Variety (July 1958)

S« BAPIO-TEUYISIOX -On Other Ad Agency Fronts By JACK BERNSTEIN The switch from dramas, variety shows and mystery shows to game & quiz sessions comes as no mys¬ tery to the tv trade. Agencymen say the question *and answer peri¬ ods solve the problems of the na¬ tional advertisers for two reasons. First of all, the cost of quiz-game programs is considerably cheaper than other types of programs and secondly, from the advertiser’s point of view, panel shows rated second in sponsor identification as of January, 1958, when over 65% of the viewing audience could tell who was sponsoring the guess games, according to A. C. Nielsen. With the current rash of quiz- game shows slated for both the summer and the fall the sponsor identification of game shows, say the admen, will fall into the path hacked out by oaters. ■ Westerns were turned down cold this fall by national advertisers who took a hard look at the Tren- dex figures which showed the Cow¬ pokes only raking ud a 28.1 viewer, identification with the product. All three of the. networks currently are. saddled with unsold horse operas. Sponsor identification on the whole has been on the decline and this, the agencymen say, can be at¬ tributed to the fact that mote tv viewers are faced with many more tv sponsors and spot commercials plus the fact that audience turn¬ over has increased with the gro Wr¬ ing split in audience. The switch to multiple sponsors has been an¬ other important factor in lower sponsor identification. The ‘‘Perry Gomo Show” and “Playhouse 9Q” with as many as fou^ bankrollers has created problems for the spon¬ sors. The way to beat the sponsor identification rap, say the adver¬ tisers, is by integrating commer¬ cials with the show. Some agencies have the headliner give the Plug which appears to be a personal en¬ dorsement. Still another method is the one employed by Alcoa and Kraft which use the product name as the on the air pro'^ram title. "While there, is no definite corre¬ lation in sponsor identification and sales, the admen feel that if the name of the product is retained by viewers, then they will buy the particular tn—nd, and this Is what pays the tent. Shorts: Variety programs, with Westerns and situation comedies running neck and neck for second place, are viewed more than any other type of fare according to the Nielsen television index which completed a study of the distribu¬ tion of evening viewing of network shows. Of all evening viewing 23% of the time * of all viewers was spent .watching-variety shows while 15% of the time was spend on westerns and situation comedies. Running in the third and fourth categories were general drama with 13% and quiz audience participation and suspense drama with 10% respec¬ tively. Leo Burnett is producing a new commercial weekly on video tape for Kellogg’s Com Flakes. Com¬ mercials produced by Telestudios. Is ticketed for CBS-TV’s “What’s My Line.” National Screen Service cur¬ rently has commercials it ^roduc? tion for the followin'': Ballantine Beer, William Esty; YriPiams Shav¬ ing Cream, Parkson Advertising; White Rock Gingerale, ?IacManus, John & Adams; High Energy Fuel, Olin Mathieson; Jim Bowie promo¬ tional films, ABC Syndication; Crown Gasoline, A1 Paul Leftbn; and Ferris Ham Contest, Hicks & Greist. The Supreme Court has barred the Federal Trade Commission from regulating insurance advertis¬ ing In states having their -own statues covering the matter. - m McCann-Erickson in its move to build a network of services in the South announces that Its former office in Dallas has become associ¬ ated with Marschalkr & Pratt, a wholly owned division of the. agency. Switches: Clarance E. Eldrldge, who was engaged by the American Assn, of Advertising Agencies as a consultant on public relations, has resigned. Howard L. Davis, who had been director of NBC’s “Today” show has joined N. W. Ayer, Philadel¬ phia! Norman Frank has ’ been ap¬ pointed director of radio-tv at Lynn Baker. He Mad been with NBC-TV. Martin Kiek has been elected veepee in charge of Latin-Ameri¬ can services of the international division of Foote, Cone & Belding. He continues as general manager of Foote, Cone & Belding de Mex¬ ico, S. A. ; ’ Marshall Clark, former director of advertising for the Scott Paper; Co., will join Ketchum, MacLeod & Grove, July 14, as manager of. the New York office. Edgar Herz has resigned as chair¬ man and a director of the Williams Advertising Agency. . Dr. W. C. Davis, v.p. of Fuller & Smith & Ross, has resigned as diretcor of research,. Walter G. Mitchell has been appointed to succeed him. Oscar Zahner, v.p, of Ruthrauff & Ryan in charge of the agency's St. Louis office, has resigned to become an ^advertising consultant in St. Louis. Campaigns: United Aircraft Corp., via Lennen & NewaU, starts an ad campaign in July to promote travel*, by air, A 20-second tv spot commercial produced by Transfilm will:'be used in major markets. Kent Cigarets launching a major radio-tv drive in top 50 markets Lennen & Newell is ; agency of record. Reps: KSO, Des Moines, to be repped by H-R Representatives, ef¬ fective July 1. WNTA-TV, New York, has ended a two-month search for a national rep by appointing the Katz Agency, effective July 15. Robert Eastman & Co. has be¬ come a member of the Station Rep¬ resentatives Assn, By LES BROWN Chicago, July 8. John YV. Shaw^ Advertising picked up around $600,000 in an¬ nual billings when John Morrell & Co., meat pacakers, divided the ad- hand ?ing of its Red Heart dog and cat fobd lines. Red Heart Cat Food along with Morrell Meats were switched from Campbell- Mithun to Shaw, with C-M retain¬ ing the Red Heart Dog Food busi¬ ness worth an estimated $1,000,000 a year. Accounts involved in the switch were serviced by the Chi and Los Angeles offices Of C-M. Shaw’s L. A. affil, Stromberger, La Vene, McKenzie,, will assist the agency on the account. Jack MacDonald, Morrell iVfeatS exec at C-M* follows the account to Shaw, Rutledge & Lilienfeld’s Chi and St. Louis offices have severed and henceforth will operate inde¬ pendently. Chi agency is now known, as. Lilienfeld & Co., while the St. Louis company retains the R & L tag. ; Oklahoma Oil Co. has ankled Maryland Advertising fOr Need¬ ham, Louis & Brorby. Edwin R. Smith, exec veep of Oklahoma, said the company’s expansion in Indiana, Illinois and Iowg has necessitated expanded agency serv¬ ice. Oklahoma has for years been co-sponsoring televised ball games I on WGN-TV and In "fall and win-; ter underwrites a weekly feature film on a Chi station. . Libby* Furniture and Appliance. Co., hilling around $500,04)0 a yea»\ in Chi, appointed Gourfain-Loeff Inc. in a new agency switch. Maurice B. Silverman, who recent¬ ly left Rutledge & Lilienfeld* will be G-L - account exec. .. - . :; Dancer - Fitzgerald- Sample Chi office has moved to Jar*»er quar¬ ters at 221 NV La Salle St. Rohert H.’ Eppler and Goodwin A* nr ik. both account supervisors at Foote, Cone & Belding. got Veen stones. Eopler oversees the Ed- sel »nd Alarik the Hall¬ mark business. j _ PARiEtt DALLAS EDUC’LTV’ER STILL NEEDS 370G Dallas, July 8. Some $370,000 is needed to get Dallas’ educational television star tion in operation. E. O. Cartwright;: . prez of the Area Educational Television Foun¬ dation will “seek; additional money from leading citizens and firms” adding that the construction of a station and getting it into opera¬ tion “will depend greatly on the response we get from those re¬ quests.” . ; Cartwright pointed out that the foundation already has $520,000 in assets, including. a $100,000 grant j from the Fund for Adult Educa¬ tion. It is expected that the appli¬ cation will : he granted about Sept. 1. 9 - Washington, July 3. The FCC announced it will look, into new ways for FM radio sta¬ tions to make money, and indicated it might even consider stereo¬ phonic broadcasting on a subscript tiOn-FM basis. The. step is entire¬ ly preliminary, in that it calls only for written views from all inter? ested parties by Sept. ; 2, and states that after these views are consid¬ ered the Commission Will there¬ after consider Whether it should institute formal proceedings, look¬ ing toward specific FM rule changes. The announcement noted that on May 2, 1955, FM stations were, first permitted, to. provide “functional (background) music” for a fee un¬ der the so-called subsidiary com¬ munications authorizations. Since .then, the FCC shys interest in other uses of multiplexing on FM broadcast stations has grown.; The Commission . specifically mentions such services as price quotations, facsimile, stock market reports, paging services , and ; traffic light control. .- . ; l-' Stereophonic broadcasting, pres¬ ently accomplished by use of two Stations—usually an AM arid an FM under common ownership^-has been proposed, the. FCC notes, both as an improved aural broadcasting system and as a type of subsidiary communications similar' to that which may now be offered on a subscription basis! Radio Review I NEWPORT JAZZ CONCERTS i With' Gerry Mulligan, Chico: Ham-. . ilton, Benny Goodman, Maynard Ferguson, Ray Charles, Joe I Turner, Pete Johnson, Jack Tea¬ garden, others; Mitch Miller, emcee; Michael Levin announcer Producer: Richard Stenta 60 Mins., Thurs. (3) thru Sun. (6), ' 8 pan. ' VIRGINIA DARE WINES CBS Radio, froin Newport, R.L (McManus , John & Adams) The CBS Radio Coverage (com¬ pliments of ' the Virginia Dare winery bankroll) of the Newport Jazz fete this year, although it only took up an hour a night for the I duration, of .the. four-day musical bash, seemed to offer a fair cross- section of the • talents represented on the shores of Rhode Island. That the hipsters dug it is highly doubtful; it was more for the gen¬ eral listener.. The 8-to-9 /p.m. stanza, helmed by Mitch Miller, was out to satisfy the broadest possible tastes. Benny Goodman is a universal in jazz. Maynard; Ferguson’s troupe was noisy and badly, rehearsed, but marked another . kind of music. There, was* Ray Charles;. an ener¬ getic rock ’n’ roller, and Jack Tea¬ garden ; Pete Johnson and Joe Turner & Co. with their uptempo bluest For the cool school , there were the modernists* Chico Ham¬ ilton and Gerry Mulligan, but do¬ ing their standards for ’the most part. The network showed rea¬ sonable caution not to let the side- men go “too far out” on a national radio hookup. The Miller, contribution as em¬ cee was minimal, Michael Levin, who has the timbre Of an A1 (Jazz- bo) Collins, did the wine blurb*. Use of musicians to help In plugging the product might have seemed like a clever segue at the time; but the copyline was so diffuse that the spiels probably didn't do inr ' to increase .wine sales. Art Wednesday, July 9, 1958 From the Production Centres Continued from page 32' ^— will be Shaun Glenville ... . BBC-TV’s “Panorama” will be rested for the summer after July 14 . . . New Jersey professor Ashley Montagu Will be in Sunday’s BBC “Brain Trust” next Sunday (13) . . . Van Cliburn, Yank longhair pianist, made his U. K. tv debut in “Bernard Delfont Presents” on Sunday (6) . . . Merjl O’Keefe named as new girl tv announcer for Southern TV.. ■;David BradweU gets the job of Tyne Tees; Television flack . A AR-TV’s . producer, Ray Dicks, filming two special interview-programs oh Bette Davis and Kirk Douglas. in boston ... Vacash skeds in effect all around ... WNAC-TV’s Phyl Doherty, dir. adv. & p.r., off to the Cape for two weeks. Ruth Sylvano, asst, to Miss Doherty, back from her vacash in Manhattan.. , .* Frank Luther, WNAC-TV pubaffairs dir., off for opening of his Tom Sawyer musical ... Sherm Feller, WEZE disk jock, readying, for three week vacash ... Judy Valentine, WEZE* personality, doing remote from Nick Polley’s Town House . . : Warren Park, WMUR-TY, Manchester, N. H„ program dir*, and missus receiving congrats on adopting of little girl . . . Gene Wilkfii, sales mgr., WPRO-TV, Providence, R. I,, elected veep of Ad¬ vertising Club of R. I. and tv chairman United Fund campaign ... Virginia Bartlett, writer and asst, producer of WHDH-TV’s “Dateline Boston,” conducting tv workshop at Boston Center for Adult Education . . . Reva Karliug and Rheta Wexler joined WHDH-TV prpmosh dept. . , . WBZ-TV’s “Critter Corner” marked its seventh anni . . . Louise Morgan, WNAC-TV personality, off to New York for press week of N. Y. Dress institute. . ... IN CLEVELAND . . , Bill Crane signed for WSRS disk stint . . . Bob January is newest WJW record twirler . . WEWS’ Dorothy Fuldheim getting cross-the- board tv personality interview stint at 12:50 p.m. . . . Clndy Lee, only 16, has rounded out her seventh year as WDOK disker . . . Michael Prelee left WCUE for WERE news . . . Linn Sheldon to host Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons on KYW-TY’s moppet stanza . * . Pete French pactfed for cross-the-board Broadview Motor newscast at 6:30 p.m.... Tom Field, WEWS, to host three-wieek European tour .. / WJW, which dropped .ABC to go indie, will carry NBC when the net leaves WHK July 31 . . t Leah Montgomery and Dave Bringham added to. KYW, KYW-TV news staff . . . Don Bean, ex-INS, joined WERE news. IN MINNEAPOLIS . . KSTP-TV received National Press Photographers Assn.’s. 1958 news award citation “in recognition of outstanding public service in covering the community’s news for tv and for leadership in the technique of gathering photography and presenting it for tv and consistent excel¬ lence in the communication field.” At annual convention here the association also presented to the Stanley Hubbard station the plaque which it won as a special award last April at the U. of Missouri's* 15th annual news picture of the year competition “in recognition of in¬ genuity and creativity in the gathering and protographing of news” ... Don McGrane’s “Breakfast Club” to originate front a local shopping centre July 24-25 . . . KWFM to build a new 225-foot tower twice size of present one and to increase its power from 9,700 to 25,000 watts to improve its FM programs’ reception . ,. KEVE picketed by admirers oi Western type music disk jockey Vern Weegmau after latter was let out. Banners asked “why did KEVE unjustly fire Vem” and “we want Vern back” v , . WTCN-TV’s Sunday morning telecasts of church services from a different church each week have been so well received . that they’re being placed on a year-around basis. IN SAN FRANCISCO . . . KGO-AM’s helocopter was grounded by a NABET-AFTRA beef. Both unions wanted to represent the reporter-announcer riding , above tha traffic-jammed freeways and telling commuters what to look out for, NABET said the ’copter man was a reporter, giving it jurisdiction. . AFTRA claimed he was an announcer, giving it jurisdiction. Meantime, the ’copter stays grounded . » . KTVU added Audrey Hunt, ex-KJBS, as secretary to national sales manager Frank G. King ... KRON bought 65 1955-56 UA films . . . KPIX’s “TV Tommy Hunter, whose heart surgery was seen by a million and a quarter Frisco area viewers, about ready to leave the hospital . . . Glenn Newell, ex-general manager of KONG,. Visalia, joined KGO-AM« as a salesman . . . KCBS’s “Jane Todd” (Wanda Ramey) taking flying lessons . . . Dorris Carr and Frank Wells replacing RGO-TV’s Don Sherwood while Sherwood relaxes in Hawaii IN DETROIT . . Robert Baldrics, publicity man, promotion manager aiid most recently , assistant radio sales manager for WXYZ, na med d irector of radio sales at station . . Walter J. Swider appointed to WWJ-TV’s sales staff . . ... Edward Carson, formerly announcer, newscaster, disk jockey and program manager for stations in Green BgrI Wis. and Lansing, Mich., naiined to the WWJ-TV announcing staff ^ . . CKLW^-TV making numer-. ous program changes this week to accommodate such special features as the Calgary Stampede Parade, President Eisenhower’s official visit, to Ottawa, the arrival of Princess Margaret at Victoria and the Davis Cup Finals between the USA and Canada/Cuba . . . “Farmer Alfalfa and Ws Terry toon Pals” is new Monday at d;30 p.m. entry on CKLW-TV. . IN PHILADELPHIA . . . Harold J. “Penny” Pennepacker, a vet of the WRCV-TV sales staff, named station manager of WRCV radio, replacing Harold Waddell who resigned.. . ; Clyde Spitner, RTFIL sales manager, elected president of the Poor . Richard Club . . . WIP night hews editor Alex Rosen chalks up .12 years with station, salesman Lee Neal 15 years and comptroller Bill Nace 17 years ... WCAU made its initial broadcast in stereophonie sound when it aired the Newport Jazz Festival on AM and FM (4-5-6) i . WFIL-TV cowgirl Sally Starr launching a line of “Sally Starr v Products” . . . WVUE extending late night gabfest “Joe Pyne Show” one half-hour. . The Sat. “Bingo-at-Home” session adds one hopr . : . j WIBG starts ’round-the-clock-schedule -and added. Mike Lawrence from Baltimore; for a 10 p,m.-*3:3& a.m: deejay segment. Mntnal’s AT&T Com . Mutual has landed'the American j Telephone' and Telegraph radio network biz, with Alt' A T picking J up newscasts -and 20?second ad¬ jacencies for a 13-week ride, with options to renews Total biz com¬ mitted represents about $117jo6o.= AT&T, which gave up Its long¬ standing “Telephone Thne*! radio networked show, is hew j to’ the; MBS fold. The phone company’s ad campaign', placed via N.W, Ayer, will plug the after 8 p.m. rate cuts for long-distance calls; Julian Clanuut East To - Set Tlayhoiise* Lead CBS-TV producer Julian Cla- man is in' from Hollywood to nego¬ tiate with a top name, as yet un¬ decided, for • a 5 “Playhouse dr>ma,^Th<e General’s Q&ier Son^ by Andrew, McfCullough, to bl taped this sunuher. 4 . ^"He’s also testing Gotham actors for leads to a hew half-hour- filmed dramatic series to be readied for thls falL. Series Is untitled as yet.’