Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr - June 1951)

editorial 4' Lock and Key THE BROADCAST services epitomize the lock and key. It is the transmitter and the receiver; the broadcaster and the manufacturer. The broadcaster came first. He transmitted programs which enabled the manufacturer to sell sets. So the manufacturer sells programs, not pieces of ornate furniture. The broadcaster sells the sets. Without the manufacturer, the broadcaster and telecaster would be in a bad way for "circulation." The manufacturers today are among the biggest customers of the newspapers. The newspapers, of course, regard radio and TV as direct business competitors. That's the reason so many of them are in radio and in TV. The broadcasters and the manufacturers are working together better than ever before. But there's still a large area of mutual interest to be covered. Freedom of radio is just as important to the set-maker. Recently the Radio-Television Mfrs. Assn. reorganized. Glen McDaniel, its new president, is a man of action — and of ideas. The NARTB likewise is undergoing reorganization, with Harold Fellows, an experienced and capable broadcaster, taking over the helm. These men have an opportunity to carry the lock & key relationship to the millenium. They could initiate joint sessions at their annual conventions. They can tap the best brains in both fields. Mr. McDaniel can name a committee from his own membership representing both broadcasters and manufacturers — RCA (NBC); Hytron (CBS); Westinghouse (with six top stations) ; General Electric (WGY); Philco (WPTZ); Stromberg-Carlson (WHAM) ; DuMont, to mention only a few. NARTB has most of those manufacturersowned stations in its membership. What are the areas in which these virtually all-inclusive groups could work together? Certainly in the field of legislation. Certainly in bringing greater harmony between radio-TV and the newspapers (no one slaps a good customer indiscriminately). Would Congress tax the circulation of newspapers? It is taxing the circulation of radio and TV sets (the broadcasters' circulation) to the tune of 10% per unit. Disraeli once said : No power is so great as an idea whose time has come. Wise men, like Messrs. McDaniel and Fellows, can take Mr. Disraeli from here. 3Tf)e &tcf)arb3 Case LAST WEEK the celebrated Richards Case ended, without the formality of an FCC decision. George A. (Dick) Richards, who loved America as violently as he hated America's enemies, was struck down by the heart ailment his physicians had insisted precluded an appearance before the FCC in defense of his stewardship as a broadcaster. Two weeks earlier, the FCC general counsel had recommended deletion of the three Richards' stations on the principal ground that Mr. Richards was not a fit person to operate them. This despite the fact that two of the three are pre-eminent in their markets. The general counsel castigated Mr. Richards for his failure to testify in person before the FCC. Dick Richards did not deal in half-measures. He went all out, whether it was station opera tion, politics, sports or philanthropies. His success in industry and in radio were not happenstances. He was a master-salesman and had won his laurels in industry before there was radio. He, according to his own lights, aspired only to be a good American. Dick Richards leaves radio better than he found it. He did not live to achieve the vindication for which he fought so valiantly, but with a heart too frail to bear three years of inquisitorial strife. For the FCC there is only one course. That is to approve the involuntary assignment of the licenses of WJR Detroit, WGAR Cleveland and KMPC Los Angeles to Mr. Richards' heirs. That is so because the Highest Authority has taken over jurisdiction in the celebrated "Richards Case." Enter, Colorcosting THE GREAT DEBATE over color television is ended. CBS emerges the victor in a clearcut 8-0 decision of the court of last resort. Now it is a question of when and how. CBS, in the next few weeks, will begin commercial colorcasting. In a fortnight it will have the manufacturing resources, by virtue of its acquisition of Hytron, to produce adapters, converters and complete color sets — within the limitations of defense controls on essential materials. We have no doubt that once the public indicates its desire, other manufacturers will move into color production. With unprecedented inventories in black-and-white receivers, it stands to reason that it might be economic suicide to ignore color. The issues of compatible versus incompatible color, of all-electronic versus whirling disc, no longer have legal validity. But FCC Chairman Coy, in hearings a day after the Supreme Court opinion, clearly stated the door is still open. He obviously alluded to the RCA compatible system, in which vast improvements are claimed since the FCC closed the color record just a year ago. This * presages multiple standards in color— eventually. As the record now stands, there are multiple standards in monochrome — the regular 525 line, and now the CBS 405 line. If and when the FCC approves the RCA compatible system, as implemented and improved through possible use of Hazeltine, Philco and G. E. patents, it will then be an open, free color competition. Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware) will then become the by-word. Indeed, unless the Korean situation ameliorates, even the introduction of CBS colorcasting on any substantial scale may become academic. There are plenty of noses out of joint. No battle in radio has been more acrimonious. But the faster recriminations are forgotten, the better for all concerned. Even before black-and-white television approaches maturity on a national service basis a new dimension is added. The potency of color can't be minimized. If black-andwhite in a few short years proved itself the greatest sales and demonstrating medium ever devised, it shouldn't be too difficult to appraise the impact of full color. Advertisers will want it. Evidently the transmitting costs will not be inordinately higher. The public has seen colorcasts — RCA as well as CBS — and likes them. Progress can't be stopped. There may be the temporary hiatus occasioned by the defense emergency. But color is here. It is commercial. It's the CBS system today. It may be another system — a compatible one — tomorrow. The FCC cannot shut its eyes to technological development. The public can't lose. Isn't that the American way? jf our respects to: WILMOT LOSEE FOR Wilmot (Bill) Losee, general manager of WINS New York, selling appears to be a casual activity — on a par, say, with barbecuing. The peaceful air of a vacationist before the flies arrive seems to hover about the 38-year-old manager of an independent station located, as he says contentedly, "in the world's most competitive market." This blitheness of selling manner undoubtedly was part of the equipment with which he was born on July 14, 1912, in Brooklyn. Two months later, his family moved to Garden City, Long Island, where he still lives. In the interim, he will admit — if pressed — that several things have happened. After entering the business world, in a manner of speaking, as a life guard at Jones Beach during summer vacations, the youthful Mr. Losee was graduated in 1931 from St. Paul's School in Garden City. Then he entered Duke U. in Dui-ham, N. C, where he majored in business administration and was on the swimming team. After college, he returned home and joined the sales staff of Abraham & Straus, a large Brooklyn department store, in which he learned merchandising and confirmed a long-standing hunch that he would like to sell. His next post was with the Grocery Products Div. of Borden Co., in New York, as a salesman in the field — an experience which he believes has been invaluable; and at the time added considerably to his occupational enthusiasm. From the Borden Co. he went to the John Budd Co., New York, newspaper representative firm, and there picked up a knowledge of newspaper advertising. Later, upon joining the Branham Co., New York, a firm representing radio stations as well as newspapers, he found out where his career lay. In 1943, Mr. Losee joined WINS, then under Hearst ownership, and remained on the station's sales staff until he entered the Navy in 1944. After two years in the Pacific as a torpedoman aboard a submarine tender, he returned to civilian life in 1946 and to WINS as an account executive. In 1947, he moved up to sales manager; and in 1950 was appointed general manager. Today, as a visitor seats himself, Mr. Losee glances affectionately through his office windows at the 44th St. traffic, much like a gardener taking a peek at his roses. "Sales," he says, as if the topic had just wandered happily into his mind, "is the nucleus of any business today. And research (Continued on page 89) Page 50 • June 4, 1951 BROADCASTING • Telecasting