Variety (October 1960)

99 Wdaeidayi Oetofcer 12, I960 RABIO-mEVISION AO 7 LA. Stations to Boycott Local ' Emmy Awards; ATAS Holds Firm Nitery and restaurant biz so alow that a “Joe LeBlang plan”-^a sort of rtvaraed. Diners' Club idea—wiw being proposed; where, for $1 membership card, holders thereof would be entitled to 5-25% dis- "counts in certain pubs, clubs, «at- cries, dineries and niteries in the off-Broad way sector, usually those in the suburbs or in Greenwich Village. Jaime Yankelevich, the South American broadcasting tycoon, planning a nonstop flight from New York to . Buenos . Aires with Clyde Pangborn, famed aviator pilot,- as a: stunt on behalf of his broadcasting stations. Feature of the flight was a shortwave broad¬ cast from the plane to the ground. Frank Wallace, claiming . to bo. her . first, husband, '•booked , as a freak attraction and billed as' “Mr. Mac West.” International radio monitoring, with. an eye to counterespionage, established by the French Govern¬ ment in a long and shortwave radio central stationed within the aban¬ doned Fort Bicetre, just outside Paris, Twenty trained multilingual stenographers monitored and re¬ corded anything. at political or in¬ ternational significance. Variety editorialized against the cuffo commercial shows, as was. page one’d the previous Week, being resented by the theatnes, and that the theatre would t fight, back at radio sponsors, producjts, etc., bankrolling such free shows. NBC's top 10 customers were Procter & Gamble, Standard Brands, General Foods, Colgate, General Motors, Dr. Miles Labora¬ tories, Kraft Phenixi Sterling Prod¬ ucts, Bristol-Myers, American To 4 baeco. CBS’ top 10 were Ford, Ameri¬ can Home Products, Campbell Soup, Reynolds Tobacco, Wrigley, Liggett & Myers, Sterling Prod- 4 jucts, Wasey Products, Corn Prod¬ ucts, Lady Esther. London’s: tv experiments from the Alexandra Palace station, proving successful, and programing was set to go into operation in March 1936; David Sarnoff. back from a. 10- week survey of England, France, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Hun¬ gary and Czechoslovaki ; observed, that U.. S. radio was much ahead of the world’ He found, that Eu¬ ropeans, must pay an annual fee for. the privilege of listening to- government broadcasts;, that Euro¬ pean radio sets, and tubes were mom costly than in the U. S.; that European broadcasting, being un¬ der government subsidy, constant- 4 ly faced strict government control and censorship. Bristol-Myers, by switching from Benton & Bowles to Young &Rublr cam, put the Fred Allen (Ipana & Sal HepaticaV show. With the same agency handling Jack Benny (Jello) and Phil Baker (Gulf). Amos *n’ Andy’s intratrade crack was unusual in those, days when Freeman Gosden (Amos) ad libbed •‘Wed, my friend, Mr. Aylesworth, CM. H. Ayleswprth; president of NBC) Was telling me that if they left this show on for two more weeks the pageboys .might bo bble to get NBC back on its feet." Nellie Revel! was doing a radio column for Vawxty. KTRH, Houston, created a radio flrat on iti “Vox Pop” program when it reported suicide in pro¬ gress. during a sidewalk interview, A banker came hurtling from .a 10th floor hotel window aa the sta¬ tion's aidewalk interviews were on the seen*. ’ Some 15,000 deadheads . jam- packed the A & P Tea Cot's cuffo Kate Smith two-hour show at Mad¬ ison Square Garden. Jact^ Benny teed off hla -new Jello series with Michael Bartlett, Mary Livingston, Don Wilson and Johnny Green'S: Orchestra- over WJZ. Ditto Phil- Baker's new show for Good-Gulf, with Harry Mc- NaUfhtoa, Agnes Moorehead, Sev¬ en Gi and Hal Keinp's Orchestra. RCA'a full hour featured Milton J. Cross, Dr. Frank Black; David Sar¬ noff, Maria, Jeritza, Vienna Sym¬ phony, Paul Whiteman, John B. Kennedy, Dr, Walter Damrosch, Amos *n* Andy; and Ford's hour Sunday night show featured Jascha Heifetz, Victor Koalr and the Da-; trott Symphony. A Baltimore first was all- Neffro hour radio program over WGAO, sponsored by the National Assn, for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), patterned on “March of Time,” and highlighting race riots, segregation, lynching, and other invidious events of the moment. . ASCAP’s . survey of how radio uses up music and kills sheet mu¬ sic sales revealed that “Love In Bloom” was performed 24,374 times in 1934 from 674 key pro¬ grams (only. NBC and CBS : net¬ works analyzed); No. 2, “Ail I Do Is Dream Of You,” 23,910 plugs; No. 3, “Caribca,” 23,754 perform¬ ances; No. 4, “The Very Thought of You,” 23,604 performances; No. 5, “For All We Know;” 23,408 plugs. :. The Center Theatre in Radio City, having flopped with a. variety [program: (the iceshows had yet to open),, had reverted to a straight film pcdicy \yith. radiorfamed B,. A. Rolfe’s Orchestra in the: pit. Vice News Strip . WMCA, the N.Y. radio station that .has alway been strong on public service programming, is dropping, its' nightly. 30-minute pubaffairs stanzas and will pick up the slack, with .30 and 60-mimite: pubaffairs specials. Station; owned by the Straus family, has played: around with different times and different for-, mats in the pubaffairs vein for a long time, but the ratings have been, off at night in local, radio, especially- for culture, ' education and ; information. Shows have also' been costly* terms of an indie radio station. Evidently, WMCA. topper R: Peter Straus plans to put the coin into - heavy publicity prior to each of . the specials, which he says will be ‘-in-depth .studies dealing with problems bo.h local and general." Straus said that the . specials could run several consecutive days, “perhaps at the same time each day ;for cumulative-., .effect!” Or he might slot the hourlong docu¬ mentaries at .different times each succeeding day. St Lob KATZ Tosses 750GM Vs, Rival KXLW, Charges libel St. Louis* Oct.. II. KATZ, indie radio station here, filed suit in circuit court against Richard J. Miller* of New York, who is owner of rival KXLW. In a triple-edged action, Laclede Radio* ‘which owns KATZ; is. asking for $750,000. Suit charges that Miller “active¬ ly conceived.; participated in, as¬ sisted and induced*' libel and trade disparagement. It also alleged the KXLW operator engaged .in decep¬ tion. :. Laclede, controlled by Arnold Hartley and Ralph Well; alleged that Miller led the public to be¬ lieve that his station had received the endorsement of the presidential candidates via promotional plugs by “Richard Nikon" and “Honor¬ able Jolin F. Kennedy” Also de¬ scribed in the suit was a brochure by Miller, which, claimed that ad* vertisers who bought KATZ time were buying “bad-vertising” in¬ stead of “advertising.” KATZ and KXLW are both Ne¬ gro market stations. KATZ claimed that rival Miller, had perpetrated “malicious and libelous aets seek¬ ing *o deceive the Negro public and to mislead radio advertisers as to . the policies and character of KATZ.” This point was the body of the third suit. Each of the three Was for $250,008. Leyeoson’s Cuffo ‘N.Y.’ Sam Levensain is giving his serv¬ ices gratis to WABC-TV, accord¬ ing to the N. Y. station, as host of the Oct. 25 edition of “Expedition; New York.** Local pubaffairs program Is to be about special education in; the N. Y. City School system. Leven- spn was a teacher in the same sys¬ tem. CampeHto Iotercoatueital Ken Campbell has been named director of European operations for Intercontinental Television, S. A. He’ll operate out of Paris. Campbell recently left the Id Sullivan production staff where he was production supervisor on “Fes¬ tival of Two Worlds” in Spoleto, Italy, and on the Moscow show. WNAC’i Program Revamp Under New Yankee Web Topper Bill McCormick Boston, Oct. 11; WNAC Radio, the General flag¬ ship station , in Boston, is complete¬ ly revamping its program sked un¬ der helm of new prexy, William M. McCormick, who took, oyer the reins on Aug. 22. with target dates set . for Monday (17). New .format structure of news¬ service-hi-fi music; is being-worked out by John D. Maloy, program Chief. Station’s previous formats ran from “Easy Listenin’,” pro¬ gramming of smooth music, to “Radiant Radio,” to a moderate in- between type of musical program- mingi Some $25,000 in advertising has been earmarked to hypo the new format with newspapers, bill¬ boards, car cards, taxicabs, and a baby photo voice blurb oh station’s tv facility, WNAC-TV. A new hi- fi line is being installed from the station to the transmitter at Bur¬ lington. . Leland C. Bickford, news editor in chief, leads off with “News in Depth” reports under the new for¬ mat, 15 minutes each; every hour on the hour from . 6 a:m. through . 11 p.m. He has an augmented news staff and a new red and white mo¬ bile unit to cover the news in Bos¬ ton and New England. Increased politico, police and fire coverage plus beep phone interviews are planned. Under the new setup, anchor man of “Radio Boston AM” will be Roy Leonard, spelled, by Gus Saundres and Jim Dixon. They [Will provide, bright morning music interspersed with time, temp, weather, traffic conditions; , school openings and closings and women's club news from. Mary Sparks, sta¬ tion’s new community service di¬ rector, Jim Dixon. Bill Hahn, Miss Sparks, Louise Morgan, nutrition¬ ist Carlton Fredericks and more slick music Carry sked to 4 p.m. Then comes “Radio Boston PM,” 4:15 to 7 p.m., spearheaded by Dave Rodman, station’s late news¬ man. In this driving time, he will give news, sports, weather, time, temp, traffic, stock market, fashion news and interviews. a balks’p Cotton Bowi Blackoot Unless 90% B.O. Dallas, Oct. 11. ; The 1961. Cotton Bowl football game will hot be televised in the Dallas area unless the big stadium is 90% sold out. The Cotton Bowl Athletic Assn, announced that the game, to be played Jan. 2. will be blacked out in Dallas and within a 100 mile radius of Dallas Unless at least 67,953 seats are filled. That’s 90% of the capacity of 75,504. There are about 25.0DO seats available for public consumption at the Cotton Bowl classic each year. The rest are taken by Cotton Bowl bond and option holders and the participating schools. FM Lingiipler Los Angeles, Oct 11. A dally six-hour block of foreign language broadcasting will be un¬ dertaken Oct. 17 by local FM sta¬ tion KMLA. Conceived by general manager Jack Kiefer, new pro¬ gramming will be beamed to Yid¬ dish, French, Mexican, German, | Italian and Hungarian audiences, with leading community figures In each of the languages broadcast to host the segments. New concept has been dubbed “Giant Steps” by-the. outlet. h Grid Coverage ■f Houston, Oct 11. Sport fans throughout Texas, v ac¬ customed to good radio and tv cov¬ erage of Southwest conference football, will get better coverage than ever this season, according to an announcement from the Humble Oil & Refining Co., sponsor of .the broadcasts for the last 27 years. In fact, sports fans will be able to hear almost any Southwest con¬ ference game or see any NCAA teleeast being broadcast each Saturday. During the season, coverage will include radio broadcasts of all Southwest conference games, a weekly videotaped Southwest con¬ ference “Game of the Week,” and the 13 NCAA live telecasts. Humble will be a cosponsor of the NCAA‘telecasts. In addition, Humble will sponsor radio and video coverage of the 14 playoff AAA and AAAA high school football games In December. New in the radio broadcasts this year will be a series of recorded interviews with people connected with tbe game. They will discuss interesting sidelights and behind scenes activities. The popular “Game of the Week” featuring Kern Tips, will he shown each Sunday. Games will be selected by the conference, video¬ taped, edited and then shown on * big network the following day. Humble will have a 23-man an¬ nouncing staff headed by Tip* cov¬ ering broadcasts from 41 stadiums in 17 states. AC’s WFPG, on Steel Pier, Sold for 320G Atlantic City, Oct. 11. Sale of radio station WFPG, one of the oldest in the resort with its studio on the Hamids’ Steel pier on the boardwalk in mid-city for a sum in excess of $320,000 was an¬ nounced here last week jointly by Jerome Sill, president of WFPG, Inc, owner of the station, and Eastern Broadcasting Co. Eastern is controlled by tbe Diener family of Washington, D. C. t which operates radio station WUST in the capital. The family owns a chain of carpet stores and has ex¬ tensive real estate holdings in Washington. Sill said that it was his under¬ standing that there would be no change in personnel or program¬ ming of the local station. WFPG has just renewed its affiliation with CBS. Hollywood, Oct. 11. A solid front of the seven tv sta¬ tion managers here hss lined up to block reinststement of the local Emmy Awards by the Academy in its present form. But despite the protest, Gail Patrick Jackson, prexy of the local ATAS chapter, stated over, the weekend that “the man¬ date of our * membership compels us to proceed with this year’s local awards as pburned.” In a three-page statement signed by every station manager, the con¬ clusion was reached that “they are not officially endorsing or cooper¬ ating as stations in these local awards nor will they participate as stations' in the awards meeting to be held Oct. 27. It is therefore suggested that the local awards be postponed until such time as the stations can meet and work out with the Academy a procedure for local awards which would better suit the community.” Station managers have contended that since no agreement had been reached on the awards formula and that there was a lack of enthusi¬ asm, it was suggested “that in view of changes in station management, past and in contemplation, it would be wise for the Academy to wait for some reasonable period, then re¬ assemble the station managers once again to reopen the subject and discuss what steps could be taken concerning tbe local awards." Main objection by the managers is that this year's structure is un¬ changed from the previous format which had been 1 under attack. Managers' statement admitted “theoretically, the 1 Academy may appeal to individual members to vote or not to vote in these cate¬ gories” but contended that “the “basic problems have not been cured. No specific cases that stormed up the protest were men¬ tioned. Mrs. Jackson’s reply to the seven- station ultimatum noted the bal¬ loting process has already begun. She added: “To attempt resolution of these disagreements and find ways to give these awards even more stature and importance, a meeting of the board of governors and representatives of the local membership will be called shortly after this year’s presentation.” Lo¬ cal awards were dropped two years ago. Howard'Miller, Chi Politico io Separate Boys of Pfaff AM’ers Chicago, Oct. 11. Estate of Angus Pfaff last week sold both its broadcast properties —WNMP, Evanston, Ill., and WGEZ, Beloit, WiS!—for a total of $483,000. Pfaff bad died last July, and the stations went on the sell- j ing block shortly afterwards. Pur- [ chasers are Howard Miller, Windy City’s toprated dee jay. and Illinois state representative Harry H. Sem- row (D-Chicago). Miller paid.$123,000 for the Be¬ loit station, a 250-watter in. a two- station market, which had been purchased by Pfaff less than two years ago from the Sidney H. Bliss newspaper chain. WGEZ becomes Miller’s second broadcast property, the first being WFOX, Wilwaukee, in which be owns the majority in¬ terest. Rep. Semrow, who Is paying $360,000 for the 1.000-watter in Evanston, pending -FCC approval, will be venturing In broadcasting for the first time. 'WNMP was founded by Pfaff 13 years ago and in recent years has been the only all-classical music station obtain¬ able on the Chicago AM band. CHI POLITICO BUYS GOOD-MUSIC WNMP Chicago. Oct. 11. Illinois state representative Harry H. Semrow (Dem.) has pur¬ chased station WNMP, Evanston, 111.* from the estate of Angus Pfaff. Pfaff had founded the 1,000-wat- ter 13 years ago. and in recent years it has been the only all-classi¬ cal music station obtainable on the Chicago AM hand. Rep. Semrow is paying $360 000 for the station, pending FCC ap¬ proval. it's to be his first venture in broadcasting. Musta Been a Beaut Rome, Oct. 11. A general strike of : Italian radio and tv technicians Is threatened here after a week-long hassle originated by i series of garbled, video shows due to technical error. The errors, consisting of out-of-order film reels and mistaken coupling of audio and video tracks of a taped show, all occurred on one evening, completely baffling viewers, and were all blamed on a video editor named Maria Travaglini, who received a seven- day! suspension as a consequence. Her fellow-workers have now protested, the punishment, saying that an editor cannot be held responsible for errors which higher- up officials in the RAl-TV setup should have caught in, a routine check-through. General strike is threatened unless her punishment is lifted. Garbled film was “Story of Mildred Pierce,” an old Joan Craw¬ ford starrer, in which later reels were unspooled ahead of the opening ones. Confusion was even greater as pic is a flashbacker. In addition, a travel program (“Viaggiare”) which immediately followed, was transmitted with a soundtrack which did not match the images, belonging to another show.