Broadcasting (July - Dec 1939)

Television News Notes Visual Images on Cape Cod VISUAL images from NBC's "W2XBS atop the Empire State Bldg. are being picked up regularly and clearly on Cape Cod, 185 air-miles from New York, according to a report reaching NBC from Dean R. Barker, radio and television engineer who operates an experimental receiving station near West Falmouth, Mass. Barker reported that he uses a home-made 21-tube set with a 5-inch kinescope, a portable 40-foot mast and a twoelement antenna beam. His explanation for the unusual reception distance is that the W2XBS signals travel almost exclusively over water from the transmitter to West Falmouth. A GOOD SPOT : FOR TEST CAMPAIGNS ■ I I 99% American Born White ; ■ High income groups I Both city and farms I m KGVO 5000 w. Day Missoula • 1000 w. Night Montana '. CBS Affiliate \ Covering that territory j between Butte and Spokane ! Don Lee Transmitter WITH THE FCC assigning new frequencies to W6XA0 and granting Don Lee Broadcasting System permission to move its television transmitter from dovratown Los Angeles to a new 23-acre site overlooking Hollywood, construction of the new unit-type building to house equipment and studios was expected to get under way shortly. It will be a reinforced Class A structure and move is to involve an expenditure of nearly $1,000,000 before work is completed early next year, according to Thomas S. Lee, president. Proposed telecasting site is atop HoUywoodland and will be known as Mount Lee, in memory of the late Don Lee, founder of the network. Los Angeles City Planning Commission recently approved a petition to move the station to the new site. The new frequency band assigned is 44-50 mc. in lieu of the former assignments on 42-56 and 60-86 mc. W6XA0, started in 1931, is the only television station in the 11 western states and sex-vices about 600 sets in the southern California area, on a daily schedule. RADIO WRITERS GUILD has arranged for a meeting of its members on Sept. 7 in New York, at which time the new constitution recently adopted by the west coast section of RWG and approved by the Authors" League Council will be brought up for approval. Midwest Video Exhibits WLS, Chicago, is conducting a television demonstration at the seven-day state fairs of Illinois and Indiana, at Springfield, 111., Aug. 12-19, and at Indianapolis, Sept. 2-9. RCA iconscope cameras, transmitters and receivers will be used in the daily exhibitions from 10 a. m. to 10 p. m. Special studios have been constructed in the Arts buildings and the transmission is piped to seven RCA television receivers in adjacent rooms. In addition to WLS radio artists, persons from the audience will be televised and each will receive a WLS certificate indicating that he participated in the first State Fair experimental television. WLS has carried on an extensive promotional campaign in connection with the demonstrations. More than 1500 editors of Illinois and Indiana newspapers have been invited to the television show. Banners and posters will be widely used in the fair grounds. Demonstration expenses are shared by WLS and The Prairie Farmer. ^ ^ Tennis Telecasts FIRST AMERICAN telecasts of tournament tennis were put on by NBC during the Eastern Grass Court Championships, at the Westchester Country Club, Rye, N. Y., the afternoons of Aug. 9 to 12. Portions of the matches were telecast on the first three days and the complete finals on Sunday, with Jack Eraser as commentator. These tennis visual transmissions were the first public demonstration of two-camera pickups of an outdoor event, the addition of the second camera to the network's mobile unit allowing the field crew to focus one lens on the complete court and to use the other for closeups of contestants. ^ ^ ^ New NBC Video Schedule WHEN NBC's television station in New York, W2XBS, resumes its regular schedule on Aug. 28, a weekly telecast of a full-length feature film will be added to the previous schedule. New weekly program list vidll include four evening programs, live talent studio presentations on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and the movie on Wednesday; four noontime hour variety shows of live and film entertainment, and three afternoon programs of outdoor events televised by the mobile unit. Total of about 12 to 15 hours a week is indicative of the rapid growth of television since May 1, when NBC began regular program service with a schedule of two hours weekly. KFRU COLUMBIA, MISSOURI A kilowatt of power on 630 kc. daytime with 500 watts at night. A Sales Message over KFRU Covers the Heart of Missouri Video Technicians MOVEMENT has been launched in Hollywood by George H. Seward, president of the Hollywood Television Society, to form a nationwide technical organization, the Television Engineers' Institute of Am.erica. Local chapters will operate in localities where there is interest in television and allied sciences. Executive offices are also to be established in New York and Washington as well as Hollywood. At the present time 14 cities, more than half on the West Coast, are served with television broadcasts, according to Seward. Hollywood Television Society was formed in 1936 to provide free television information to those interested. Although local in its operation, the Society has received national recognition as being the only one of its kind. ^ ^ ^ Music Merchants See Video TELEVISION was demonstrated by RCA to the 4,000 members of the National Assn. of Music Merchants attending their annual three-day convention, at Hotel New Yorker, New York, Aug. 1-3. A "jeep" demonstration unit with several receivers was set up in the hotel. RCA dedicated its Magic Key program July 31 to the NAMM, and also that week telecast a musical program produced by the Storytone, new electronic instrument combining the music of a piano, radio and phonograph, developed by RCA in cooperation with Story & Clark Piano Co. ^ ^ ^ 20th-Fox Bans Video TELEVISION has been added to sound broadcasting as outlaw territory for actors under contract to 20th Century-Fox Film Corp., according to Herman Wobber, general sales manager of the film company. Speaking at a convention of exhibitors at Gloversville, N. Y., on Aug. 2, Wobber stated his company "will do everything possible to keep stars that belong to films and that were made by moving pictures from appearing on radio and television programs." Television in Colors FIRST demonstration of television in natural colors v/as held Aug. 2 at the Baird Television Corp. laboratories at Sydenham, England, for representatives of the daily and technical press, according to word received by I. C. Javal, company's commercial director, who is headquartered at 1600 Broadway, New York. Cable stated that a color photograph of King George v^as received on a large screen with "full color and perfect definition". ^ Television Handbook NEW television handbook, "Look & Listen", covering the development, construction and operation of contemporary television apparatus, written by M. B. Sleeper, has been published by Norman W. Henley Publishing Co., New York [$1 spiral-bound paper, $1.50 cloth]. Fully illustrated, the volume also includes instructions, charts and diagrams for students, experimenters, set builders and servicemen. SWITZERLAND'S recently completed Sehwarzenburg shortwave station, which was testing for 25 kw. operation for North and South American, African and Asiatic reception and which was to have been inaugurated Aug. 1, was destroyed by fire recently. Radio-wise men and organizations take a look at the prosperous Oregon Market. They take another look at listener preference surveys . . . They take a third look at sales records made by the Oregonian's radio stations KGW and KEX . . . Then they do as the George B. Wallace Company did when they faced the job of introducing the new Studebaker Champion in Portland, in Oregon and Southern Washington. Mr. Wallace, Studebaker distributor, tells the story of what happened. "We elected to use KGW^ as a major factor in announcing the new Studebaker Champion. We expected to make many sales in this market and our expectations have been handsotnely realized, I also uish to express our appreciation of your very excellent service and help in making our campaign the success it is." Moral — WTiat KGW and KEX is doing for others it can do for you. RADIO STATIONS OF THE UEV "SI" OR£GONIAN ■"E* 5000 WAnS DAYS nAnTinun nnrnnu 5000 WAHS 1000 WAHS NIGHTS PUK I LANU • UKthUN continuous NRC RED NBC BLUE National RepresentativesEDWARD RETRY & CO. INC. New York Chicago Detroit St. Louis San Francisco Los Angeles Page 66 • August 15, 1939 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising