on attendance at the arenas. Although the bullfights offer rich material for color tv, Colina sees little prospect of tint in Spain for the foreseeable future. Goodman Grinds ’Em Out in Aussie Because He Thinks AFTRA Unfair Israel-Created Quizzer Bids For Inti Attention By JACK LEVY Jerusalem, Dec. 28. After six rears of regular broad- casting, the Voice of Israel’s most popular weekly radio program. "The Musical Quiz." will take a rest in February when producers Aron Schmuckler and Itzhak Shi- moni make their separate ways to Europe and America in an effort to arrange an international inter- change of this unique cultural show. Although a longfiair program, the "Quiz" has stirred up immense musical interest throughout Israel, offering indisputable proof that ed- ucation can be achieved through entertainment. In the cities and in the Kibutzes (agricultural vil- lages), among children as well as adults, a considerable portion of the nation's population gathers at their radios at 10 a. m. on Satur- day’s to hear whether they correct- ly identified the previous week’s music and to test their mettle on the current offering. The format of the “Quiz" is sim- ple enough. Often, passages from'] musical compositions, usually clas- sical. are played. Sometimes, there are introduced instruments (for which special music is written to correspond with the score) which do not belong in the original or- chestration. A number of such pas- sages are played and the audience is asked to identify < 1) the com- position and '2) the intruding in- strument. Prizes given are nomi- nal. The satisfaction of being able to identify the composer and to detect the instrumental flaw in the composition provides the incentive for listening. In one program caught, the first (Continued on page 26) Gf TIiMlrt'i Host Ronald Reagan gives his reasons why he sees TV Losing Its Inferior Paperclip Complex * * * one of the many byline pieces in the forthcoming 49th Anniversary Number of OUT NEXT W EEK Giveaways Fade Off Canada Radio Ottawa, Dec. 28. Giveaway shows are dying out on Canadian tadio and the Cana- dian Broadcasting Corp. has dropped plans for its threatened curb on such airers, according to A. D. Dunton, CBC chairman. Last spring, Dunton warned that CBC, which controls and regulates all Canadian broadcasting, would take regulatory steps unless prize show's decreased in number. The warning followed an outburst cued by an Ottawa station’s (CKCY) quizzer offering a jackpot of nearly $8,000 with clues pointing to Hon. C. D. Howe, federal cabinet minis- ter, whose home and office became chaos with contestants’ probing for facts about him. Yukon Ukase Chicago, Dec. 28. Memo to tv rasslers: It’s no longer cricket to hit your part- ner over the noggin with a chair during two-act routines on DuMont’s Saturday night comedy from the Marigold grunt & groan emporium. So ruled the Illinois Athletic Commission last week (then it slapped a 30-day suspension on Yukon Eric for doing just that. It seems Yukon has decided to revise his routine, switch- ing from his traditional Galla- had role to the villain type, as a hypo to his billings. He launched the switchover with a bang a couple of weeks back by bopping partner Verne Gagne with a ni“tal chair dur- ing the televised show’. v DuMont Names Kelley William H. Kelley was named veepee and general manager of all DuMont manufacturing and sales divisions and William C. Scales was chosen manager of the receiver sales setup in what were officially described as "major organization changes" at DuMont Labs. New deal calls for the firm’s in- strument, cathode-ray tube, com- munications products, receiver and sales division as well as the inter- national and government contract divisions to report to Kelley. Kelley was formerly veepee head- ing marketing. World's '55 Lineup World Broadcasting will launch seven new cross-the-board trans- cribed series on Jan. 1 as the high- light of its 1955 programming set- up. New series are all musical, comprise some 12 hours of pro- gramming a w'eek. Shows are "Music Coast to Coast," "Passport to Daydreams," “Guess Who, Guess What,” “West- ward to Music." "The Song and the Star." 'The Three Suns” and "The Blackwood Bros. Quartet." San Antonio—Glen Krifeger has been named merchandising and promotion manager, a newly-cre- ated post at KITE. here. Junita Ramsuer, of the Traffic Depart- ment has been upped to post of Office Manager. With production of half-hour radio dramas at a fragment of its former self because of decreased network operation in that area, the revenue of thesps has, naturally, taken a dip too, according to Everett Goodman, a top sales exec for Harry S. Goodman Productions. In discussing his firm’s new li- brary plan on radio dramatic stanzas, Goodman also pretty much laid it on the line as far as radio acting is concerned. His is one of the few companies producing ra- dio drpmas on a fairly extensive basis, and for a long time, much of its production has been done in Australia because of what he feels are restrictive prices on talent set by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Goodman feels that AFTRA de- mands on talent fees in radio are too rigid in light of radio's current status. There are certain replay rights that choke off the produc- ers profits, and other inequities, according to him. Goodman has plans lor new audio drama pro- duction, but it’s a question of whether he and AFTRA can come to terms before he’ll bring produc- tion back to the U. S. from Australia, where thesping restric- tions, he claims, aren’t as strong. Meanwhile, Goodman will short- ly launch a deal to sell half-hour dramatic shows built along the lines of library plan on the theory that radio network affiliates want to fill the gaps in the afternoon and evening lineups made by the great decrease in the number of dramas at those times formerly supplied by the webs. Realizing that it’d have to be a lowcost proposition to entice sta- tions to buy for times when radio listenership is off, Goodman in- tends basing the setup on some so far undetermined facet of the sta- tion rate card. Actually, the proposition shapes as far more than a method of dumping his ex- tensive supply of half-hour dra- matic shows (Goodman has w'ell over 100 series), because the out- lit intends continuation of produc- tion. with all new product—and Goodman assures it will be fairly extensive—going into the library plan. Basing his afternoon-evening "drama for local radio" pitch on large sales to WOR, the Mutual key in N. Y.; WMPS, Memphis, plus other network affiliates or o&o’s, Goodman, figures that the network radio stations, having built much of their personalities on the presence of dramatic shows and not wishing to compete with stations previously established in the music and news format, will want to continue similar program- ming if costs are equitable with radio’s declined afternoon and evening audiences. Heretofore, Goodman has been charging A, B and C (quality) prices, plus offering quantity dis- count, on his transcribed shows. Audio outlets will order now by the number of hours daily or weekly needed to ‘fill dramatic needs. Stations will be able to reject undesirable stanzas.