Variety (January 12, 1955)

46 RADIO-TELEVISION Wednesday, January 12, 1955 KP1X Strike Settled But Frisco Still in Throes of Union Woes San Francisco, Jan. 11. ♦ With the settlement of the joint AFTRA-NABET strike against KPIX, the radio-tv business herd still has several other union situa- tions cookine. Indie good music station KHAR i is now in its third month of a joint NABET-AFTRA strike with i no prospect of settlement at this time. There have b on numerous rumors of a sale of the station and at least o.ie concrete offer has been ' made but the station management denies a.iy i-Kontio 1 of s >! : . i ■ a j recent decision on the s'.ation’s re- quest for i n injunction against the unions fo v \’''i:.nee. S : 'e - v e j Murrey Draper of San Mateo de- ned t’m request and termed the KEAR allegations “rankest hear- say.” AFTRA is currently negotiating with KGO-TV and the ne work ra- ■ dio stations lor a new contract and an offer has been received from the stations which is termed by the union as close to acceptable. There seems little likelihood that this situation will e upt. However, with contracts secured at KPIX, both NABET and AFTRA are now training their sights on the Stockton tv station KOVH j which is making a hid for San Francisco coverage via its trans- mitter on Mt. Diablo which beams a strong signal into the city. The International Brotherhood of Elec- trical Workers has made a pass at unionizing the technicians at KOVR but has not been successful so far with the result that NABET is now making a pitch for them. Several engineers and technicians are NABET members from the east. Agreements were reached last week between Westinghouse tv sta- tion KPIX and striking NABET and AFTRA after almost a month. Nor- mla operations resumed Jan. 6. ' Meanwhile an investigator for the FCC visited the station following charges of “sabotage” which have been emphatically denied bj’ the union. Both sides claimed victory in the strike settlement. Esso, Piel’s Beer Sign For WPIX U Telepool, There a e currently two video advertisers par ted with Telepool, j the Massachusetts-based outfit j which reps a group of northeastern UHF stations receiving various program feeds from N. Y.’s WPIX. I Esso and Piei’s Beer, two of j W’PIX’s four bankrollers for a four-; night-a-wcek Madison Square Gar- 1 den sports lineup, are now co-spon- soring the Wednesday and Satur- day coverage on the small UIIF network as well. Piel’s was for- merly in on Telepool Wednesdays only. WPIX supplies the games to be- tween six and eight UHF stations via relays. RADIO-TV GAB CIRCUIT Busy Days on the ‘Have Speech— Will Travel’ Boards Ping up a few more New York radio-tv figures on the “Have Speech—Will Travel” register. Phil Alampi, WRCA’s farm di- rector and garden editor, at Long Island Nurserymen’s Assn, meet- ing. Farmingdalc, Jan. 18; subject. “Authentic Horticultural Advertis- ing on Radio and Television" <Alampi also attended the Penn- sylvania Farm Show yeste day • Tups ' in Harrisburg.! Indie press agent Arthur Cantor ( St eve Allen. Talent Associates, etc.', last night to the NYU pub- licity class of Bob Blake, press chief of the NBC owned-and-op- erated. Robert Hcrridge, producer of WCBS-TV’s “Camera Th ee,” in a Jan. 15 symposium at Columbia U.’s Teachers College, sponsored by National Council of Teachers of English; subject, “Adapting Liter- ary Material to Television. (Other speakers, writer Eric Barnouw and actress Mildred Dunnock.) Sam Slate, program director of WCBS, at 10th annual session of Georgia Radio and TV Institute, Henry W. Grady School of Journal- ism, U. of Georgia at . thens, Jan. 27. George Olden, director of graph- ic arts of CBS-TV, on “Art in Tele- vision” at Boston Art Directors ClTib dinner in the Boston Club. Feb. 9 (Olden was the first tv art director to gain membership in the N. Y. Art Directors Club and the National Society of Art Di- rectors.) John Henry Faulk and Martha Wright, of WCBS, at theatre bene- fit of Women’s Club of Columbia U.'s College of Pharmacy, Jan. 22. WIP’s On-Spot Coverage Of Philiy Transit Crisis Philadelphia. Jan. 11. Philadelphia’s transit workers and indie station WIP appear to be making the union’s strike meet- ings a biennial event. The Ben Gimbel outlet set up microphones last night <Mon.) in Town Hall for a mass meeting of Local 234 of the Transport Workers Union at which leaders of the union recom- mended a strike against the city’s transit companies. Some 8,900 members of the union, along with WIP’s radio audience, which had been given a heavy-on-the-air pro- motion notice since yesterday noon, heard TWU International prexy Mike Quill and local presi- dent Paul O’Rourke recommend the strike. Two years ago, the station set a precedent when it recorded an ac- tual strike vote by the same union which preceded the general transit strike in Philiy at the time. Roger White, Agneta Into Management Field Roger White, veteran radio-tv producer, has entered the personal management field in New York. As- i sociated with him is talent agent Nick Agneta. White, a former musician, pro- duced a number of major comedy and variety radio shows over a span of some 20 years. Among them was Fred Allen’s initial foray into network showcasing. During i World War 11 he masterminded '“Stage Door Canteen’ for Corn Products, the latter a sponsor of several other White programs. In recent years he’s been devoted to packaging. Among White’s initial clients are i A1 Collins, WRCA disk jockey re- i cruiled by the NBC flagship recent- ly from WNEW, and Jim Simpson, Washington. D. C., sportscaster who’s coming to New York shortly. Simpson, incidentally, has been j assigned by CBS Radio (via sports director John Derr) to cover the ; Pan American Games in Mexico • City in March. RCA Color Tube . » Continued from page 25 ~ j the market. It is RCA’s hope that this substantial price reduction will encourage competing manufactur- ; ers in the industry to go into pro- duction promptly in the field of color television.’’ RCA inserted a full page in the N. Y. Times on Monday (10) to I invite the public to “Yellow Jack.” j presented on NBC-TV’s “Producers Showcase.” to RCA’s Exhibition Hall of West 49th St. Included in the 21-inch color monitor setup was the small Johnny Victor Theatre, with some 400 turning out to view the show in the two spots. A crowd of less than 200 at its peak gath- ered at the windows outside the Exhibition Hall and by about 8:30 p. m. the "out in the cold” audi- once began to thin out. Toward the show's conclusion at 9:30 there was hardly anyone left outside of a couple of mounted policemen and patrolmen. Emergency barri- cades brought on were not re- quired The ad incidentally, con- tained a blooper in tabbing Sidney Howard’s play as a Pulitzer Prize- winner. It did not win the Pulitzer ! accolade that season (1933-34). ‘Home’ Continued from page 25 two stems plugging the “Home in Chicago” theme. And the Mart it- self was plastered with “Welcome Home” banners. There’s little doubt in the minds of the NBC-TV salesmen stationed here that all the hoopdedoo and personalized treatment spread about the Windy City last week focused plenty of attention on the femme-angled crossboarder, which is “playing” San Francisco this week. “Home’s” visit here serves as a reminder that the Windy City is the home of ABC’s “Breakfast Club.” which is now in its second decade as a radio staple. Jaunts by Don McNeill and his BC gang have been annual events for years, with a Coast trek due up in a couple of weeks. Lamb Continued from page 26 resume next Tuesday (18), haying been postponed from the previous- ly scheduled date of Jan. 4. How- ever, a further postponement is now almost certain because of the resignation last week of Walter Powell, who was handling the gov- ernment side in the proceedings, to join the legal staff of the Na- tional Assn, of Radio and TV Broadcasters. Powell’s replacement. Edward J. Brown, has requested that the case be continued until Feb. 9 to en- able him to familiarize himself with the testimony of the 19 wit- nesses who have appeared during the 34 days of hearings the gov- ernment has required for its pres- entation (including cross-examina- tion by Lamb’s counsel). Unless there is strong opposi- tion by Lamb’s attorneys, it is like- ly that Brown’s request will be granted. But regardless of what action is taken, it now seems high- ly doubtful that the hearings will go ahead by Feb. 9, if by then. Hearst Canada’s No. 2 Continued from page 31 , posed to the Hearst Corp., which runs the magazines and radio-tv operations). Purchase ends a seven-year hassle in Milwaukee that as re- cently as last summer saw Sen. Joe McCarthy’s name interjected amid charges of politics and favoritism. With an application pending for a V in Milwaukee from the pre- freeze days, Hearst fought a post- frecze decision by the FCC to allo- cate Channel 10 for educational purposes tooth-and-nail. When the FCC decision stood, Hearst suc- cessfully petitioned the Commis- sion to allocate Channel 6 in near- by Whitefish Bay, a channel alloca- tion that previously hadn’t Jieen considered by the FCC. But no sooner did the FCC allocate the channel than a couple of UHF op- erators and applicants in Milwau- kee filed applications for the grant along with Hearst, thereby block- ing it again. Whitefish Bay appli- cations are still pending, but Hearst of course has dropped its bid with purchase of WTVW. Station will remain an ABC affiliate, since NBC is pat with Wal- ter Damm’s WTMJ and CBS has purchased its own U outlet. Pur- chase was made from the Milwau- kee Area Telecasting Corp., which put the outlet into operation last Oct. 27 as an ABC basic. Provost, w'ho headquarters in Baltimore, will directly supervise the Milwau- kee operation, bicycling back and forth between the two cities until an active manager is appointed. Purchase, of course, is subject to okay by the FCC. Status in Video Ottawa, Jan. H. During 1954. Canada became the world’s second-ranking television country, according to A. D. Dunton, chairman of the Canadian Broad- casting Corp.’s board of governors. Dunton claimed Canada produced more video shows than any other country outside the United States, was second in number of stations (24. including CBC and privately- owned outlets), and second in the proportion of the public watching tv. Now in its third year of tv air- ing. Canada tv reaches three-quar- ters of the pooulation. he said. Dunton credited cooperation be- tween public and private enter- prise for the wide and speedy de- velopment of tv in Canada. “The CBC.” he said, “and private sta- tions are working in effect as part- ners and the partnership has pro- duced what has been probably the most ranid growth of television in the world.” Dunton saw' the challenge ahead as one for greater production and further improvement in video pro- grams. also more production out- side Ontario and Quebec. (CBC had previously announced a microwave link between the prairies and the Ont.-Que. web in two years with completion of a coast-to-coast net- work in three years.) Declaring it was cheaper to im- port television shows, Dunton said, “If we imported all, or nearly all, our programs in this country, Canadians would have little chance to express themselves in the new medium.” "Tn television, as In many other fields.” said the CBC topper, “Canadians can have plenty of sen- sible confidence in themselves.” Continued from page 31 the interest when KQV ran Into competition with four other appli- cants for channel 4 in Irwin, Pa. The WENS complaint also sug- gested that the FCC look into agreements bv the network, not to enter the Washington. D.C., and Minneapolis markets with owned and operated stations for 10 years when CBS sold its minority inter- ests in WTOP and WCCO. “It is high time that this Com- mission knew in what direction CBS is moving,” WENS concluded. The complaint was filed by WENS counsel, McKenna & Wil- kinson. The law firm represented the ABC network during hearings on the merger of ABC with United Paramount Theatres. ABC’s tv affiliate in Pittsburgh is WENS. CBS Radio Continued from pace 27 Charlotte United Appeal Nets 62G In Telethon Greensboro, N.C. Cash ar.d pledges of more than $62,000 were brought into the Charlotte United Appeal by a 16- hour telethon over WBTV. Local talent combined with singers Mon- ica Lewis. Bill Hayes and Jimmy Boyd, television commentator Doug- las Edwards and comedian Larry Storch to provide entertainment for the program. Expenses of the telethon were approximately $4,000. TOMMY LYMAN at the Fashionable 5th AVE. HOTEL has pacted for one-a-week of the Tennessee Ernie show under the Power Plan. Previously in under the plan on the show was Philip Morris in a thrice-weekly ride. There’s an augmented order from Hunt Club Dog Food for quarter- hour underwriting of Galen Drake’s Saturday morning variety show. Pooch food outfit originally had inked for a 13-week deal last fall with stipulation that they’d exit in December after nine weeks and pick up the remaining four weeks in January. Client decided not to return for the remaining four but put in a new order for a cycle start- ing March 5. CBS-Columbia con- tinues as alternate sponsor of the Sunday night “Amos ’n’ Andy.” The wqb’s receiver-phono subsidi- ary had originally signed on until year’s end, but now rides until early May. ABC Aft. SS5 Continued from page 27 Standard Oil of California), “Rev- lon Theatre” and “Pepsi-Cola Play- house” as possible entries. It’s also dickering with Screen Gems on some “Ford Theatre” pix and with Ziv on other properties. Net fig- ures the low pricetag on participa- tions should cover objections to re- runs, figuring out a cost-per-thou- sand of $1.75 for a 4.0 rating with a 70% coverage factor. 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