Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1961)

TelePrompTer plans Key Tv test TelePrompTer Corp., New York, has begun field performance tests of the audience response features of its Key Tv pay television system, utilizing laboratory and cable facilities of the Western Union Co. Irving B. Kahn, TelePrompTer president, said last week the company will launch a series of tests to determine the engineering performance of the system. The initial phase, now in progress, involves a five-mile cable circuit between the Western Union headquarters and Columbus Circle in Manhattan to test the system's accuracy. A later test will involve more than 12-miles of cable. These distances approximate the size of individual Key Tv instaMations served by a single station. Once the cable requirements have been fully met, a TelePrompTer spokesman said, the company plans to set up a pilot installation to test the system under operational conditions. These experiments may be con ducted in one or more of the nine sidiary owned jointly by Henry J. community antenna tv systems it Kaiser and TelePrompTer currently owns or in Hawaii Kai, where a sub is installing a catv system. Irving B. Kahn (r), president of TelePrompTer Corp., and Thomas F. McMains, vice president and assistant to the president of Western Union, discuss field-performance tests of TPT's Key Tv pay television system. Using Western Union laboratory and cable facilities, TelePrompTer is testing the accuracy of its system over a five-mile circuit. al microwave equipment will be offered by Jerrold in the 12 kc band. He noted Jerrold heretofore specialized in tv-cable communications-systems packaging and electronics contracts, and said its entry into the microwave field will add "flexibility" in meeting communications systems needs. Networks refuse time to Communist Party The Communist Party in the U.S. has sought purchase of broadcast time on all networks but, according to a party spokesman, the time request was denied. Reportedly the time purchase was requested some time ago and was made of all three tv and all four radio networks. The time would be used to protest the U.S. Supreme Court decision of June 5, 1961, which upheld by a close (5-4) vote, registration requirements under the McCarran and Smith acts. The party spokesman said in New York that print advertisements had been placed in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the weekly National Guardian and other publications (the Times ad ran June 22), and that advertising, print or broadcast, would be placed also where possible through local party organizations. Last week Claude Lightfoot, head of the Illinois Communist Party said in Chicago he planned to buy local radio time and newspaper space in the campaign to fight the court decision. A check by Broadcasting of the Chicago area stations, however, found none that would sell to the party. (The Illinois party numbers some 1,000 in membership, down from 8,000 peak in the last 1930s.) In New York, the national headquarters said the matter of air-time refusal was in the hands of "our attorneys." Whether or not the matter would be brought before authorities (presumably the FCC among others) was left undecided. McKenna wants realism on FCC renewal forms The FCC should use a realistic approach in its appraisal of a radio station's service to its community rather than an archaic evaluation based on the types of programming devices employed, the Wisconsin Broadcasters Assn. was told June 22 by James A. McKenna Jr., of McKenna & Wilkinson, Washington law firm. Radio must be appraised on a different basis than tv, he said noting the varied coverage patterns, division of income among a large number of stations and reliance on local programming. The association held a two-day meeting at Wisconsin Dells. Speakers included FCC Commissioner Rosel H. Hyde. In a resume of current regulatory problems, Mr. McKenna said neither radio nor tv "should be required to conform to any particular kind of programming straitjacket and neither should be expected to follow standards devised for and applicable mainly to the other." He suggested the average am station no longer has a large staff that can devote days and weeks to preparation of statistical and narrative data now re Heads you win. Tails ditto. Charlie Grood will prove it with Ullman's ACTIVE RADIO package. High power 20 second jingles, lead-ins, open-end commercials with your station's call letters. For more coin of the realm call numismatist Charlie Grood, RICHARD H. ULLMAN, INC. 1271 Ave. of the Americas I N .Y.I PL 7-2197 a Division of THE PETER FRANK ORGANIZATION, INC, Hollywood / New York 62 (THE MEDIA) BROADCASTING, June 26, 1961