Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1958)

and now there are 147 movie features a month from the Tulsa stations." "Since we have now learned that the public is not significantly interested in whether a movie is first run or re-run — one of our major selling points — the first-run showings on Telemovies did not have the impact we thought it would." Mr. Griffing said he was impressed with the enthusiasm of the subscribers who were interested in the art films (opera, ballet, symphony and foreign). 'They are a mighty small segment of the audience," he said, "but they certainly know what they like and support it." The Video president said he thought the future of mass tv media might run something along these lines: • Broadcast tv for entertainment, sports, news. • Closed-circuit tv for selected film features and minority type programming (cultural, etc.), to be paid for on a "use" basis. Video Independent operates 12 community tv systems in Southwestern cities and communities. It is also building eight new ones. It has a $2 million investment in these systems, it is estimated, and its return after taxes and depreciation runs about 10%. Its latest CATV project is Lufkin, Tex., where it has joined NBC-affiliated ch. 9 KTRE-TV in a 50/50 partnership. The operation is awaiting FCC approval of 110-mile intercity microwave system to bring Houston tv signals to Lufkin. Conversion to pay tv? A lot of huddles around the NAB convention at Los Angeles last fortnight appeared to deal with a nebulous but nagging fear. Will a new pay tv medium grow out of scattered clusters of community antenna systems? The prospect that a subscription tv service might get off to a flying start through connected community systems, where coaxial grids are already operating, was based to some extent on undocumented and circumstantial evidence. But that didn't quiet the fears of telecasters. They faced such trouble signs as these: • FCC recently disclaimed any jurisdiction over wired community systems. • A wired system in Bartlesville, Okla., is experimenting with paid tv service. (It may suspend operation but is understood to be working out a new paid program format and fee-collecting technique.) • Vumore Co., operating the Bartlesville system, has another dozen CATV systems in the Southwest with another eight under construction. • Groups of CATV operations in such areas as Eastern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Pacific Northwest and Mountain States could be connected by wire, microwave or telephone relay. These hookups, some tv operators believe, could kick off paytv with a built-in audience of several hundred thousand homes. • NAB's inactive Community Antenna Committee came to life at Los Angeles and will meet in mid-June to discuss the problem. A new organization, Committee for Preservation of Free Hometown Television, was created at the Los Angeles convention [Broadcasting, May 5]. It is headed by William C. Grove, KFBCTV Cheyenne, Wyo. Other members are Ed Craney, KXLF-TV Butte, Mont., and Marshall Pengra, KLTV (TV) Tyler. Texas. Suppose, a mountain area telecaster suggested, that community tv systems north of Denver and Salt Lake City, and east of Spokane, were tied by microwave. What about the small-city television stations? And what about the Denver, Salt Lake City and Spokane stations? Or suppose, said another, that programming from New York were fed into the No. 1 CATV cluster in hilly Eastern and Central Pennsylvania? Even worse, another station operator said, would be a combined hookup of a big sports event and CATV systems. Several hundred thousand persons in many parts of the nation paid handsomely to see the Robinson-Basilio fight televised in theatres. Another 500,000 subscribers to CATV systems, many of them close to the theatre network's transmission hookup, would offer an attractive potential to an aggressive promoter. Compounded worries: This warning is frequently heard: if pay tv and wired systems ever marry, or even start a courtship, they'll soon be selling time to advertisers. Small-city tv stations figure they would be the first victims of any form of wired pay tv. But big-city stations could be affected. Stations in one of the major Pacific Northwest cities might have as many as 30 connected CATV systems competing with them. The way FCC has been dodging the CATV problem in the last decade, some telecasters say, provides inducement for a CATV hookup to pick up broadcast programs and peddle them on a network basis — a pay tv network with no program costs. It might even sell advertising, unless the question of property rights in programs and signals is settled by the courts. All this is nonsense, according to Edward P. Whitney, executive director of National Community Television Assn. He recalled that his association discussed the subject at its 1957 convention [Program Services, Sept. 30, 1957]. His members were excited about proposed wired tv systems in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but lost interest after hearing the details and analyzing the prospects, he added. Mr. Whitney said the high cost of connecting CATV systems, most of them small operations, makes the subject academic. "The subject has died," he said. with a CATV system serving the city, with FCC as referee. KLTV has been nicked in a place where it hurts — its advertising department (see Tyler story, page 36). KXLJ-TV Helena, Mont., has announced it will be forced off the air if a CATV system is allowed to bring Spokane tv programs into the city. The station is a satellite of KXLF-TV Butte, Mont., operated by Ed Craney. Last week the sale of KFBB-TV Great Falls, Mont., to Mr. Craney and Arthur Schwieder was cancelled because of fear that a community system is coming to the area (see below). WJPB-TV Fairmont, W. Va., tried to make a go of it in the face of CATV competition in 1955. It suspended operation, tried again, and has been silent 1V% years. The station sued the CATV system, but lost Broadcasting in the lower court. It has appealed. One note of cheer: Then there is the brighter side of the West Virginia tv story. WBOY-TV Clarksburg, which took the air last November, is moving along rather well despite 8,000 wired CATV homes in Clarksburg and an estimated 20,000 in its metropolitan service area (Fairmont, Morgantown and others). Progress is steady, though slowed down by the wire competition. The CATV system in Clarksburg brings in programs from Pittsburgh, Wheeling and Steubenville, Ohio. WSTV-TV Steubenville, 90 miles away, is parent station of WBOY-TV. This situation is one of the most unusual in all tv. WSTV-TV is in the position of unwillingly eating its young, competing (via CATV) against WBOY-TV in the Clarksburg market. WJPB-TV had the rug pulled away, according to J. Patrick Beacom, its owner, when Fairmont Television Cable Corp. ran fullpage newspaper ads welcoming WJPBTV and informing the public there was no need of buying expensive uhf converters and antennas. However, Mr. Beacom said, the cable company soon pulled WJPB-TV off its line and left the station in a jam. His suit against the cable company is for $150,000. It has been taken to the state supreme court. Threat worth $50,000 A $600,000 radio-tv station sale collapsed last week — all due to the threat of a community antenna system. Buyers Ed Craney and A. W. Schwieder (KID-AM-TV Idaho Falls, Idaho) forfeited $50,000 earnest money when they refused May 12, 1958 • Page 35