Variety (July 1958)

. Wednesday, July 23,1958 . BADlO-TKIJiVISIO-V 23 4 DOWN TO 3* Washington, July 22. The controversial House Legislative Oversight subcommittee goes behind closed doors this week to mark up a reform bill for . the Federal .Communications Commission. . Chairman Oren Harris (D-Ark) told Variety he is eager io get Congressional acceptance of subcommittee legislation to prove ; ; V: his scandal-hunting subcommittee is serious about its original task : of improving existing New Deal f 0C laws. Harris has a hankering to include, ; in any FCC reform, an . amendment taking the coveted communications chairmanship out of the hands of the White. House. He would allow the dhairman- ship to be selected by the Commissioners on a rotation or sent . ority basis. .• “Anything would be better! thari"ailowing the Chairman; who * is all-powerful, to be named by the Executive Branch, and there- . fore, beholden to it,” Harris said. Four other law-changes, aimed to tighten up loopholes; which •• •., have invited influence-wrangling, are under consideration: I) adopt a code of ethics by FCC, one of the few Federal regulatory com¬ missions that has never, formulated a code; 2) Clarify conditions : under which commissioners can accept “reasonable; honorarium or compensation’* for speeches* 3) prohibit anyone (except certain limited classes of FCC personnel) from making ex parte con¬ tacts after radio and tv cases are designated for hearing; and 4) allow the President to fire any commissioner for neglect of duty or malfeasance 4n office, but for no other cause. The act now . contains no removal provision. ' ' .The legislation is the outgrowth of staff studies of 23 com- . municatiort cases revealing prevalent influence-peddling. The subcommittee staff still hasn’t completed investigations of the Crosley station in Indianapolis and the Herald-Traveler tv out¬ let in Boston, Harris said. An additional hearing will be. held on them later—along with Pittsburgh channel 4 and Miami ehan- * nel .7, on which staff work is finished, Harris said. 1*11 *P • ray5 un in 4 ivu,uw diet ung When Jack Sterling was tapped to succeed Arthur Godfrey in the crack-of-dawn spot on WCBS Radio exactly 10 years ago, the latter’s advice to the new comer was wrapped Up in these words: “If you do it for 30 years, you’ll never get used to getting your rump out of bed at that time!” Godfrey’s appraisal of the situa¬ tion was shrewd and knowing but . then Sterling soon noted that the pay more than compensated for Catching the New Haven milk train and ripening the flagship station of the CBS w'eb every morning. Sterling was earning $250 per week as program - manager of CBS Radio’s WBBM, Chicago, when the search was started among the affil¬ iates for a candidate to replace Godfrey in Gotham. Almost with indifference, Sterling said he’d . make an audition record if the N Y. office Would pay for the wax-; ing. WCBS Radio agreed to do so— and the rest of the story is they lived happily ever after. Sterling now earns a tidy $100,000 yearly. Today the Jack Sterling Show Is up to its gills in profitable com¬ mercials and its rating is, to put it mildly, on the enviable side; Sponsors it appears have a habit of staying with Sterling, among the. veterans being Eastern Air¬ lines (10 years), Franklin Savings Bank (nine years) arid Esso (seven years). Moreover, the show has other aspects of sturdy geriatrics, notably in. the category of Sterling’s litr erary aide-de-camps. There .are (Continued, on page 44) Tex & Jinx Look Ray Diaz to MBS Ray Diaz has. joined the Mutual Broadcasting System as director of its . station services department. The department is. a consolidation of Mutual’s station relations and sales service department. Diaz’s last network post was with ABC as prograrii director of the radio network. . Abe Stark Pitches For TV City, But No few. New York tv people perked an eyebrow at the “latest” suggestion for a tv centre in New York. It was made. by Council President Abe Stark. Speaking be¬ fore the;: opening. of the AFTRA conclave in New York, the city of¬ ficial offered to support a centre built under Title I of the National Housing Act of 1949. Title I is a slum clearance act permitting public acquisition of land and subsequent resale to pri¬ vate developers. Stark had in mind turning part of the property over, to public, housing in order to qualify the industry for the rest, First off, the Title .! gimmick had been suggested several times before but to no avail. Stark apparently made the rec¬ ommendation unbeknown to the Mayor’s office. A spokesman for Mayor Wagner pointed out after¬ wards that the plan “had been dis- . (Continued on page 44) • Washington, July 22. The networks can gain enough station income through ownership! of outlets in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, Dean Roscoe Bar- row told the FCC In the concluding session of the hearings of the ! FCC’s Network Study Staff report: Actually, since the section of the report Which was . to have dealt With; tv programming has never been completed,, the likelihood of reopened hearings looms. Barrow and his aides in prepara¬ tion: of the controversial report which bears his. name last w r eek Went down the list of network ob¬ jections to his recommendation that option time and must buy be banned. This week he bore down on iriultiple ownership network spot sales »representation of sta¬ tions, and FCC direct regulation of networks. The staff executive sec¬ retary; Dean Louis H. Mayo; sought to tear down the web arguments against the recommendations the FCC require networks to make a public filing of their affiliation cri¬ teria, their--rate, making methods and their formulas for paying sta- Barrowr said that, the FCC has “permitted; a pattern of' multiple ownership to develop w ; hich erodes it doctrines of diversification and local ownership in a hnataner con¬ trary to the public interest.” He insisted that the FCC should end uncontested sales of stations and should adopt a procedure under which anybody could meet the set sale price and enter into a hearing before the FCC against the prospective purchaser, with the commission to choose Which is the better qualified. Otherwise, he argued, stations in major markets will in time be almost completely owned by broadcasters Who have only been, required to meet the very minimum standards. This',, he charged Would subvert the com- mission's most essential responsi¬ bility; :v . ^ ' : The dean of the Univ. of Cin¬ cinnati Law- School derided the multiple owners’ claim that they can provide a better programming service in the major markets. vHe said anybody who owns such a sta¬ tion must have plenty of money, and reaps substantial profits to put into programming, plus the .fact that independents have networks, independent program producers and others to aid them. On the other hand, centralized , ownership leads to standardized programming to the expense of local needs, he .argued.. , He cited the fact-that CBS had become the nation’s top. network while owning only three stations. Addressing himself to the web arguments that diverstiture. of some: of their stations might reduce their earning power to the extent that they might: not be able to sup¬ port radio networks, arid that the radio webs are necessary to na¬ tional defense, Barrow said if that becomes the ease the Governfnent should consider subsidies. Tex McCrary and his wife Jinx, who are leaving WRCA and WRCA-TV, are said to be dicker¬ ing with WNTA-TV for an inter¬ view spot. McCrary salutes NBC for giving him “all the independ- , ence to say what I pleased on the airlanes.” In any new setup he makes with a tv outlet, McCrary will hold out for as much editorial freedom as possible;. He’s also indicated a de¬ sire to play a more active role in political life. Anent his recent experiences In Washington, McCrary said that broadcasters spent more money on legal fees last year than they did on programming. Broadcasters,.he insisted, have far less. freedom than newspaper publishers. PAR CARTOONS FOR ABC-TV LATE AFT. Having lost Kellogg and its half- hour film shows to'•national spot; ABC-TV has been angling for pro- grain replacements in its 5-to-5:30 weekday strip,'First deal was made with Harvey Films for T70 Para- riiount theatrical cartoons,, which the net will place next fall on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Harvey bought the animations from the maker a few weeks ago, according to the web. A spokesman said that ABC took the product on a longterm video deal. Monday, Wednesday and Friday . replacements for the Kellogg stuff have not been set. j. Walter Thompson's Mohlplo Throat Man ■ Carroll Carroll has hit 'ownIdea about TV’s Trouble: A Triumph of Matter Over Mind *•; ana of the Editorial Features TV-RADIO REVIEW & PREVIEW NUMBER OUT NEXT WEEK jVVVj' ,000,0011 Per State If It Passes It’s a Pi? for BBC . London, July 22. The BBC lias pipped commercial tv for the exclusive rights of all major British athletics meets dur¬ ing the next five years. A record sum of $168,000 has been accepted by the British Athletics Board. 1TV competed, with the BBC but, according to Harold; Abra¬ hams, treasurer of the Athletic Board, “they didn’t seem very in¬ terested” For four days a couple of hun¬ dred delegates to the annual con¬ vention of American Federation of Television & Radio Artists knocked themselves out whipping up the demands on a new two-year con¬ tract with tv and radio, networks and with stations. {Contract demands were not de¬ tailed publicly, but the union is expected to present them to em¬ ployed bargaining units; sometime in the fall. The. present contract expires on Nov. 15. Clayton (Bud) Collyer, whom many AFTRAns expected to refuse a second term as prexy of the na¬ tional organization, was returned to office for another one-year term. Ken Carpenter was reelected first veep, Eleanor Engle second veep and Virginia Paine third veep. Evelyn Freyman became fourth veep. Travis Johnson was re¬ elected treasurer arid Stanley Farrar recording secretary. Hal Newell, Harry Halloway and Hal Wallace, all new to the na¬ tional board, were elected fifth through seventh vicepresidents, re¬ spectively. . Conclave began officially Thurs¬ day (17i. After a couple of days of caucusing, the entire union dele¬ gation spent from 10 a.m. Saturday .until .11:56 a.m* Sunday working on new demands. There were only two onp-hour breaks in the 26-hour period on the convention floor; A sidebar of the convention was the George Heller Memorial Foundation. The trustees of the year-old outfit made it official b> naming Heriry Jaffe its first per¬ manent president. A year ago, [Jaffe. was the first man to win the Heller Memorial Foundation Award I (to the one who services contrib¬ uted most to AFTRA). The Foundation is currently working on a scholarship plan “to (Continued on page 44) WRCA-TV’S BANNER BILLINGS FOR’58 ; Billings at WRCA-TV reached an alitime high for the first half of 1958, according to Max E. Buck, director rif sales and marketing for WRCA rind WRCA-TV. Billings topped by 109o the same period last year. Gotham video outlet also scored highest second quarter period in its history, topping all Aprils, Mays and Junes by 7%. Buck said the station’s highest June in history was racked up when billings, for that month beat, by 5 % 'the previ¬ ous alltime high; for June, Recent biz by Hoffman and Kitsch Beverage and new incoine from Bardahl Oil, Roosevelt Race¬ way, Macy’s and N, Y. Telephone Co. helped to establish station’s record-breaking scorecard. Washington, July 22. Like motherhood and the flag, education tv appears to have the support of Congress. The only discordant note is being sounded, by the pennywise Department of Commerce which cari’t bring it¬ self to okaying, without a protest for the reward, anything that may- ultimately leave the taxpayers with a $49,000,000 tab. . Nevertheless, Rep. Kenneth Roberts (D-AIa), chairman of the transportation and communica¬ tions subcommittee of the House Interstate, expects to bring out a bill underwriting this cost after an executive session this week. Passage by the House, he hopes. Will be as easy as the unanimous approval the bill got in the Senate. The proposed legislation au¬ thorizing up to $1,000,000 to each State to establish or improve broadcasting . for educational pur¬ poses. The money is earmarked for construction and equipment. A long string Of educational tv promoters testified this past week at two-day. House hearings. on what the legislation would mean; “All over Alabama, tv antennas are being erected next to the flag poles-of our schools,” said Ray¬ mond p. Hurlbert, general man¬ ager, Alabama Educational Tele¬ vision Commission. “ThesC addi-. tional spires signify to the world that they are bringing to the school rooms of the nation the best in art, literature, music., and science.” Margaret Mcllhenny, secretary of Great New Orleans Educational Television Foundation; Inc., said passage of the bill would meet the great need of W YES-TV for new r cameras and other equip¬ ment. “The purchase . of other micro- wave equipment w'ould allow us to simultaneously kinescope and broadcast, whereas w r e must pres- eritly limit our kinescoping of pro¬ grams for delayed broadcast to periods when the station is not on the air,” she said. A new building between Austin and San Antonio, to house the joint education-tv endeavor' which five universities in the two cities are planning w'ould be possible with Federal funds, Robert Scherikhon, director of radio and tv at the Univ. of Texas, testified. He said It would also provide funds to improve the inadequate (Continued on page 42) Lotsa Moola For 77 Sunset Strip’ With two sponsors fixed for “77 Sunset Strip” and at least one other near a closing, ABC-TV has reportedly firmed the hourlong telefilm skein in the Friday, 9:30- to-10:30 p,m. f slot for fall. Carter Pills probably will join two other Ted Bates clients (Whitehall ana American. Chicle) as a sponsor of the showv It’s uriderstood that Renault, the small French auto which lately signed with Leo Burnett for U. S. advertising, has between $400,000 and $500,000 it is ready to spend on ABC-TV. Automotive outfit is first interested in participating in the “Strip” deal as alternatives, is o.o.’ing ABC’s ‘Man' With a C amera” and “All-Star Golf.” joe Keating’s MBS Spot . Joseph Keating, executive pro¬ duced and special events director at Mutual, has been banned pro¬ gram director of the network. Formerly associated with NBC, Keating joined. Mutual as director of operations in 1952. In 1956 he Was named executive producer.