Variety (December 1957)

32 RADIO-TELEVISIOX P^tSff Wednesday, December 11, 1957 Digges Blasts lip Service' Of By BOB CHANDLER A scorching indictment of those intellectuals “who constantly and loudly bleat about the state of edu¬ cational television” but “run the other way” when called upon to do something about it was deliv¬ ered last week, by Sam Cook Digges, general manager of WCBS- TV, N.Y. Digges, speaking before, the Met¬ ropolitan College Public Relations Council, said that “many of these intellectuals just won’t watch tele¬ vision. They wouldn’t watch man’s first arrival on Mars if it were teleyised. live, just because it’s against their principles to watch anything on television.” Yet, these people “exist in important posi¬ tions of control over educational, television.” Too often, Digges said, “intellec¬ tuals with the inclination have found the device of blasting televi-: sion a sure-fire device for getting a little attention at a cocktail party, or space in a newspaper.” But this sort of. “inaccurate, irresponsible blanket criticism? is given circular tion “by the very people who' can, directly or indirectly, make the greatest contribution to television: By the very people television needs the most! We’re being damned by the people who’ll be damned if they’ll watch television to find out if there’s anything good'. . . arid who’ll be damned if they’ll do any T thing to improve what, for. them: <r—although they have no first-hand knowledge of it—ds*iritolerable. “This unfair, uninformed criti¬ cism can—and does—have a dev¬ astating effect. Some educators are j reluctant to move in an atmosphere of this kind. Broadcasters often find" themselves stymied by this reluctance in spite of their own desires. The inevitable result: less effective and less educational tele¬ vision.” Digges, whose station has been responsible for “Sunrise Semes¬ ter,” “Camera Three,” the Budar pest String Quartet concerts (with tlie -N.Y. Metropolitan Educational Television Assn.), laid it On the: line: “Today, except in too few oases, it is the commercial broad¬ caster who is. supplying much of the action . . . the money . and the courage in behalf of education¬ al television. “I Save fourid that some of those who stand on the biggest soapbox and who deplore the state of edu¬ cational television on commercial stations the loudest , turn out, when the chips are down arid when there is an opportunity to help educa¬ tional televis'on, to have been pay¬ ing lip service. "I’m a little weary of those peo¬ ple who constantly and loudly bleat about the state of educational tele¬ vision—a subject they uually don’t know a thing about, by the way— who, when they have - the chance in behalf of educational television to supply a little action.. . . a lit¬ tle riioney ... a little courage, hur¬ riedly rUn the other way?’ . As a case in point, Digges singled out the recent incident in which the New York Public Li¬ brary withdrew its pariicipation in a program called “The Faces of War,” produced by META on (Continuer on page 51) More Sponsor Cora Into ‘Kangaroo's’Ponch “Captain Kangaroo,?, the CBS- TV morning entry which the net¬ work decided to retain while drop¬ ping its Jimmy. Dean companion show, has grabbed off another chunk of sponsorship via Gerber’s Baby Foods. Gerber’s,, already i “Kangaroo” bankroller, doubled its current participation by renewing I its alternate Friday ♦ quarter-hour for a year and purchasing an alter¬ nate Tuesday segment to boot. Decision was made on the basis of a premium offer made on “Kang¬ aroo,” the Garry Moore show aid “Beat the Clock.” Of some. 10,000 responses received (premium was a doll for six labels plus $2), “Kanga¬ roo” accounted for 60%, bearing out the web’s contention, that the! show can exert a sales influence. Bob Keeshan, show’s copackagerj and emcee, was guest of honor at Gerber’s . annual sales convention in- Houston last week. -D’Arcy agency sest the - deaL - v- Carter Products Expands Carter Products has picked up alternate ' Tuesday sponsorship on tlie Chet Huntley-David Brinkley “NBC News” through late March, and with American Home Products already iri on the other Tuesday for a year, that gives the show a longterm sponsorship status on. one day of the week. Program. is all sold out currently, with Ronsori in for the other four days, but that situation obtains only through Dee. 20, after, which Ronson pulls out completely. Carter >vas repped in the . deal by the Ted Bates agency, which also set American Home in. on the skip-week. Beirn, Ruthrauff AFL-CIQ Renews In the past few weeks American Broadcasting Network had some fortunate breaks with sponsors, Which in new renewed biz. comes to an estimated gross of $2,- 000,000. . Biggest break was the .AFL-CiO sponsorship confirmation that the formerly shaky. Edward P. Morgan arid John Wv Vandercook news - strips ' on the radio network would continue, and if the two General shakeup took place yes- ' sUnaa.™ a IttU.K-weete terday (Tuesl) afternodn on top administrative level of tlie new- belter than $1,000,000. ly merged Erwin Wasey, Ruthrauff Ryan agency, with two of the carry¬ overs: from R&R rhoving out of the picture, F. Kenneth Beirn, senior veepee and fonrier R&R prexy, and F. Bourne Ruthrauff, senior veep, both ankled. No reason was given for the double departure by David B. Wil¬ liams, prexy of the new combined agency. Ted Weber to PhOb Philadelphia, Dec. 10. Ted Weber, sales manager of indie WGN-TV, Chicago, has been named to the newly-created post of director of sales development at WVUE-TV, Philadelphia-Wilming- ton, the Storer outlet. Prior to his post at WGN-TV, Weber served as director of pro¬ gram promotion for CBS, amuse¬ ment advertising director .of the Chicago Times and as special sec¬ tions manager of the Chicago Sun. He is credited in Chicago with hav- irig‘ made the first sale of a fully sponsored feature filiri series. Matuai’s 4-Show Swap For Station Option Time Mutual, in its programming swap with affiliates, for option time, is offering a series of four new, programs- fpr station local sponsorship use; “The Big Decision,” slated to start Friday (13) and slotted from 6:05 to. 6:30 p.m., is a music show, featuring a i»anel forecast and re¬ view of new records. On Saturday (14), “Maggi’s Magazine” will be launched, the show helmed by Maggi McNellis will feature inter¬ views Avith celebrities and r ema¬ nate froiri the Eden Roc. The same day, “Doorway to Travel” will be started, returning Dari Peterson tothe Mutual lineup. On Jan. 6, “Wall Street Final,” a 10-minute cross-the-board program, will be launched. It will feature a. finan¬ cial reporter who will give the highlights of stock market activi¬ ties. (An estimated net for the whole shebang is about $1,200,000.) A new news strip with John Daily, which was launched Monday (9) could mean . $500,000 or more if it runs the year around. Chevrolet is bankrolling the new 6:30-6:40 p.m. stanza every week- night. Network also reported $500,000 i other new accounts arid re¬ newals: -In new accounts; Buitoni Foods inked for one five-rninute seg a week with. D6n McNeill’s “Break¬ fast Club” as of Jan. 15; Magla Products also took a seg weekly in McNeill’s 9-10 a.m. show, beginning Feb. 20; One account has gone into Herb (Oscar) Anderson’s 10 to 11 aim. strip/the only one of the .new ABN shows to draw spon¬ sor blood so far. Sterling. Drug has :five. segs weekly with Ander¬ son, it also, bought the 7:55-8 p.m. news nightly: Sterling biz began a couple of weeks back on both shows.. Renewals include Bristol-Myers in McNeill, three segs week; Cariipana Sales and Food Special¬ ties, one seg each every week on McNeill, arid Sleep-Eza, three segs a week on the same show. R. J. Reynolds renewed co-spon¬ sorship of 18 weekend news cap¬ sules. The total for . all biz,, apart from Chevy and AFL-CIO., was $500,000 gross, including five min¬ utes; of R. J. Reynolds news which the new Chevy buy pushes back to 6:40, : The tv industry which has complained of having to wait too long to find out how its shows fare, (except for the costiy over¬ night Trendex which serves oriiy the top. major markets^ is about to have, its prayers answered with the " American Research Bureau about set to come out with an electronic system Which will instan¬ taneously record trie number of people watching tv; The new rat¬ ing system will be able to supply, sponsors, agencies;, and networks with minute-by-minute ratings. ARB’s abandonment of the. diary . method, fot the new rating look is said to be operated via a closed-circuit with home sets being connected to telephone lines Which relay to. a central control board-capable of measuring. the sets-in-use : and the channel being watched at a given moment. . The electronic system has reportedly set . its sights on an initial 1.800 nationwide sample with a scheduled installation of .300 sets iri the NeW York area currently being hooked up. This sample would'then- be larger than the number being used, by Nielsen. The closely guarded plari. which has been in the mill for soriie eight or nine months now (with the, ARB still hot commenting) is riot original with the rating, services. Hooper and Pulse toyed with the idea in years past but abandoned the idea when they had trouble lining up subscribers for the operation. The cost of the operation and the figure that the subscribers Will have to shell out is regarded as classified by the ARB. Oriiy a handful, of top network people and sponsors have seen the machine in operation but observers feel that it will, be a boon to the industryi. in that sponsors, agency‘people and networks will be able to get instant ratings and. should be able to iron out lags in the shows; being able to tell when viewers switch dials or turn sets on or off. N.Y. station subscribers to the new ARB rating system will have to shell out:$30,000 a year for the service with office installation of a “score board/’'open to any < subscriber arid givifig immediate ratings, running in the neighborhood of $5,000. Network research executives *$■ ri whole were impressed with the ARB demonstration and* it appears to be a definite . threat t© A JOB TO BE DONE CBS .on Sunday (8) presented a public service program, “The Day Called X.” It was not an entertaining or diverting show* it was a hard-hitting, realistic and dramatic presentation of a subject that is all too important to Americans today, Civil De¬ fense. The program dealt with the city of Portland, Oregon, and its plan for survival In the hydrogen age. The city has an elab¬ orate evacuation plan complete with emergency underground headquarters and«.dispersal areas, all of. which were shown in actual operation. Granted the program was slightly dated, since the bomb was being delivered by plane rather than missile, the basic need for Civil Defense was brought out in a realistic and uncompromising manner. Civil Defense is a much neglected segment of modern day liv¬ ing. Today’s weapons have a destructive power that is almost beyond comprehension and they can be delivered almost any¬ where in the world on very short notice. Survival, in the event of an attack, will be difficult at best and a trained corps of CD Workers is a must for each arid every com¬ munity. The local broadcasters, both AiM and TV, can and should play an important role iri the education of the people to the need for a coordinated Civil Defense program in their area. While it is true that many stations do broadcast public service announcements recruiting volunteers for CD very few have un¬ dertaken the job of realistically programming the needs of Civil Defense on the local level; or the even more basic.facts of sur¬ vival procedures on an individual basis. Americans, historically are a complacent people. Fortunately, in the past, there has been time to mobilize after; the initial attack and not Since I860 has a major war been fought on Amer¬ ican soil. But^future conflicts will not wait for us to get ready. Broadcasters at the local level shorild act now to create an aware¬ ness among, the public that Civil. Defense is an essential part of modem living. Complacency has no place in today’s world and broadcasters should take every opportunity to break it down, especially when so many lives may depend on it. Censorship on TV? Strictly An Ted Steele Sets Up Own Station Rep Org Ted Steele, WOR-TV’s N. Y., daytime personality Who does a teenage music show, as well , as other stints, has formed a station rep organization. Ted Steele Radio and Television Station Representatives will "be headed by Steele With Leonard H. Levitt, currently sales director for the Steele show, as v.p. and general - manager. The tv per¬ former, who continues with his WOR-TV show, feels that his back¬ ground of 20 years in radio and tv involving sales; management,. pro-. gramming. and production, should be a good kickoff for his. new ven¬ ture, Reppery hopes to garner a sinall group of quality radio and tv stations. A division of radio and tv news is under discussion at ABC. Rob¬ ert Eastman, prexy of the radio rietwork, American Broadcasting Network, eventually Wants, to di¬ vorce himself completely from ABC-TV, and feels that his unit should have a private news staff and exclusive commentators. The matter has not reached John Daly’s office yet. Daly is the veep iri charge of combined news, arid special events. Arid if the break does come, it’s believed possible that, even with ..separate news, staffs, both radio and tv news will still he under Daly’s aegis. (The legal department arid pub¬ licity are also under combined heads.) Apart from the top ad¬ ministrative level, in news, ABN is seeking exclusive use of writing and on-the-air talent. Set as Dec. 22 TVcast “Assignment: Southeast Asia,” the NBC-TV special projects dept, followup, to the earlier “Assign¬ ment: India” special, will be tele¬ cast by the network on Dee. 22 at 2:30 to 4 p.m. So far it’s a sus¬ tained but the web- is still trying to sell-the segment. . . • Special was prodticed : by Bob Graff arid is narrated by James By LEONARD TRAUBE Henry Denker thinks there is al¬ together too much hullabaloo about censorship in television. Denker, author of the recent Iegiter, “Time Liriiit,” also screenplayed by him, and scripter-director of Fulton Oursler’s “The Greatest Story Ever Told” Which was long an ABC radio staple under “no plug” spon¬ sorship of Goodyear Rubber, says it’s easy for a writer, to scream "Censorship!” Asked whether a tv religious series, for. instance, which he currently has in the works, might be less subject to a spon-: sot’s or network’s eagle eye; than plays on other subjects, Denker said it an’t necessarily; so, “You’d be surprised at the ■don’t* problems in the religious, area. The idea is to salvage enough from the screening-out process that a writer with principles can live with,; Iri the ‘Greatest Story’ series we were able to come out with about 85% of the script okayed as written, it Within this 85% (or Whatever the percentage) your main points are fulfilled and you can, as I say, -live with it/ you have lost very little. The most -‘trouble’ we had with ‘Greatest Story’ Was with one im¬ portant denomination (which Deri-, ker named).. The leading spokes¬ man knew the Bible better than anyone I have ever come across before or since. But he was a logical.. and a reasonable man, and .despite the ‘strict construction’ in¬ volved, this is where 1 batted the highest—85%. You’ll admit that isn’t bad. “Where you run into great diffi¬ culties When dramatizing the New Testament for radio or television is- between Catholic arid Protes¬ tant views. You kpow, there is only about 2% separating them (speak¬ ing loosely of course)—they are: more: or less agreed on the other (Continued Ori page .46) Yoder s Carnegie Post Philadelphia, Dec. 10. Lloyd E, Yoder, NBC v.p. and general manager of WRCV, WRCV-TV, has been named to the executive committee of the board of trustees- of Carnegie Institute of Technology. A 1927 grad of the College of Fine Arts, Yoder was Carnegie Tech’s first “All American” foot¬ ball star and was a unanimous selec¬ tion. He captained the Carnegi Tech eleven of 1928. ; The NBC. eiec- joined NBC to 1927 and -managed NBC-owned- stations iri Sari Francisco, Denver arid Cleveland./before coming to