NAEB Newsletter (March 1, 1966)

VOL. 31, NO. 3 WASHINGTON, D.C. MARCH, 1966 Recent FCC Actions The FCC recently issued a new alloca¬ tions table containing 1756 VHF and UHF assignments, 615 of which are reserved for education (107 V’s and 508 U’s). The NAEB staff is studying the plan now and comparing it with its own study which contained just over 1000 reservations for education. Under the previous FCC plan, issued in 1963, about 700 reservations were provided. • On the same day the FCC invited com¬ ments on a proposal to make better use of channels 70-83, particularly with re¬ spect to reserving them for educational use. Comments are due by March 28. • In a separate proceeding the FCC in¬ vited comments on changes in the rules for the ITV fixed service. The changes — v provide that no more than four channels ' in any geographical area could be used by any one applicant (the limitation now is five) and prevent applicants from applying for more channels than they intend to use promptly. These comments are due by March 21. TV Meetings • Fourteen eminent educators and in¬ structional broadcasters—many of them NAEBers—participated in a national sym¬ posium on TV in the secondary school in late January at Indiana University. Re¬ sults of the symposium, sponsored by the new National Center for School and Col¬ lege Television (NCSCT), will be pub¬ lished and made available to educators and broadcasters. • The North Central Association’s Sub¬ committee on Television conducted a seminar last August on “The Projected Uses of Television in Education for the Next Decade,” as part of the final phase of a two-year USOE project. The project was to end December 31, and the subcommittee is preparing a project report. Playwrights Respond WTTW, Chicago, announced on January 17 that 300 playwrights from across the country had already responded to its script¬ writing contest. Deadline for submissions is April 1. (See December, 1965, Newslet¬ ter, p. 1.) Convention Plans Move Ahead Plans are underway for the 42nd annual NAEB convention, to be October 23-27, 1966, at the Muehlebach Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri. Convention sites for the next four conventions will be: 1967, Hilton Hotel, Denver; 1968, Sheraton Park, Wash¬ ington ; 1969, Sheraton Hotel, Cleveland; 1970, Washington, hotel unknown. Chicago to Host Region III (Midwest) Meet NAEB Midwesterners will meet March 25-27 in Chicago at the Pick-Congress Hotel and the University of Illinois Chicago Cir¬ cle campus. Conferees may attend the equipment exhibit of the NAB at the Con¬ rad Hilton Hotel by special pass. Topics on the schedule include commu¬ nity and in-school programing, engineering, station management, funding, TV graphics, radio news and public affairs, and ITV pro¬ graming and production. Tours have been arranged of the new Chicago ETV Center (home of WTTW and WXXW) and of CCTV installations. Representatives of NAEB’s Washington headquarters will brief the group on NAEB activities at the luncheon March 25. Films for Purchase • NBC has released its award-winning children’s educational program, “Explor¬ ing,” on 16mm film for purchase by schools and libraries. The series can be previewed Saturdays at 12:30 EST on NBC. $150 black and white, $300 in color. Teacher’s guides will be supplied with films. Write: Graphic Curriculum, Inc., 41 East 42nd St., New York, N.Y. 10017. • “The Questions and the Answers,” a 16mm color film on Congressional investi¬ gations, may be purchased at $175 per copy from: Pepperdine College, Office of Civic Services and Research, South Ver¬ mont at 79th Ave., Los Angeles, Calif., 90044. TV use is available to purchasers with written permission of producers Maurice Ries and John Hennessey. NAEB Southern Area To Meet in Memphis NAEB’s Region II is sponsoring a South¬ ern Area Conference March 31 through April 2 at the Holiday Inn-Rivermont in Memphis. NAEB members from Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas have been invited, in addition to those in Region II. The meeting will begin with a three-hour special-interest session for engineers begin¬ ning at 2 p.m. March 31. Other special- interest sessions have been planned for management, radio production, studio teach¬ ers, facilities and equipment, graphics, pro¬ motion, utilization/classroom teachers, fund¬ ing, research and development, and TV pro¬ duction. General sessions on legislation and interconnection are also scheduled. 2500 me Developments • A multi-media kit of information for those interested in 2500mc is being devel¬ oped by the Greater Manhattan subregion¬ al group of the National Committee for Developing ITV Fixed Service established by the FCC on November 4, 1965. The basic information portion of the kit is already underway, and will be made available as rapidly as possible to assist educators and broadcasters to use the 2500-2690mc band¬ width. Under the general chairmanship of Bernard Cooper, the developers include Betty Smith, Dalton Levy, Rev. Michael Dempsey, Msgr. Joseph O’Keefe, and Nor¬ man Hosier. • In California, two area committees have been established, to advise the state Tele¬ vision Advisory Committee and the FCC national committee, and to coordinate chan¬ nel allocation requests from applicants in the respective areas. On the Los Angeles committee is Allan Fink, chairman; Paul Jillson, vice chair¬ man ; Frank George, secretary; and on the executive committee, James Loper, David Hooker, Harold Kuerschner, Allen Cuppy, and Rev. John Urban. Ex-officio members are Harry Skelly, Robert Gerlet- ti, and Lawrence T. Frymire. San Francisco’s committee includes George Noone, chairman; Jacob Wiens, vice chairman; and Lyn Vivrette, secretary; and on the executive committee, A1 Isberg, William Sanborn, Sally Davis, Ernest Berg,