Broadcasting (Apr - June 1950)

MUTUAL ENTERS TV NETWORKING b= ai°"" am Li" w SIGNALLING Mutual's entry into the television network field, MBS President Frank White announced last week that Mutual will make its key TV stations available for network advertisers who wish to telecast their programs. The announcement followed the annual meeting of Mutual stockholders, held April 15 amid growing reports that MBS authorities are looking to ultimate TV network operations along the lines of the Mutual AM network, when more TV stations become available. Detailed plans for overall TV service will be announced shortly, the network said. Mutual network advertisers, it was announced, will be able to telecast their programs over Mutual stockholders' key TV stations — WOR-TV New York, WGN-TV Chicago, WNAC-TV Boston, WOIC (TV) Washington and KTSL Los Angeles. More than half of all television sets now in use are concentrated in these market areas, it was pointed out. Authorities said it was anticipated that the same telecasting W JIM-TV DEBUT Gross Sets Date For May 7 OPENING date of regular programming by WJIM-TV Lansing, Mich., is set for May 1, according to Harold F. Gross, president and general manager [Telecasting, April 10]. WJIM-TV is owned and operated by WJIM Inc. Station has been on test pattern since March 17. Plans are to house the station in a modern $500,000 plant and when possible WJIM-TV will add various local shows to its daily schedule of network and film programs. Network broadcasts are to be beamed by microwave from Detroit to transmitting equipment at Milford, Mich. WJIM-TV also becomes the 30th interconnected affiliate of NBC-TV. Contract for the network affiliation was arranged by Sheldon B. Hickox of NBC station relations, and Mr. Gross. Station also is affiliated with CBS-TV and ABC-TV. Contract for WJIM-TV affiliation with NBC-TV is set by (I to r) Mr. Gross and Mr. Hickox. Page 6 • TELECASTING service eventually will be extended to Mutual affiliates which operate television stations. The network's stockholders meanwhile re-elected all officers and directors, and the directors in a subsequent session approved an increased budget to expand Mutual's programming and promotional activities. The network currently numbers 540 stations. President White also announced that the directors "have authorized me to say that no offers for the purchase of the Mutual network are being either entertained or sought." There have been recurrent reports that Mutual might be sold. Mutual would be the fifth television network, joining the ranks of NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont. A clue to Mutual's possible" tack on television had been reported indirectly a week earlier in an FCC hearing on intercity television facilities (see story below). William H. Watts, New York metropolitan division sales manager of Western Union, testifying on interviews with networks on their possible use of Western Union facilities, asked J. R. Poppele, Mutual board member and WOR vice INTERCITY network television facilities may interlock from coastto-coast as soon as 1951. This report confirms earlier informal estimates of a probable completion date [Telecasting, March 27]. The hopeful but tentative timetable was charted last week by Frank A. Cowan, engineering chief of the Long Lines Dept. of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., in his detailed testimony etched before the FCC during hearings held in Washington on April 14. They resume on May 1. During the sessions which probed the question of interconnecting the facilities of the Bell System and Western Union Telegraph Co., Mr. Cowan filled in spaces as to possible additions to the Bell System intercity TV network to be made in 1951. He also presented important tie-ins in the planning, provision and operation of such netwoi-ks. Outlines Plan In the 1951 network program now under consideration, Mr. Cowan said, Bell System intercity network facilities would total about 23,000 miles of channels by the end of next year. At that time, Mr. Cowan roughly estimated that the network would comprise about 13,000 miles of radio relay and about 10,000 miles of coaxial cable. This would enlarge the network (which is expected to provide about 15,000 miles of facilities at president and chief engineer, about the TV network plans of "WOR or Mutual." "Mr. Poppele stated that . . . they plan to eventually expand on a national basis when the FCC authorizes additional stations, and it is expected those stations will largely parallel the present Mutual network," Mr. Watts testified. He said Mr. Poppele thought improved service and more economical rates would result if Western Union entered the network facilities field as a competitor of AT&T. Western Union currently has a reversible channel between New York and Philadelphia but its use has been limited by AT&T's refusal to interconnect telephone company facilities with it. The FCC hesring is to determine whether AT&T should be required to interconnect with Western Union links, as it has been required to do in the case of privately owned facilities. Western Union Order Mr. Watts quoted the WOR executive as saying that if Western Union should overcome AT&T's interconnection ban and should offer "microwave service on the basis of quality of service and nrice advantage," then Western Union "could the end of this year) by some 8,000 miles in 1951, about 5,500 miles of the additional channels being in radio relay and about 2,500 miles in coaxial cable. The linking of the East and West Coasts by these network facilities may be included in the 1951 program, Mr. Cowan testified. He remarked that it is difficult to be absolutely precise this far in advance of a construction plan of such magnitude, and that work might not be completed until 1952. However, even if the project were delayed, he conjectured that possibly the coast-to-coast link would be finished by the spring of that year. Mr. Cowan said that Bell System plans contemplate extending the network' by the construction of two radio relay channels between Omaha and San Francisco, one in each direction. At first these facilities would be equipped for telephone purposes, he said, but television channels would be made available if there were commercial demand for them. The tentative 1951 Bell System television network program also includes an extension to Miami and the linking of Binghamton, N. Y. The rest of the plans now being formulated relate to the addition of channels on various portions of the network as it will stand at the end of this year. In addition to the link to the west coast, other possible extensions be reasonbly assured of an order from WOR for facilities, at least in the beginning, to such key television points as Washington, Boston, Pittsburgh and Chicago." In the stockholders' voting, President White was re-elected along with T. C. Streibert of WOR as board chairman and Thomas F. O'Neil of Yankee Network as vice chairman. Other Mutual officers re-elected were: A. N. Hult, vice president in charge of sales; William H. Fineshriber Jr., vice president in charge of programs; A. A. Schechter, vice president in charge of news, special events and publicity; Robert Schmid, vice president in charge of advertising, research and promotion; E. M. Johnson, vice president in charge of station relations and engineering; James E. Wallen, treasurer, controller and assistant secretary, and Elbert M. Antrim, secretary. Other Mutual directors re-elected, in addition to Messrs. Streibert, O'Neil, White and Antrim, were: Mr. Poppele; Linus Travers, Yankee Network, Boston; Benedict Gimbel Jr., WIP Philadelphia; Prank Schrieber, WGN Chicago; Lewis Allen Weiss and Willet H. Brown of Don Lee, Hollywood; J. E. Campeau, CKLW Detroit, and H. K. Carpenter, WHK Cleveland. by means of radio relay in 1951 would be: One new channel from New York to Chicago; one additional channel southbound from Detroit to Toledo; one eastbound channel from Omaha to Chicago and one westbound between Des Moines and Omaha. The connection with Binghamton, N. Y., would be made by an extension from the present network either from Syracuse or New York City. Southern Link Extensions by means of coaxial cable to the Bell System television network would include the equipping for television purposes of a channel extending from Memphis to Birmingham, and eastward on to Atlanta. A second channel — in ! addition to the one to be equipped for television from Charlotte, N. C, to Jacksonville — would be similarly equipped in 1951. A single coaxial cable also would be equipped for television between Jacksonville and Miami, so that the latter city can be added to the network. An additional southbound coaxial channel would be equipped for television from Toledo to Dayton. Earlier in the proceedings on the interconnection issue, which continued all week after sessions resumed before the FCC on April 10, ] M. G. Wallace, eastern area com I mercial manager of the Long Lines Dept., testified on the comments of I customers using Bell System inter I (Continued on Telecasting 16) BROADCASTING • Page 68 I April 24, 1950 COAST-TO-COAST VIDEO s^^i