Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

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4— TELEVISION DIGEST FEBRUARY IL 1963 GE PIONEERS ^STEREO WITHOUT MUSIC; Novel experiment in FM stereo drama will be started next month by GE & QXR FM network, with their Stereo Drama of the Month series (Vol. 3:5 p5). Staged, taped dramas will be aired over 40 FM stations, broadcast in stereo by 26 of them. “We feel this type of program will appeal to the trend-setters and opinion leaders we are trying to reach,” we were told by George A. (Tony) Bradford, mgr. of GE’s marketing operation. “We also hope it will extend the value of FM stereo.” GE TV, radio & phonos will be plugged in the stereo commercials. The 4 plays will be “Turn of the Screw,” with Agnes Moorehead (March 6), “Billy Budd” with Peter Ustinov (March 27), “Fall of the House of Usher” with Joseph Cotton & Patricia Medina (April 17) & “Visit to a Small Planet” with Cyril Ritchard. Stereo listeners will be advised to separate their speakers more than usual for maximum staging effect. Two of the plays will be produced by Hy Brown, 2 by Helen Hayes’ Equity Theatre. GE frankly doesn’t know if series will go over. It doesn’t yet know how effective its weekly Victor Borge Show in FM stereo has been (it goes off air next month). But it feels that for the tiny cost (as measured by TV production standards) it may find some interesting byproducts. At least one of dramas may be recorded on stereo LP disc and offered to FM network listeners to test audience reaction. Bearing in mind that GE has petition pending with FCC for establishment of technical standards for stereophonic sound on TV, it’s possible, too, that company may want to get public reaction to stereophonic aspects of drama. How about using FM stereo for simulcast sound with TV? “We may try that later with a special event or documentary,” said Bradford. ETV is “a lusty youngster” but still struggling for widespread acceptance, Feb. Changing Times reports in “Educational TV — What it is. Where it’s Going.” Despite lack of funds & occasional public apathy, medium has made healthy progress in past decade, but for continued development money must appear “in double and triple present amounts,” magazine says. With more funds, trained personnel & higher pay, ETV’s turning point may be just around corner, according to report. FTC charged 2nd advertising agency in comparative analgesic study case (Vol. 3:3 p2). Commission cited Thompson-Koch Co., N.Y., along with Sterling Drug & Dancer, Fitzgerald, Sample, for making false claims in advertising an FTC-financed study of Bayer Aspirin & 4 other remedies. New Voice of America 4.8 million-watt long-range transmitter complex at Greenville, N.C. went into service Feb. 8. Installation will double agency’s overseas power, was inaugurated at ceremonies attended by USIA Dir. Murrow, a congressional delegation & other officials. Woi’k on $23,273,000 project began 3 years ago. BBC ban on jokes on evening TV programs has been lifted. Fifteen-year-old code had prohibited gags about royalty, sex, religion, certain other sensitive subjects. TV^S Fabulous Invalid: Like Broadway legit theater, syndication is often viewed by alarmists as being on point of expiring, but like live theater keeps surprising everyone with periodic resurgence. Here are few highlights of current shape & direction of syndication: Syndicated movie packages are getting closer to theatrical runs (particularly in such “art house” films as “Hiroshima, Mon Amour,” now making TV rounds). Embassy Pictures, operated by astute Joseph E. Levine, now talks deals with stations in which as-yet-unproduced movies are discussed in TV-package terms. Movies are also getting bigger & better. Coming up on Feb. 15, for example, is world TV premier of “From Here To Eternity,” a Columbia Pictures 0 scar-blockbuster of few seasons ago, on KTVT Dallas. MGM-TV is busily racking up sales on its 3rd gn^oup of post-1950 pictures, and Seven Arts is doing well with recent Warner product, about half of which is in color. Half-hour action-adventure fare, typified by Highway Patrol, has almost vanished from new-product scene, although reruns still play on & on. Trend today is toward such product as station-produced documentaries sold by TV Affiliates Corp., Teledynamics’ literate Meet The Author series, ABC Films’ feminine-appeal Girl Talk daytime strip. Official Films Biography, Seven Arts’ hourlong Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Specials, etc. OfF-network shows continue to flow into syndication market. And, since trend at network level has been toward hour-long drama shows (apart from situation comedy), g^rowing number of syndicated shows are of 60-min. length. In face of continuing shortage of low-priced feature packages, many stations use such rerun shows {SurfSide Six, Checkmate, etc.) back-to-back as substitute or replacement for movies. “More & more observers . . . are raising serious questions about the organization & procedures of our federal leg^islature. There are even those who argue that the Congress is running a bad third among the 3 coordinate branches of the govt., and that it is painting itself into a corner of relative obsolescence. I am sure that the Congress has a vitality & viability that can respond to the new demands of the New Age. But it can respond, and indeed evolve, only if the people themselves are brought into more direct contact with its processes. Radio & television can do just that.” — CBS News Pres. Richard S. Salant, in Bulletin of American Society of Newspaper Editors. “Broadcasting in a Free Society” will be subject of panel discussion at April 3 afternoon session of NAB annual convention in Chicago March 31-April 3. Erwin D. Canham, Christian Science Monitor editor & network radio commentator, will be moderator. Washington communications attorney Theodore Pierson will argue for less go\"t. control of broadcasting, U. of Cincinnati Law School Dean Roscoe Barrow will talk in support of more federal regulation. Four additional panelists, not yet selected, will participate. NAB Broadcast Engineering Clonference limcheon address in Chicago April 1 will be given by Sidney Metzger, RCA expert who headed development of equipment for “Relay” satellite.