Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

I NEW ^lES VOL. 3. No. 9 TELEVISION DIGKT— 9 1 Sonnobend, chcdimcm of Hotel Corp. of America (and Audition chairman as well), who holds 1/3 interest & > voting control. Poons is pres, and M. E. Grant (ex-Toyomenka Inc. importer) is secy.-treas. & soles mgr. j Poons' long search for acceptable, drift-free, single-chcmnel FM set led him to Japan, Germany, Neth I prlrmds-lfmd finally to Indianapolis, where he rents space in Sarkes Tarzian plant. "We have our own line i there. We buy the parts and they are assembled there." Circuit finally developed by Poons' engineers was based on German Blaupunkt FM circuit, with addition of fixed tank circuit and with 2 pre-tvmed RF stages. Set has 5 tubes & silicon rectifier, all U.S.-made parts, including GE tubes. Dies were pmrchased from Sarkes Tarzian for $6,000. Resulting set is in white plastic cabinet, with station's call letters embossed on emblem. Which station? There are 93 of them now seUing Audition, "and we hope to have 120 by the end of March." First station was Philadelphia's WFLN-FM, which has sold 2,500 Auditions since last August. Shortly after pilot test on WFLN-FM, Gerald O. Kaye, head of Friendly Frost Stores, which operates N.Y.C. area's WTFM, became interested. Promoting set on his FM station, he sold 14,000. In analyzing nationwide warranty return cards, Poons noted that substantial number — about 14% — were from physicians & dentists, who used Auditions in their waiting rooms & offices. Of WTFM's 14,000 Auditions, 11,000 went to doctors & dentists, partly as result of special direct-moil campaign. Kaye estimated that the 11,000 waiting-room sets added 220,000 patients to WTFM's audience — enough to document good case for station rate increase. Audition sets are UL-approved, fully warranted, and performance has been extremely satisfactory, with less than 1% warranty retmms, Poons told us. At Dallas airport, he said, 2 Auditions (tuned to KIXL-FM) have been operating continuously night & day for 8 months — "equivalent of 5 years' normal use." Has Audition aroused ire of dealers? In some areas, Poons admits — but he thinks dealers really should thank him. Survey in Montgomery, Ala. (WAJM) showed that "the average Audition purchaser bought another FM set in an average of 5 months, spending an average of $130." Added Poons: "It creates a demand for good FM equipment from people who had hardly even heard of FM." In Montgomery & Jasper, Ala., and in Kent, O., Auditron is handled by local radio retailer in traffic-building tie-in with station. It sells for $19 there; retailer gets $1 — and good FM radio prospect list — for his trouble. Auditron has aroused interest in Canada, where big TV-radio-phono manufacturer Fleetwood Corp. has token out license to manufacture & sell the single-channel FM set. Tank circuits will be shipped to Fleetwood from Indianapolis (59^ each). Rest of set will be Canadian-built. Auditron has had some interesting byproducts — one of which might eventually become bigger than Auditron itself. Example : U.S. Weather Bmeau, which operates low-powered (250-watt) FM weather stations in N.Y. & Chicago (at 126.55 me, above FM broadcast band), asked Poons if he could develop single-channel weather radio at reasonable cost (cheapest available sold at about $100). He did — for $23.95 retail — "and now we're selling a lot of them to steamship & tugboat companies and boating enthusiasts. We also make on inverter, which we sell for $12.95 so the weather radio can be operated from a small boot battery." But the project which has Poons most excited now results from the unexpectedly high demand for Auditron from doctors & dentists. It's new concept in SCA multiplexing for physicians, and possibly dentists, too. Here's how it will work, according to Poons: Auditron will contract to buy all of time on multiplexing station's subcarrier. Then it will turn time over to a single pharmaceutical house, which will program functional waiting-room music, with perhaps a few mild commercials during office horns, putting on special seminars, programs & courses for doctors after hours. Pharmaceutical hoxrse will buy the single-channel multiplex subcarrier receivers and place them in doctors' offices free. "We can build the multiplex receivers for $30 each, and this plan can mean $40-$50,000 a year in revenue for stotionB." Who soys there's no more ingenuity in the radio industry? TV-RADIO PRODUCTION: EIA statistics for week ended Feb. 22 (8th week of 1963): Feb. 16-22 Preceding wk. 1962 wk. '63 cumulative '62 cumulative TV 138,069 142,838 126,390 1,048,234 1,030,363 Total radio 311,750 313,074 352,456 2,504,621 2,815,427 auto radio 135,896 151.488 121,117 1,147.588 1.010.821