Radio: Satisfied Customers

The radio-TV industry heard some sweet music from some happy sponsors:

¶ Kraft Foods, which has sponsored television’s longest running show, the Kraft Television Theater, since May 1947, was so pleased with the pull of its commercials that it doubled the ante. Beginning in mid-October, the Kraft Theater will have a full hour on ABC television Thursday nights, in addition to its Wednesday night hour on NBC, for a total of 104 plays a year instead of 52 and six directors instead of two.

¶ The Philco Corp. liked its five-year-old Philco Television Playhouse well enough to sponsor a new radio show, the Philco Radio Playhouse (debut: Sept. 30, ABC), which will take the easy way out by using half-hour adaptations of Philco’s hour-long TV dramas.

¶ Ekco Products Co. of Chicago, biggest U.S. manufacturer of housewares, thought so much of television that it made a bit of history by signing, at one fell swoop, to sponsor four new ABC network nighttime programs: The George Jessel Show, Jamie, Quick as a Flash and Comeback.