Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

VOL. 16: No. 34 13 Television Dig;est PUBLISHED BY TRIANGLE PUBLICATIONS, INC. WALTER H. ANNENBERG, President PUBLICATION OFFICE Radnor, Pa., MUrray 8-3940, TWX: Radnor 1028 JAMES T. QUIRK; MERRILL PANIH, EdiYofio/ Director Business Manager HAROLD B. CLEMENKO, Managing Editor DAVID LACHENBRUCH, Associate Editor ■JAMES^fl. DELEHANTY, HAROLD RUSTEN, Associate Editor Asst. Business Mgr. PAUL STONE WASHINGTON BUREAU Wyatt Building Washington 5, D.C. Sterling 3-1755 ALBERT WARREN, Chief WILBUR H. BALDINGER WM. J. McMAHON Jr. MARTIN CODEL Associate Publisher TELEVISION DIGEST. Published Mondays. Subscription $75 annually. For group rates & other subscription services, write Business Office. TELEVISION FACTBOOK TV & AM-FM ADDENDA AM-FM DIRECTORY Published March & Sept. Published Saturdays Published in January Copyright 1960, by Triangle Publications, Inc. NEW YORK BUREAU 625 Madison Ave., New York 22, N.Y. Plazo 2-0195 CHARLES SINCLAIR, Chief DIANE SCHWARTZ WEST COAST BUREAU 6362 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood 28, Cal. Hollywood 5-5210 DAVID KAUFAAAN Personals: Robert J. McAndrews, KBIG Los Angeles vp, appointed 1960-61 NAB radio public relations committee chmn. . . . Carlo Anneke named local sales mgr., KTLA Los Angeles, succeeding Bob Jones, resigned . . . Adm. Maurice E. Curts named Pentagon telecommunications policy dir. . . . Donley F. Fedderson, ex-WTTW Chicago, named NET TV programming dir. . . . David J. Blackstead named operations mgr. of KXJB-TV Valley City & KXGO-TV Fargo, N.D.; James R. McGuire appointed commercial mgr.; William D. Brouse, promotion & merchandising mgr. Obituary Bond P. Geddes, 78, 1927-50 exec, vp & secy, of the Radio Mfrs. Assn, (now EIA), died Aug. 16 in Georgetown Hospital, Washington. Following his retirement in 1950, he worked as an industry consultant, but had been inactive in recent years. In his 23 years with RMA, he watched the industry grow from crystal-set days into the electronics age. Prior to joining RMA he was a Washington newsman in a career stretching back to 1911 & President Taft. At one time he was UP bureau mgr., later joining the AP, for which he was Capitol staff chief. Dr. Charles Edward Kenneth Mees, 78, retired Eastman Kodak vp, died Aug. 15 at his home in Honolulu. Mees, considered an outstanding pioneer in modern photography, developed the infrared photographic plate. At his retirement in 1954 after 42 years with Eastman Kodak, he received the Franklin Institute’s highest award, the Franklin Medal, for his contributions to the science of photography. Col. A. G. Simpson, 67, World War II chief of the Army Signal Corps communications & liaison office, died Aug. 12 at his home in Clearwater, Fla. While U.S. forest service chief radio engineer before the war, he developed a portable radio transmitter-receiver, a forerunner of the Army’s walkie-talkie. Walter E. Carlson, 59, former member of the Tasty Yeast Jesters, radio trio popular in the 1920s, died Aug. 17 at his home in Bloomfield, Conn. At his death, Carlson was a salesman & artist for radio WHAY, New Britain, and was formerly with radio WJZ, N.Y. Edward (Ted) Pope, 37, CBC TV producer, died in a sports-car wreck during a race at Harewood Acres, Toronto, August 13. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter. Foreign BBC-TV has distributed a hard-bound book promoting its new $45-million London TV center to networks, the press, station groups, agencies etc. The center covers 13 Vz acres and is designed for the production of 1,500 hours of programming each year. Contents of the book include articles about BBC by dir.-gen. Hugh Carleton Greene and TV dir. Gerald Beadle, photo views of the building, and technical aspects of the plant & studios. BBC, which has plans to bid for the live programs export market in the U.S., is using the new publication, in part, as a promotion piece to potential program buyers. Iraq’s govt.-owned TV station (Ch. 8, 1-kw ERP), which has been accepting commercials since Feb., forwards us its rate card, indicating rates ranging from $16.80 for a 10-sec. ID to $224 for a 3-min. live commercial. Among the ground rules for advertising on the Baghdad station: “(1) Advertisements are telecast respectively as received with no priority. (2) A non-advertisement film with a onemin. sponsor advertisement costs only the rate for a onemin. advertisement. (3) No advertisements concerning drugs or alcoholic beverages are accepted.” As of Aug. 1, there were an estimated 70,000 TV sets in the republic. Russia projects TV production of 3,325,000 units by 1965 according to the Wall St. Journal in an analysis of USSR’s increasing consumer goods output. The 1965 projection compares with 1959’s production of 1,300,000 TVs, 84,100 in 1953, 11,900 in 1950. Notes the Journal'. “During 1959, Soviet consumer goods output rose 10.3% but retail sales were up only 7.2%. The result, familiar to any capitalist, was a rise in inventory, estimated by the Soviets at 11%.” Revenue of Britain’s program contractors jumped 29% to $17,948,966 in April, compared with April 1959. Pacing the 12 contractors was A-R London, with time billings of $3,785,096— up 16% from April-1959’s $3,255,960 volume, reports TV Press Agency. Percentage gains were scored by the 10 contractors who were operating last April. The gains ranged from Southern’s 3% to Tyne Tees’s 51%. Future of British TV-radio broadcasting will be charted by a special committee of inquiry established recently by the Postmaster General. The study panel will explore a broad range of new broadcast services — including pay TV, closed-circuit, a 3rd channel— and recommend which services should be provided by tax-supported BBC and ad-supported ITA. The committee is headed by industrialist Sir Harry Pilkington. Educational Television KQED (Ch. 9) San Francisco and KVIE (Ch. 6) Sacramento are forming the Cal. Community TV Network, and plan to include other non-commercial, communityowned stations as they come into being in that state. (A Fresno station is currently being planned.) A 2-way microwave relay unit on Mt. Diablo will link the stations. The project, due to be completed by mid-October, is financed by the Ford Foundation for Adult Education. “Key Audiovisual Personnel,” a 1959-60 compilation by the U.S. Office of Education of sources of educational TVradio-film-phono materials, is available for 25«i per copy from the Govt. Printing Office, Washington. The directory lists 787 public & private agencies, 1,062 individuals.