Variety (January 12, 1955)

42 IIADIO-TELEYISIOX Wednesday, January 12, 1955 From The Production Centers Continued from pace 30 — only the 7:45 a.m. 10-minuter with Bill Tompkins as writer-newscaster. Tompkins also did WXEL 11 p.m. stint while Warren Guthrie was on week's vacation . . . NBC News Director Ed Wallace readying halt-hour traffic series for WNBK <15* . . . WXEL’s Boyd Heath emcees “Mid States Sports Vacation” show at Arena . . . At Henderson, cx-WTAM, now doing WGAR five-minute chitchat Monday-thru-Friday at 610 . . . WJW's Tod Purse getting more disk time ... Ed Kil’een Jeavcs YVTAM- WNBK newsroom for government information post in Marseilles. Ii\ CINCINNATI . . . Record Christmas fund contributions by Ruth Lyons WLW-TY “50-50 Club" fans for hospitalized children in three states totaled S99.377.23 . . . WKRC stations in coopmUon with publ'c schoo's • 'd P.T.A. groups bagged 15,000 toys and $10,000 for 2.000 needy children from Yuletide through new year . . . National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis will get all proceeds from annual Golden Gloves show Feb. 3 in Cincy Garden. It’s sponsored*by WLW-T and the Golden Gloves Club of Hamilton County . . . Greater Cincinnati Telev sion Educa- tional Foundation has elected Robert E. Dunville, Crosley Broadcasting Corp. president, to its board of trustees for two years . . . Ray Shannon (not the entertainer*, engineer with WKRC stations since 1942, was promoted to transmitter supervisor of the tv operation. IN W ASHINGTON . . . Sig Mickelson, CBS v.p. in charge of news and public affairs, will be guest of honor at a reception hosted by web's D C. v.p. Karl Gam- mons next Monday <17* . . . D.j. Les Sand back at WWDC-MBS after a five-year hiatus, with a “One to Six” morning platter spinning show . . . Edward P. Morgan, ABC newscaster, honored at a cocktail party tossed by web newsmen Bryson Rash and Richard Itendell on eve of Morgan’s debut on the AFL news show . . . Esther Van Wagoner Tufty, NBC news correspondent, back in the capital after a trip to the Netherlands where she filmed sequences for her weekly ' Home Show” Washington report . . . New staffers at WWDC include Dick awrence, replacing Jacque Wells on announcing staff, and Norman Baum, re- cently returned from a stint with the Army, as assistant program director. IN DETROIT ... A radio saturation plan called “Music Over the Week End” is in effect at WWJ. By drastically reprogramming Saturday and Sunday skeds. advertisers can purchase announcements in packages of 10 or 20 with the station's lop disk jockeys. Bob Maxwell, Shelby New house, Ross Mulholland. Steve Lawrence and Art I.azarow . . . “Press Con- ference," a WXYZ-TV and Detroit Free Press public service feature with the newspaper reporters quizzing local news personalities, has returned after a hiatus caused by time conflict with NCAA football games . . . WJBK-TV is the first station in Michigan to use tv wire photo news service with installation of International News Seivice Facsimile . . . WJR, which thought it had quelled opposition by taking its propped Flint tv station out of the Detroit coverage area, finds itself in new hot water with Trebit Corp. and W. S. Butterfield The- atres. two unsuccessful bidders for the Flint channel, now complaining to FCC substantial revision in WJR's plans and stock ownership is cause for cancellation of its license. IV DALLAS . . . Charlie Boland, KGKO deejay. added a daily KRLD-TV sports spiel . . . Janet Waldo, of ABC-TV’s “Ozzie Nelson Show.” here for preem of husband Robert E. (Lawrence and* Lee’s new drama, “Inherit the Wind,” at Theatre '55 . . . Don Cherry guested with Kenny Sargent, KLIF d.j., plugging his new Columbia wax pact . . . Harry Belafonte did a sock q.&a. sesh with emcee Jerry Haynes via WFAA-TV . . . Jerome (Dizzy) Dean, local resident, again inked for baseball’s “Game of the Week” on tv for 1955. Dean starts the season here April 2, calling the N. Y. Giants-Cleveland Indians exhib game . . . John Allen, WFAA announcer, doing “Tello-Test," cross-the-board phone quizzer . . . Mike Shapiro named new commercial manager of WFAA-TV . . . KLIF added deejay Larry Monroe; spinner Don Keyes returned after a short stint at KGKO, and jockey Les Vaughan took over the short- wave mobile news unit chore. Station also has added Jimmy Fidler's wax Hollywood chatter each Sunday. IN MINNEAPOLIS . . . Allen C. Embury, Urbana, III., appointed v.p, and general manager of VVMNS. formerly WMIN radio, now under the new' ownership of the William F. Johns family, which also owns radio stations at Sioux WSAZ-TV „MANNFL 1 BAStr NBC NET.VRK 100 000 A/ATT} erp 4ARLE S T . IN AMERICA'S PROSPEROUS RIPKEN’!. The KATZ Agency 1 ft .% •! »s*.w.v.* v.v. • • •..; • ■, ml Zm&m&i. :m. ■ xOCS V::' V: S . • .*•>• •.r.;VxS*N? INDUSTRIAL HEART ••• ••• •*•'•• i vctv’.v. .■? x v*-:Y: City, la., Stillwater and Owatonna, Minn., and Stevens Point and Oshkosh, Wis. WMIN continues solely with its tv operation under original ownership . . . With its new call letters WMNS, the former WMIN radio station paying $5 each time a listener catches an an- nouncer or personality using the old call letters. The first listener j to telephone receives the money . . . Kendall Mills inked by WCCO radio for three-days-a-week sponsorship of Maynard Speece’s 5:25 a m. ! daily five-minute “Farm Topics” program directed at the area’s 226,000 ruralite early risers . . . John Carol, CBS radio network v.p. in charge of sales, spoke at 25th annual Salesmen’s Dinner, jointly sponsored here by Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and Minneapolis Sales Executives. Dinner was preceded by a Salesmen’s rally . . . N. L. Bentson and Fred Kaufman, WMIN-TV executives, to attend special State Cerebral Palsy luncheon to be given in New’ York to their station and WTCN-TV. which shares Channel 11, in recognition of the $140,000 recently raised for the palsy cause by the stations’ first telethon. IN PITTSBURGH . . . Bob Pritchard has resigned from WJAS sales staff to become sales manager for William D. Gregg Co., outboard motor concern here,. . . Dusty Brown is the new leader of the EZC Ranch Gals on WDTV with Wanda Saylor’s departure for St. Petersburg. Fla., to join her husband. Leo Heisel, an engineer there at WSUN-TV . . . Ford now sponsoring only three nights a week of Carl Ide’s cross-the-board newscasts on Channel 2. with Geritol picking up the other two . . . Henry DeBecco. WJAS announcer, making his Playhouse debut in “Girl on the Via Flamina” . . . Eddie Dillon resigned as deejay at WHJB in Greensburg and leaving for Los Angeles . . . Mrs. Margaret Beck, head of speech and English departments at Indiana State Teach- ers College, will be hostess and coordinator of “Family Dynamics.” first course being offered by educational station WQ£D for college credit . . . Art Pallan, WWSW platter-spinner, has been made perma- nent m.c. of weekly “Lullaby in Rhythm” hklf-hour on WDTV. Pre- viously he had been rotating in that spot with Barry Kaye, of WJAS, and Jay Michael, of WCAE . . . Berkley Smith started his 21st year of newscasting for Kaufmann's department store . . . Bette Smiley has launched a new quarter-hour of songs on WCAE every Sunday afternoon at 1:45. It’s sponsored. NARTB Beer & Wine Study Continued from page 27 portrayals of product consumption, have all but disappeared from 1 your tv screens.” Fellows interpreted NARTB’s re- j cent survey on the extent of beer | and w ine advertising on radio and tv as showing that it is not ex- cessive. Only 3% of the number of programs on tv and 1.6% of number on radio, he said, were shown to have been sponsored by beer and wine interests. Fellows suggested that advertis- ers who encounter objections to their commercials might do well to accept counsel of the broad- caster, who should know the cus- toms of his community. “The pur- pose of your advertising is to sell.” he said, “and to offend is not to sell.” i gramming, the survey disclosed that of a total of 580,000 programs carried in a composite week last year by all radio stations, 37% were classified as music, 33% as news, 9% as drama, 7% as vari- ety, 3% as sporting events, and 2% as quizz. In releasing the survey, NARTB prexy Harold E. Fellows took is- sue with the Committee's report. His denial, according to a state- ment by the Assn., was “based on specific evidence submitted to the Committee in reference to prob- lems of good taste In beer and wine advertising.” Philco $34,000,000 Revenue Continued from pace 31 Beer and wine advertisers spent approximately $34,000,000 to spon- sor radio and tv programs during 1954, the National Assn, of Radio and tv Broadcasters estimated last week. This amount, Assn, said, represented 2 . 7 % of all media ad- vertising expenditures. Estimate was submitted to the House Interstate Commerce Com- mittee in compliance with a re- quest for information on the ex- tent of radio and tv advertising by the beer and wine industries. The Committee called on NARTB last Augusf to supply the information for the new Congress in connec- tion with consideration of the Bryson bill to ban interstate ad- vertising of alcoholic beverages. In a comprehensive report, based on returns from 2,320 radio and tv stations (83% of stations on the air on Sept. 1, 1953), NARTB in- formed the Committee that: 1. Approximately 3% of the number of all programs on tv during the 12-month period ending last Sept. 20 were sponsored by beer and wine companies. In ra- dio it was 1.6%. 2. Beer and wine companies sponsored 20% of all sports pro- grams carried on tv during this period. It was 18% on radio. 3. Programs sponsored by beer and wine advertisers occupied 3.07% of all tv station time on the air during the 12 month period and 2% of all radio station time. 4. Beer and wine spot announce- ments comprised 3.53 % of all tv and 2.8% of all radio spot an- nouncements during the period. NARTB’s survey, while con- ducted in compliance with the Committee’s direction, as spelled out in its Aug. 17 report on the Bryson bill, yields information of a general as well as specific na- ture. It shows, for example, that In a composite week of the period covered the nation’s tv stations televised an aggregate of 37,471 programs. Of this total, 28% were classi- fied as drama, 24% as variety, in- cluding comedy, 17% as news. 7% as music, 6%. as quiz, and 5% as sporting events. Reflecting the change which has i taken place since tv in radio pro- 7,000,000 black and white tv sets, about 1.000,000 of which will come from Philco. He said that all the materials are at hand to make 1955 a banner year for the television and also the appliance industries, their distributors and dealers. He pointed out that consumer Income is near peak levels and promises to rise further in com- | ing months. At the same time, he | said, industry is offering the pub- lic new and improved products at greater-than-ever values, Philco's franchises with distribs were defended by John M. Otter, executive v.p. of Philco, in an ad- | dress ta distributors. Otter stated the Department of Justice charges against Philco now' pending in the ; U S. District Court here, consti- tuted “a sweeping attack upon an established method of distribution which has been used widely for I years by manufacturers of brand name products.” Calling the case a dangerous challenge to the functions of the distrib, Otter declared “Philco plans to oppose this unwarranted attempt on the part of the govern- ment to expand and extend the j antitrust laws as business has un- derstood them in the past.” The government case is aimed directly at what Otter termed “im- provements to the company’s dis- tribution system.” These improve- ments were put into effect last Au- gust and accepted by the distribu- tors and the dealers. The three basic points attacked by the government, according to Otter, are: < 1 * The concept that each distrib should limit his activi- ties to his assigned territory and not franchise dealers In other areas; *2* The confining of dealers ; to retail functions; <3* That dis- tribs are prevented from handling I competitive products thereby less- ening competition in the sale of appliances. Otter said the Philco contract gives dealers the legal right to sell anything they please. “Philco does not believe it has violated the anti- trust laws or any other laws,” the v.p. added. Lebow Continued from pane 31 ; requires no prophetic powers to ! predict, for example, that the biggest single discount house in America, in 1955, will be the auto- mobile sales agency. Of course, the pressure on mark- j ups will come from many diree- ! tions. In 1954 over $50 billion j worth of merchandise was sold at discounts and only part of this by the discount house itself. For an- other factor, we must look to the economy itself. Our productive I capacity is at least 50% higher i than it was at the end of the war. More units will be made in 1955 ! with no discernible increase in eon- ) sumer buying power. This, in I itself, creates price competition. Finally, the fact that the business population has reached its highest level in history, with over 4.000:000 enterprises, of whom almost three- quarters are serving the consumer I as w holesalers, retailers or service establishments, means a struggle for business in which plenty of red j ink will flow. | 3.) Television is expensive be- . cause it actually does not sell in- , dividual products so much as it i sells the generalized idea of con- sumption. It promotes the goal of higher living standards. But the ' commercials are an intrusion. This captive audience, spending several hours a day viewing television, is faced at best with the necessity of rejecting all but one of the auto- mobiles which corfle into its living | room, all but one or two of the breakfast cereals, all but one of the coffees, the wristwatches. the cigarets. And since people do leave I their tv sets at times, and they do | give a hearing to house-to-house sales-people. read newspapers and magazines, look at billboards and receive mail and handbills, they may also reject 100% of most of Ithe products offered on television for others which they may select as a result of whim, better selling, expediency, price, or any one of a i dozen other factors. Every manufacturer operates on j the premise that his product repre- sents an essential for the consumer. But the consumer’s loyalty is actu- ally toward the standard of living to which he aspires. Television plays an enormous role in pro- moting these goals, aspirations, desires and wants. But the universal use of super- lative claims for every product equates them all so that price, special promotions, premiums, tie- ups and other inducements and fea- tures can operate to divert a buying choice from one product to another which voices the identical claims and virtues. No commodity in 1955 will be as valuable as an understanding of the marketing techniques which will put one product ahead of an- other in the ferocious competition that will mark this year ahead. REHEARSAL HALLS LARGE BALLROOMS, STAGE, BY DAY, WEEK OR MONTH REASONABLE RATES BEETH0VEH HALL 210 I. 5Mi St., Now York City OR 4-0459