Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1962)

tively participating in classroom sessions through the television teaching program. The plane transmits five hours a day Monday through Thursday. MPATI reports the area includes a total of 7 million students, including college level, who could be served if curricula, receiving gear and program material were available. Eventually the MPATI system could transmit six lesson programs simultaneously from a single plane, although it is possible that at that time the video tape playback units would be on the ground instead of in the plane and the signal relayed up to the aircraft for re-transmission. Other long-range possibilities include splitting each 6-mc channel into 3-mc channels. CBS Labs Inc. is under contract to explore this area, but MPATI isn't pushing it now. Educational ch. 11 WTTW (TV) Chicago rebroadcasts the MPATI airborne programs so that many local classrooms can use the material without the expense of the uhf master antenna-translator system. MPATI also is making video tapes of its courses available for closed circuit use locally. Over 1,300 lesson programs are available already, but they can be obtained only in full-course form. The subjects range from mathematics, music, history and foreign languages to science. Educators are pinning high hopes on the airborne system as an effective and economical way to bring the best of teaching skills to the fast growing school populations. They The necessity of keeping this antenna pointed straight down, refeel its value will become even more enhanced in the years ahead as the teacher supply tightens and the demand grows for conveying more and more information to students of our exploding scientific progress. It is estimated that the volume of scientific information that must be taught in high school during the next decade alone will double. 'Great Promise' ■ Typical of educators who sense the value of the new medium is Dr. Urban H. Fleege, chairman of the department of education at DePaul U., Chicago, and one of 20 area coordinators for MPATI. Apart from thinking up new answers to quips about his initials, "U. H. F.," Dr. Fleege feels etv, gardless of the plane's angle, is one of the technical problems airborne and otherwise, is a "new teaching approach of great promise." But he is realistic, too: "Educational television is not a miraculous gimmick. It is only as good as what is put into it and how we utilize that which comes from it." President Kennedy considers the airborne experiment "a signal achievement which is in the American tradition of public and private ownership for the harnessing of technology for the benefit of all." FCC Chairman Newton Minow said the commission is pleased "to have played a part in the fashioning of this facility." He also saluted its promise of bringing quality education at low cost to a wide geographic area. tv station, KQED (TV). Members of the staff of Institute of Personality Assessment & Research at U. of California will take part in each program. New series ■ Showpac Inc., New York producing company of Alan Neuman and Sherman F. Dryer, has completed arrangements with 20th Century-Fox tv for a new half-hour series, Cover Story. Pilot of the news-feature type of program, which Messrs. Neuman and Dryer will produce, will be filmed in December. More tv news ■ A new Monday-to-Friday five-minute news report will start Jan. 2 on NBC-TV, 2:25-2:30 p.m. EST. The series will originate in Chicago with Floyd Kalber, NBC News correspondent and will be produced by Frank Jordan, manager of news in Chicago. High Society ■ Debutante '62, first of two filmed one-hour documentaries on society in the U. S. to be presented by NBC News, will be telecast on NBCTV, Feb. 9, 9:30-10:30 p.m. EST. Both programs will be produced by Bill Wilson and sponsored by Clairol Inc. Show available ■ Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, has renewed syndicated program The Third Man in approximately 80 television markets for Budweiser beer and announces availability of the program for sponsorship in other markets. Budweiser acquires all national rights and re-sells the show in areas which it does not use. Production of new programs has begun in Hollywood at Mark VII Studios under supervision of Irving Asher. Starts production ■ Lone Sierra, first Warner Bros, tv series to be made in technicolor, started filming earlier this month on location in the Sierra Madre mountains. The adventure series, being produced for ABC-TV, stars Art Lund. Hallmark special ■ A 90-minute color production of the dramatic comedy "Arsenic and Old Lace" will be presented on the Hallmark Hall of Fame series on Mon., Feb. 5 (9:30-11 p.m. EST), on NBC-TV. George Schaefer is producer-director. Red China documentary ■ B. F. Niel son Assoc., New York, has produced a half-hour documentary film, Red China . . . Outlaw, which is being distributed to tv stations by the Filmvideo Releasing Corp., New York. The film, narrated by Bob Considine and produced by Joseph P. Mawra, utilizes film footage taken in Red China as well as film obtained from the United Nations' library. It highlights atrocities committed against the people of Tibet and U. S. prisoners of war in Korea, according to Mr. Mawra. How to be a cop ■ The New York City Police Dept. plans to develop and produce in-service training films to be broadcast to members of the force over WUHF (TV) New York, experimental uhf station which recently went on the air. Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy appointed Jack Perlis, New York public relations executive, as tv consultant to the Police Dept. Mr. BROADCASTING, January 1, 1962 43