Radio: Sunday Night Scramble

This week, big NBC had the look of a dazed Goliath beset by a nimble David. After a back & forth battle that raged for weeks in the secret conference rooms of Manhattan and Hollywood, CBS had successfully made away with the comedy show that has been an NBC mainstay for more than 16 years: Jack Benny.

Gloomy Evening. The bait that lured Benny to the younger network (beginning Jan. 2) was the same bait that, two months ago, detached Amos ‘n’ Andy from NBC (TIME, Sept. 20). Reports in the trade said that CBS offered a sizable (but undisclosed) salary for Benny’s services. CBS would only confirm that it had bought his program for “somewhat more than $2,000,000.”

The biggest financial attraction for Benny is a whopping tax reduction: incorporated as a business enterprise, he is subject only to a capital gains tax (25%) on the deal, instead of a much higher (up to 77%) personal income tax. CBS confidently hopes to capture the rest of NBC’s Sunday evening lineup: the Phil Harris-Alice Faye show (because Harris is also a feature of Benny’s show) and Edgar Bergen (to keep the successful bloc intact).

While CBS Board Chairman William Paley was proving once again that this is a year for underdogs, NBC was crying “Foul!” Though trade papers had banner-lined that he had made similar—but smaller—offers to keep Benny, President Niles Trammell announced primly that NBC would “continue to refuse” any part in capital gains deals “until the U.S. Treasury says that such transactions are lawful . . .” Scoffed a CBS spokesman: “Mr. Trammell’s statement is unwarranted and reflects unfairly on many creative artists who have done no more than abide by our tax laws like any businessman or corporation.”

Empty Bowl. Whatever the final outcome, NBC’s Sunday evening position looked bleak, except for Fred Allen. At one time, NBC strategists had thought of filling in with a series of crime-mystery plays. But that bet was automatically ruled out by NBC’s own ban on mystery shows before 9:30 p.m. (presumably the hour when all little pitchers are in bed). Crumped one disgruntled executive: “We’ve made our policy. Now we have to sleep with it.”

NBC also made the belated discovery that fast-moving CBS had routed them on another front. The Rose Bowl game will be aired this year by CBS. Other networks had grabbed up the remaining big bowl games. At week’s end, NBC Sports Director Bill Stern was hastily dickering for the rights to broadcast the last remaining games of any consequence (Jacksonville’s ‘Gator Bowl and San Diego’s Harbor Bowl). For the first time in 21 years, it looked as if a badly battle-scarred NBC might have no bowl broadcast at all.