Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1952)

MARTIN CODEL’s AUTHORITATIVE NEWS SERVICE OF THE VISUAL BROADCASTING AND ALLIED ELECTRONICS ARTS AND INDUSTRY TELEPHONE STERLING 1755 • VOL . 8, No. 5 February 2, 1952 {I — TV Construction, Towers & Buildings, page 1. II — TV Construction, Transmitting Gear, page 2. Progress of End-of -Freeze Huddles, page 3. Comparison of VHF & UHF — A Primer, page U. What Station Managers Think of ‘Today’, page 5. How the TV Trade Winds Are Blowing, page 8. ‘Retreads’ a Factor in CR Tube Trade, page 9. Count of TV Sets-in-Use as of Jan. 1, 1952, page 12. I— TV CONSTRUCTION, TOWERS & BUILDINGS: A_ few new TV stations can get on the air this year and next, some of them fast — if FCC starts parceling out CPs soon — but most early ones may be "austerity" stations from the standpoint of towers and buildings. This contrasts with bright outlook for transmitting equipment (see p. 2). "Towers will be the bottleneck in station construction this year," tower makers tell us flatly. And NPA's construction policy renders any hope for starts on new "Television Cities" or elaborate studio setups mere wishful thinking. Eagerness of CP-holders to get on air, nevertheless, will certainly lead the way to some ingenious shortcuts and temporary measures. In view of severity of the materials shortage, and its desire to see new stations on air, FCC can be expected to be tolerant of "temporariness" of new outlets. Some stations may find they can plant small TV antennas atop their AM or FM towers. Others may use tall buildings as temporary antenna sites. Even wooden structures have been suggested as temporary expedients to circumvent steel shortage. Many new stations going on air during materials pinch probably will have no studios worthy of the name — especially inasmuch as most of FCC's early grants are expected to be in smaller cities. Even converting an existing structure into a TV studio may require prohibitive amounts of precious copper wire and cable. * * # $ Construction materials — particularly copper and structural steel — are due to remain desperately short through third, and probably fourth, quarters. The second quarter will see far less materials available for civilian construction than first, when no projects less than 20% complete received NPA materials aid. "We hope we can continue allotting materials to projects we aided in first quarter," an NPA construction official told us. "But as to starting new projects, right now it doesn't look as if we'll be able to send any materials their way until first quarter 1955. With luck, maybe a few new civilian projects can be begun in fourth quarter of this year. The shortage should be over by mid-1955." Prospects for station construction may improve somewhat latter half of 1952 if NPA's Industrial Expansion Div. is given job of allotting materials for TV-radio station building. Last November, when station construction was classified "industrial" for purposes of self-authorization (Vol. 7:43), it was assumed the Industrial Expansion Div. would dole out its materials. But for second quarter at least, task will be handled again by Construction Controls Div. , which has to make less material stretch further. Decision hasn't yet been made for ensuing quarters. * * * * For rest of this year, then, telecasters who want to build stations will have to do some tight and careful planning — and use their powers of self-authorization fully. They're permitted to self-authorize — write their own priority tickets for — 25 tons of steel, 2000 lbs. of copper, 1000 lbs. of aluminum per quarter. The 25 tons of steel isn't enough to build a TV tower. A 500-ft. selfsupporting tower requires about 115 tons, a guyed structure some 60 tons. Theoreti COPYRIOHT 1 #02 BY RADIO NEWS BUREAU