Round the Clock

Most TV stations are off the air by 1 a.m., but Pittsburgh's WDTV is one U.S. station that telecasts 24 hours a day. The experiment began last month, after Station Manager Harold Lund discovered that nearly 200,000 swing-shift workers in the steel mills and other Pittsburgh industries seldom got a chance to see TV except on weekends.

WDTV's Swing Shift starts at 12:50 a.m., runs until the daytime programs begin at 7 a.m. It is sold, at $475 an hour, to sponsors peddling beer, jewelry, insurance and pianos. Each night and dawning, televiewers see two feature films, two westerns and one episode of a serial (currently: Flash Gordon). Because "you can't call people up on a survey at 4 in the morning," Lund has no idea of the size of his audience, but there is no doubt that the show is going over. Swing Shift fan letters pour in at the rate of 350 a week. Sample: "Even if a guy has dinner at 1 a.m., he likes to relax afterward just like the fellow who eats at 6 p.m."

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