NAEB Newsletter (June 1957)

the university president at its spring meeting. His term begins immediately. y Mrs. Meryle Renie Evans has been named Ad¬ ministrative Assistant in Promotion and Public Re¬ lations for the Metropolitan Educational TV Associa¬ tion, New York City. PROGRAMS y For what is believed the first time in history, high school students competed in an oratorical contest on a state-owned TV network. Cooperating with the American Legion’s 20th An¬ nual Oratorical National Contest, the Alabama ETV Network cleared a scheduled hour to carry the judg¬ ing of three state finalists. The Alabama Legion in the past had staged it’s competition in auditoriums, limiting attendance to immediate friends, family and instructors of those in the contest (about 3,000 students enter each year). By utilizing TV for the finals, it is estimated a min¬ imum of 150,000 watched and cheered their favorites. y WBUR, Boston University, has produced a unique radio series, “Project Moon watch,” in cooperation with the Smithsonian Observatory and the satellite tracking program. The series features discussions with the observatory staff and members of the satel¬ lite tracking organization, and they will be heard this summer on the NAEB network. TEACHING y In a questionnaire given teachers who took the telecourse “Art Skills for Elementary Teachers,” WKNO-TV, Memphis, found the group agreed that subjects could be successfully taught on TV: 92% thought personal contact with instructor was good, 70% felt the home classroom was equal to or better than the college classroom, and 86% said you can see and hear better on TV (assuming perfect reception). However, when asked if a complete curriculum should be offered on TV and degrees awarded, 68% of the group said, “No.” —N A E B— Miss Judith Waller, long-time NAEB friend, and honorary member, retired from her position as NBC Public Affairs representative on April 30. Miss Waller was the first manager of radio station WMAQ, and has been in the broadcasting business 35 years. —NAEB— Dr. Bert Donnepp, director of the Adult Educa¬ tion Center in Westphalia, Germany, paid a visit to Headquarters on May 1 to visit Harry Skornia and Frank Schooley. TV TECHNICAL TIPS NO. 33 —Cecil S. Bidlack NAEB TV Engineer New arrivals are always news! The NAEB Network is proudly displaying a new Ampex 300 Magnetic tape recorder which arrived May 6. This new equip¬ ment will permit a thorough overhaul of our present Ampex machines, in constant service since March, 1953 and gives us a feeling of security in that we now have a spare. New monitoring loudspeakers, too, have been purchased which will provide better reproduction and permit a better check on the quality of our output. A complete revamping of the inter rack wiring and jack field is underway to provide more flexibility, and ease of testing and checking characteristics. For those of you who are familiar with Head¬ quarters geography, the “back room” (18c Gregory Hall) has been rearranged and Network Manager Bob Underwood has moved his office there. With the exception of Traffic Manager Peggy Enderby, the network is now a compact working unit in one room. We’d like to rearrange the “front” office to provide more privacy and increased efficiency, but so far no one has come up with a better floor plan. ***** The 81st Semi-annual Convention of the Society of Motion Picture and TV Engineers was held in Washington, April 29 to May 3. Twenty-three of the 103 papers programmed were on TV subjects. One of the highlights of this meeting was a visit to the Closed Circuit Color TV installation at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where its fine facilities were described and demonstrated. The speakers presented their talks over the TV system to those in attendance in two auditoriums, and were viewed in full color, projected on 4 x 6 foot screens. An SMPTE Committee on Closed Circuit TV has been proposed, and 38 attended an explanatory meet¬ ing to discuss the proposal. A small “ad hoc” com¬ mittee is to be appointed to further consider this pro¬ posal, which will review the discussion, draft a pro¬ posed official scope of interest and an initial proposal of work to be undertaken. ***** The 27th Institute for Education by Radio-TV was held in Columbus May 8-11. Due to the high interest in teaching by TV, the equipment exhibited was perhaps the largest display ever to be seen at this annual meeting. Beginning at the east end of the mezzanine of the Deshler-Hilton, Jerrold Electronics exhibited their distribution equipment, Dage dis¬ played their two lines of vidicon equipment and NEWSLETTER