Broadcasting (Jan - Mar 1949)

By J. FRANK BEATTY BALTIMORE is a geographer's nightmare and a businessman's dream. Located on the deepwater Patapsco estuary near the northern tip of Chesapeake Bay, it is the ]South's northernmost port and city. As the southern terminus of the £ Chesapeake & Delaware toll-free "canal, it is the North's southern ^most port and city. ' And just to keep the compass ispinning, it is the westernmost seaport of the industrial East and thus the closest ocean connection 'for the Midwest. The pre-radio plantation owners ■who chose this bay -head site as an outlet for their products flaunted the finest maritime traditions of the early 18th century. None lived to see the fruition of his daring and wisdom in picking the farthest inland port location in the East. All the marvels of the mechanized era have fit into Baltimore's geographical blessings. Steamboat, railroad, airplane, telephone, elec ■tricity, motor transport and electronic communication — each has added to the city's commercial and industrial well-being and each has helped clinch its high place in the nation's economy and its sixth place in population. This metropolitan area of 1,300,000 citizens enjoyed a 25% population boom as it added human tools to keep its wartime factories and shipping facilities operating. Most of the families stayed on, attracted by job availability and low-cost living, and a $150,000,000 program of residential building in IVi years has eased their housing problem. Like their fellow home dwellers — for Baltimoreans are extremely home-minded — they are settled citizens who go back to the fireside after work is done, and stay there. Careful Buyers Are Brand Conscious Such families provide a seller's paradise. They buy carefully and are highly brand-conscious. As home-loving citizens they naturally spend much of their time listening to the radio, and 97% of families have at least one set around the place. At the moment this rather staid and steady city is going slightly television crazy. Its row upon row of row houses are studded with dipoles. A sparrow's quick scanning of an unweighted sample of the vast residential expanse would reveal one TV antenna to every 10 chimneys. Though the bite of the television bug generally causes some degree of hysteria for the moment, Baltimore's broadcasters aren't especially alarmed. Their AM stations did a $4,000,000 business last year and the first scattered returns indicate the 1949 figure will be even higher. True to the city's character, Baltimore's AM growth has been steady. Up to about a year ago it had only five AM outlets— WBAL, WCAO, WFBR, WCBM and WITH. Two AM daytimers — WBMD and WSID — are barely a year old and one already is over the hump. One straight FM station, WMCP, claims it is just shy of the break-even point. Another FM outlet, WMAR, has the powerful Sunpapers behind it. They have been showing more than casual interest in transit FM and their exciting WMAR-TV is in the black. Several other FM sta tions duplicate programs of their AM parents. Of the three TV stations in Baltimore, only one — WBAL-TV — has an AM outlet in the family. WAAM is TV only, but has an AM grant and an FM application. WAAM has been too busy launching TV to do much about its AM permit. WMAR-TV had an AM grant but television was about all it could handle except for a parttime FM schedule, so the newspaper firm turned in its AM permit last November. Would Like More TV Channels Should the FCC happen to find two or three extra video channels lying under an allocation engineer's blotter, eager Baltimore AM stations will bump heads at the Commission's front door. Meanwhile, slighted Baltimoreans' are wondering why their more fortunate Washington neighbors latched on to four TV channels. Channels 2, 11 and 13 are assigned to Baltimore, leaving the whole center of the TV dial wide open. The city's television appetite ( Continued on Baltimore U ) BROADCASTING • Telecasting January 17, 1949 • Baltimore Page 3