Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

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4 Section of RADIO DAILY, Tuesday. October II, 1949 — TELEVISION DAILY is fully protected by register and copyright NEW RCA COLOR-TV TUBE IN WORK TELE TOPICS XA/HEN IT WAS first announced that * ' "Break The Bank" would move to NBC as separate AM and TV airers rather than a simulcast, it was to be assumed that video-wise, the show would improve. After all, we thought, once freed from the restrictions of radio, the show could fully utilize the potentials of the visual medium and, perhaps, become an exciting quiz show. But, alas and alack, 'twas not to be. Except for two visually-gimmicked questions, the entire affair looked exactly as it did when it was simulcast on ABC. Contestants stood uneasily before a floor mike, and Bert Parks, the frenetic emcee, continued to use a hand mike. To complete the radio picture, Parks was seen waving for applause when a question was answered correctly, and announcer Bud Collyer read his lines from a script. "Break The Bank" has the opportunity to become interesting TV, but on the opener, at least, it muffed the chance completely. . . . Sponsored by Bristol-Myers through Doherty, Clifford & Shenfield, program is written by Joe Kane, produced by Ed Wolf and directed by Jack Rubin. • IN HIS SYNDICATED COLUMN yester' day, John Crosby offered some sage advice that we think is worth repeating. "Television is in a golden age now," he said, "because it doesn't know how to be successful; it can strive only to be good. (A lot of it is very bad, but at least beads of sweat are visible even on its worst programs.) Television can't strive downward because it doesn't yet know where downward is. I hope it never attempts to find out. Radio's guiding philosophy — the counting of heads, the Hooperating — ought to be supplanted by some earnest effort to find out what is going on in those heads. Truth in television will, I'm convinced, pay the largest dividends in the end." • "yOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR," ' CBS radio series, will become a TV feature from the Coast within a month, completely independent of the AM program. Charles Russell, who stars in the radio show, will play the role of the insurance investigator on video also. Program will be CBS's second Hollywood feature. The first is the Ed Wynn show which bowed on the web last week. . . . Donn Arden and Ron Fletcher have been signed to choreograph and stage production numbers for the Olsen & Johnson show. Both have had extensive nite club experience. . . . Kenneth L. Carter has resigned as account exec, at WMAR-TV, Baltimore. . . . WAVE-TV, Louisville, carried the Series by special relay off the air from Cincinnati for video and a leased wire for audio. John Boyle, station director, said pictures were not as clear as regular WAVE-TV transmissions, but good enough to follow all the action. Development Disclosed At Hearing In Washington; Firm Shows FCC Color Much Improved Over '47; Would Postpone Coaxial-Microwave Demonstration (Continued the Washington Hotel here yesterday. The color picture tube, now in the experimental stage, will be perfected within the next six to twelve months and will be incorporated in the color TV receivers to be manufactured by RCA, Dr. Engstrom revealed. He said the picture tube development would simplify the construction of color TV receivers. Prospects of the new picture tube and the disclosure that RCA has perfected a compact new field-type color TV camera highlighted the day's testimony and demonstrations of RCA. The Commission members and assembled TV experts saw transmission of electronic color from the studios of WNBW at the Wardman Park Hotel and viewed the programming on receivers set up in a ballroom of the Washington Hotel. During the course of the hearing yesterday it was announced that RCA had asked to postpone their demonstration of color TV on the coaxial cable and microwave relays until a later date. It was explained that the delay was due to the fact that RCA television experts had not been able to complete the technical arrangements for these demonstrations at this time. The color TV shown yesterday showed improvement over the RCA electronic system which was presented for the first time at the Princeton, N. J., laboratories two years ago. The best reception was obtained with a direct view color converter which was attached to a 10-inch standard black and white receiver. In utilizing the set for color, three 10-inch kinescopes and two dechroic mirrors were used. The picture was sharp and the reds, from Page 1) blues, and greens seemed to register well. Consensus of opinion among TV experts in attendance yesterday was that RCA had progressed a great deal in the development of color TV but that the system was not perfected enough for commercial acceptance at this time. During the demonstration Dr. Engstrom emphasized that it was a compatible system. He illustrated the point by showing how conventional black and white receivers could receive the color transmissions in black and white without any modifications. However when the color transmission was received on a black and white receiver the contrast quality of the picture seemed to diminish. Engstrom declared that a viewer of a new color set receiving programs in color, will, when the broadcaster changes from color to black-and-white transmission, see black and white pictures without making any changes in his receiver. The atmosphere of the hearing was reminiscent of the black and white-color TV controversy that raged three years ago. Most of the same personalities who figured then are on hand now and the side-byside comparative demonstrations of CBS, RCA and Color Television, Inc., scheduled for November may be the climatic event that will tell the story of whether or not color TV is commercially acceptable at this time. CBS experts contend that it is; RCA lets the demonstrations speak for themselves. One thing certain is that the FCC is on the spot and must take some decisive action on the question within the next few months. Mfr. Scores FCC, Says IndustryShould Decide Color Question Chicago — Bill Halligan, president of the Hallicrafters Radio Corporation, who was one of the guest speakers at the Chicago Television Council luncheon meeting here last week, lashed out at the FCC saying that the radio and television industry itself should decide on color TV and not the Commission. Halligan said there seems to be a conception that set manufacturers are retarding progress in the industry and said that nothing could be further from the truth. He contended that he and all the other manufacturers should come out with color as quickly as possible. Halligan and other set manufacturers said that they would like to see better programming in the summer, feeling that it would benefit the entire industry and would lead to an increase in sales of TV sets during the slow summer period. Other television set manufacturing heads also spoke. Business-Like Debut For WOR-TV Tonight WOR-TV begins scheduled television programs on Channel 9 tonight at 6:55 p.m. with "no bright lights, no fanfare." The station is the seventh FCC-authorized station to go on the air in the Metropolitan area. However, according to Julius F. Seebach, Jr., vice-president in charge of programs, WOR-TV will dispense with pre-opening ceremonies. WOR-TV's first evening of scheduled programming ends at 9 p.m., and following this, three of the station's executives will talk briefly about the new station's operating and programming policies. Theodore C. Streibert, WOR and WOR-TV president; J. R. Poppele, vice-president in charge of engineering, and Seebach are scheduled to appear. WFIL Will Launch In-School Programs Philadelphia— WFIL-TV will preview its in-school television programming before the entire administrative staff of the local Board of Education on Wednesday. On Friday, Oct. 14, the station will telecast the first of its in-school programs, starting at 2 p.m. The preview, to be produced via closed circuit, will utilize six large TV screens lent by RCA Victor to WFIL-TV for the demonstration. At present s i x Philadelphia public schools are equipped with video receivers. Fifty additional sets will be lent by RCA Victor and the Philco Corp. for use during the 1949-1950 school year. Friday's preview will consist of two programs — "Your Philadelphia." a civic series, and "Science is Fun," which features actual scientific demonstrations. Three Sponsors Sign For Vanity Fair Show Three Weintraub agency accounts — Seeman Brothers (Air Wick), Maiden Form Brassieres and Robeson Cutlery — have signed with CBS for 10-minute segments of Dorothy Doan's "Vanity Fair," daytime women's show, on WCBS-TV, New York; WCAU-TV, Philadelphia, and WOIC. Washington, beginning Oct. 17. Seeman and Maiden Form will participate Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and Robeson Tuesdays and Thursdays.