Variety (December 1957)

Wednesday, December 11, 1957 P’MiiE&f RADIO-TELEVISION 2 9 IF YOU CAN’T AXE IT, FIX IT Videotown Survey: Viewers Take Medium for Granted; More Critical But They Keep Right on Watching In what Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. calls a "democratiza¬ tion” of the network-station structure, WBC has come up with a five-horse parlay showing that each of its tv stations has the dom¬ inant audience position in its respective market during November, regardless of network affiliation. Even the web’s ABC Outlet, WJZ- TV, tops the field in Baltimore, according to the November ARB. report, which explains the “democratization” adjective in terms of local programming’s effect on the entire station lineup, regardless of the network feed. . ] ' The local ARB breakdown, covering the sign-omto-signdff, seven- day period* in terms of share of audience: Pittsburgh, KDKA-TV, 62:9%, WIIC, 31.0%; Cleveland, KYW-TV, 43.6%, WEWS, 28.0%, WJW; 29:5%; Boston, WBZ-TV, 48:5%, WNAC-TV, 46.4%; Balti¬ more, WJZ-TV, 37.9%, WMAR-TV, 34.0%, WEAL-TV, 26.7%; Sail Francisco, KP1X, 39,6%, KRON-TV* 39.1%, KGO-TV, 21.9%. It’s probably the first time, WBC says, that a non-network multiple . owner has achieved audience domination in. each of its markets at the same time. Trend indicated in this, says prexy Don McGannon, is the fact that the network affiliate no longer must lean completely on his network to achieve a dominant position—in fact, the station can build up ratings of network programs beyond their national strength by virtue of a well integrated Ideal and-network sched¬ ule. Strength of a station no lodger lies in the strength of the network alone r but in the overall effect created by. its total sched¬ ule. This explains the strength in Baltimore, where local program¬ ming has not 1 only pulled up the^overall average share but has raised the ratings of network shows as well. "Bing s Sing’ Xmas Show on CBS To Go Everywhere Except Outer Space CBS. Radio’s upcoming Xmasf, Eve third annual “Sing With Bing” stanza will be heard on. land, on sea and in the air. Only satel¬ lite rocket ships have yet to be accounted for, with the net’s pub¬ licity and exploitation department going all out to insure a record- breaking national audience for the Bing Crosby community sing. United. Airlines^ in a tieup with CBS, will play a transcription, of the Crosby show-for air-borne passengers aloft on its Red Car¬ pet DC-7 flights night before Xmas. Similarly, the Cunard. . Steamship lines, which will have the Sylvania and the Media in travel during the holiday week, yvill be playing the show in their salons for the seagoing clientele, and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad has already assured CBS all club car and bedroom radios will be tuned to network’s “Sing With Bing” special one-shot at 9 p.m., when the show takes the air spon¬ sored by the Insurance Co,, of North America. In addition/CBS Radio, as It did .last yar;. has created ah im¬ pressive lineup of national organ¬ izational backing for the show. American Automobile will circu¬ larize its 6,000 travel consulants asking them to recommend a tune- in to the Association’s 5,000,000 members. Also, American Truck¬ ing Assn*, with 50 state associa¬ tions and representing upwards of 3,000,000 long-lines trucks across the country, has endorsed the stanza and urged; members to (Continued on page 50) Coe, Fred Coe has signed a CBS-TV pact under which he’ll take over as executive producer of “Play¬ house 90” next season, after Mar¬ tin Manulis moves to 20th-Fox. The speculation is that. Gordon Duff, who moves out to the Coast with “Studio One,” will shift over to “Playhouse 90” next fall as pro¬ ducer under Coe, reuniting, them for the first time; in some years. It’s CBS’ intention to have Coe ride herd on “Playhouse 90,” but under a two-man setup which would leave, him free to operate In other program areas as well. Via the exec producer title, with Duff as producer, Coe could de¬ vote time to other projects with Duff minding the store as in the old “Philco Playhouse” days when Duff was first a director and later was the summertime producer. Duff is due to shift to the Coast 'ith “Studio One” next month, and will share production .duties with Norman, Felton, Screen Gemt Bee* Ralph M. Cohn envisions flat tho topical Sputnik idiom) Next Stop On The Global Vidpix Circuit ■—The Moon another Editorial Featur In tho apeoming 52d Anniversary Number of Variety Some Fancy Coin : NBC-TV has firmed up 95% sponsorship for its quintet of year- end football games, selling out all but one-quarter of one of the games. Only contest with a hole in it is the East-West Shrine Game, On Dec. 28, which will have R. J. Reynolds in for. one-quarter, and Esso Standard Oil and Los Angeles Soap Co. taking over half on a split network. Remainder of the schedule is solid. Gillette has the entire Bluer-Gray game Dec. 28; Pontiac has three-quarters and R. J. Rey¬ nolds one-quarter of the National Football League championship g&me on Dee. 29; Gulf Oil has the entire Sugar Bowl tilt New Year’s Day; Gillette has full sponsorship of the Rose Bowl the same after¬ noon. NBC Radio has picked up some hefty coi out of the post-season games as .well* with Gillette spon¬ soring both its entries (Rose Bowl and Blue-Gray) on AM also, Pon¬ tiac taking on full radio sponsor¬ ship of the pro championship fray and Esso bankrolling the entire Shrine game in the east. RCA’s Extra Dividend RCA’s improved profit situation this year was reflected in the ac¬ tion of the board Friday (6) in vot¬ ing an extra dividend of 50c per share in addition to the regular quarterly dividend, of 25c. Both dividends are payable Jan. 27 to stockholders of record on Dec. 20. Board also declared a dividend of 87^c per share on the first pre¬ ferred stock for the first quarter of 1958, payable April 1 to holders of record on March 10. *- Increasing number of contract- tied agencies and sponsors who aire committed to film 26-week and 39- wcek deals on their tv entries and find themselves unable to- cancel,, have embarked" ori a mass shpw-| doctoring spree in a desperate ] attempt at salvaging their proper- \ ties. This covers anything from j changing writers, ’directors or pro¬ ducers to switching time slots in; an effort tp get the rating kinks ^ out of their mink-priced entries. I If there’s any one reason for the ] fixlt campaign, it’s that the agen¬ cies, ordinarily accustomed tp can¬ cel at the drop of a hat, got them¬ selves tied down. Thus far, there’s been an amazingly small..number of 13-week cancellations, and. the j number will stay small because] there aren’t many more 13-week: deals. Guy Mitchell got the axe | from Max Factor; Pharmaceuticals is chopping "What’s It For?” on NBC; American Machine & Found¬ ry is . dropping its ABC. “Bowl¬ ing Stars” r Phillips-Van Heusen dropped out of “West Point”; Meitnen dropped “OSS” to take on part of v Colt 45”; R. J. Reynolds is shifting its ‘Harbourmaster” to ABC after 13 weeks; and Old Gold has derided to axe “Court of Last Resort,” but only after 26 weeks. As for every other unhappy sponsor and network in the book, they’re; all tinkering. Cases in point: Jack Donahue was brought in as producer - director on the “George Gobel Show” (he did the Gobel entry .-Jast year), replacing Allan Handley, while on the coun¬ terpart Eddie Fisher segment, Gil Roden, Bob Crosby’s manager- producer, took over from Jule Styne. "Sally,” Via producer . Frank Ross, is being beefed up for the benefit of sponsor Royal McBee (alternate sponsor . Chemstrand, strangely -enough, is • happy) with Gale Gordon for. more comedy relief, a new love interest for star Joan Caulfied and a switch In locale back to the U.S. Royal, incidental¬ ly, tried to . get out; no go, a 26- week firm deal. Polly Bergen show, which spon¬ sor Max Factor likes, nonetheless got its third producer last week with Irving Mansfield stepping in vice Mel. Brooks, who had taken over from director Bill Collqran. Polly's sister show, “Club Oasis;" unloaded Greg Garrison as pro? ducer-director earlier in the season and has been going with Bud Cole as producer. Eve Arden show has A1 Lewis, Miss Arden’s “Our Miss Brooks” producer, back on the job and is injecting guest names into the films. Lewis, who’s replacing Ed¬ mund Hartmann, wasn’t available when CBS went ahead bn filming of the show. It took Leonard Gpldenson, Terry Clyne and several other as¬ sorted brass to get Frank Sinatra to promise to straighten out and begin treating his tv’er like it was important, via more live shows, more music* better film quality, etc. And meanwhile Goldenson & (Continued on page 50) ABC Radio Network Proxy- Robert E. Eastman dolai.lt why ho Loves That Status Quo anothor Editorial Featara la ibo apeoniag 52d Anniversary Number «* Variety ABC-TV’* 56% Aud Hike ABC-TV’s impact, on the. homescreen audience, this sea¬ son has been marked in its rise, and is apparently one of the reasons that the leader CBS-TV’s viewership has di¬ minished slightly on the aver¬ age. For the first November Nielsen report (Oct. 27-Nov. 9),. the first one listing all the latest season’s commercial stanzas’ average minute re¬ turns are 56% higher than they, were in the 1956-1957 season. . In other words* the average minute Nielsen audience for the “third network” is now 6,950,000 homes as against last ]. -semester's 4,454*000. A reshuffle of the WOR-TV and the WOR, N. Y., operation report¬ edly is undenvay, with. Robert Leder, current general manager of the RKO Teleradio Pictures radio outlet slated to take over the con¬ solidated radio-tv operation about the first of the year. Gordon Gray, current WOR-TV station topper, is understood to be set for a shift to the exec staff of the parent company, topped by Thomas O’NeiL O’Neil and Leder could not be reached for comment at press time* but it’s said the consilpda- tion of the operation has been in the works for a numbber of weeks now. O’Neil and Leder both are vacationing separately ' Florida. The radio operation, as com¬ pared tp the biz done by the tv outlet, is a big money maker. Un¬ der : Leder’s stewardship, which started about 18 months ago, WOR Radio has experienced its heftiest grosses. It was under] Gray’s helmsman- ship that WOR-TV’s successful “Million Dollar Movie” format Was inaugurated. His experience with film garnered over his three- year tenure as WOR-TV topper will be utilized in the overalL RJCO Teleradio operation. Leder’s projected stewardship of WOR-TV, as well as WOR, un¬ der the- reported consolidated set¬ up probably will usher in some program and exec personnel changes at WOR-TV. The radio op¬ eration probably will stay put. Firestone Puts in Bid For Next Season But ABC Still Ain’t Sayin It’s clear Firestone Tire & Rub¬ ber would like to renew its ABC- TV time for the "Voice of Fire¬ stone” next season, and, although jt’s pressed for some kind of com¬ mitment, the network brass isn’t saying. Feeling at the web is top¬ per Oliver Tfeyz wants to take his chances and dump, the low-rated tv show to make roonl for a strong¬ er commercial entry Mondays at 8:30. Meanwhile, Firestone intends carrying out its kinescope, plans from March 10 through June 2, when repeats will be used. With the exception of a lone kinescope the last Monday in December, sponsor will have done only live half-hours from last Sept. 9 through; March 3/ y j - "People are becoming matter-of- fact about television and somewhat more critical, but they continue to spend the major portion of their leisure time watching it During 1957 the average person spent 1U£ hours watching tv during weekday evenings,” reported Gerold W, Taslger, veepee and director of re¬ search at Cunningham & Walsh. "The First Decade of Television in Videotown,” the agency’s 10th annual report on tv set usage and sales in New Brunswick, N. J., in¬ dicated a leveling out in tv activity, an acceptance of tv viewing as part of everyday life and a slight return to other social activities. During this period television has grown from infancy to maturity in Video- town, Set ownership rose from 1.4% in 1948 to near peak satura¬ tion—more than nine out of 10 homes today. Hours of daily tv viewing reached their record high of 15 hours, 33 minutes per person per week (Monday-Friday) in 1955, have eased off slightly during tho past two years to 13 hours, 33 min¬ utes per Week in 1957. The study reports that program, critics have been more vociferous than usual in 1957 but the public has not been as vocal nor has it been as quick to act. There has been in general a less and less feel¬ ing of excitement about tv and watching has become a fixed habit. "Saturation in June, 1957, reached 92.7%, a slight increase over the 90.5% of a year ago. The present high saturation has made television ownership universal for all practical purposes, putting a ceiling on the number of people available for tv viewing.” The controlled study states that there are more people watching tv each weekday but that the indivi¬ dual tendency has been to become more selective, watching specific shows and turning from the set when interest lags. The pattern, the same as in'the evening, finds more people Watching for a shorter per¬ iod of time. On any one evening in Video¬ town, over eight out of 10 wives and hot quite eight of 10 husbands (Continued on page 50) Clients Want Out Twenty-six week contract or not, Mogen David Wine and Helene Curtis are now actively exploring every possible means of cancell¬ ing “Dick & the Duchess” as possible. Sponsors and their agen¬ cies are meeting with CBS-TV to attempt to work out means of dropping the program, whether via a buyout of their contract with Sheldon Reynolds Productions or some other measure. Final resolu¬ tion of the situation is expected by the end of the week. Sponsors had met With Reynolds a few weeks ago, when he came into N. Y. from London, where he’s shooting the series, to sit down for cards-on-the-table talks. At that time, the sponsors agreed to give the show another push, and Reynolds himself started mak¬ ing changes on the show". .But some fast rescheduling, under which the more recently filmed episodes incorporating the changes have been substituted for earlier episodes, hasn’t resulted in any rating improvement. As to CBS-TV, while it won’t ad¬ mit publicly to taking sides in the hassle, privately the network con¬ cedes that it w'ould just as soon see “Dick” go off the air, and will okay whatever arrangement the. sponsors^ make with Reynolds or the William Morris office tp get it off. Show’s rating in the Saturday at 8:30 period has been a CBS sore fljot all season, 11 <