Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1952)

12 Telecasting Notes: Big second -set -in -the -home campaign starts Feb. 11 in Cincinnati, sponsored by local Electric Assn, and Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co., using ads in local and 58 rural newspapers, spots on all local TV-radio stations, car cards, etc. . . . Technicians at CBS owned-&managed stations voted 616 to continue IBEW-AFL as their union against 177 for NABET, 14 for no union; now IBEW says it will seek to wrest West Coast ABC & NBC representation away from NABET . . . Television Authority (AFL) picked by 1236 artists on all networks in NLRB election this week . . . Strike of AVOW & AVOW-TV engineers (Vol. 8:4) settled this week, and full staff returned to duty Feb. 7; TV station lost only 28 minutes sustaining time, radio none, though walkout occurred Jan. 15 . . . Screen Actors Guild, by 2-to-l majority, won NLRB election this week upholding jurisdiction over all performers working on films produced for CBS-TV on West Coast; Guild got 32 votes to 16 for Television Authority . . . NLRB has ordered election at KTTV, Los Angeles, to determine whether employes want one or 2 unions, one comprising engineering people, other taking in program dept, stagehands, carpenters, scenic artists etc. . . . Ted Cott, gen. mgr. of NBC’s WNBC & WNBT, New York, credited with master-minding signing of Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn Dodgers’ great Negro second baseman, to 2-year contract as TV-radio “director of community activities” at “good deal more” than half his reported $40,000 baseball salary; he will continue in baseball, too . . . The 36-year-old, $35,000-a-year Mr. Cott, incidentally, is subject of sketch in Feb. 11 Time, with picture, relating some of his promotional gimmicks . . . Add high cost of TV talent: Hollywood reports have it that actress Joan Crawford is available for 26 half-hour films a year at $200,000 a year — plus 50% ownership of the films . . . Off to AVinter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, went Sandy Spillman, program director, KPIX, San Francisco, Feb. 3 to film and tape-record games for weekly series . . . New York Giants home games signed by WPIX, which also has contract for Yankees . . . CBS-TV sets up film sales as separate service to advertisers, agencies and stations . . . AVPTZ, Philadelphia (Philco) and WXEL, Cleveland (Herbert Mayer) join NARTB-TV, bringing total membership to 82 of the 108 on air . . . WFIL-TV, Philadelphia, raises Class A hourly rate from $1400 to $1500 on Feb. 15, one-min. from $250 to $300; KHJ-TV, Los Angeles, on March 1 raises Class A hour from $750 to $1000, one-min. from $135 to $180. Justice Dept, resumed probe of NCAA’s TV restrictions on college football games last week when asst, attorney general H. Graham Morison wrote to TV networks requesting outline of their experiences with NCAA’s ban last fall. Morison asked networks whether they could obtain rights to telecast all games they desired and what efforts were made to gain additional telecasting privileges. Justice Dept., now preparing for Feb. 22 answer of National Football League to anti-trust charges, has said it considers any group restriction on sale of TV rights illegal (Vol. 7:47). This week, NCAA named 1952 TV committee, with Yale’s strong anti-TV spokesman Robert A. Hall as chairman. Other members: Shober Barr, Franklin & Marshall; Jeff Coleman, U of Alabama; K. L. Wilson, Big Ten; Reaves E. Peters, Big Seven; Howard Grubbs, Southwest Conference; E. L. Romney, Mountain States Conference; W. O. Hunter, USC; Asa Bushnell, ECAC; Walter Byers, NCAA executive director. Three applications filed with FCC this week boosted total pending to 489, of which 29 are uhf. Port Arthur College (KPAC) requested Channel No. 4 in Port Arthur, Tex.; KAUS, Austin, Minn., No. 6; American Television Co., Ft. Smith, Ark., No. 5. [For further details, see TV Addenda H-D herewith; for listing of all applicants to date, see TV Facbbook No. H and Addenda to date.] Pilot model of Eidophor-CBS color theatre-TV equipment will leave Switzerland by air for U.S. Feb. 28, officials of 20th Century-Fox say now. Departure was delayed in order to make several “improvements and adjustments,” so that equipment will be ready to set up in 20th’s New York home office theatre immediately upon arrival. Asked about reports that the theatre units will be produced overseas (Vol. 8:5), 20th Century technical director Earl Sponable said “plans aren’t that far along yet.” GE has contracted to produce the equipment. Film company plans to demonstrate Eidophor to FCC during theatre-TV hearing, scheduled to begin March 10. Screen Actors Guild (AFL) reports it has signed union shop contracts with 12 TV film companies during last few weeks. It lists them as Allegro Pictures, Jimmie Allen Enterprises, Commodore Productions & Artists Inc., Donlevy Development Co., Fantasy Films, Sam Kerner Productions, ICrasne-Gross-DeWitt, Landmark Productions, Mark VII Productions, Scripture Films, Visual Drama, all of Hollywood; and Times Square Productions, New York. Sometime in latter March or early April is only promise now for “satellite TV network” operation projected by Circuito CMQ-TV, Havana, which already has Camaguey transmitter on air, Santa Clara outlet testing, Matanzas and Santiago outlets still not ready (TV Factbook No. H); all will eventually be “fed” by microwave from Goar Mestre’s CMQ-TV, Havana, meanwhile using films and kine-recordings of CMQ-TV’s shows. TV as aircraft aid, to avoid such disasters as recent Elizabeth, N. J. crash, is being explored by Govt., U. S. Weather Bureau official Benjamin Haynes told House Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee this week. He said TV may be used to transmit accurate picture of ground conditions to pilot. British have announced plans to try TV-radar combination at London airport to transmit maps, radar displays, etc. to strategic spots (Vol. 7:46). Consideration of McFarland bill (S. 658) to “streamline” FCC (Vol. 7:39, 42), by House Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee, will take at least month more, committee membex-s predicted this week after 2 sessions on bill. They attribute slowness to complexity of bill and difficulty of choosing between 3 viewpoints — Senate-passed version, Commission’s counter-proposal, Comr. Jones’ arguments. Accent will be on uhf, with reports on propagation and equipment, at RCA’s TV seminar for consulting engineers, attorneys and FCC to be conducted in Washington's Statler Hotel, Feb. 13-14. Headed by T. A. Smith, asst. mgr. of engineering products dept., company engineers and commercial men will discuss latest in transmitters, antennas, cameras, uhf tuners for receivers, etc. Trans-oceanic TV via film-facsimile combination, is suggested by Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, one of TV’s “grand old men,” now GE consultant. He visualizes movies of overseas events being transmitted to U. S. via facsimile, then processed and telecast. Research Arts, 270 Park Ave., New York, has been established by Dr. Paul Ilton, archaeologist, to provide technical advice to TV, radio, advertising and film industry; being handled by Wm. Morris Agency. La Voz Dominicana, of Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic, is ninth customer in Latin America to purchase a 5-kw RCA TV transmitter, reports Meade Brunet, RCA v.p. & managing director of RCA International Div. TV programs for deaf children are in experimental stage in Britain. Special telecasts designed to tell story almost 100% visually are accompanied by strip of printed text moving across bottom of screen. American Assn, of: Advertising Agencies holds next annual meeting April 3-5 at Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.