Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1961)

VOL. 17: No. 27 17 Television Digest FUBLISHED BY TRIANGLE PUBLICATIONS, INC. WALTER H. ANNENBERG, President PUBLICATION OFFICE Radnor, Pa., MUrray 8-3940, TWX: Radnor 1028 JAMES T. QUIRK, MERRILL PANITT, Editorial Director Business Manager HAROLD B. CLEMENKO, Managing Editor DAVID LACHENBRUCH, Asst. Mng. Editor JAMES B. 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 NEW YORK BUREAU 625 Madison Ave., New York 22, N.Y. Plaza 2-0195 CHARLES SINCLAIR, Chief WEST COAST BUREAU 6362 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood 28, Cal. Hollywood 5-5210 DAVID KAUFMAN 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 Annually— Spring Published Saturdays Published in January Copyright 1961, by Triangle Publications, Inc. Personals: Elmer W. Lower, NBC Washington news mgr., named NBC dir. of news & public-affairs shows effective Aug. 1; George A. Vicas, ex-CBS News, named to head a new NBC News European office, which will produce news & information documentaries for NBC-TV. . . . George H. Allen promoted to vp, Meredith Publishing Co. Jim Beach, ex-ABC-TV Central div. vp, named best, supervisor, Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago . . . Roger B. Read, Taft Bcstg. administration vp, named pres, of Taft’s newly acquired Cincinnati Bowl (see p. 16). Other officers in the new company are Hulbert Taft Jr., chmn.; David G. Taft, vp, Dorothy S. Murphy, treas., Robert Taft Jr., secy. . . . Clayton H. Brace, KLZ-TV & KLZ Denver, elected pres., Colo. Bcstrs. Assn. Ralph Evans resigns as exec, vp, Palmer Enterprises (WHO-TV & WHO Des Moines; WOC-TV & WOC Davenport) ; Dr. David D. Palmer, son of the late Dr. B. J. Palmer, will be directing head of all Palmer Enterprises . . . Naomi Andrews named ad dir., CBS Radio . . . Herbert F. Tank retires as chief transmitter engineer, WJW-TV & WJW Detroit; he joined WJW in 1923. Peter Dimmock named gen. mgr., outside broadcasts, BBC-TV . . . Eugene D. Warren named engineering dir., John J. Leay chief engineer of TNT’s new engineering div. (62-10 34th Ave., Woodside, L.I.) . . . John Perry, asst, to NAB Pres. Collins, on Aug. 4 marries Susan Berla in West Orange, N.J.; she’s public relations asst, with Learning Resources Institute, producer of Continental Classroom. Sylvia Kessler named asst, chief, FCC Renewal & Transfer Div. . . . Wilner, Bergson, Scheiner & Lessenco is new Washington TV-radio law partnership, succeeding Lyon, Wilner & Bergson following withdrawal of Richard Lyon. Obituary Frank V. Bremer, 67, radio-broadcast pioneer and founder & vp of radio WAAT Newark, died June 24 of cancer. When WAAT and its TV subsidiary WATV were sold in 1958, becoming WNTA-TV & WNTA, Bremer acted as a consultant to owner NTA. He had started amateur broadcasting in 1910, using a spark-coil transmitter, received amateur & commercial operator’s licenses in 1914. Frank H. Coffine, 50, local sales mgr., KOIN-TV Portland, Ore., died June 27 after an extended illness. Justice Dept. Juggles Topkicks: W. Wallace Kirkpatrick, first asst, to antitrust chief Lee Loevinger, has resigned after 23 years to enter private practice. He’ll be succeeded by Robert L. Wright, chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights. Other changes in the antitrust div.: George D. Reycraft promoted to chief of section operations, Harry G. Sklarsky to chief of field operations, Louise Florencourt to confidential asst, to Loevinger. Technology Space-Race Pace Picks Up: a national policy on satellite communications finally is in the works, now that President Kennedy has asked the Federal Space Council, headed by Vice President Johnson, to come up with basic recommendations. Importantly, the President asked the Council to examine the question of satellite ownership — which some observers take to mean that govt, ownership is again a possibility after having been ruled out by earlier administration statements. Kennedy made it clear that speed is important. A similar plea that the U.S. “get there first” was expressed by RCA Chmn. David Sarnoff in a speech before the National Press Club last week. He also made clear his ideas about the demands of GE, Lockheed & other noncommon carriers for ownership participation in satellite communications. He spelled out the parts of an international communications system — pickup, transmission, relaying, reception, delivery — and asked: “Do the proposed satellite owners want to go into the pickup & delivery business? I don’t know what they mean. And I don’t think they know what they mean.” Sarnoff also disclosed that RCA has developed plans for putting a remotely-controlled camp on the moon — stocked with food, water and power facilities — to precede man’s actual landing. He tickled Washington’s press corps by holding up a mockup of a pocket-size color TV-AM-FMtransmitter-receiver which he said would be “the reporter’s best friend in the 70s” — device by which an editor could x’each his correspondent anywhere in the world. He conceded that many reporters would consider such “progress” dubious. Asked about color TV, he said: “It has caught on. I don’t think it will be long before it’s a mass item and the price comes down. The price now compares with that of the first black-&-white sets.” Technical Advances: Two devices to improve technical quality of news & special events programs are being put in use by 2 networks. NBC has designed & built a “video picture translator” which makes possible integration of program originations from separate points through dissolves, inserts, split screen, etc., and permits switching between sources without rollover. The translator is installed in N.Y., but can be moved to other locations for special program needs. At CBS-TV, an Eidophor TV projector has been installed and will be used for special effects on Douglas Edwards & the News. In this case, it’s being used as a light amplifier, to project live film or slide pictures with high brightness, making it possible for the newscaster to appear in the same picture. TNT is the U.S. distributor for the Swiss-made Eidophor equipment.