Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

MANUFACTURING RCA PLAN HELPS • Angle: It'll help RCA, too • Prospects to receive advice Station owners are not the only businessmen with an eye to profit on radio's resurgence. As a major supplier of the technical things that make a station go, RCA has blueprinted a major sales promotion effort for 1958 to capture its share of the multi-million dollar market represented by the 200 new stations going on the air annually, plus upgrading of existing outlets. The thinking behind RCA's secret weapon: The man you help most may be your next customer. Well aware that the number of businessmen entering radio from other pursuits is growing and that these prospects are eager for every bit of information they can find to help them make a wise investment, RCA intends to present them with an elaborate "planning manual" plus a wealth of additional materials [Closed Circuit, Nov. 4]. The "total help" concept, which RCA is expected to announce officially within two weeks, was planned by Adron M. Miller, field sales manager, am-fm broadcast equipment, RCA, Camden, and Paul A. Greenmeyer, manager of broadcast advertising. It has won the blessing of E. C. Tracy, manager, RCA broadcast and tv equipment department, and other broadcast division officials, who encourage the application of the firm's principles of precision and thoroughness to marketing as well as manufacture. In addition to the planning manual, RCA broadcast equipment salesmen in 1958 will be armed with a special attache case filled with models for laying out three typical station plans (see picture) and a miniature desk-size slide projector and screen for showing Kodachrome slides. Prospects also will receive a file folder for keeping additional aids in planning their radio station — things such as floor plans, equipment lists, system information, technical article reprints and other data not designed for the basic planning manual. RCA emphasizes the planning manual is not a "do it yourself" medium whereby prospects can plan and build their stations without the expense of professional engineering and legal assistance. On the contrary, RCA explains, the manual points up the necessity of doing the job professionally and helping the prospect to acquire more of a professional insight himself into all of the requirements of planning. Nor does the manual attempt to instruct the prospect in how to program a station after he gets it built. Messrs. Miller and Greenmeyer both note the changing pattern of radio today, its revitalized ability to serve changing marketing needs and public service requirements. They point to radio's ability to serve in many smaller markets where heretofore no one recognized the opportunity. "Now," Mr. Miller says, "the home town Broadcasting AM-FM STARTERS businessmen, successful in banking, as an auto dealer or grocery distributor, perhaps with only a few thousand dollars apiece to invest, are interested in building a home town station." Perhaps their interest has been sparked by a son or relative who already is working at another station or who studied broadcasting in college, the RCA representatives explain, and these local businessmen want to back him in a local venture. These comprise the new market RCA hopes to serve — and sell — through the planning manual and related materials. But they are not all. Mr. Greenmeyer estimates that a large chunk of the am-fm market in 1958 will include existing station operators who want to upgrade and modernize their physical facilities. The planning manual will be a loose-leaf book with nearly a dozen major sections PART of RCA's package to aid the development of new radio stations is this working model of a station. Its component parts can be laid out in any of three basic plans; collapsed, it can be carried in a salesman's attache case. Displaying a working model is Barbara Tiedeken, secretary to Paul A. Greenmeyer, broadcast advertising manager. to be augmented frequently. Fundamentally it will contain answers to those questions which prospective station owners want to know about before starting construction and during the building period. It will be written by "experts," the RCA sales representatives and Camden engineers who are asked these questions day after day in the field, as well as others with such experience. It will contain related material such as reprints from the Broadcasting Yearbook of FCC rules and application procedures and articles from the weekly Broadcasting, as well as numerous reprints from RCA's Broadcast News, whose managing editor is Mr. Greenmeyer. It also will explain RCA's "progress purchase plan," the manufacturer's method of "flexible financing for broadcasters." Segments of the manual will outline such topics as fundamentals of planning, including choice of station size (three model plans are to be given in detail); transmitting equipment and "beneficial performance" factors such as reliability of manufacturer and product; "soundability" of the transmitter as contrasted to catalog specifications and "modulation capacity," or the equipment's ability to effect the greatest "program coverage" possible; selection of studio equipment; installation and principles of operation, and rules of "good housekeeping." The three basic plans of station layout are flexible and can be adapted to meet individual needs, as salesmen will be able to demonstrate with their model kits. Each plan includes complete floor layout, equipment block diagram, rack layout, jack panel designations and equipment list. In fact, prospects will be able to order Plan A, B or C as a package, Mr. Miller explains! Plan A is for the typical "minimum investment" station and comprises combined single studio-transmitter operation with programming requirements of records, control room announcer, tape facilities, network and remotes. Its single studio can be used for interviews, news and other shows requiring simple production facilities. Plan B, the typical "community" station of moderate size, is like A in that it is a combination operation but it also incorporates an announcer's booth and record library. The latter doubles as an audition room and includes an automatic turntable operated from the control room. This unit is the building block for eventual station automation, RCA explains. Plan C covers a • fairly large two-studio station with separate studio and transmitter locations, but with optional remote operation of the transmitter. It is designed for large city operation, providing a high degree of flexibility and facilities for extensive programming since the second studio is a sub-control room combination. Like manufacturing, it takes a lot of "tooling up" to get a major sales promotion campaign off the ground too, Mr. Greenmeyer admits. The completed plan was presented to Mr. Tracy's staff in August. In September it was presented to the Camden staff and last month to the field staff, which is am-fm exclusively and operates separately from tv. "This month we go into production," Mr. Miller says. RCA Sends Signals Via Meteor Trails High-frequency radio signals, bounced from meteor trails 60 to 100 miles above the earth, have been used experimentally to transmit images of printed material over a distance of nearly 1,000 miles without relays, it was announced last week by RCA. The disclosure came in a report by three RCA laboratories scientists that special facsimile equipment has performed successfully in preliminary tests of meteor-path propagation between the transmitting station of the National Bureau of Standards at Havana, 111., and the RCA Labs radio research installation at Riverhead, Long Island. Airline distance is 910 miles. Principals in the development of the system were Warren H. Bliss, of the technical staff at RCA's David Sarnoff Research Center, Princeton, N. J., and R. J. Wagner November 18, 1957 • Page 83