Variety (January 1959)

Wednesday, January 14, 1959 PUSUETY RADIO-TELEVISHMV 59 Billy Graham s Religioso Chain Of AM Stations Washington, Jan. 13. Evangelist Billy Graham, stop¬ ping off here en route to a new crusade in Australia, unfolded plans for a group of nonprofit, semi-religious radio stations in ma¬ jor U. S. cities. Programming will not be exclu¬ sively religious but will have good music, too. “There will be no rock ’n’ roll,” Graham said. “Elvis Presley will have to sing hymns in order to get on, and he’ll havp to sing them properly.” Graham’s idea, he said, is to have a station which a family could dial in morning and not change it all day for wholesome entertainment. “I feel some of our major cities need such a station,” he added. Graham said he is connected with a group, which is now prepar¬ ing an application to the Federal Communications Commission for the first of jsuch stations, a pro¬ posed 5,000-watter on top of Black Top Mountain, N. C. One anonymous giver has already donated $25,000 of the $40,000 nec¬ essary to start the station, Graham said. “We’U sell only a minimum of time,” Graham said. “We’re not going to try to compete for adver¬ tising. We’ll probably take a loss and make it up with contribu¬ tions.” His newest crusade to Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia will keep him out of the country until next Aug. 1. New ABC Ride The perennial Billy Graham Crusade returns to ABC-TV for an¬ other seven week-run, this time starting Feb. 2J.. Graham is pick¬ ing up the Saturday 10-11 p.m. time period, which will force ABC to shift the Sammy Kaye half-hour to another time period, probably on an other night of the week. Buy is for kinescope and film coverage of the religioso campaign planned by the Evangelist for Australia. Network is holding onto band¬ leader Kaye, even though he is sponsorless, because his old bankroller, Manhattan Shirts, -is defin¬ itely returning _for a springtime deal involving Kaye. Memphis — D. A, Noel has been upped to general manager of WHBQ-TV and Boone Nevin has moved into the general manager slot of WMBQ radio Operations in the first announcements made here by William Grumbles, newlynamed RKO Teleradio veepee. BATHE all your aches and pains due to Tension and Fatigue HOTEL^nd BATHS Hot Springs National Park ARKANSAS Hot Spring* rodiooctivo thormol wattr* r*juv«nato yew, relax loot nerve* and relieve arthrrt?*, rheumatbin and high blood prenure. Meet the challenge of two 18-hole chainpiomhip golf eoune*;Tdhgle with largemouth blade bam; in the evening, pamper you neH with our Continental cui*ine. Yoe deserve a. vacation et the fabulous Arlington! -Planned ' Social Acftritto» Write Far freieCabr feWer To: R. I. McIACHIN1 FCC Drafting Proposals For Regulating ‘Space Frequencies ABC-to-CBS Press Dept Shifts Continues as Bonn Is Latest to Be Tapped Not only is CBS obeying the top echelon to “watch ABC-TV” in the increasingly hot three-network bat¬ tle for business and ratings, but now it develops that the CBS-TV Press Information department is getting into the act too — with ac¬ tion. They continued their raids on the Mike Foster-helmed ABC Press Info department this week by snaring Ron Bonn, show-handler who has been concentrating on handling publicity on the ABC news department and Dick Clark. Bonn will replace John Horn in the CBS-TV Press department, with Horn moving over to the local WCBS-TV press staff. This is the third man CBS-TV has lured away, via higher pay and the CBS-TV pension system, from the ABC press department. Three months Ago they grabbed Hank Warner, Foster’s No. 2 man, and Jack Fields, column planter. Bonn’s replacement at ABC hasn’t been set yet. Another switch at ABC Press Info involved the adding as a show-handler of Ed Weisman, formerly of Reuters, who takes the spot left vacant when j Clark Tyler moved over to the as¬ sistant magazine editor post. Diesel Doesn’t Atlanta, Jan. 13. Red faces around WGST, Georgia Tech station and ABC outlet’ here, were common when city power went off and station was switched to stand¬ by diesel* engine-powered gen¬ erators and they, too, sput¬ tered to a stop. Diesels, it seemed, were out of fuel. Nothing to it, said staffers on duty, just put some oil in the tanks and crank ’em up. But, no one knew where tank was located. WGST moved into Tech’s Alexander Memorial Building two years ago and diesel fuel tank was buried underground somewhere outside building. While engineers were mak¬ ing t like uranium hunters searching for spout to fuel tank, city power came back on and station regained its voice. Needless to say, an oil com¬ pany now has a contract with WGST to provide diesel fuel to station on a “keep-it-full” basis. ANTAL DORAT ON HALO AIR Minneapolis, Jan. 13. Minneapolis Symphony Orches¬ tra conductor Antal Dorat has flown to Italy to perform a com¬ position of his own over the radio. He’ll also guest Maggio at Flor¬ ence, Italy, before returning to the Washington, Jan. 13. Federal Communications Com¬ mission has launched Itself into the spaee age with the first specific proposals for international regula¬ tion of radio communications be¬ yond the earth’s confines. Proposals were drafted for eventual submission to State Dept, which has overall responsibility for presenting U.S. position at In¬ ternational Telecommunications conference in Geneva next sum¬ mer. FCC issued notice of inquiry calling for comments on its plans for frequencies to be set aside for communications “with or between objects in space” and exact defini¬ tions of what constitutes “Space Services.” Area to be embraced by pro¬ posed rules would be defined by FCC as: “Natural or artificial ob¬ jects such as the. moon, planets, satellites and space vehicles, main¬ taining sustained motion beyond the major “portion of the earth’s atmosphere.” Bands to be set aside , would be strictly for scientific purposes, not public radio or tv broadcasting. Under FCC’s proposal, frequencies so allotted would be from the Gov¬ ernment 25.6-25.65. 100-150, 17001725, 1825-1850, 2275-2300, 830084000, 15150-15250 and 31500 31800 megacycle bands. U.S. and Russia have been using different bands in their varied space probes, causing some confu¬ sion and portending a great deal more. Russian space objects have been beaming on frequencies used by U.S. Government and fixed aviation radio services. U.S. has been using a frequency just be¬ tween FM and mobile aviation bands. Esther Williams’ Vidpix Hollywood, Jan. 13. Ester Williams will star in a vid¬ pix series, “The Esther Williams Show,” for 20th-Fox Television. Series will have Miss Williams as hostess and she will appear in some segments of the anthology show. She will portray a recreation director at Lake Arrowhead, and much of the lensing will be there. Exec producer Herbert Bayard Swope Jr. has signed Robert and Edith Soderberg to pen the pilot which rolls in February. Albany Schenectady Troy ALBANY, N. Y. THIS NEW STATION is engineered to deliver the market covering eastern New York, western Massachusetts and parts of Vermont and New Hampshire. It provides a sales potential of $3,495,571,000.00 consumer spendable income. And that’s cash register money! Food sales alone are over $615 million; drugs over $72 million. Exclusive ABC for most of its coverage. Investigate . . . write, wire or phone today! 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