Variety (May 1956)

80 KAmO-TEIJEVISION Vahiety ■Wednesday, May 23, 1956 Lease on Frisco KEAR Longhair Indie Stirs Up an Angry Storm San Francisco, May 22. 4' The on-again, off-again lease of Frisco’s longhair radio station, KEAH, has stirred an angry storm about the head of the debt-plagued Indie’s owner, Stephen A. Cisler. Only three weeks ago Cisler confirmed rumors that he had leased the 10,000-watt station to Bartell Broadcasters, owners of radio stations in Milwaukee, At¬ lanta, Phoenix and San Diego. The Bartells, he said, were switching to a pops-and-personality format. Cisler at that time said “agree¬ ment had been reached, subject to FCC confirmation,” on these terms: (1) A five-year lease at $60,000 a year; (2) The Bartells to have an op¬ tion to buy the “Good Music Sta¬ tion” for $125,000 at the end of five years; (3) Cisler to be retained as a “consultant” at $12,000 a year. But the agreement, so firm then according to Cisler, never went to the FCC. The Bartells looked into the deal more closely and called it off. On the- other hand, Cisler claims the deal was cancelled “by mutual agreement.” Announcement of the lease, how¬ ever, brought anguished outcries from two local groups. One group was headed by Frisco philanthropist Frank V.. DeBellis and lawyer Joseph Alioto. They said they had offered to pay off all of KEAR’s debts and invest $50,000 in Bay- Radio, Inc., KEAR’s parent corporation, in return for 50% control and Cisler’s promise to step out of management. The other group was headed by lawyer Milton Stern Jr., who rep¬ resents a number of stockholders and is calling a stockholders’ meet¬ ing with the avowed purpose of taking operating control. Since the Bartells called off their deal, Cisler has been playing for time desperately in an effort to find a buyer for the station. So far, only one would-be buyer, outside the local DeBellis-Alioto group, has been identified. This is Calvin Smith, who runs E. L. Cord’s successful longhair outlet, KFAC, in Los Angeles. Smith, according to Cisler, made an offer to him similar to the now- dead Bartell deal. Smith, however, denied he made any such offer and, in fact, called Cisler’s terms “com¬ pletely unacceptable” after in¬ specting KEAR’s present quarters and suburban transmitter last week. “The KEAR broadcasting equip¬ ment is worthless,” said Smith af¬ ter his inspection, “and housed in a hillbilly shack. We’d be buying a frequency only. However, KFAC will consider the situation and come up with an offer in the near future.” “But,” added Smith as a parting shot, “A half million dollars is a ridiculous figure.” In the back of Smith’s mind were two considerations: 1) Salvage of KEAR as a classi¬ cal outlet in an area with plenty of highbrow interests; 2) The possibility of strengthen¬ ing KFAC’s commercial position .with a northern anchor in what . could become a statewide network of serious-music radio stations. Cisler, meantime, claims to have received offers for KEAR from four “Eastern groups,” two of whom represent “good music.” WN6Q as Testing Ground For NBC-TV Kid Shows Chicago, May 22. NBC-TV’s WNBQ is to be the testing ground for new kids’ show formats under a project set up last week by the o&o’s veep Jules Herbeauvaux and Dr. Frances Hor- wich, NBC’s supervisor of chil¬ dren’s programs. Educator, whose “Ding Dong School” broke in. originally on the Chi station, will first do a comprehensive analysis of WNBQ’s local moppet offerings to see how they measure up to her yardsticks. Second phase of the Windy City laboratory will be the develop¬ ment of new show ideas for the tricycle set out of program director George Heinemann’s shop with network exposure the eventual aim. Irwin Wolf’s Death In Pitt May Alter Status Of Ch. 4 T Allocation Pittsburgh, May 14. The death a month ago of Irwin D. Wolf, civic leader, department store tycoon and partowner of KQV, may possibly change the de¬ cision as to who will be permitted to operate Channel 4 at nearby Ir¬ win, Pa. This in turn could com¬ plicate the tangled VHF picture locally and extend the period in the local .market whereby KDKA-TV continues to have the lush field to itself. ■ On April 18, just a few hours be¬ fore Wolf died, Elizabeth C. Smith, the FCC hearing examiner, had rec¬ ommended the granting of the li¬ cense for Channel 4 to Television City, Inc., the former Allegheny Broadcasting Corp., operators of radio station KQV. Wolf and Earl F. Reed were the officers of Tele¬ vision City. Miss Smith’s "recommendation was based in a large’ measure on Wolf’s record of long service to the community. As a result of his death almost simultaneously with the original okay, the other appli¬ cants, chief of which.. is Hearst- owned WCAE, jointly asked for an indefinite extension of time for fil¬ ing exceptions from the initial de¬ cision of the hearing examiner and FCC Commissioner Robert T. Bart¬ ley, acting as motions commis¬ sioner, granted it. He also recom¬ mended to the full FCC that the case, should be remanded to the examiner for further consideration because, he said, Wolf’s death may have changed the qualifications of Television City to operate the channel. Geraldine Zorbaugh ABC’s 1st Femme V.P. ABC’s Geraldine B. Zorbaugh becomes the first femme v.p. at a network with her appointment last week as v.p. and special assistant to network prexy Bob Kintner. With Miss Zorbaugh moving out of her post as general counsel and ABC secretary after five years, business affairs v.p. Jim Stabile has been placed in charge of a consolidated business affairs-legal department. Stabile, named a v.p. last fall, becomes v.p. and general counsel for the network, and also has been named assistant secretary of the parent American Broadcasting- Paramount Theatres. While Sta¬ bile succeeds Miss Zorbaugh ... the legal side, Omar F. Elder, who retains his post as assistant gen¬ eral counsel, becomes secretary of NCAA Regional Tilts Finalized for NBC-TV The NBC-TV sports department .has put the final wraps on its schedule of five eastern regional NCAA football games for the fall, these to complement the eight na¬ tional telecasts previously set. Five- game schedule comprises Colgate- Cornell Sept. 29, Penn State-Holy Cross Oct. 13, Syracuse-Army Oct. 20, Navy-Notre Dame Nov. 3 and Yale-Princeton Nov. 17. Web’s national schedule kicks off a week earlier, with the Kentucky- Georgia Tech tilt at Lexington, andj winds Dec. 8 with Miami-Pitts- burgh. All are Saturday games ex¬ cept the Thanksgiving Day con¬ tests between Penn-Cornell and Oregon State^Oregon. St. L, Cuffos Radio Sets St. Louis, May 22. To hypo National Radio week execs, of KXOK dished out a radio during every hour the station was on the air May 13-19. The invita¬ tion, via air, to make a stab for one of the sets brought more than 60,000 letters, postcards, etc., from listeners in the seven midwest states covered by the station. The missives were placed in the hopper of a mobile ready, mix cement vehicle and thoroughly stirred. - —.- * i At each hour the hopper dis- ABC. Mrs. Muriel H. Reis of the charged a letter and the person web’s , legal department becomes whose name was affixed won the assistant secretary. . , icuffo. radio. Chi Station Switch For ‘Sachs Amateur Hour’ Chicago, May 22. Morris B. Sachs, department store entrepreneur and [ amateur politician (he’s the city treasurer), is moving his venerable “Sachs Amateur Hour” simulcast from WBKB and WLS to WGN-TV and WGN. Show has been a Sunday radio and then tv institution ^or over 22 years, with a lengthy 'as¬ sociation with the ABC stations. There seems to be some confu¬ sion as to just when the hour-long two-ply program will make the switch. Program’s contract on WBKB expires June 17 but the new WGN-TV noon to 1 p.m. berth won’t be open until July. 8. FCC Tells Wiley: ‘We Can’t Compel Networks To Preempt Com’l Time’ Washington, May 15. The FCC has no authority to compel tv networks to surrender some of their prime commercial time for non-commercial public service programs, it has been ex¬ plained to Senator Alexander Wiley (R.; Wise.). In the Feb. 1 issue of Variety, Sen. Karl Mundt (R., S. D.) said the networks were ignoring their duty to the public and that he was going to get action from either the FCC or Congress. Subsequently, Wiley wrote to the Commission that he and many other members of Congress felt as Mundt did. He also asked what the FCC proposed to do about it. The reply has just come from George C. McConnaughey, the Commission chairman. In a • letter to Wiley, McConnaughey made these points: . 1. Under the law, the FCC has no power to censor radio or tv programs. 2. A serious question would arise if such time were preempted for public service programming, because some of those who spoke might be candidates for election or reelection. Thus the station would be involved over whether it must grant equal time to all other candidates. 3. The FCC network study com¬ mittee is currently surveying the entire network situation, including the effect of webs on program¬ ming. Following this, some/ rule changes or new legislation might be recommended. “While the Commission recog¬ nizes that the public interest is served by affording the viewing public the opportunity to hear dif¬ fering points of view,” added Mc¬ Connaughey, “neither the Com¬ mission, nor any individual broad¬ caster can, in advance, hammer out, down to the last detail, a blueprint which will give answers to all the problems which arise in the day-to-day development and maintenance of an adequate broad¬ cast service. “And the type of program serv¬ ice which will best serve the divers needs of the many service areas of the country cannot readily be reduced to a rule of a statute. Th”e I Commission, therefore, in exam¬ ining the service rendered by a licensee, for the most part has limited its examination to an over¬ all consideration of the licensee’s ■operations to determine whether continued operation will be in the public interest": . .,But the Com¬ mission does not. interfere with the management of a station in the exercise of the licensee’s discre¬ tion with regard to" program con¬ tent. The Commission does not di¬ rect that particular type of pro¬ grams shall be broadcast during particular hours of the day.” Filmcraft Repacted By NBC For Groudho Quizzer Hollywood, May 22. • Filmcraft Productions, which has been filming the Groucho Marx quizzer, “You Bet Your Life,” since its inception, has been signed by NBC-TV to film the show again next season—the series' seventh on tv. Web had considered shooting the series itself next semester, but then decided to hand another 39- weeks deal over to Filmcraft pr v exy Isidore Lindenbaum. Lindenbaum plans to begin pro¬ duction earlier than usual, on July 2, but will skip August, resuming lensing again in September. Film¬ ing will again be in NBC’s Stu- I clio A. ► M f M♦♦♦♦ M M »< From the Production Centres IN NEW YORK CITY . . . John Karol, CBS Radio sales v.p* addresses the Wisconsin Broad¬ casters Assn, in Milwaukee tomorrow (Thurs.) on changing trends in radio listening and programming . . , Henry Untermeyer leaves his sales manager slot at WCBS next week, takes a week vacation, then moves to San Francisco to take over at KCBS g.m. . . . Raymond Young moved from the copy department of Lennen & Newell to the copy staff of SSC&B . . . Martin Weldon’s WCBS “Port of New York” series celebrates its third anni May 30 . . . Jane Pickens’ first group of tapes from Europe for NBC’s “Weekday” includes interviews and mood pieces from Amsterdam, Leyden and points on the Rhine . . . Robert Mann, son of Sy Mann, pianist on the Bob Haymes shows on WCBS, a chip off the old block; 12-year-old gave his second recital at Town Hall week before last . . . Tex Jinx McCrary in Washington over the weekend for the Pan-American Ball . . . Ira Ashley produced three shows in a row on CBS Radio Saturday (19): “Tremendous Trifles” (12:55-1 p.m,), “City Hospital” (1:05-1:30) and the “Kathy Godfrey Show” (1:30-2,) but he goes back to just two next week . . . Walter Cronkite really making with the primary coverage for CBS—in Dallas this week, Florida next and Los Angeles the week after . . . Jack Ster¬ ling competing inrthe Pro-Celebrity golf tourney in connection with the Palm Beach Championship June 6 at the Wykagyl C. C. in New Rochelle . . . Larry LeSeuer, who addressed the Westport YMCA yes¬ terday (Tues.) on “America in a Changing World,” speaks at the Balti¬ more Museum of Art’s members preview of the Steichen “Family of Man” exhibition tomorrow (Thurs.) on the UN ... Show-must-go-dn dept.: Lou Teicher of the piano team of Ferrante & Teicher had itchy fingers and feet during a stint on the Kathy Godfrey show last week, dashing home as soon as it was over in time to take his wife to the hospital for the birth of a son, their third child. Robert F. Jones to the Branham station rep radio sales staff after stint at Adam Young . . . Vern Hendrickson, WMGM assistant chief, currently Florida vacationing.. Also Frank Roehrenbeck, another WMGM exec . . . Frank Pellegrin, partner and veep in H-R Repre¬ sentatives, became newest prexy of N. Y. chap of Radio Pioneers, with BBDjQ’s Frank Silvernail outgoing; Henrietta Harrison 1st veep; Jeff Sparks, of UN, 2d veep; WOR-TV’s Gordon Gray,♦ 3d veep; Arthur Simon, secretary, and Charles Wall, BMI, treasurer . . . Big Joe Rosen- field, WMGM “Happiness Exchange” host, got out first issue of Hap¬ piness Magazine, edited by Celia Ryland Ford . . . Ramon Bfii.ce ends his first rhythm-blues year at WAAT June 2; that night guest of honor at a ball in Newark Armory . . . Other WMGM holidayers: Phil Mould¬ ing, Cape Cod; Dick Barr,^Iowa, and Marty Bergman just back from Poconos honeymoon. .... IN HOLLYWOOD . . . Audrey Lives, radio-tv scriptist, has a tie-line to all national agencies, for child adoption to furnish her/ with documented cases to be drama¬ tized for a* tv series called “I Stand at" the Door.” It will .soon; be piloted for agency and network inspection . . . Writes Hal Bock, ex- NBC’ite: “We sold our rotisseries in Hawaii to a guy named Kelly, who changed name of the place to Kelly-Katessen with an insignia of a shamrock inside a Star of David.” Bock has opened his own public relations office on the island . . . “Queen for a Day” gets' 45- minute daylight strip on NBC starting July 2. Quarter hour extension was to accommodate Procter & Gamble and Borden, who bought eight quarter-hour segments . . . Charlie Winninger, the ol’ Capt. Henry of “Showboat,” will play pater to Charlie Farrell on his "summer series in the “Lucy” slot . . . Tom Fraser, late with CBS-TV’s “Panorama Pacific,” packaged and produces for a Sacramento station “Horizon,” which General Electric will sponsor . . . NBC’s John K. West> Coast veepee, reports that the new construction at the net’s Color City in Burbank, is running on schedule and by Jan. 1 eight of the 48 acres will be buzzing with activity . . . Hollywood’s “county strip” will have its first radio station when KDAY moves in from Santa Monica. It’s a 10 kilowatter headed by J. D. Funk and George A. Baron. IN CHICAGO ... NBC newsman Alex Dreier shepherding a group of biz-financial men on a flying junket to Moscow and East Berlin June 18 . . . Julie Norri* upped to film program buyer in Needham, Louis & Brorby’s radio¬ tv department . . . Under his new WNBQ contract, weatherman Clint Youle is checking off the Sunday night show with Charles Johnson, U. S. ‘Weather Bureau district forecaster, due in as one of the replace¬ ments starting Aug. 1. Youle continues his weeknight prognostica¬ tions . . . Steve Schickel stitched to another year’s pact as a WGN deejay . . . AFTRA’s first-half annual membership meeting to be held June 4 . . . New Niles Film Production payrollees include Niles Swan- son, ex-CBS, as assistant to production manager Tom Ryan and Tom Gura, ex-Chicago Tribune artist . . . Polk Bros, will share half of WNBQ’s Saturday night bowling show, with Seven-Up . . . Boh Vena¬ bles clocks his. first anni next week as commercial spieler on Litt Jewelry’s “Frontier Playhouse” Saturdays on, WGN-TV . . . WNBQ- WMAQ ad-promotion manager Howard Coleman talks on color tv be- f 9 re the South Suburban Press Club Saturday (26) . . . WGN-TV news¬ reel staffer Jim Hayden and family on' an auto trip vacation . . . Patte Preble has deserted the Windy City to join the staff at WICS, Spring- field . . . Betty Ross West, WNBQ-WMAQ public affairs and education supervisor, working the BMI clinic circuit this week with appearances at Columbus, Grand Rapids and Milwaukee . . . General Motors Ac¬ ceptance Corp. bought a bundle of 45 60-second traffic blurbs for week¬ end airing on WGN over a 17-week span. IN PHILADELPHIA . . . Tom Hennessey, WIP music librarian for the last 13 years, exits station to do promotion for Mercury Records , . . Bob Lawrence, who does a daily midnight show biz segment, is new musical director . . . Sam Gallu, producer-director of “Navy Log,” coming from Hollywood to attend Central High School’s 164th reunion (24) . . . Mary Jones, WFIL broadcaster, hospitalized for ankle operation, result of an auto accident several weeks ago . '. . Charley Shaw, WCAU news editor re¬ ceived the .Sigma Delta Chi’s national journalism award in Chicago. Shaw Was honored for his script on 10 young Frenchman viewing their first baseball game . . . Phil Sheridan, WFIL’s “Mr. Rise and Shine,” appointed to newly-created post of assistant program director of the station. IN BOSTON ... Boston Sunday “blue laws” hit WNAC-TV’s Cerebral Palsy Telethon skedded foj; Saturday (26) beginning at 9:30 p.m. and running to 2 p.m. (27). As no live entertainment can be presented after midnight (26) station will fill with feature films and regular reports on CP pledges, Phyl Doherty, director of advertising and publicity for WNAC-TV, is bringing in Phyllis Kirk, Bob “Captain Kangaroo” Keeshan, Jack Smith, Betty Ann Grove, Burl Ives, Helen Halpin and Terry Saunders of “The King and I” for guest performance Saturday night . . . WNAC-TV filmed Warren Hull’s visit in behalf of the Olympic drive fund and hosted the w.k. personality at a press party for sports and tv writers at Hotel Statler with Ruthann Faber in charge of reception . . . Sari Adel Aweidah of Jerusalem, Jorda, one of a group of 19 radio and tv students visiting (Continued on page 60)