American television directory (1946)

T here are basic differences between television and radio — from the stand¬ point of the consumer, the manufacturer of equipment, the producer of programs and the advertising executive. Please note that the radio engineer is not included in the above bracket of citizenry. The omission is deliberate and for a noteworthy reason. To the en¬ gineer — whether he be an electronic engineer or a radio engineer — video operation and audio operation are quite analogous. The handling of both requires an understanding of radio circuits and their attendant problems — simple and complex. On the basis of the foregoing, I approach the subject: “An Engineer Compares Television with Radio,” which the editors of this publication assigned to me, secure in the knowledge that I speak strictly as an engineer. As such, radio and television hold immense fas¬ cination. I like them both and I believe that both have a definite niche in our postwar world. The advent of television finds the en¬ gineer ready to make his contribution to its growth and welfare. The same held true when sound movies burst forth upon a surprised world two dec¬ ades ago. The radio engineer fitted easily into sound movies, because the problems of sound recording were those of radio broadcasting all over again from a different angle. Techniques utilized by radio broad¬ casters to simulate sound effects were quickly borrowed by the movie makers when the screen found its voice. Today, sound effects are an effective part of all entertainment, newsreels and educa¬ tional films, and in radio broadcasting today there are many engineers who, through their knowledge of and asso¬ ciation with television developments during the past decade, will readily adapt themselves to this new art. The end of the war finds thousands of Army and Navy trained technicians, skilled in radio and electronics, ready to adapt their talents to all forms of broadcasting. Radio and television will absorb them. As an engineer, I am amused by dire predictions, spoken or inferred, of dan¬ ger to existing services from television’s infringement. We have but to survey AN ENGINEER COMPARES TELEVISION WITH RADIO Television technicians must not only know voice levels, they must master controls of visual images as well. _ By J. R. POPPELE Secretary and Chief Engineer, (WOR) Bamberger Broadcasting Service President, Television Broadcasters Association, Inc. the past quarter century to show how unwarranted are these fears. The introduction of radio started a host of alarmists debating over the fate of the stage, the screen, the phono¬ graph, the newspaper and the maga¬ zine. Each form of entertainment and publication is still with us — and thriv¬ ing as never before. Let us stop worry¬ ing about television. Its expansion is as sure as tomorrow’s dawn, and existing services will merely move over and make room for it, but none will vanish. In short, television will bring a new service to millions of Americans who also will go on enjoying their home movies, radios, newspapers, magazines, theaters and motion pictures, books, golf and gin rummy. Whose Baby Is Television? The verbal wrangle over “whose baby is television?” stems from the fact that this new art borrows its techniques, in part, from a variety of accepted forms. Persons engaged in the theater claim television is like the theater. Those engaged in motion pictures aver tele¬ vision is motion pictures, projected through space. And those who broadcast our radio programs look upon tele¬ vision as their art since it is broad¬ casting with a sense of sight added. Actually, television is a combination of all three, and therefore requires a new, all-encompassing technique. The desired format still hasn’t jelled, so far as I have observed, but there is no mistaking the fact that hard working program producers are making progress in that direction. As improved formu¬ las are achieved, television will become a distinctive and very welcome art. Engineers who plan to engage in the video art are naturally most concerned with the visual phases of transmis¬ sion. They are familiar with aural techniques formulated over the past two decades — though these, too, are being improved upon from day to day. Engineers are beginning to learn the technical meaning of “immediacy.” Whereas the newsreel sound technician keeps an eye on voice level to insure adequate recording, television techni¬ cians must not only know voice levels, but picture shading and synchronization as well. The element of “immediacy” in direct news pickups via television and the tele-broadcasting of speedily edited newsreels to the home and to newsreel theatres, may relegate week-old news¬ reels to historical archives. Audience listening habits will be¬ come “look and listen” habits within a few years. Those who prefer bridge, pinochle, gin rummy, mah jong or books to televiewing, will probably also prefer the radio during these periods of rec¬ reation and those who are lured to their television sets by sports, dramas, news events and other visually inter¬ esting presentations, will forsake their hobbies from time to time for their video screen. Anyone long accustomed to listening to symphonies, on record or radio, isn’t going to abandon this pur¬ suit entirely because of the advent of television. Our listening and looking habits simply will be adjusted accord¬ ing to individual likes and dislikes. The engineer, as well as the com¬ mercial broadcaster, is looking forward to the establishment of television net¬ works. For network programming will bring television’s greatest success. The possibility of great networks is no longer doubted and cable and relay sys¬ tems are proposed by a half-dozen organizations. With their creation, tele¬ vision’s tremendous potentialities will be well on the way to achievement. No one today — certainly not the en¬ gineer — knows what the cost of tele¬ vision programming will be. But audi¬ ence size, determined by the age-old law of supply and demand, will provide the yardstick by which television, time rates and profits will be gauged. Equally unanswerable is the oftdebated question as to the merits of studio-produced programs over those on films. While we know that “immediacy” is television’s greatest asset in news and sports pickups, we do not know whether this situation will be true with regard to studio-produced or filmed dramas and other commercial shows. One thing is certain, television is here. Its growth will be swift, its ac¬ ceptance will be universal. Only time will bear out my belief that television is an individual art, and as such will find a place of its own amid other popularly accepted arts. At any rate, history is on my side. 34