Variety (January 19, 1955)

40 RADIO REVIEWS Wednesday, January 19, 1955 MAN WITH A QUESTION With Lowell Thomas, Eric T. Boul- ter, Robert Barnett 15 Mins.; Sun. (16), 12 noon Sustaining ABC, from New York ABC Radio has a fine public service airer in “Man With a Ques- tion,” a four-part series which is probing problems of blindness both in the U. S. and abroad. With each Sunday segment confined to 15 minutes, the series began Jan. 9 with actress Eva Le Gallienne heading a discussion about “Chil- dren and Blindness." For the second installment Sun. (16) newscaster Lowell Thomas quizzed Eric T. Boulter, field di- rector of the American Foundation for Overseas Blind, on what prog- ress is being made among the sightless in the Orient. While ad- mitting that blindness is a “sub- ject of which I know almost noth- ing.” Thomas did a good reporto- rial job in drawing the facts out of Boulter. High point of the taped session was Boulter’Pdisclosure that a Far East Conference will shortly be held in Japan to explore ways and means of preventing the affliction in the Orient and helping those who have it. Also contributing some enlightening observations was Robert Barnett, exec director of the American Foundation for the Blind. Latter organization is presenting the series in coopera- tion with ABC Radio. Gilb. LEE IN STUDIO B With Louise Cocroft Martin 150 Mins., Sat., 9:30 p.m. Participating KGMB, Honolulu The “Lee” is, of all things, a gal Jock who plays nbthing but the mostest of the most, jazz-wise that is. It’s a stunner at first to listen to a real hep disk, then hear a wo- man’s soothing if authoritative voice, but it’s a solid show that lasts until the witching hour when the CBS affiliate shuts down for the night. Voicer is Louise Cocroft Martin, a fulltime public library employee who is capitalizing but good on her yen and ken for ultra progressive jazz. Most of the disks are flown in from a San Francisco shop. Program provides neat musical background for a Saturday night party — and this town is noted for its Saturday night habits. (During the week, it’s an early to bed, early to rise village.) And even if the music is picked solely for the jazzians, it’s a refreshing relief from the usual disk jock fare. Lee’s voicing sometimes is a bit librarian-like, but it’s more than adequate and, as the gal would be the first to admit, it’s the music that counts. She’s right, obviously, for this show has been a Saturday night strongpoint for several sea- sons. She could use a few more sponsors nicely, but who couldn’t on Saturday night? Walt. Louisville—Mrs. Marion Gifford, WHAS-TV director of Home Eco- nomics, has resigned, effective Jan. 28. She will be succeeded by Mrs. Jean E. Phair, who comes to WHAS-TV from WOR-TV, New York, where she conducted a daily food show for the past year. TALK OF THE TOWN With Pat Ryan 105 Mins.; Mon.-thru-Fri., 3 p.m. Participating WPTR, Albany Afternoon version of “Talk of the Town”—there is a two-hour early morning presentation, also handled by Pat Ryan—has recent- ly been given a “Number Pleeze” listener-quiz fillip. Feature, used on other stations, too, is live and recorded. Ryan and George Miller, WPTR program director and sportscaster, man the telephones for the unwaxed portions of game. It is a rather complicated setup, slowing down the musical program but whetting the interest of dial- ers playing for prizes. The “broken record disk” jack- pot was not hit until the next to last call on the final day of the second week, when a Watervliet woman guessed the “stuck” num- ber and grabbed the loot, includ- ing a trip to New York for herself and husband. Ryan, usually an even-voiced chap, sounded quite excited—and admitted so. He and Miller display good tele- phone personalities, including the essential quality of patience. Jaco. CAVALCADE OF MUSIC With Gene Taylor 120 Mins., Mon.-thru-Sat., 6 p.m. Participating KIKI, Honolulu This show’s been handled by several disk jocks in the few years KIKI has been in operation, but it’s Gene Taylor who has shoved it into profitable brackets, with the two-hour cross-the-boarder emerg- ing as a solid grosser. The “why” is another matter. Taylor’s voice isn’t Honolulu’s best, by a long sight, for he has a strong Cockney or' Aussie accent that may or may not be affected. But he’s a good natured go-getter who sells his own time, and he’s picked up a fond listenership. It’s good supper hour music, in sharp contrast to some of the com- petitive fare, and it’s well chosen Taylor clowns somewhat in a Puckish way and his commercials, while sometimes heavy on the “gee whiz” aspect, aren’t offensive. Guy’s been around for some time and has picked up some loyal ac- counts who followed him to this indie operation. Like his cohort of the same station, Jimmy Walker, Taylor knows everybody and every- body seems to know him. At the grassroots level, it pays off. Call it homespun if you will; get annoyed when the 45 rpm disks are started on the 78 turntable by mistake; scoff at the name-drop- ping habit that Taylor should eschew’. But chances are you’ll be listening night after night, thanks to a shrewd choice of show and semi-classic tunes. The hired help can begin to breathe easier, for Taylor and Walker, his daytime counterpart, are doing much to help turn it into a moneymaker. Walt. Dallas—Mike Shapiro has been named commercial manager here for WFAA-TV, according to Ralph W. Nimmons, station manager. He previously worked at WFAA-TV in 1951 as local sales manager. The Channel 8 Mighty Market Place all your; WGALTV LANCASTER, PA. NBC* CBS DUMONT STEINMAN STATION CLAIR McCOllOUGH PRES. Wylie’s Book Continued from pag* S3 R.pr.s.ntafi v.s Now York MEEKER TV, INC. Chicago Los Angelos San F San Francisco Charles Seipmann altogether, al- though Seipmann is often consid- ered the leader of the articulate dissatisfaction with the air media. Concerned only with television, “Clear Channels” also neglects to dig in the gardens of radio criti- cism where the roots of video criticism were born. Hence the ab- sence of such tenacious old roots as Carl Friedrich of Harvard, Har- old MacCarty of Wisconsin, Albert N. Williams of Denver U, Norman Woelful of Ohio State, Jerome Kerwin of Chicago, Jerome Spin- gam of Civil Liberties, Bruce Bliven of the New Republic, et al. Wylie deals with Charles Wake- man, the fugitive slave who took poetic revenge on George Wash- ington Hill by wTiting “The Huck- sters.” Part of what Wylie origi- nally wrote about Wakeman was considered actionable by the attor- neys for publishers Funk & Wag- nails and at the attorneys' insist- ence a hunk of text was chiseled out after printing, delaying the appearance of Wylie’s book (priced at $4.75) in the stalls. Wylie, whose experience in ra- dio and video is broad (CBS, Blackett - Sample - Hummert, Esty, among other posts), writes with much skill and sparkle (a family trait) and has the darndest vocabu- lary this side of Thesaurus. As soon as we get the janitor to dust off the Variety office dictionary, we intend to look up some of Max’s jawbreakers. Ironically, as Wylie waxes elo- quent against the critics he ex- hibits the fact that he’s obviously one himself, for all that he appar- ently wouldn’t be caught dead in an aisle seat opening night. In defending television, Wylie turns the spotlight *on some other areas of human activity and really goes to town as a critic. For instance, his dissertation on what’s wrong with big league baseball (quite apart from the subject of tele- vision) is brilliant criticism of baseball. Wylie on a Limb? Wylie may be in some trouble and will draw lightning upon him- self because he seems to be saying that it’s not a question of tele- vision criticism being of inferior quality. Rather he seems to imply that no criticism is worthwhile and all is motivated in malice and float- ed on faulty information, dubious logic and 'downright smartaleckry. He comments, “It is doubtful if critics make much sense to- the men who have to pay for television. Critics seldom even think of these men except to scold them for being crass, or rich, or for being spon- sors.” John Crosby, he thinks, has for the masses an “amiable tolerance, and the arcades of his mind are always open enough to get some of the slanting sun of mankind’s late-afternoon preoccupations with the sad pleasures and the taw- dry honors of living-but-not-get- ting-ahead-very-fast. Crosby under- stands the lasting wonder of ex- ploring the town’s junkyard. Gould doesn’t. Gould wants it removed or prohibited or covered over and planted.” “Clear Channels” becomes not only a controversial volume but a debaters’ handbook sure to be used through the years by those who speak up for status quo in tele- vision. An impressive amount of fact and interpretation on all sorts of side-issues to the American pro- gram structure is set forth. Nor is the text all criticism of criticism. Wylie ventures to suggest a plan to bring the best minds of the colleges to tv (and recommends that the emcee be Lyman Bryson). Plainly, Wylie has been driven by an irritation with fault-finders to find vault with their habits of mind. His personal credo has been something like this: “Advertising sponsorship Is not a state of dis- ease.” With great energy he has marshalled the rebuttal for tv. Whether he’ll get any thanks from the industry (they don’t buy books much in the broadcasting trade it- self) remains to be seen: first print order is 11,000, Inside Stuff—Radio-TV Reginald Rost ha* sold two of his "Studio On*"’ telescripts to the Dramatic Publishing Co. of Chicago for amateur licensing at $25 per performance. The Westinghouse-CBS plays, "The Remarkable In- cident at Carson Comers” and “Twelve Angry Men," have been ex- panded into full-lengthers by the Chi firm. In the case of "Men," an about face has been accomplished by publication of a second ver- sion called "Twelve Angry Women.” Reason for that Is the obvious one—the need for all-femme players Is much greater among the ama- teur pretenders than scripts where males dominate the action. Rose’s next play for the show (Feb. 14) will be a bit troublesome as far as residual rights to the simon pures are concerned. It’s a western titled “Broken Spur," and so far no one has discovered how to make a horse opera where dames predominate. Bob Sammon, remote director of CBS-TV’s “Person to Person,” is leaving next week (24) to make a technical survey of the home of Harry S. Truman. The former President will be televisited by Ed Murrow on March 4 at his Independence residence, which is being “fixed up” for the event. Sammon will plane to the Coast from K.C. with “P to P” editorial associate John Horn to handle the visitation with actor William Holden, skedded for Jan. 28. This Friday’s (21) “picture window” subjects will be opera star Patrice Munsel and critic-lecturer John Mason Brown. Within the past week two top tradepaper polls singled out CBS Radio’s “Let’s Pretend” as the No. 1 children’s program on the air. Whether the citations were intended as postmortem awards is not known, but “Pretend” was dropped last October after 23 years of un- interrupted airing. The network claims that it continues to get “irate” letters from listeners asking for the show’s return, but so far it’s no-go unless a sponsor chimes in for a stake in the kid-slanted stanza. There’s more to being a advertising-publicity-promotion director of a network than meets the eye. For Gene Accas, who occupies that post at ABC, meant becoming an expert on the Metropolitan Opera Co., or at least on the Met’s personnel. Seems that several announcers at ABC affiliates have been goofing on the pronunciation of the names of Met stars. So Accas last week got out a phonetic handbook on the Met, including pronunciation of every Met singer (classified by voice) and every opera and composer in this year’s repertory, which went to all ABC outlets. The Radio and Television Executives Society Is going to o.o. a sub- ject felt to be very touchy by many industryites. At the Jan. 27 meeting of its workshop, RTES will discuss “Is Negro Market Radio An Asset or a Liability?” Joe Wootton, director of radio at Interstate United Newspapers, will moderate a panel including J.B. Blayton, Jr., g.m. at WERD, Atlanta, Ga.; George S. Goodman, community relations director of WLIB, N, Y.; Victor Bonnemere Jr., a former market researcherat Biow ad agency, and Madeleine Allison, specialist in Negro time buying. Bruce Staudermann, recently installed as manager of the radio-tv department of the Meldrum & Fewsmith ad agency of Cleveland is in Manhattan acquainting himself with sources of supply and program materials incidental to the agency’s bid to upgrade the television com- mercials for its occounts. These include Ford Tractors, Glidden Paints, Durkee Foods. Incidentally, Stauflerman has been hired to direct a musical stage play, “The Princess,” based on Hans Chirstian Andersen for the Cleveland Music Hall March 6-8 inclusive. WHAS-radio and WHAS-TV in Louisville, will air the annual United States Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting in Louisville on Jan. 22. Meeting will be aired live and the event will be recorded for delayed airing over WHAS-radio later that night. Edward R. Murrow, CBS news analyst, will be the principal speaker at the dinner, which will honor 1954’s 10 most outstanding young men. Presentations will be made to the 10 men by the national prez of the Junior Chamber of Commerce. Radio in TV Homes Continued from page 24 Manchester, N.H.—Norman A. Gittleson, former general manager of WJAR-TV in Providence, H I., has been appointed as executive v.p. and general manager of WMUR and WMUR-TV in this citv, owned by the Radio Voice of New Hampshire, Inc., headed by former Gov. Francis P. Murphy of Nashua. Arthur Godfrey sessions pulled a second place 6.7% on shows lis- tened to regularly.) To insure detailed information, Advertest dug into listener famil- iarity with the radio sked between 7:30 and 11 p.m., when tv is strong- est. Starting with Monday, 43% of those queried could name at least one radio program. As the week progressed, the number of listen- ers who could name a nighttime radio show slowly but steadily de- clined until on Sunday only 25.4% knew a radio show by name. Over four-fifths of the Advertest respondents were certain of con- tinuing their radio listenership in the face of increased tv. They re- iterated almost all points made by radio advocates in the industry. After 39% of those who insured their continued listenership said that they listen “while doing other things, and don’t have to sit and watch,” music and news (in that order) were still the chief reasons for audio popularity. Incidentally, the reason news shows on radio continue to draw is that they arc in greater numbers as well as “fast- er and better” than video. Further- more, radio, Advertest discloses, required “less concentration” than tv, offered relaxation and “com- pany” and was portable. Advertest brought WNEW in on the radio perusal, asking the indie station to supply queries of its own to append to the questionnaire. (This had nothing to do with the response in favor of “Make Believe Ballroom”.) 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