American television directory (1946)

FCC HOPES AND EXPECTATIONS FOR TELEVISION The television industry’s bold experiments in the ultrahigh frequency band may well solve this medium’s serious traffic problem, this Government expert says. _ By PAUL A. PORTER Chairman, Federal Communications C ommission Of all the peacetime pursuits to which we can once again turn our hand, none has aroused more curiosity, hope and enthusiasm than the development of television. Television opens up vistas of educa¬ tion and entertainment hitherto un¬ dreamed of. The citizens of tomorrow will know their nation and the world they live in better than any generation before them because of the magic of television. Television will help us far along toward the goal Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he said: “I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource most to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue and advancing the happiness of man.” The entrepreneurs in the television field are confronted by technical and economic problems of great magnitude. That is the common lot of so many of the new fields of endeavor opening up to us in this postwar reconstruction era. It is the keynote of these challenging times. These pioneers will deserve the friendly interest and support of all of us in their efforts to conquer their obstacles and bring this new marvel into our homes. Television was one of the casualties of World War II. Just as the art was on the edge of accelerated advances, it was frozen in its tracks by the bombs that fell on Pearl Harbor. Frozen, that is, in an economic sense. In a technical sense, television was catapulted ahead from 10 to 15 years. The most intensive coordinated scientific teamwork this nation has ever seen resulted in mira¬ cles which overwhelmed our enemies and which now give us the brightest promise for peacetime production. While television production was marking time, the public has had its appetite whetted for this new wonder. Granted a reasonably efficient conver¬ sion from a wartime to a peacetime economy, the American public should soon be in a position to support the television industry. The leaders of the television industry can help to assure themselves of that support if they will profit by the expe¬ rience in the standard broadcasting field and resolve to keep this new di¬ mension of American life on the highest possible plane. They have it in their power now to decide whether this great invention, so extensively benefited by the wartime exertions of science, shall be weighted down with the shoddy, the trivial and the dubious or whether it shall realize its full potentialities. The Federal Communications Com¬ mission, for its part, has already taken steps to promote the highest develop¬ ment of the art. Thirteen channels be¬ low 300 me were made available for immediate commercial use by the Com¬ mission in its frequency allocations. However, this is insufficient space for the expansion of television into a truly nationwide and competitive system. In view of this, the Commission allocated a generous portion of the spectrum — from 480 to 920 me — for experimenta¬ tion with television employing wide channels and affording color pictures and high definition monochrome pic¬ tures. This superior type of television for commercial operation will find ample room for expansion in this region of the spectrum. With this in mind, the Commission is encouraging the television industry to move ahead boldly with comprehensive experiments in this upper band. Aided by inventions now being released grad¬ ually by the military from wartime laboratories, the experimenters in this ultra-high frequency band should make heartening progress. The culmination of these experiments will make it possible, from an engineering standpoint, for every city in the land to have adequate television service. The Commission is moving as expe¬ ditiously as possible to promulgate rules and regulations which will make it pos¬ sible for broadcasters and manufac¬ turers to make definite plans for the promotion of television’s future. With 130 applications already on file, there is every indication that there will be lively competition for the available channels in the region below 300 me. I am highly gratified by the vigorous experimentation being carried on by various concerns to solve one of the big¬ gest problems of a nationwide system of television — the establishment of relay systems. For the benefit of historians who will some day be poring over a yellowed and crumbling copy of this Directory and Yearbook and who get little fun out of life anyway — I want to record that as of this writing the nation has six com¬ mercial television stations in operation. America eagerly awaits the arrival of television on a nationwide basis as an exciting contribution to our pleasure and welfare and as one of the most welcome of our peacetime benefits. POSTWAR PLANNING pRODuC T development $ design By Francis McCarthy from Philco News "It will be the greatest thing in the postwar market, gentlemenequipped with TELEVISION to detect midnight raids!" a Philco refrigerator 14