Variety (April 1958)

RADIO-TELEVISION Fem Frills Cut Frisco Fog ; Continued from page 37 ■; prexy, tossed at them a challenge to stand, up and he counted as Im¬ portant members of an Important Industry, and to share responsibili¬ ty in current problems pressing radio-tv. Exhibits ranging from recruiting demonstrations of the three branches of the Armed Services, through tips on homemaking ideas for programming, to tempting dis¬ plays of products marked the rev¬ enue-producing exhibit hal-L -with Its 25 booths. And, to prove that; advertisers are still aware of the power of the woman behind the mike or before the camera, sev¬ eral hundred prizes, ranging from suits, hats, dresses, to jewelry port¬ able typewriters, hi-fi sets and tv. receivers, were given away to hold¬ ers of lucky numbers. In addition, several dozen “hospitality suites*’ offered refreshments, relaxation land fellowship on a continuous ! basis. j Burton’s Blast j American femcasters have an ; obligation to themselves, their in¬ dustry and their community to carry story pf radio as “greatest field for true creative talent, in the. U. S.,” said Robert J. Burton, ex¬ ecutive veepee oif Broadcast. Music Inc., speaking at AWRT con¬ vention. Burton warned that pas¬ sage of the Smathers Bill would be the first step in restricting the right of American broadcasters to engage in other legitimate busi¬ ness, and that from it w'ould “fol¬ low restrictions in other fields.” As In Harold Fellows’ talk to group, restrictive legislation kept rearing its ugly head in Burton’s remarks. He attributed attacks of ASCAP and latter’s campaign for passage of bill to “a desire to re¬ turn to monopoly situation prior to PfotiEfi ’39.” . He charged. “they do not want to live in world of competi¬ tion.” Facing a receptive audience representing mostly stations and webs. Burton called music “the life- stream of broadcasting,” and sajd the bill would deprive femcasters of their “fundamental right to play a part in the cultural development of the country.” Like Fellows, he urged fem¬ casters to work against legislation or “propaganda campaign” that could in any way “hamper of cur¬ tail” their accomplishments in cre¬ ative field of broadcasting^ ’Anybody’ Vice‘Scott* “Adventure at Scott Island” Is giving way on July 6 to John Gue- del’s giveaway^ “Anybody Can Play." . R. J. Reynolds, which owned half of “Island,” is sticking with the. ABC-TV Sunday at 8:30 slot. throughout the summer. “Anybody’s” chief gimmick is booty of $10,000 in cash prizes to homescreeners. .. George Fenne- man will emcee: Wednesday, April 30, 1958 Puerto Rican Radie-TV Sets $1,000,000 Budget San Juan, April 29. Despite the low per capita in¬ come of Puerto Ricans, Inhabitants Will eventually, have available to them a wealth of cultural experi¬ ence via the government’s tv and radio stations which, are budgeted at about $1,000,000 for 1958-59. Of this, about 80% will go to tv and 20%’ to radio Video station has about 80 employees and radio sta¬ tion, 40. Government tv and radio proj¬ ects are both headed by Rafael Delgado Marquez, known as Don Felo, originally from the sugar in¬ dustry. New government tv station is housed in a poshy $350,000 build¬ ing. By year’s end it should be un¬ der full steam operating 15 hours a day and offering everything from moppet and home shows to college level courses. At present U.S. and some Spanish films are being im¬ ported. "I Grogan, YarneO In DuMont Shift DuMont Broadcasting has made a major shift of program execu¬ tives. It has returned Jack Gro¬ gan, head of tv programming for DuMont’s two video operations, to radio and given the tv program managership of WABD, N; Y., to David Yarnell. Grogan was program boss for WABD and WTTG, Washington, but last week DuMont handed him a veepee stripe and made him overseer of radio stanzas at WHK, Cleveland, and WNEW, N. Y. Gro¬ gan came to WABD from WNEW when the latter was sold last year to the DuMont chain. Hal Moore remains as the specific program head of WNEW, reporting to Gro¬ gan, Yarnell, director of publicity for DuMont, said after his program ap-. pointment at WABD that both moves becomes effective May 1. WTTG, the other DuMont tv’er, will fall, under the general aegis of Richard Buckley, DuMont’s veep in charge of sales and pro-' gramming. Radio Review PHIL BOWMAN SHOW With Phil Bowman, Virginia Mar- rnaduke, John Holtman, Johnny Erp, others Producer-Director: Howard Keegan Special Material: Morgan Perron 120 Mins.; Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m. PARTICIPATING WMAQ, Chicago When. WMAQ dropped Mary Merryfield’s seven-year-old noon¬ time strip a few weeks ago, station . manager Howard Coleman ex¬ panded Phil Bowman’s adjacent chore to two full hours and molded it into a daytime counterpart of the nightly “Chan Show.” Both-are attempts at reproducing the “Mon r itor” design on the local level by weaving bits and pieces of general interest features into the ordinary recorded music yardgoods. Thus the record spinner sloughs his iden¬ tity as deCjay and becomes a host. The Phil Bowman stanza . is pegged for the distaffer, with an accent of mature music and fea- turettes and with some attention to cultural topics. Decidedly to its credit is that it genuinely aspires to be creative programming on vir¬ tually a shoestring. However, the show tries too hard to be all things to all hausfraus and as a result is a farrago of unrelated, and even incongruous, items camped. under the same umbrella. Accompanying a taped interview with Lotte Leh¬ mann on a single show might be a five-minute sports essay (for the ladies) by Johnny Erp, a recipe, a message from a public school offir* rial, a human interest tidbit by Virginia Marmaduke, and a “Tello- Test” phonecall to a listener for a jackpot question. All this inter¬ larded with recordings of show tunes, oldies by the big bands, the Norman Luboff choir, an occasional folksong, and Doris Day and Buddy Clark in duet. If it sounds like a . mishmash, it is. The show adds up to a lot of talk in a two-hour stretch, which needn’t be so bad if all the features were interesting. It’s quite evident that quantity and variety are strained for, and because they are on regular schedule the subseg¬ ments are. worked in Whether they have interest value or not. A good idea on the whole, the show needs focus and a more meaningful selec¬ tion of inserts if it is to be any¬ thing more than a salad. As for Bowman, who joined the station a few months ago, he has prepossessing folksy qualities and is a skillful kneader of idle, and sometimes useful, talk. Good on the live blurbs and definitely a plus on the WMAQ talent roster. Les. Name NBC in ‘Sing’ Suit Los Angeles, April 29. NBC is named in a breach-of- contract suit filed in Superior Court by John D. Libman, who asks $5,000 for payment of a pro¬ gram idea assertedly used on a George Gobel show. Libman asserts that he entered into a written-pact with web in 1955 whereby he was to be paid if the idea, titled “Everybody Sing,” was used. , Idea later was