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1949 THEATER TELEVISION 337
The motion picture industry since 1944 has made sporadic efforts to obtain the allocation of relay frequencies to theater television by the FCC. The first such bid, spearheaded by Paul J. Larsen on behalf of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, was made in the general allocation hearings held in the fall of 1944 and the spring of 1945 when the end of the war was in sight.
The general allocation hearing (FCC Docket 6651) covering the "Allocation of Frequencies in the Radio Spectrum from 10 Kilocycles to 30,000,000 Kilocycles" was an open invitation to all who desired to obtain new frequencies or the recognition of new radio services to come before the FCC and present their cases. The hearing was the greatest in scope ever held by the FCC or its predecessor, the Federal Radio Commission. Two hundred and twenty-three witnesses, plus FCC staff members, appeared and testified. Claims for frequencies were presented by some 30 services, including many new radio services. One witness, Mr. Larsen, appeared for theater television. It is interesting to note that 26 witnesses appeared for television broadcasting, 22 for forestry and conservation radio, 17 for police radio, and 12 for commercial frequency-modulated broadcasting.
Mr. Larsen, on behalf of the SMPE, requested for theater television an allocation of 1500 megacycles in 20-megacycle-wide channels in the radio spectrum between 300 and 6300 megacycles for the "immediately necessary postwar Theater Television service." This recommendation was keyed to the situation in New York City where Mr. Larsen stated 25 independent producing and exhibiting agencies might compete in the theater television service. For the initial period, however, he assumed that 15 of these agencies should be provided with frequencies, including for each of the 15 agencies one remote pickup channel, one studio-transmitter channel, one multipleaddressee channel, and one intercity relay channel. Mr. Larsen took the position that coaxial cable and wire facilities were not sufficient for the multiple-addressee system since channels 20 to 60 megacycles wide would be required and only 4 megacycles were available on the coaxial cable. Mr. Larsen presented the argument that, in view of the relative size and importance of the motion picture industry ($1,600,000,000 gross income compared to $280,000,000 gross income for the broadcast industry) theater television should be treated on a "parity of opportunity" with radio broadcasting. By this phrase he meant "an equality of opportunity to develop both arts" giving each "equal opportunity to experiment, to commercialize, to improve, and to expand to its proper and demonstrable limits."