Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1952)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

3 increased only $202,305 — going from $929,036 to $1,131,339 — instead of the $600,000 more FCC was expected to request (Vol. 7:44). Only 5-4 more hearing examiners are contemplated in the budget, instead of 7 more to be added to present 7. Commission wants to hike total number of employes from 1205 to 1410. Budget estimates that 504 TV applications (for new stations or changes in old) will be processed in fiscal 1955 (July 1, 1952-June 30, 1953). Lion's share of budget increase would be for field engineering and monitoring — increasing from $2,484,994 to $3,627,035 — largely for "Conelrad" project to control electromagnetic radiations. Though Congress intends to apply pruning shears to President's whole budget, FCC may fare better than average, since most Congressmen have heard from constituents regarding delays in TV service. 'ROLL CALL' FOR FCC THEATRE TV HEARING: Just how serious the movie producers and exhibitors are about their proposal for a nationwide theatre-TV frequency allocation can be judged from imposing array of big-name witnesses who will present their case at the FCC hearing, scheduled to begin Feb. 25. List filed on Jan. 25 deadline date by Motion Picture Assn, of America and National Exhibitors Theatre-TV Committee contains names of 42 witnesses, is studded with top names from ranks of movie producers, theatremen, engineers , etc. Theatre TV proponents promise to produce 10-15 additional "important" witnesses, "thousands of pages of exhibits" when they have their inning before Commission. On basis of lists of witnesses filed Jan. 25, hearing will certainly take several months — could conceivably become involved and lengthy as color squabble. Even if publicity-wise film industry doesn't come out of hearings with TV channels, it's going to get its money's worth in publicity. Press interest is already high. New York Times Jan. 26 gave theatremen' s plans big page 1 story. Film industry's all-star lineup faces twofold burden: First, it must prove need for nationwide theatre-TV service ; then convince Commission that exclusive facilities and frequencies are necessary to operate such a service. Opposing them will be some of AT&T's top brass — including its engineering director Frank A. Cowan, its Long Lines operations director H. I. Romnes, Bell Labs electronic & TV research director W. H. Doherty. They'll seek to convince FCC that Bell System can provide adequate, economical facilities for theatre-TV transmission. * * * * One highly qualified source expresses opinion that theatre-TV backers stand fair chance of getting special frequencies for intra-city pickups and distribution, but that odds are against any allocation of channels for exclusive city-to-city use in place of AT&T's facilities. MPA-NETTC witnesses include top executives of 20th Century-Fox, Republic, Paramount, Columbia, Universal, Warner Bros. ; heads of all national theatre owner groups and most big theatre chains, representatives of Army & Air Force, Federal Civil Defense, NPA (Commerce Dept.) ; such personalities as New York Times dramatic critic Brooks Atkinson, Theatre Guild's Theresa Helburn, theatrical producer Richard Condon; exec. secy. Asa Bushnell of National Collegiate Athletic Assn. ; William Morris Jr. of William Morris talent agency. These men with telecasting connections will testify for theatre folk: Paul Raibourn, president. Paramount TV Productions (KTLA, Los Angeles) ; Theatre Owners of America president Mitchell Wolfson who owns WTMJ, Miami; William Kusac, chief engineer of United Paramount Theatres' WBKB, Chicago. Principal topics to be covered by film industry testimony: Composition and history of movie industry; history of theatre TV; public need and demand for theatre TV ; theatre-TV programming ; technical requirements and standards for theatre TV ; transmitting, receiving and projection equipment; how or by whom theatre-TV service should be supplied; feasibility of theatre TV; theatre-TV plans and proposals. Other groups which will present witnesses are CBS and DuMont networks. Paramount TV Productions, Theatre Network TV, Western Union, equipment manufacturers RCA