PENNY-A-PACK BOOST is in store for smokers of king-size cigarettes. American Tobacco, Liggett & Myers, and Philip Morris have increased wholesale prices as much as 40-c- per 1,000 (to $9.50), and retailers are expected to pass the boost on to their customers.

RADIO & TV PROBE by the Federal Communications Commission, likely for this year, will be the first full-scale look at the industry since the famed "chain broadcasting" investigation of 1938. FCC wants to take a close look at the economics and operation of the industry, especially the role played by sponsors, talent and ad agencies, has asked Congress for an $80,000 appropriation as a starter. The House has approved the money; the Senate will probably consider it next month.

POLITICAL DUST-UP over CAB attempts to knock two small Alaskan airlines out of their profitable Stateside routes (TIME, Jan. 3) has raised such a furor that CAB has now decided to let them alone. It will recommend that both Pacific Northern Airlines and Alaska Airlines continue to operate into Seattle and Portland along with the big lines, Pan American and Northwest,

BIGGEST CONVENTION HALL in the world, long a pet Chicago project, is now past the dream stage. After years of arguing about location and funds, the Illinois state legislature is almost certain to pass a bill creating a state authority to issue revenue bonds to build a $34 million hall, with a 60,000-seat capacity, on the site of Chicago's 1933 fair. Construction is expected to begin in about a year.

WINTER-WHEAT FORECAST has the Agriculture Department worried. Estimates are that this year's crop will be down 17% from last year's 790,700,000 bu. and 25% below the ten-year average, largely because of acreage cutbacks and a severe drought in the Texas-Nebraska wheat belt. Agriculture Secretary Benson is afraid that farmers will vote down controls this year, thus kick over high price supports in favor of higher acreage.

LIBERALIZED CONTRACTS for firms in defense work will permit companies to include such expenses as profit-sharing, severance pay, stock bonuses, and "pure" research in their costs. If approved by the Defense Department as expected, the new contract provisions will go into effect in 1956. They will apply automatically to all firms doing less than 25% of their work with the Government; companies with more than 25% of the total in defense work will be allowed to negotiate to have similar expenses included as "special contract provisions."

BOWLING MERGER is in the works between Brunswick-Balke-Collender, biggest in the field, and Detroit's Murray Corp., which recently got out of the auto-body business. Brunswick has developed an automatic pin setter, and Murray Corp. wants to buy control of the company to make it.

OLIN MATHIESON CHEMICAL Corp., fifth biggest in the U.S. (1954 sales: $450 million), will soon get into the sodium phosphate (used in detergents) field if a merger deal works out. Olin is dickering to take over phosphatemaker Blockson Chemical Co. (1954 sales: $29 million), possibly by acquiring a controlling interest in 1,000,000 shares (of a total 1,500,000 outstanding) of Blockson stock owned by President Louis Block and his family.

FORD PROFITS, always a tightly kept secret, will be made public for the first time this year, says Ford Chairman Ernest R. Breech. The move is being made in preparation for the public sale of Ford stock by the Ford Foundation, which holds 3,089,908 shares of non-voting class "A" common stock. The Ford family will still keep firm control of the company through 172,645 shares of class "B" voting stock.

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