Broadcasting (July - Dec 1939)

Television Images Like These Were Shown at RCA Convention Exhibit ELZEY ROBERTS KXOK, St. Louis ELZEY ROBERTS JR KXOK, St. Louis TED SMITH In Charge of RCA Television Sales Television Units For Field Showing Provided by RCA Complete Equipment and Crew Will Be Rented Locally TO ACQUAINT the public with television in areas which have not yet seen it. RCA announced during the NAB convention that it is making available several traveling units for local demonstrations by radio stations, among others. The system, using wires or low-powered high frequency radio for transmission from the scanning camera to the simplified terminal and viewing equipment, which has been labeled the "Jeep", can be hired by the week by any broadcaster in any part of the country with complete equipment and crew. Television was one of the main centers of interest at the convention, where RCA set up both its "barnstorming" unit to demonstrate how local telecasts can be handled and its shortwave unit to demonstrate actual Atlantic City boardwalk, personality and other pickups. For the latter the RCANBC mobile television trucks were on hand July 10. Remarkably clear pictures were shown for the four days of the convention. So the Public May See According to Ted Smith, tele\ision transmitter sales manager of RCA, the plan of sending out traveling units for local demonstrations is aimed at giving the public a first-hand view of video broadcasting as well as showing local broadcast station managers and others how the system has been simplified and how it works. Highdefinition pictures of 441 lines are sho%vn, the equipment being exactly the same as that shown in the RCA and Westinghouse buildings at the New York World's Fair and the RCA exhibit at the San Francisco Exposition. The plan to send the units into the field evolved after the enormous success that attended the demonstrations of wired television with the RCA equipment in the Kaufman Department Store of Pittsburgh in June and the Marshall Field Store in Chicago in July. Some 100,000 persons viewed style shows, local talent, people picked at random from the crowds, cartoons and other program material during the demonstrations in each of the stores. The traveling units consist of a television camera, microphones and amplifiers, the "Jeep" (which is picture-producing unit containing monitor, amplifier and control equipment all in one cabinet), four banks of lights, a standing platform for subjects to be televised and all associated apparatus. Sears Roebuck & Co. is one of the first to acquire a unit, having purchased one outright, and is using it at present to demonstrate only to its store managers and their staffs the operation of television with a view to taking advantage of the retail set market as it opens up. With each unit. RCA furnishes a crew of three men who comprise a sufficient staff to operate the television transmissions. The rental basis is $2,000 per week, which includes all material and expenses and the services of the operators. For the second week the fee is $1,500. Several broadcasters at the NAB convention indicated their intention of booking the units for local displays, some planning demonstrations for promotion purposes. FIRST order to be placed for the "barnstorming" television units was that of KGIR, Butte; KFPY, Spokane, and KXL, Portland, Ore., which plan one-week stands in those cities in October. I. R. Baker, RCA transmitter sales chief, and Ted Smith, in charge of television sales, made deals at the NAB convention with Ed Craney, KGIR, and Tom Symons, KFPY-KXL. Stanley Hubbard, KSTP, St. Paul, also announced placing an order for purchase of an RCA television transmitter. WTIC Seeks Television PROPOSED entry of WTIC, Hartford, into the television field was disclosed July 7 with the filing of an application by the Travelers Broadcasting Service Corp., licensee of WTIC, for a 1,000-watt visual outlet to operate in the 8400090000 kc. band. The station would be located at Avon, hilltop site of the WTIC transmitter. The same day WOKO, Albany, applied to the FCC for a 500-watt facsimile station to operate on 2.5050 kc. GETS EVERYTHING RCA CustomMonitorHasWide Receiving Range WHAT its hearers generaly conceded was the "last word" in radio receptivity was demonstrated at the RCA 'exhibit at the NAB convention where a custom-built model of a new broadcast monitoring unit, capable of a receiving range of 45 to 12,000 cycles, including speaker response, was shown for the first time. The set, which was built to specifications set forth by I. R. Baker, in charge of RCA transmitter sales, and which represents the combined efforts of the best minds in RCA's laboratories and factory, was described as capable of receiving "anything any transmitter can put out". The model shovim at the NAB is the only one yet built, and in fact no production plans have been made. In about four months more may be produced, according to Mr. Baker, and these will be offered first to broadcasters by direct sale from the factory. No plans to market the set publicly are contemplated. The set was built to transmitter specifications on performance, including the monitoring speaker. Its reproduction is regarded as the closest thing to actually being inside the broadcast studio. It has six controls: (1) volume in db.; (2'> bass compensator at 45 cycles; (3) power-phone, 50 cycle filter; (4) tunine'; (51 selectivity up to 12.000 cycles; (6) sensitivity. Dairy Group Sponsors FARMERS in the Midwest have formed a Pure Milk Association which started an institutional series July 10 on WLS, Chicago, thrice weekly, 8-8:15 a. m., featuring Lloyd L. (Doc) Burlineham of the Assn. in a program titled The Singing Milkman. The association has 12,000 farmer-members and is devoting its entire advertising budget to radio, according to Presba, Fellers & Presba, Chicago agency handling: the account. Hal Culver, singer for the series, is in fact a singing milkman having worked for a dairy in Nashville, Tenn., while he studied voice. Mr. Buiiingham gives short talks on the health value of milk during the program. WABC Is Forced Off Air By Fire in Switch Room WABC, New York, on July 10 was off the air from 8:01 to 11:32 a. m. due to a short circuit in the circuit breaker in the station's main tower switch room, which caused a fire that melted part of the transmitting apparatus. Conflagration, which was confined to the single room, was put out in an hour, with repairs taking up the other two hours before the station returned to the air. During this period WJZ, WNEW, and WOR broadcast frequent announcements explaining that WABC was off the air due to technical difficulties. In addition to the physical damage caused by the fire, which was not immediately determinable, the catastrophe cost the station approximately $250 in rebates to the sponsors of eight CBS programs which were cancelled on WABC, although carried by the rest of the network. These were: Manhattan Mother, sponsored by Lever Bros. (Chipso) ; Bachelor's Children, sponsored by Cudahy Packing Co. (Old Dutch Cleanser) ; Pretty Kitty Kelly, sponsored by Continental Baking Co. (Wonder BreadHostess Cake) ; Myrt and Marge, Hilltop House, Stepmother, sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co. (Super Suds, Palmolive soap, Colgate tooth powder, respectively) ; It Happened in Hollywood, sponsored by Geo. A. Hormel & Co. (soups); Scattergood Baines, sponsored by Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. (gum). Longine's to Use 85 L 0 N G I N E S WITTNAUER WATCH Co., New York, has announced that its fall advertising will be similar to that used last year, consisting of daily time signals on about 85 stations throughout the country. Arthur Rosenberg Co., New Y'ork, handles the account. Benriis to Expand BENRUS WATCH Co., New Y'ork, has announced that an increased appropriation for radio advertising \\ill be used this September with several new markets to be added to those already carrying daily time signals. New stations will be decided early in August. J. D. Tarcher & Co., New York, places the account. BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising July 15, 1939 • Page 25