Now on a six-month exchange visit to KYW-TV 3, a TV station of the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company Inc. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is researcher JEREMY TAYLOR. In this article, he writes about television in America and his life there. As always in Fusion, the views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Rediffusion, London.

There is one major difference between television here and in Britain. In America the competition for advertising makes programme people become more aware of markets, ratings and sales.

Philadelphia is the fourth largest market in the USA, after New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. We have three VHF stations affiliated to the three networks, NBC, CBS, and ABC, an educational channel and three UHF stations.

Since the advertising rates for each station are based on the ratings it means that we get more programmes with mass appeal and comparatively little with a limited interest. There are no plays at all now on any of the networks, and increasingly each day’s viewing becomes more and more filled by feature films. Watching television here can be one film after another, and it is surprising how many ‘B’ feature films from the 1950’s are now getting their ‘Philadelphia TV Premier’. But it really is not so surprising when you remember, for example, that WFIL TV, the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, is on the air 21 hours a day.

KYW TV, the Westinghouse Station, and NBC affiliate, does three major news programmes a day – 12 noon, 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. The noon programme is local and aimed at the housewife, 6 p.m. is the major local news of the day, and 11 p.m. is local, national and international. At 6.30 p.m. there is Huntley- Brinkley, with NBC’s national and international news. So each night between 6-11.30 on any Philadelphia network channel there are at least one-and-a-half hours of news. The increase in the length of national and local news programmes to half an hour, and in some cases to an hour, has meant the virtual disappearance of the weekly background news and feature programme, since both interpretation and background reporting are now in the newscasts themselves. Additionally Westinghouse, and some other stations, have editorials twice a week after the local news. These are done by the general manager of the station on local issues. They also give time to opposing interests to the editorial. Despite the lack of regular weekly programmes the air is thick with network and local ‘specials’ on every sort of subject from comparing education in Britain and the USA, to politics in Pennsylvania.

The current fashion, this season, is what a National Educational Television programme on ‘Television in the USA’ called, ‘quiz shows for adults’ – the testing programme. This is a new concept in television which enables the viewer at home to take an active part in the programme. In the past three months we have been tested by the networks on our perception and observation, income tax returns, and politics.

You sit at home with the TV Guide, the equivalent of TV Times, and fill out your answers on a specially printed page. Before the programme national surveys are carried out and printed so as the test goes along you can tell if you are brighter than attorneys in Chicago, or stupider than New York cab drivers. At the end of the programme you count your score, compare it to the national survey figures and you can see instantly if you are an average American or not.

These programmes grow out of an American desire for, and awareness of, education. For example, the income tax test was held the night before the deadline for the returns this year. As part of the programme they showed a film of classes being held in High School on how to fill in returns. The questions put to the class were also the questions put to the viewer in one section of the test.

It was easier to answer the income tax questions because KYW Newsradio, for three weeks before income tax day, carried a series of public service announcements giving advice on how to fill up the return. But this is only a fractional part of what Newsradio does; it covers the news live for 24 hours a day non-stop for ever. Working there you feel guilty because you can never arrive to start the day, and when you leave there are always others carrying on working.

But at the present my favourite programme is ‘Batman’. This is the serialised adventures of disguised millionaire Bruce Wayne, and his ward, Robin, who dedicate their lives to fighting all criminals and wrong-doers. Their crusades against the evil ‘Joker’ and ‘Penguin’ and other terrible villains who threaten the safety of the good people of Gotham City make great adventures. The ‘Dynamic Duo’, Batman and Robin, are based on the comic strips of the early 1950’s and they have now become quite the rage here.

In the end America is the country where it matters to a psychiatrist what people write on a display typewriter outside Olivetti in Fifth Avenue. It is the country where computer engineers are now starting to move in and live with their machines complete with their pet poodles and alligators. It is the country where ‘What’s My Line?’ has been running for 17 years. And it is the country where, when the Huntley-Brinkley show went to colour, there was an increase in viewers with black and white sets.

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The year 1966 started with political praise being heaped on the head of ‘This Week’ when the programme celebrated its 10th anniversary on January 6. A publication to mark the event carried messages of goodwill from the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Liberals. Later that night a programme title ventured into the realm of the astrologer with what at that time seemed an amazingly rash prediction… The World Cup – England to Win?’ Then on January 31 the first of a new series called ‘The Rat Catchers’ started to win predictably high ratings.

In between, however, had come the death of a member of the board of directors – Sir Bracewell Smith, a former Lord Mayor of London, chairman of Wembley Stadium and an honorary vice-president of the Football Association. February brought yet another award to the company when ‘Children of Revolution’, the Intertel production on young people growing up in Czechoslovakia, won a Silver Dove from the International Catholic Organisation for Radio and Television (UNDA) at the sixth Monte Carlo International Television Festival. Another award came the next month when Hughie Green and Michael Miles received a joint special award from the Variety Club of Great Britain at the Show Business lunch on March 8 for the continuing popularity of their programmes.

March 31 once again saw Studio 9 as the hub of the ITV network when everybody went into action to cover the General Election.

Mr Wilson was given ‘A View from the Bridge’ shortly after on April 4 with the transmission of Arthur Miller’s play. Meanwhile the ITA announced that its present three-year contracts with the programme companies would be extended until the end of July, 1968, as no decision had been taken on whether to extend the ITV service.

A flurry which was to extend for quite a few weeks hit the Wembley studios when the first of the colour ‘Hippodrome’ series went on the floor on April 19.

In the business world, company chairman John Spencer Wills became the chairman of The British Electric Traction Co. Ltd, on April 21, following the death of Harley Drayton.

On May 9 the first of the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ series was transmitted. Pride, gluttony, sloth, avarice, lust, envy and wrath subsequently achieved the distinction of all getting into TAM’s Top Ten.

Three days later the first of the adult education series ‘Royalist and Roundhead’ was screened. While not hitting the Top Ten, it rose high in the opinion of educationalists.

May also saw the drama section of the club take over Studio 9 to stage ‘Ring Round the Moon’ and achieve high audience ratings. Meanwhile Fusion made its own dent in the award stakes by receiving a certificate of merit in the British Association of Industrial Editors’ contest, a top award of excellence in the International Council of Industrial Editors’ competition and the Block and Anderson Cup from the British Direct Mail and Advertising Association.

The International Television Federation – Intertel – reached the fifth anniversary of its foundation on June 14. Behind it were 34 programmes and a coveted 1965 Peabody Award for making ‘the first continuing contribution towards international understanding through television.’

Also in June came an award for ‘Stage One Contest – Caroline’. This children’s programme won the Munich Prix Jeunesse.

The Mountbatten series also made news in June when it was announced that this exclusive story of the life and times of Lord Mount-batten would be made in colour.

July started with the news that the first episode of the ‘Hippodrome’ series on July 5 had gone straight to the top of Neilsen coast-to-coast ratings when screened by CBS in colour.

This was the month of the World Cup which England won on July 30 and which stretched the joint resources of BBC and ITV in providing coverage for the world. Rediffusion contributed its share of equipment and executives.

The day after the final at Wembley historians gathered at Television House for a conference with ‘History on TV’ as its theme.

August 1 brought the first programme in ‘The Informer’ series which regularly knocked on the doors of the Top Ten during its run.

The month was shadowed by the death of Bernard Rickatson-Hatt on August 7. He had been on the board of the company since July, 1958. A former Guards officer, he had been editor-in-chief of Reuters, adviser to the governor of the Bank of England and to the Bank of London and South America on public relations.

In September came two club events. On the 10th there was the annual sunlit sports day for the children of club members at Shepperton and on the 17th the football team took part in the TV Cup knock-out competition. For the second year running the Rediffusion XI lost to Scottish, the eventual winners.

On September 21 it was announced that Sir Richard Thompson was joining the board. A former M.P., he has held various government appointments.

A conference for educationalists was held at Wembley on September 22 at which, for the first time, teachers were allowed to produce their own programmes in a television studio. September 26 saw the start of the new autumn schedules with 15 new programme presentations, the sequel being six out of TAM’s Top Ten for the week. As part of this schedule the first production of the new Rediffusion Films Ltd was transmitted on September 28 – ‘Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn’ with James Mason and Jill Bennett. The Frost Programme’ series also started later that night.

Appointments in features came in October. First there was the announcement of the appointment of Barry Westwood as producer of the networked Thursday edition of ‘This Week’. Then, on October 27, it was announced that James Butler had been appointed head of features from November 1.

During October and November, three joint Rediffusion/Talent Association productions under David Susskind passed through Wembley to be recorded in black-and-white and colour for America.

On November 8, it was announced that the present series of ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ would end on December 23.

On November 11, the announcement came that managing director Paul Adorian had been appointed managing director of Rediffusion Ltd. John Spencer Wills, chairman of both companies, relinquished his managing directorship following his appointment as chairman of The British Electric Traction Co. Ltd upon the death of Harley Drayton.

The annual general meeting of the company was held at Wembley on November 28 and at it, the winners of the 1965-66 Golden Stars were presented with their awards. Independent Television presented ‘A Royal Gala’ before the Duke of Edinburgh at the Palladium on November 29 in aid of the CTBF and the Bowles Rocks Trust.

From December 7-16, an exhibition of the work of graphic designers was held at the Upper Grosvenor Galleries.

Finally – and still to come – is ‘The Royal Palaces of Britain’, the joint Independent Television and BBC production on December 25.

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