Variety (February 1955)

Wednesday, February 2, 1955 RADIO-TELEVISION 25 FCC CAN REGULATE NETWORKS ————— . ♦ — ■ ■ - 4 Plotkin Report Highlights Washington, Feb. 1. These are the highlights of the Plotkin report: On the network front, it recommends that the FCC take steps to insure that "no arbitrarily discriminatory practices” are fol- lowed by the webs in awarding affiliations. The Commission would be required to set up standards to be followed by the nets in giving affiliations and stations meeting these standards would be entitled to contracts. It recommends that the FCC set up procedures to insure that network programs not carried by a regular affiliate be made avail- able to other stations. It further calls on the FCC to impose restrictions on station choice of network programs in intermixed areas when conversion has reached a certain point, with provisions to insure that no net is "frozen out” of a substantial number of markets. The report recommends that the Commission abolish or modify the option time rule "to provide that a network option should not be permitted to oust a national spot program any more than it is able to oust the program of another network.” The nets would also be required to get out of the national spot representation field. The commission is also called on to (1) consider separation bt AM from tv networks; (2) consider reducing the ceiling on mul- tiple ownership to three stations; (3» inquire whether multiple owners have violated antitrust laws in securing “desirable” af- filiations; (4) rule out contracts binding the affiliate for two years but giving the network cancellation privileges; and (5) investigate reasonableness of coaxial cable charges. On the deintermixture front, report requests FCC to reexamine proposals it rejected to eliminate intermixture and to advice the committee what action it plans. In respect to receivers, the report recommends that if the excise is to be lifted on all-channel sets the exemption should be granted only on a showing that the manufacturer would produce all-channel sets exclusively. . ^ Both the FCC and the Justice Dept, are required to report to committee on recommendations within 30 days and submit progress reports later. Why AT&T Grows Rich Closed-Circuit ‘Telephone Convention* Links NBC Sales in N. Y., Chi, Detroit Hour Dramatic Stanzas Generating Lots of Steam in Bid for Laurels f A new wrinkle in telephonic conventions was sprung at NBC last week when the entire sales op- erations in New York, Chicago and Detroit engaged in a three-way several-hour kickaround of the net- work’s sales problems and at the same time were given a first-hand glimpse by the web’s high com- mand into the projects being pat- terned for the ’55-’56 semester. All problems were tossed back and forth as though in assembly and network chieftains claim it_was as successful as an in-person get-to- gether. Immediately after the closed* circuit powwow, the entire pro- ceedings were put on tape and flown to Hollywood, where the Western Division sales staff was able to do a playback the follow- ing day to alert itself on what's new in NBC sales plans. Albany’s WTRI (UHF) Signs Off * Albany, Feb. 1. The Albany area suffered its first UHF casualty Monday night (31), when WTRI, after spending a large amount of money to get on the air in Feb., 1954, and then to build modern studios and offices, signed off. The reason: the CBS affiliation was lost to WROW and no other network tieup was available. WROW retained its ABC and DuMont connections, while pick- ing up the limited Columbia feed. The Stanley Warner Theatre Corp. held a 50% interest in Van Curler Broadcasting Corp., headed by Col. Harry Wilder and general- managed by Richard B. Wheeler. Since hitting the air, WTRI had carried "some programs from the CBS Television Network”; was “severely limited by the fact WRGB, using its power as a VHF station, maintained a monopoly of the best tv programs of all four networks and made it difficult for WTRI to operate.” PHILCO UPS TWO Philadelphia, Feb. 1. Joseph A. vLagore has been named vice president-manufactur- ing. and James D. McLean has been upped to v. p. in charge of sales for the Goveniment and industrial division of Pmlco Corp. New Dennis Day Series Dennis Day, who planes back to the Coast today (Wed.) after wind- ing his nitery stint at the Copa- cabana, N. Y., will shoot a pilot on a new variety show format for NBC-TV in a couple of weeks. Day’s situation comedy segment folded last season after being slot- ted against “I Lova Lucy.” Bowling Takes The Keg Light In Chi TV Hassle Chicago, Feb. 1. Sudden popularity of bowling on tv has touched off a dingdong bat- tle centered here over video con- trol of the nation's top keglers. Background of the skirmish over the signing up of the name bowlers is the belief the sport has a net- work future, on the basis of astro- nomical ratings being knocked off locally by the two weekly WNBQ live shows and the filmed version sold in 62 cities. Squared off. interestingly enough, are the producer and the bank- roller of the original WNBQ pack- age which first demonstrated bowling’s tv wallop. Sponsor Pete DeMet, Chi car dealer turned tv impresario, was in New York last week pitching a network tenpin package to ABC-TV and CBS-TV. DeMet, who also financed and pro- duced last year the “Champion- ship .Bowling” film series now run- ning in 62 tele markets, the past several weeks, has been inking bowling headliners to exclusive tv 1 pacts. At week’s end he reportedly had over 30 pactees sewed up for network, local and film deals. Since the DeMet contracts could preclude use of the bowlers on his local shows. Matt Niesen, producer of the WNBQ packages which ema- nate from his alley, has turned the matter over to his attorney San- ford (Bud) Wolff. Latter last week dispatched a “cease and desist” notification to DeMet, threatening “necessary legal measures” to fore- stall the car dealer’s attempts to tie up a maximum of 40 top bowl- ers. Niesen, incidentally, owns 20% (Continued on page 52) JUSTICE DEPT. ALSO GETS NOD Washington, Feb. 1. The majority report on the Sen- ate inquiry into the relation of net- work operations to UHF problems places responsibility for correcting inequities in the tv broadcasting industry with the FCC and Depart- ment of Justice. The report, to be issued tomor- row (Wed.) by Chairman Warren Magnuson (D., Wash.) of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee, was prepared by Harry Plotkin, Washington attorney, who became majority counsel when the Demo- crats assumed control of Congress. A minority report, by former FCC Commisioner Robert Jones, who was originally appointed ma- jority counsel by former commit- tee chairman John W. Bricker is to be issued later this week. Entitled a “memorandum” on "television network regulation and the UHF problem," the Plotkin re- port is the first important docu- ment to come out of Congress on the role of networks in the tv broadcasting field. Although it was prepared for the committee as a basis fo f legislation, it makes few legislative recommendations. Instead, it tells the FCC, in ef- fect: "It’s your job to regulate the networks. Here’s our sanction to do so.” It also tells the Justice Dept.: "Don’t wait for the FCC to move in on the broadcasting industry. Exercise your antitrust preroga- tives." UHF Problem ‘Serious’ In restrained but nonetheless pointed language, the report finds the UHF-network problem a “seri- ous" one which warrants “the most earnest consideration” of Congress and the government agencies in- volved. While not claiming to provide "the complete answer,” it regards its recommendations as "a good starting point in an endeavor to find a .solution.” Its purpose, it declares, is "to devise means of increasing the number of tv stations in the vari- ous communities through a re- invigoration of UHF operations and to promote full, free, and in- dividualistic self-expression of tv station licensees by mitigating the economic dependence of station licensees upon a few network or- ganizations.” "The objective." it asserts, "is vital. The price of failure as a re- sult of inaction w'ould be enor- mous.” RED ROWE’S ROW CUES KFWB EXIT Hollywood, Feb. 1. Red Rowe has exited KFWB. where he’s been a disk jockey for eight years, the d.j. accusing man- ager Harry Maizlish of forcing him out, although his contract had 10 months to run. ' Maizlish was not available for comment on the hassle. His office admitted Rowe had exited, but as for the reason, said "you’ll have to get that from somebody else.” Rowe accused Maizlish of bring- ing him in for renegotiation of his pact long before the customary time, then offering him a new deal which amounted to a 60% paycut.” , So What’* New Major ripley attending the current tv semester is the “suddenly taking cognizance” of the manner in which stars are being utilized to plug the client’s products. Despite the present “viewing with alarm,” actually the situ- ation goes back a full 20 years in radio, when the same hue and cry went up as Amos ’n’ Andy were extolling the vir- tues of Pepsodent; Rudy Vallee was carrying the commercial torch for Fleischmann’s Yeast; Eddie Cantor was a star sales- man for General Foods, etc.-— all doing the personal message routine then, as now. I’ll Be a Dirty— The gent who does the Dial soap pitch on the “George Gobel’’ show is being manifest- ly unfair to his competitors. Point of the pitch is that Dial gets off more dirt and bacteria than its competition, and he il- lustrates this through the use of a human figure outlined on a blackboard with chalk repre- senting the dirt. Using a dry blackboard eraser, he wipes the figure only half-clean, and this represents the action of the ordinary soap. Then with a wet eraser to represent Dial, it comes completely clean. Point -of all this—but he doesn’t make it—is that if the other soaps used water too, they’d be just as effective. It’s Now Buy Me Buy My Summer Replacement Too’ Looks like Jackie Gleason start- ed something when he convinced CBS that there was nothing wrong with a Gleason Enterprises pack- age (the Dorseys) taking over for him as a summer replacement and filler show, not to mention the fact that the selfsame Dorsey musical will go in back-to-back with Glea- son next season. All of which swells the Gleason coffers consid- erably. Now it’s Sid Caesar’s turn to call the summer replacement shot, the comedian’s own package having been pitched up to NBC to take over the Monday 8 to 9 period dur- ing the 13 weeks that the regular show lays off. Clients are now pacted on a year-round basis (ac- tually it’s still 39 weeks, with the one-a-month preemptions for the specs making up the differential), but the network is now obliged to think in terms of 52-week major- league programming, rather than 13-week puff material. Caesar’s package will showcase bigtime tal- ent. Similar “buy me, buy my sum- mer replacement” situation may also apply to some degree in terms of Milton Berlc’s Tuesday 8 to 9 slotting. It’s understood Berle will take over complete supervision of the time period next summer. MEDICOS SET IKE FOR CLOSED-CIRCUIT President Eisenhower will open the first closed-circuit televised “Videclinic” next Wednesday (9) at which doctors in some 31 cities will see and hear new develop- ments in medicine demonstrated and discussed by top medical re- searchers and specialists. The President will speak from the White House to an estimated audi- ence of 20.000 doctors at theatres, auditoriums and hotels in the 31 cities. Ike’s remarks will kick off an hour and one-half clinical session, with live and film pickups from Boston, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Chicago and New Orleans. Session is being transmitted over facilities of Theatre Network Television, with Smith, Kline & French Labs sponsoring and producing in co- operation with the American Medi- cal Assn, and state and local medi- cal societies. Latter will host the screenings in their own cities. Mannings Texaco Coin Cleveland, Feb. 1. Cleveland —Tom Manning has been signed by Texaco for cross- the-board five-minute 6 p.m. sports- cast, giving him at least 12 Texaco- pacted stints per week, according to WTAM-WNBK Assistant Gen- eral Manager Bill Davidson. Television’s full hour dramatic showcasers will be on a super- binge from here in, and with some unusual prebuilt facets. NBC’s up- coming cluster ofTour stanzas start- ing Sunday (6) alone encompasses a “soup to nuts” spread with (1) an original, (2) adaptation of a Broadway and Hollywood big click. (3) transplantation of a smash film (from bestselling book), and (4) a bona fide, Honest John “return en- gagement by popular demand” original within four weeks of its premiere. The numerals refer respectively to Gore Vidal’s "A Sense of Jus- tice" on “TV Playhouse" Sunday; Clare Boothe Luce’s ‘The Women” (with half a dozen stars in its all- femme cast> on Monday’s “Produ- cers’ Showcase” back-to-back with Charles Jackson's “Lost Weekend” on “Robert Montgomery Presents” (Jackson, incidentally, has joined J. W. Thompson as script editor on ABC-TV’s “Pond’s Theatre”); and. with the mostest “coast to coast" interest, the return of Rod Serling’s “Patterns” next Wednesday (9' after jts sleeper whammo last month on Kraft’s “TV Theatre." (Kraft’s opus tonight (Wed.» will be John Galsworthy’s done-every- five-years-or-so “Skin Game” in adaptation by Robert Howard Lind- say.) ' , On the CBS side, Reginald Rose, who apparently does it with mir- rors, will be repped with his fourth script on “Studio One" this season (having opened the skein last fall with his acclaimed "Twelve Angry Men"). Rose’s Feb. 14 play will (Continued on gage 46) Leontyne Price s ‘Tosca for O’Seas Gratified with the reaction from its two-hour “Tosca” telecast last week, in which the network set a precedent by starring Leontyne Price, a Negress, in an otherwise all-white cast, NBC has initiated overtures with the State Dept, to make kinescopes available for over- seas viewing, via Voice of America. In addition, the sound portion will be made available for Radio Free Europe. In all, 62 stations carried the tel- ecast, with not a single beef regis- tered from any affiliate, including those in the south. Board chairman David Sarnoff has made no bones as to his own pleasure over the results. Of the 62-station spread nearly half were over the Dixie or south- land “traditiQn” route. These in- cluded Washington (D.C.), Louis- ville, Columbia (Mo. and S. C.), Huntington. Memphis, Nashville, Norfolk. Alexandria (La.), Charles- ton, Charlotte, Columbus (Ga.), Durham, Greenville (N. C. and S. C.», Jackson (Missr), Knoxville, Macon, Meridian TMiss.), Mobile, Orlando, Roanoke, Wheeling, Win- ston-Salem, Tulsa; and Temple- Wico, Wichita Falls and El Paso (all Tex.). Ordering the show thus far for kinnie exposure (delayed seven to 28 days) was Atlanta, in addition to Boston, Johnstown (Pa.), Toronto, Honolulu, Pueblo (Col.) and Anchorage, Alaska. SHOWERMAN HELMS MILWAUKEE’S WISN Milwaukee, Feb. 1. Appointment of vet broadcasting exec I. E. (Chick) Showerman as manager of WISN in Milwaukee, is announced by D. L. Provdst, veepee and general manager of the Radio and Television Division of The Hearst Corp. Showerman’s appointment is effective today (Tues.) He succeeds Harry D. Peck who resigned as WISN manager as of Jan. 27. Peck is to announce his future activities shortly. For more than two dec- ades “Chick” Showerman has been a prominent figure and a key exec- utive in the broadcasting industry