Broadcasting Telecasting (July - Sept 1952)

NEW CHICAGO UNIT Would Establish TV Center TEMPORARY board of directors to promote the Chicago Unlimited movement was set up last Tuesday at a meeting of groups interested in developing Chicago as a television center. Meeting was held at the ABC Civic Theatre, Chicago. The temporary board comprises S. C. Quinlan, WBKB (TV), for stations; Don Gallagher and John Weigel, freelance announcers, for talent; James Kellock, Wielding Studios, and Dallas Jones, Dallas Jones Productions, for film groups; Alan Fishburn, freelance, and James Jewell, James Jewell RadioTV Productions, for packagers; Marty O'Shaughnessy, TV Forecast, and Robert Hurleigh, WGN and WGN-TV news director, for news; Ray Jones, AFRA and TVA. Seventy persons attended the Tuesday meeting of the non-profit organizations. Over $10,000 was pledged, with WBKB offering to match the pledge of any other station. THEY DON'T LIKE TV SET TAX Massachusetts Town Levy May Become 'Cause Celebre' THE little town of Stow, Mass. — population 1,697 — found itself in the national spotlight last week because many of its residents don't like to pay a town tax of $4.50 on TV receivers. This two-year-old levy is imposed by, Stow's Board of Assessors, supported by a state ruling that TV sets are non-essential personal property, like watches and jewelry. A few days ago a Stow resident inserted an ad in the neighboring Maynard Enterprise complaining against "taxation without representation" and protesting the tax as illegal. Boston newspapers took up the incident and found that other Massachusetts communities weren't interested in such a tax. Stow's assessors are able to spot TV owners by their antennas, though in some cases house occupants are asked if they own a receiver. The town is located 10 A $400 Investment Brings $22,000 IN SALES In June, Own-A-Home Trailer Co., began schedule of participating announcements on "Take a Break" informal program staged, each weekday, on WOC-TV's spacious lawn. First announcement sold the $5,500 trailer demonstrated on program. After 3 announcements, 2 trailers SOLD. After 8 announcements, 4 trailers SOLD. $22,000 in business from a $400 advertising investment. Interested in low-cost telecasting that sells? Then you'll be interested in "Take a Break," "Spotlight Review" and other WOC-TV participation programs. Announcements accepted on these programs at card rates plus $10 participation charge ... a real buy. Get the facts from your nearest F & P office or direct from us. FREE & PETERS, INC. Exclusive National Representatives i. m WOC-TV Channel 5 1 The Quint Cities COL. B. J. PALMER, President ERNEST C. SANDERS, Resident Manager miles west of Concord. Henry F. Long, state tax commissioner, ruled some time ago that TV sets were non-essential, removing them from the $5,000 exemption allowed on personal property. This inspired the Stow assessors, headed by Harold J. Priest, to slap a tax on television sets. The assessors put a flat value of $100 on all receives, no matter what type. Delicate problem arises in the case of some residents whose houses are located on the boundary line separating Stow and Hudson. Few attempts have been made to place municipal levies on radio or TV sets. A South Carolina law putting an annual license fee of $1 to $2.50 on radio sets was held invalid in 1931 by the U. S. District Court. WBT Charlotte, N. C, had asked an injunction to collect the tax, winning the case. Three years ago a Pennsylvania Liquor Board tax on TV sets operated by taprooms, on the ground they provided motion picture exhibitions, was killed by a state court. The Supreme Court denied certiorari. The tax ranged from $120 downward. Later the State Legislature amended the law to provide specific exemption for TV receivers. RCA Slide Projector RCA VICTOR Div. (broadcast equipment section) is making available a new automatic projector for convenient presentation of either glass or cardboard-mounted slides in studio television productions. The RCA type TP-2A slide projector features a corrected, coated astigmatic five-inch F/3.5 lens; an indexed rotatable turret, and a built-in forced-draft ventilating unit to cool the 100-w lamp. TV & the Beanstalk PATIENCE is no virtue when a TV fan lives in a nonTV area like Puerto Rico — but he can do something about it, according to President Frank A. D. Andrea of Andrea Radio Corp. One ingenious TV enthusiast living near San Juan, Mr. Andrea said last week, bought a television receiver and had it installed. After strenuous efforts, the man reports, he now receives programs from Washington, D. C, Jacksonville, Norfolk, Atlanta and Havana. He says reception is best from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., although Havana has been tuned in up to midnight. To achieve this reception, he placed on the top of his onefamily home a 74-foot tower with rotor antenna! JUDGE RULES Ohio Censorship Illegal CENSORSHIP laws in Ohio covJJ ing motion picture newsreels alej in violation of the Ohio and U. S. Constitutions, according to a Wednesday ruling by Municipal Judge Frank W. Wiley, of Toledo. Ttteji ruling was based on a "friendly" *J court action brought by the StateT Division of Film Censorship against Martin G. Smith, owner of a Toledo theatre. Mr. Smith, it was stated, deliberately had shown a new^reel nofj yet cleared by the censors. Judge j Wiley held him not guilty on j ground the laws on which thej warrant was based were invalid. Judge Wiley observed, "A film can be run in a television studio at any place in the country and reproduced in every home in Ohio that has a television set, and there is no attempt at censorship or taxation." Self-censorship in the movie industry has removed much of the possibility for evil, he added. He described censorship fees as taxing of films and "a form of prior restraint which violates the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and press. "To subject a newsreel to our present censorship is of itself a greater evil than the possibility of evil against which the statute was designed to protect," Judge Wiley concluded. The state charges $3 to censor newsreels, which Judge Wiley ruled was discriminating against one method of disseminating information in violation of equal protection clauses of Ohio and U. S. Constitutions. Page 94 September 15, 1952 Transmitters ( Continued from page 81 ) transmitter will be used as a standby. WTVR (TV) will operate with a 500 w transmitter, which will act as the driver for the new 25 kw unit when the station increases its power to maximum erp at a later date. A DuMont 5 kw transmitter has been in uninterrupted service since the station's debut in April 1948. WTVR's transmitter is located in the metropolitan area of Richmond. The station recently completed construction of its DuMontequipped studios and its new transmitting antenna which is 1,044 feet above average terrain. BROADCASTING • Telecasting Venezuela TV VENEZUELA'S first TV station to be operated by the Venezuelan government is under construction on a mountain top overlooking the ! city of Caracas, and is expected to go on the air this December, Meade Brunet, vice president of RCA and managing director of RCA International Div., announced. The sta I tion will be RCA-equipped.