Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

INTERNATIONAL JAPAN LIKES COLOR JAPANESE and English language newspapers in Japan have acclaimed the U. S. Commerce Dept. exhibit in the current International Trade Fair in Tokyo, with special accolades to color television as the outstanding fair attraction, RCA reported last week. Word received from official American sources by the RCA International Division's headquarters in Radio City, New York, indicated the success of the million-dollar color tv caravan sent to Japan by RCA as part of the U. S. exhibit. The RCA equipment includes full color tv studio facilities, two camera chains, lighting and testing apparatus, film transmitting facilities and two fully equipped, especially built mobile units. It is the first showing of RCA compatible color tv outside of the U. S., RCA said. RFE Gets Clean Bill From 15-Nation Unit RADIO FREE EUROPE, which came under considerable fire here and abroad immediately following last autumn's fruitless Hungarian revolt, has received a vote of confidence from officials representing 15 European nations. In a report last week, member states of the Council of Europe, meeting in Strasbourg. France, exonerated RFE from any duplicity during the abortive Hungarian uprising and also called for an end to sole American direction of the organization. The Conseil de l'Europe — composed of Great Britain. Denmark, Greece. Iceland. Turkey, Ireland. France, Italy, West Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and the Benelux countries — likened RFE's work to that of the BBC during the last war in keeping alive the spirit of eventual freedom in those countries under the thumb of a totalitarian state. It called RFE "one of the most important centers of documentation in the field of Soviet affairs" and said the "importance of [its] transmission can hardly be overrated." The group analyzed the charges against RFE and found that the very nature of RFE's organization — that of an Americansupported broadcasting operation run by refugees within the boundaries of a national state — invites criticism. "The political refugees from behind the Iron Curtain," the council maintains, ""often hold different political views and this cannot but lead to criticism of RFE." The criticism of high salaries paid to RFE's staff, the council maintains, clearly comes from "those refugees who have to scrape for a living and are envious of their more fortunate fellowrefugees in good positions." Also making RFE's existence more difficult, the council adds, is the fact RFE operates on German soil but is not under jurisdiction of the Bonn government: not only does this irritate a good segment of the Bonn government, but also those businessmen eager to extend German-Soviet trade, especially with the satellite states; also offended are the Social Democrats who strive for eventual German reunification and see in RFE's activities an obstacle toward that goal. The council's reports state, "'it almost looks as if internal German political conflicts are being fought out on the beam of Radio Free Europe." Other aggrieved parties, the council reported, include the neutralists who "see in RFE broadcasts a provocative element w hich annoys the Kremlin and disturbs the neutralists' dream of peaceful co-existence and their illusion of the 'Cold War' being over. It is RFE which confronts them with the naked facts and tries to awaken them from their pleasant dreams. The blame is consequently put on RFE." The council added: "It is regrettable that RFE is still entirely financed by the U.S.A." AF Tvs Open in Germany THE U. S. Air Force in Europe has opened two television stations for American service men in West Germany. They are in Ramstein and Spandahlem Air Base in the Eifel Mountains. About 70,000 men of the 12th Air Force and their families are reached by the signals. 1-NVILLI0N PfopiE c 2-fiJLLI0N IRCO^ TENN • KNOXVILLE . m SPARTANBURG GREENVILLE COLUMBIA s. c. ^-COUNTY DATA Population 2,021,900 Incomes $2,240,153,000. Retail Sales $1,590,398,000. Homes 511,900 (Data from SALES MANAGEMENT Survey of Buying Power May 10, 1957) IN THE WFBC-TV 4-STATE MARKET WFBC-TV leads all South Carolina television stations by far*. Its total 4-state market is comparable with Atlanta, Jacksonville, New Orleans or Miami. Within "The Giant's" 100 uv/m contour! is the South's greatest textile-industrial area and the fabulous Carolinas mountain playground. ♦According to NCS No. 2 "The Giant of Southern Skies" Video-l 00,000 Watts (FCC Maximum) Audio-50,000 Watts Antenna Height— 1204 feet above average terrain— 2,204 feet above sea level. Represented Nationally by WEED Television Corp. NBC NETWORK Broadcasting • Telecasting May 20, 1957 • Page 87