Word: wnbc
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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General Manager Ted Cott, of Manhattan's station WNBC, is a man who abhors a vacuum. In February the Civil Defense authorities asked him to keep WNBC on the air from midnight until 6 a.m. so that the station would be ready to function instantly in case of an emergency. All the Civil Defense required was a constant tone signal. Instead, Cott decided to fill the six hours with classical music and see what would happen...
...Hello, darling. This is Tallulah. Could I make a date with you for next Sunday? Well, what I mean is, I'd like to have you listen to my Big Show. You know, 6:30 to 8 each Sunday evening on WNBC. That's 660 on your dial...
...Harder Mess. Moonfaced Promoter Cott, 35, general manager of NBC's outlets in Manhattan (radio, WNBC; television, WNBT), believes in plastering and bombarding potential radio listeners with elaborate little gags and gimmicks. Says he: "If you take a big bomb and drop it, you cause a lot of damage, but it can be cleaned up right away. I like to drop a lot of little bombs. The mess is harder to clean...
Cott was in charge of programing for Manhattan's independent WNEW when NBC hired him away in 1950. "WNBC," he says, "was suffering from malnutrition of excitement. They wanted me to make it a truly local station." In this respect, the new manager is a notable success. Local sponsors have increased steadily; so has the local listener-rating since Cott introduced such events as club newsbroad-casts ("The Bronx Chapter of Hadassah will meet Monday night") and other "public service" shows...
...Tougher Guy. Cott's $35,000-a-year salary is high, but he feels he earns it. Most of WNBC's little stunts, including the tape-recorded telephone horror, he thinks up himself ("Lots of people have good ideas, but they don't know what to do with them"). The rest he whips together from staffers' suggestions: "I have great faith in the creative aspects of people. Mostly I have to fight with them to make them as good as I think they are, and that makes me a tough guy sometimes. If they...