Variety (November 1957)

P4£rIET f RADIO-TELEVISION Wednesday, November 13, 1957 43 t 9 Meanwhile, Back at WNBQ... Chicago, Nov. 5. Like parent network NBC-TV, WNBQ here has registered, sharp audience gains since the new television season began, as borne out by latest ARB share-of-audience statistics. The NBC o&o has now overtaken CBS’s WBBM-TV, 32.8 to 32.5, in audience share over the seven-day week from signon to signoff. WNBQ climbed from'third place the previous month to first-by- an-eyelash,. while the indie WGN-TV dropped from second 422.6 In September ARB) to fourth (17.0 in October). ABC-TV’s WBKB also showed a slight numerical decline, although rising a . notch to third place. In some areas of the day, WNBQ’s audience share improved as much as 131% over the September tally,.. From signon to 6 p.m. the station scored a 38 r 8 share, while the month previous it drew a 16.8 in the same period. Network .programming on Saturday improved aboat 43% over the preceding month, and in general the •dmproyement in the net’s ratings seem to have helped the local fare. Station’s strongest segment of the day now is the period from noon to 3 p.rm, when its share is 55.5 against 22.1 for runner-up WBBM-TV. From 6-10 p.m., bulk df the Saturday network time, WNBQ leads WBBM-TV 42.9 to 31.7. . Rating for WNBQ’s principal feature film, on Sunday nights, bettered Itself almost fivefold with 25.7 from its 5.7 showing in the September ARB. Oh last ratings night, however, station’s “Movie 5” had dealt “African Queen” from the top of its new United Artists package, so it’s unlikely that the score will be sustained. Jack Paar's “Tonight” progressed a couple points from the month, before for a gain, in other terms, of 34%. Ratings of between 6 and 8 are highest for the 11 to midnight hour on the station since Steve Allen hosted the show. WNBQ’s revised and newly forstalled news-weather-sports strip at 10:30, on the other hand, is still unimpressive. Ratings for “Five Star Final” are slightly lower now than when the strip / went on half an hour earlier but are a degree higher than the previous 10:30 p.m. programming._ t _ Wright, Sandburg ‘Steel’ the Show Ribbing Includes Architect’s Cracks at Sponsor’s (U.S. Steel) Output on Chi ‘Educ’l Spec’ -- ' • -— By LES BROWN Chicago, Nov. 12. Chicago’s educational station, WTTW, played to a mass audience for the first' time in its two years on the air fortnight ago with its “educational spectacular,” a 40-minute verbal jam session be- J tween a couple of all-time greats in the arts game, architect Frank Lloyd Wright and poet Carl Sand¬ burg. Alistair -Cooke did the batching until the boy£“ got warmed up, and by 10 p.m. they were wailing so well the station allowed them 10 minutes overtime. The show, In a way, out-per- soned-to-personed “Person to Per¬ son” and, as spectaculars go, held a candle in its own fashion to the way Sinatra and Crosby off-the- cuffed it on the Edsel spec Oct. 13. The boys, Sandburg and Wright, are television naturals, each with, a flair for the outlandish idea and the colorful phrase. Their refusal to play the television game strict¬ ly by the rules made their act more refreshing, and if the truth be said, the show was a good deal less edu¬ cational than it was entertaining. Extemporaneous talk between men who can handle it, who have opinions On everything or who will manufacture one brilliantly on the spot if they didn’t haye it to come in—this kind of gabfest hits a new (Continued on page 48) Maxwell House’s Skip T to P Visit General Foods, for its Maxwell House Coffee, has bought into "Person to Person” and will spon¬ sor alternate weeks, starting Jan. 1. GF replaces Amoco, which pulled out due to extensive budg¬ etary cutbacks in connection with an expansion program. , . - Initially, Maxwell House will take on* a split network, covering the area, east of Cleveland. That’s. to; accommodate Hamm Brewing, .which has the western network on, the show (Amoco formerly had east-only). As of next fail, how¬ ever, Hamm’s will drop oUt and Maxwell House will go full-net¬ work. At that time, “P to P”. will be fully national in its sponsorship, since Life mag covers the full Web in its skip-week.- GF deal was set I via' Benton & Bowles. | Jerry’s WABDMD’er Jerry Lewis will again host the New York Muscular Dystrophy Telethon beginning Saturday, Nov. 30, at 10'‘p.m. for 20 hours over WABD. Last time WABD did the MD telethon, more coin was collected than promised while the show was on the air, according to the sta¬ tion. Upcomer is due to be lensed at the Hotel Roosevelt and a re¬ mote pickup is slated from the Roosevelt Raceway on Long Is¬ land. Court Clears UAW On ’54 Politicasts Detroit, Nov. 12. The United Automobile Workers was found innocent by a Federal Court jury of 10 women and two men of violating the . Federal Cor¬ rupt Practices Act . by sponsoring nine telecasts wi‘h union dues money .before the 1954 election. The telecasts featured interviews of Democratic Congressional can¬ didates exclusively. Federal Judge Frank A. Picard £aid the constitutionality of the law—which the UAW challenges— would not be decided by the court because of the verdict. When the charges were dismissed two years ago by the court;- the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the case to be tried. . The Government contended the union violated Federal statutes barring unions and corporations from .making financial campaign contributions. . The verdict may have wide¬ spread. repercussions in future tv electioneering, ' with corporations attempting to duplicating the UAW tactics. i Coke’s Ind. *Dance Party* “Top 10 Dance Party,” a live syndicated teenagg audience par¬ ticipation tv series, has been picked up by the regional Coco- Cola bottlers in the Evansville, Ind., area for a ride on WFIE-TV, Evans¬ ville. Show will be slotted one-hour daily Monday through Friday.' “Top 10,” now in its third year, is a Victor & Richards package produced and written by Alan Sands. tut? By LES BROWN Chicago, Nov. 12. Despite NBC-TV’s construction of a Tape Central in Hollywood and its plans for a second “centre” in New York, it is Chicago that may actually become the principal time equalizing point for the other two webs. ABC-TV for over a year has done its daylight saving and clock time “transmitting from the Windy City, and it's understood CBS also intends to set up an Ampex installation here in coming months along with others on both' coasts. Advantage of centering video¬ tape operations In Chicago for time standardizing purposes is fairly ob¬ vious, City's geographical location between the two extreme time zones lessens the cost of cable and makes it the natural relay site. What’s feared, however, by CBS engineers is that there may not he enough circui'ry available in the Windy City from AT&T, and this may be the reason why NBC bypassed the city in its plans*' ABC-TV’s Videotape Center be¬ gan functioning here with the start of daylight saving time this past April as a refinement of its previous hot kinnie operation. Web has housed its three Ampex proto¬ types in the space formerly occu¬ pied by the defunct radio station, WENR, and so far' has recorded and played back some 350' program hours this year. Present schedule is 15 hours per week, *with such live shows as “American Bandstand,” “Do You Trust Your Wife,” "Guy Mitchell Show,” ‘Tatrice Munsel,” “Paul Winchell Show,” “Country Music Jubilee,” and a few public affairs entries delayed and piped an hour or more later to points west. Now that all stations are back on standard time, ABC-TV’s Video¬ tape Center is concentrating on clock time telecasting, picking up ‘‘American Bandstand,” for in¬ stance, at 2 p.m. here and playing it hack to central states at 3 o’clock Chicago time* As it’s a 90-minute show, one machine re¬ cords the last half-hour coming in while the other plays'hack the first hour. Kinnies are made of the show in New York of “Bandstand” for west coast playback a week later. ", Patrice-Munsel’s show is record¬ ed at 7:30 Chi time for playback to Mountain and Pacific zones at 10 and 10:30, and Guy Mitchell is recorded here and delayed for some markets to receive at 9:30. Two Mujijel shows, not yet seen, are being preserved on tape cur¬ rently for exposure on Dec. 6 and Jan. 17, dates when she has en¬ gagements with the Met Opera and elsewhere. Tbfc. points up the in¬ teresting wrinkle that with videos tape it’ll be possible for “live” shows to go into repeats, if de¬ sired. It's not only^ better than film but cheaper as well—$12 an hour for tape against about $100 for raw film and chemical costs. ABC’s repeat distribution centre in Chi also pipes out some film for the network on its cable. “Maver¬ ick,” for instance, actually origin¬ ates from here. Web's three Ampexes were set up here by Charles A. Younger, ABC engineer in charge of day¬ light saving time network record¬ ing and playback operations, who came to Chi last February and re¬ turned to New York a week ago. No ‘Bells/ Lotsa Ginger TV Ginger Rogers, who was dicker¬ ing to head the road company lead of “Bells Are Ringing,” has de¬ cided to .drop the legit project and concentrate on television. She’s signed for three more appearances on the Perry Como show (she’s done three out of .a four-show com¬ mitment already) and is meeting : with the networks on a possible weekly series for next fall. On Dec. 10, she makes her nitery bow at the new Havana-Riviera Hotel in Cuba. Boasters’ Promotion Orgs 2d Seminar Makes a Seven-Dp ‘Total Sell’ Pass Keeping Up With Jones GBS-TV prexy Merle Jones addressed the Synthetic Or¬ ganic Chemical Manufacturers Assn, yesterday (Tues.) on tel- , evision’s effectiveness as a sales medium. To suit the oc¬ casion, he came up with the following title for Ms talk: "Catalyst of Consumption," ♦* Chicago, Nov. 12, Broadcasters’ Promotion Assn., ; incepted a year ago by station pro-] J motion men to recognize their own] newly significant status in the gen- * eral broadcasting scheme, held its’, second seminar-convention here* 10 days ago with 303 registrants assuring that BPA has caught on. Further underscoring the organiza¬ tion’s solidity in its second year is fact that its membership has bur¬ geoned from an original nucleus of j 90 to 207 this term. ■ Actually, the underrated status of promotion departments was less the issue at this year’s powwow than the practical problems those departments face from week to week. Seminar sessions largely in¬ volved an exchange of Ideas in such areas as merchandising, on-the-air promotion, trade advertising and cooperation with agencies and syn¬ dicates. If there was at all an over¬ all theme to the two-day meet it was to underplay the importance of any single office at a station in the interest of a solid group effort. This idea was pinpointed in the principal speech by Ben H. Wells, v.p: in charge of sales and adver¬ tising for Seven-Up Co., who de¬ scribed total selling in terms of total war, “where an resources are steered in the direction of ultimate victory.” Merchandising was also heavily accented at the meetings as an increasingly, important station GIobalertoNBC Hollywood, Nov. 12. New travel series In color to be tagged “Pen Pals” wiU be pro¬ duced by James A. FitzPatrick, vet travel film producer, for NBC-TV. Series will be dramatized via a young American who has corre¬ sponded with various people throughout the world finally mak¬ ing a tour to visit these pen- friends. Cathy KeUy will star. FitzPatrick, accompanied by star and. camera unit, boards S.’S, Lur- line around first of year on a 72- ‘ ‘SSSSSi. r at j : function in tnB promotion mAh s day cruise of the Pacific and Far ipun . iew . BPA , S * pM|jl projecU committee mailed to station man¬ agers of its membership a pair of __ uhat-Johnnj'-learned-at-school re- I ports, highlighting the five semi- BROADCAST PIONEERS At windup, Elliott W. Henry Jr. /1TP niniA mTAlTrrn<?\ Uvas - elGcted BPA prez, succeeding (NE RADIO PIONEERS) Dave Partridge, advertising and , .... ; i sales promotion manager for West- The Radio Pioneers has official- j inghouse Broadcasting Co. Henry ly changed its name to Broadcast j is ABC-TV central division manager Pioneers. Referendum of the I of advertising, promotion and pub- membership approved the change C ^ rles A * . , XI, • 1WGN Inc. m Chicago, was reeiected by a 12 to 1 m a r g 1 n following j VJ?> and Montez Tjaden, East to film series. Further seg¬ ments are planned in other parts of the world. unanimous recommendation of the executive committee. The 14-year- old organization was originally founded as the Twenty Year Club by H. V. Kaltenborn. •Pioneers is starting a new mem¬ bership drive among broadcasters with J20 years or more in the in¬ dustry,, and prexy John Patt has naiped Roy Harlow as local chapter coordinator. Patt himself is leav¬ ing for the Coast this week and enroute will stop at Kansas City and other points to set up local chapters. KWTV in Oklahoma City, Okla., second v.p. Next year’s conclave will be held in St. Louis. Chisox-WGN Pact & Pay-See’s Foul Bunetta to Direct, Tolkin II j nr •-T e o«j n I une station. While this is not an Head W riter tor Old-LOCS > earthshaking development since Chicago, Nov. 12. Chicago White Sox and WGN-TV renewed relations last week when jthe ball team signed a ne\y three- jyear pact for all daytime home ; games into 1960 with the Chi Trib¬ une station. While this is not an earthshaking development since oc WGN-TV is the only indie and the Sid Caesar has set the-backstage ; on i y station available .in town to team for his upcoming ABC-TV i carry the baseball schedule, it does Sunday night half-hour series. Pro- j represent a shunning by the ball duction, writing and directorial set-1 of ^ poss ^^ e pay_tv pr <> po “ up is entirely a carryover from Ms{£££ oS Wgt?m2 spIm^i/The NBC-TV days.. ; Windy City. Frank Bunetta has been inked j WGN-TV has also been carrying by Shelrick, Caesar’s production ;the Chicago Cubs home games since company, to direct the ABC com-1 , * ts , counterpart, edy stanza. vftfch eo-stars Imogene j Coca and Caesar, and Mel Tolkin j five years. Radio station also a*rs will head the comedy writers’!the Chicago Bears pro football squad, with Neil (Doc) Simon.• games. Mike Stewart and Danny Simon, ? -- : - Neil’s brother, rounding it out. ; Danny Simon is the only one of kin (ifrilQ h-Wlf Wnrlfftlll’ the* four who didn’t work with, * ld ‘ UUU5 U MW Caesar at the close -of his last NBC . fin lWv I Hip’ 111 show, but he was with the come- ;» lily Line 111 JO dian on the old "“Show of Shows.” j CBS-TV has firmed up the deal Hal. Janis was previously set as ’ under which Florida Citrus Corn- producer of the Caesar showcas- , mission will relieve Remington ing, which kicks off on ABC • Rand of sponsorship of six al- Jan. 26. ternate weeks of “What’s My Line” -,—-— early next year. Florida Citrus _ . , _ will take .over sponsorship of the Kandy S Last Payoff Dee. 29. Jan. 12 and 26, Feb. 9 Randy Merriman is exiting-as and 23 and March 9 shows. Helene emcee of “The Big Payoff” after Curtis remains in as alternate six years with the. CBS-TV day- cIient - timer. Merriman wants to try for Florida Citrus deal was set a nighttime spot, even though his through Young & Rubieam, which “Payoff” pact still had two years also reps Remington. Latter sought to run. . relief due to its heavy pre-Christ- He checks out Dec. 31. I mas expenditures.