Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

The production department, under Stanton Osgood, manager, is responsible for supervising the production of film series—such as "Douglas Fairbanks Presents"— made especially for the NBC Film Division. It is also responsible for the re-editing of programs similar to "The Doctor," and the production of special film shows from footage now in the growing NBC film library. We may be able to develop everything from quiz shows to weather, spons and special holiday services to local stations. Film and Kinescope Operations and Services, originally part of the television network, is managed by Frank Lepore within the new Film Division sphere of operations. This department handles the shipment of kinescopes of NBC network programs to our affiliates and to our owned-and-operated stations, as well as the shipping of our film programs which are syndicated on a local basis. This has now become one of the largest film exchanges in the country, and we hope to expand this phase of our activities to include a shipping service for other film distributors. More than 2,000 Subjects in Library We expect also to expand the scope of the business done by the film library, now one of the largest of its kind in the world. In fireproof vaults at 105 East 106th Street, New York, are row on row of metal containers holding in excess of 15,000,000 feet of film. More than 2,000 subjects are covered and catalogued so effectively that the most abstruse topic can be located in a matter of minutes. With new film arriving at a weekly rate of about 55,000 feet (principally from the various NBC-TV news programs), we expect to make the film library a valuable source of film material for operations inside and outside of NBC. Another important aspect of our work involves the procurement of films — features and shorter subjects — as a service to the network, to our owned-and-operated stations, to our afiiliates, and to any other potential customers. David Savage, formerly manager of the WCBS-TV Film Depanment in New York, now heads Film Procurement for us. Last year, though not a part of the Film Division, this operation provided more than 600 films and short subjects for network programming and WNBT, New York. As a result of the establishment of the Film Divi- sion as a separate operating unit of the company, a busi- ness office has been created. Managed by Robert Ander- son, formerly of the NBC comptroller's office, the Film Division business office handles all budgeting, account- ing, billing, pricing and office management. It is much too early to foretell the future pattern Readying a film program for air express delivery by NBC to its west coast television affiliate. of the television broadcasting industry. Only time and experience will indicate the relationships of film and live programming. Our present objective is to develop the Film Division on a sound business basis with a strong organization and with enough flexibility to meet the challenges ahead. We expect not only to be a part of the future pattern but perhaps to have some in- fluence in establishing it. Compatible Color TV (Continued from page 7) to color on a limited basis in order that the per- sonnel with experience in this field would be in- creased. RCA Victor Division has developed a nucleus of trained operators, supervisors, and engineers for a tri-color tube mass production unit. 5. Field Testing: During 1952, RCA and NBC car- ried on field testing of color receivers, exhaustive tests devoted to compatibility, and other technical phases of the compatible color system. 6. Experimental Broadcasts: Since 1949, NBC has been conducting experimental color broadcasts over its stations in Washington and New York. During that time, compatible color television signals have been on the air almost 2,000 hours. 7. Color Receivers: Since the introduction of our early color television receivers models, RCA has con- stantly refined and improved color receiver design. Current RCA color television receiver models con- tain less than one-half the number of tubes required by our early laboratory model receivers. Dr. Engstrom pointed out that NBC's experimental work provides practical solutions to the new problems which the broadcaster faces in color. The NBC experi- ence, he said, is also valuable as an aid in formulating plans to produce commercial programs on a regular basis. 76 RADIO AGE