Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1952)

, with Electronics Reports WASHINGTON 5, D. C. • TELEPHONE STERLING 1755 Trade Beper! January 26, 1952 TRADE MUSINGS-FACTS & FAKCIES: These are days when the trade's oracles may be par doned if they indulge in some musings and fancies calculated to raise eyebrows, provoke discussion • — and win a good deal of well-merited publicity. Some say these are dog-days in the TV trade, though the general attitude at all levels is anything but depressed or gloomy as factories resume "normal" output and the retail sales picture is reported bright in various areas (notably Chicago). Week's most quotable flight of fancy comes out of speech by Motorola executive v.p. Robert Galvin, able son of an able father, who told Chicago TV Council that atomic-powered TV sets, tri-dimenslonal and in color, can be visualized 10-15 years from now. And 5 years from now, he predicted, transistors will revolutionize the industry by making possible small, cheaper, more reliable TV receivers. "The time may come," he added, "when sets will be produced by a machine that will take parts in at one end and bring out the finished product at the other. " Coming closer to immediate reality, young Galvin adduced that the industry is geared to produce minimum of 4,000,000 sets this year, possibly 5,000,000, but he sees market for 6,000,000. "We could sell 6,000,000 in 1952 if we could build them," he said — indicating an optimism far greater than most of his fellow manufacturers and govt, experts (Vol. 8:2-3). n' 'lr 'r Some industry executives think govt, experts, absorbed with shortage idea, are inclined to sell industry ingenuity short because of materials limitations that have been ordered. NPA electronics specialists deny this. Many from the industry themselves, they say privately that TV manufacturers will produce as many sets as they can sell this year, materials shortages or no. All of those queried felt industry could produce as many as 5,000,000 sets or more this year. But if that many are made, they say, many would be different from current models. Said one: "Sure, you can make a gutless wonder with far fewer parts and materials than today's good sets have." The govt, folk agree, by and large, with thesis of our recent articles on conservation (Vol. 7:45), namely, that to date manufacturers have conserved without degrading the end product, and that they're not likely to put real "austerity sets" on the market unless they're faced with far heavier demand than now seems probable. "Superpower TV sets" are in effect meeting the station freeze, in words of RCA consumer products v.p. Joseph B. Elliott, speaking this week before group of dept, store executives. "With the broadcasters frozen in .their tracks," AP quotes him as saying, "the set manufacturers have taken over. We're expanding TV's service area, not by installing more transmitters but by manufacturing better receivers. Some of the sets on the market today can bring in quality reception in fringe and difficult areas that have always been considered television dust bowls." Outlook is favorable for year, said Elliott, with "inventories a problem no longer" and with "distributors and dealers finding their stocks returning to normal levels." Materials pinch will be felt mostly first half of year, should ease second half unless military needs run greater than expected, he said. As for set sales, he thinks politics will be great stimulus this year; and prices recorded their lows last summer — "will certainly not go lower during 1952, and may go higher because of increased manufacturing costs." This year, too, should see beginnings of commercial uhf, Elliott adds, and it promises to be "the major area of TV's future expansion." He noted: "Going into the upper reaches of the radio-frequency spectrum with TV was comparable to a new geographic • exploration. The problems encountered were complex 10