Variety (March 1959)

Wednesday, March 18, 1959 RADIO-TELEVISION 51 ‘NOW IS THE TELEPIX HOUR’ 'Hie War Between the Rates Philadelphia, March 17. America’s advertising media were , urged to simplify their rate cards to avoid confusing advertisers. The suggestion was made by Michael J. O’Neill, advertising di¬ rector of TV Guide, at a dinner of the Atlanta Advertising Club. O’Neill discussed “The War Between the Rates,” saying, “We must streamline and systematize pur rate structure. We must elim¬ inate the guesswork and generalities associated with preparing costs for media schedules. A random selection of any three news¬ papers, magazines or tv stations, would show three different and unrelated rate cards for each classification. No wonder so much doubt and suspicion is hung around medias’ collective necks like a millstone.” Media has stuck to the same old “every man for himself” sys¬ tem that finds 500 tv stations with 500 varieties of information. Revamping of rate structures will help put an end to the senseless rivalry within media groups, O’Neill* declared. Neighbor Signal as OK Ground For Protest Vs. New TV’er. U.S. Appeals Cl ABC, NBC LEAD McKenzies WXYZ Exit Cues Headlines ’fio-'Cll I fllir.l[<! As He Recites ABC’s of‘Formula’AM Washington, March 17. 4 Legal grounds on wnich an exist¬ ing broadcasting station can pro¬ test against construction of a new station were considerably broad¬ ened by a U.S. Appeals Court de¬ cision here. Effect is that this right extends even to stations in nearby towns. The court ordered the FCC to hear arguments by Frontier Broadcast¬ ing, which operates a tv station in Scottsbluff, Neb., that a. station in Alliance 40 miles away, would hurt its business. Frontier had competed with Western Nebraska Television for Channel 13 in Alliance, but with¬ drew when the FCC permitted it to add more power in Scottsbluff. Then it sought to reenter the case as a party whose interest would suf¬ fer if a station w’ere constructed in Alliance. The FCC turned the company down, holding it was not an interested party. An earlier FCC ruling that It could not consider economic ef¬ fects on an existing station of a proposed new station, and that sta¬ tions must accept any competition they may be called upon to face, was already riddled by the same court. The present ruling, to the effect that the Commission must even consider protests of stations in cities close enough to receive the signals of a new station, is calcu¬ lated to increase FCC anguish. The Commission has complained that the so-called “economic protests” can bog down its hearing processes under endless delays and red tape, infinitely delaying new stations. Everyone in Govt Nervous on UHF Washington, March 17. Amid increasing signs that gov¬ ernment agencies (the military especially) are eager to gobble up unused commercial UHF televi¬ sion channels, Congressional un¬ rest is mounting over Federal Communications Commission foot- dragging on allocations problems. FCC is worried, too, but there is no decision, yet in sight on com¬ plex issues like mileage separa¬ tions, Craven plan, all-UHF' re¬ assignment, etc. Sen. John O. Pastore (D-R.I.), Senate Communications Subcom¬ mittee chairman, is reported ready to fire a demand for* action at FCC. Pastore’s subcommittee last spring asked the FCC for future planning on allocations, and there has been no reply. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol, Rep. Oren Harris (D- Ark.) is recruiting a staff of ex¬ perts to guide his House Communi¬ cations Subcommittee through a comprehensive and technical study o r the spectrum. An ambitious aim of the Harris group is to find who needs what in the way of tv channels between the Govern¬ ment, commercial tv and educa¬ tional groups. Harris spent Sat¬ urday (14) interviewing people for, the staff. Harris and his subcommittee, like Pastore’s unit, want a FCC Irfan for the future.* KMOX-TV Tall Story St. Louis, March 17. KMOX-TV* the CBS owned & operated station here, has started functioning with a new antenna in surburban St. Louis. The new structure is 1.214 feet from ground level, which leads to some odd statis¬ tical material: Tower is 827 feet higher than the next tallest structure in the city and the second highest in Missouri. It is only 36 feet shorted than New York’s Empire State Bldg., 766 feet taller than the highest Egyptian pyramid, 760 feet taller than St. Peter’s in Rome, and if one wants to visit the top of the KMOX tower, it’s an eight-minute elev ator ride. WIPsAutonomous News Dept. With 300 legs Per Wt. Philadelphia, March 17. Following up plans announced when the new syndicate took over six months ago, WIP has created an independent news department headed by Mitchell Krauss, former director of sales and promotion. Newscasts will be upped from 250 to over 300 per week. Expanded news coverage will provide for the addition of full¬ time researcher to six-man news staff, increased emphasis on spot reporting and acceleration of the “news tip plan,” with WIP listen¬ ers to participate in getting “scoops.” “At the time our group pur¬ chased WIP from Gimbel Bros., I pledged we would interrupt any program, at any time of the day or night, for important news items —not wait until 10-minutes after, the event,” declared Benedict Gim¬ bel Jr., prexy and general manager of the station. “WIP wall always consider a hot new»s item more im¬ portant than a hot record he added. “We recognize and respect the important service given by the newspapers in our community,” the radio exec stated. “However, with the special advantages of radio —its immediacy, accessibility to a large mobile audience, and its flex¬ ibility—we believe we can supple¬ ment and complement the role of the daily paper. We hope to con¬ tinue to work cooperatively with the newspapers in our area.” ‘Firestone’ Rodgers Gala “Voice of Firestone” in May will do a half-hour devoted to Richard Rodgers and his music. " Composer is set to appear on the ABC-TV Monday night show, and the William Morris Agency is lining" up other talent. By BOB CHANDLER Hollywood, March 17. Despite the indifference from sponsors which greeted new hour- ion« film stanzas last year, the net¬ works and producers are again off on a 60-minute kick for the fall, with a minimum of a dozen of the 60-minuters already underway. Shows range from more westerns to whodunits to adventure stanzas. NBC-TV and ABC are leading the trend, with five such shows underway each, while CBS has two. Of the 12, six are firm com¬ mitments for at least 13 episodes. Rest involve network financing of pilots. Renewed hour kick, is doubtless due to the fact that in spite of a faltering start, the new hours have clicked, with some notable excep¬ tions. ABC’s “77 Sunset Strip,” a slow starter, now dominates the Friday night Nielsen picture and is enjoying SRO status. “Rawhide,” which CBS finally scheduled in midseason as a sustainer, is now topping its time period on the Trendex returns and is near a sell¬ out. Only “Cimarron City” failed to make the grade, tftough commer¬ cially not a complete loss, and meanwhile second-year stanzas like “Wagon Train ? ’ and “Maverick” broke through into the Top 10 lists. Given half a chance and a fairly well-produced hour, it’s felt, the 60-minuters can move quickly up¬ ward in the rating, and sponsorship sweepstakes. Consequently, of five series commitments already made by ABC, three are hourlong entries, “The Alaskans," “Adventures in Paradise” and the new Clint Walk- = er “Cheyennes.” ABC will fi- ( nance Screen Gems* “The Fat Man” as an hour entry, and Warners’ “Law Enforcement” and “Bourbon Street Beat” are two more shows. NBC has committed for four 60- minute westerns and a suspense series, MGM-TV’s “Jeopardy.” Oaters are “Riverboat” (Kevue), “Laramie” (Revue), “Bonanza,” a network-produced show with Dave Dortort as producer, and an un¬ titled western out of Jack Cher- tok’s shop. CBS has Paramount’s “Conquest of Space” and its own “Savage Is the Name” upcoming. A key factor in the network am¬ bitious plans for 60-minute vidcix was'.the failure this season of two pivotal live entries to make the grade: CBS’ “Pursuit,” which might have spelled a new era of pre-taped hour formula shows, missed out badly, and NBC’s “El¬ lery Queen,” which also could have kicked off a cycle of live whodunits, failed to hit. Hence the trend toward more film as an insurance toward quality. Webs already have a total of 10 filmed hours on the air. ABC has i five, “Maverick,” “Sunset Strip,” | “Sugarfoot,” “Bronco” and “Disney Presents.” CBS has “Perry Ma¬ son,” • “Desilu Playhouse” and “Rawhide,” and NBC has “Wagon Train” and “Cimarron City.” Italo 64G Question To Be Dumped in June Rome, March'17. “Lascia o Raddoppia,” the Italo version of the “$6^,000 Question” and long the top local quizzer, will be dropped June 30. News was “unofficially ” announced on the show by quizmaster Mike Bongi- orno, who cautioned the “400,000" applicants still waiting for a spot on the show not to be too hopeful. No replacement has been .an¬ nounced. Another popular quiz, “II Musi- • chiere,” will also take a summer i hiatus, returning in the fall with a :few changes in format. The sum¬ mer fill-in for this Saturday nighter will be a musical show conducted (by Gorni Kramer and written by I Garinei and Giovannini who also I authored “Musichiere.” P&G On l-Hour-‘Bat’? In an effort to retain Proc¬ ter & Gamble’s business from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Mondays, NBC-TV Is offering the bank- roller a chance to buy in on an hourlong western at the same time. At the moment, the network is pushing a 60- minute version of “Bat Mas- terson,” which as a Wednesday half-hour is cancelled as of the . end of this season by Sealtest. P&G has already pulled out of the 7:30 “Buckskin” and is planning to ankle its 8 p.m. mate, “Restless Gun,” which is alternately shared by Sterling Drug. Shift to an hour stanza by NBC was prompted when P&G looked askance at buck¬ ing the newly inserted “Chey¬ enne” skein Mondays on rival ABC-TV. __ KHJ-TTs 4-in-l Pat tm the Back, Or an Id for IDs Hollywood, March 17. Taking a leaf from latterday radio, KHJ-TV, the RKO Teleradio key here, is doing a complete re¬ vamp of its ID’s, on-the-air promos and program openings and closing to provide a single, integrated identification for the station in pic¬ ture and sound. Station has come up with more than 50 musical tapes and slides all themed on giving the station a greater individual identity in the market. Observing that methods of sta¬ tion .identification in television haven’t changed an iota in video’s 10 years, KHJ-TV v.p.-general manager John Reynold.”' figures it’s time to do something about it. He points to the advances in radio sta¬ tion identification, wherein each station builds up a .recognizable “sound” in its promos, program openings and closings, the use of musical ID’s and even weather jingles. Reynolds figures the same can be done in tv, especially for an in¬ die station, and he and his staff have come up with a complete package, which went on the air this week, timed to a similar change¬ over at radio sister station KHJ. On the audio side, there are some 50 tapes, with a big band and chorus and especially Written jin¬ gles ranging from 15 openings and closings for individual shows to eight-second institutional ID’s. On the video side, station is us¬ ing slides involving a pair of animated figures, -a girl with a pony tail and a boy with a straw hat, on either side of a tv screen or a station symbol, as its new logo. Figures are designed to emphasize youth and vigor, the pitch being that station‘s7 audience composi¬ tion studies show a younger audi- ! ence. Visual logo will be carried J over into newspaper and other ad¬ vertising and promotion. A 15-minute presentation, em¬ bodying the changes and on video¬ tape, is being shipped to New York, with H-R Representatives slated to present agency sho’wings of the “New Sound in Sight,” as it’s termed, next week. HAL 'ZAPOPPIN DEEJAY Houston, March 17. Hal Murray has joined the disk jockey brigade of KILT and is be¬ ing heard in “Hal ’zapoppin’ ” from 5:30 tcT 9 a.m. Murray comes here from KLIF. Dallas, both stations operated by I Gordon McLendon. • f Detroit, March 17. “Formula radio programming” was blasted on the air and in the daily papers when popular disk jockey Ed McKenzie severed con¬ nections with WXYZ. It was the second time in six years that McKenzie’s differences with sta¬ tion managers had erupted into large headlines. In announcing his resignation from WXYZ, McKenzie said: "The differences between myself and WXYZ have been growing for some time. I feel I have built what reputation I have on my ability to pick new artists and new’ tunes. I cannot accept formula radio pro¬ gramming—the constant repetition of the ’Top 40’ records interspersed with news and weathercasts. This is happening all over the country. Every radio station sounds alike. There seems to be no place for someone who wants to offer qual¬ ity entertainment.” The resignation was precipitated when McKenzie began to sound off about his grievances on the air. He kidded commercials, some of the station officials and some of the current pop tunes. Mickey Shorr was moved up from his noon to 3 p.m. spot to take McKenzie’s afternoon show'. Bob Martin, for¬ merly of WJBK, w'as named to take over Shorr’s old time spot. McKenzie said he plans to take a vacation before returning to radio or tv. His earnings at WXYZ for the past six years have been re¬ ported to be about $60,000 an¬ nually. He left WJBK in 1952 after a station reorganization. He was the original Jack the Bellboy. When he left, the station got an injunc¬ tion forbidding him to use the name. Later, Federal Court ruled the name was the properly of the station. It was revived for the first | lime tw'o years ago and is current- ily used by Tom Clay. Eddie Chase Also Scrams Detroit, March 17. Revolt against “formula radio” continued as di^k jockey pioneer Eddie Chase quit CKLW echoing Ed McKenzie’s comments. Chase said “CKLW plans to have programs working in a for¬ mat” pattern by March 30. This makes the radio en ertainiT a ro¬ bot, not a personality. 1 have al¬ ways insisted on playing music, not numbers, and the new policy calls for the playing of 60 records selected by the station. “I’d like to say I play the Top 10,000. The new format calls for a puppet—anybody who can read or write, can handle it. This break has happened so quickly that I’m still a bit breathless. My wife and I plan an almost immediate trip to Europe, and after our return I hope to return to radio in some phase.” Chase began his deejay career in Los Angeles in 1930. He has been at CKLW 12 years. Before joining CKLW he was at WXYZ for five years. FCC Dp the HID For $11-11 Fond Washington, March 17. The Federal Communications Commission commissioners march¬ ed up to Capitol Hill last week to tell the House Appropriations In¬ dependent Offices subcommittee why they want a raise to $11,000,- 000 in funds to run the agency during fiscal year starting July 1. FCC is spending an estimated $9,- 759,904 in the current fiscal year. President Eisenhower explained in his budget message that' “growth in workloads, coupled with the needed reduction in time lag between date £f receipt and dates when applications are reach¬ ed for consideration require an increase in manpower.” The hearings were secret, which is the custom for appropriations hearings on the House side.