Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

Section of RADIO DAILY. Monday. October 24. 1949 — TELEVISION DAILY is fully protected by register and copyright RECEIVER DEMAND AT NEW HIGH TELE TOPICS AFTER A STEADY DIET of anti-TV pills rolled by the New York sportswriters, it is refreshing, to say the least, to run across the following lines from H. G. Salsinger's column in the Detroit News: "Any fear that television would wreck professional baseball can now be abandoned. . . . One-half of Detroit's home games were televised this year and, what did the telecasts do to attendance at Briggs Stadium? The answer is in the books. An all-time record of 1,821,204 paid admissions. The radio and television sponsor can claim at least part of the credit for the increase. The broadcasts and telecasts of the Tigers home games under the sponsorship of the Goebel Brewing Co. created new customers. Harry Heilmann's explanations of plays, his discourses on fundamentals and strategy, and his anecdotes, are entertaining as well as educational. The baseball people may be unwilling to credit radio and television for the increased attendance, but they certainly cannot say that these mediums cut gate receipts." MARY PICKFORD, Buddy Rogers and Mai Boyd have formed a new package firm, PRB, Inc., with offices in the penthouse at 745 Fifth. Also planned is personal management of AM-TV personalities. Miss Pickford, who is co-owner of United Artists and owns a majority interest in the Samuel Goldwyn studios, has applications on file with the FCC for three stations in North Carolina. Fourth director of the new firm is Paul O'Brien, of O'Brien, Driscoll, Raftery and Lawler. . . . First public showing of the recently discovered Bible scroll said to be 1,000 years older than any previous record occurred Friday nite on the Camel News Caravan over NBC. The Archbishop of Jerusalem and Luther Evans, Librarian of Congress, appeared on the show with the scroll. . . . The N. Y. Paramount theater will pick up the network pool of the UN cornerstone ceremonies on its large screen this afternoon. CBS IS DROPPING "Sugar Hill Times" and will replace the all-Negro revue with "Romance," a dramatic series produced and directed by Robert Stevens, who also does "Suspense." Show will be aired every other Thursday, 8:30 p.m., alternating with "Inside USA," beginning Nov. 3. Lilli Palmer will guest on the preem. . . . Guy Griffen, formerly general manager of WSSB, Durham, has joined the sales staff of WMAR-TV, Baltimore. . . . Hour-long pickup of the International Livestock Exposition in Chicago Nov. 29 will be sponsored on NBC by Allis-Chalmers, through Bert S. Gittins agency. Everett Mitchell will describe judging and selection of the grand champion steer. 6-10 Feel Declared Best Viewing Distance Viewing distances of six to ten feet is generally comfortable and practical for receivers with 15 to 19 inch picture tubes, Dr. Theodore H. Conklin, president of the New York State Optometric Association, said today. Dr. Conklin disclosed that scientific findings show the ideal viewing distance for most people is six to ten feet, and that large screen pictures present the ideal for viewing at that distance. "It is twice as easy to see a fifteenor nineteen inch picture from that distance as a ten-inch picture," he said. "The visual angle is twice as great and therefore the size of the optical image to the human eye is doubled. "It is fallacious to think that large screens require viewing from distances of no less than twenty feet as many people believe," he declared. "Moving back farther than ten feet forces the eye to look at an optically smaller image. It is a physical law that the larger the visual target, the easier the visual perception." WOC-TV, First Iowa Sta., To Make Nov. 1 Debut TV Box Score On the air 87 CP's 26 Applications 351 Davenport— WOC-TV, first station in Iowa and the Quad-Cities, will start programming on Nov. 1st, it was announced by manager Ernie Sanders. First Run Film Airing Set For Phonevision (Continued from Page 1) clined to state which film companies had sanctioned the use of their first run films for this test but it is known that Eugene F. McDonald, president of Zenith, has huddled with Top Hollywood executives including Spyros Skouras, president of Twentieth Century-Fox, and William F. Rodgers, vice-president in charge of sales for Metro-GoldwynMayer. Phonevision attachments are being installed in three hundred homes in the Chicago area. Viewers will pay for their first run films although cost details have not yet been worked out. It will probably run around three dollars per set per night. Set owners, who will pay for the privilege of viewing top Hollywood first run product, will merely call the telephone company informing the phone firm that they want to see the pictures. The phone company's "unscrambler," which is connected to the Phonevision set at home, is switched on and the viewer sees a clear image. Set owners not using Phonevision will only see a blurry, rapidly moving image on the screen. The Week In Television Three Networks Sign Ascap Contract After more than a year of negotiation, three networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — and Ascap signed a five-year contract covering TV use of Ascap members' music on a blanket basis, with rates ten per cent higher than those for AM. Discussions continued, however, between Ascap and those stations desiring a license on a per-program basis. . . . Color Television, Inc., took the stand at the FCC hearings and revealed that it is working with DuMont and Philco on problems of circuit design and development of direct-view color tubes. . . . The Commission announced that it will do its own testing of color receivers and asked RCA, CBS and CTl to submit models for testing by FCC staffers. . . . Organization of TV Authority will be proposed at a meeting of the 4-A's board Oct. 26. . . . Laboratory development of a new pickup tube with the sensitivity of the human eye was disclosed by Dr. V . K. Zworykin, v-p of RCA Labs. . . . FCC's proposed report on interconnection aspects of AT&T relay lines was sharply attacked in statements filed with the Commission by Western Union and DuMont. . . . Skiatron Corp. became another starter in the color sweepstakes, charged that the "additive" system of RCA and Columbia were obsolete and that its own "subtractive" system was the ultimate in color video. . . . Andrew Jaeger, film director of WABD, was elected board chairman of National Television Film Council. Sales Up Despite Color Hearings, Mfrs. Report (Continued from Page It of a receiver for fear it soon would be obsolete, but without exception the manufacturers report not a decrease, but a sharp increase in sales. (Scope of the rapidly expanding TV circulation was revealed by market research studies by General Electric Co., Newark. Total of 5,600.000 sets in use by the end of next year was indicated, with 19,300,000 receivers five years from now, the firm said.) Although individual production figures are closely guarded by each manufacturer, it is the consensus that the entire industry will exceed the production goal of 2,000,000 receivers set at the beginning of the year, with some estimates placing the expected total at around 2,300,000. This is normally a period of accelerated activity — sales between September and Christmas usually account for about 36 per cent of the year's total — but with virtually no exceptions demand has been so great that all manufacturers have been forced to allocate shipments. When queried about any possible effects on sales of the color controversy, the manufacturers replied that none has been noticeable whatsoever, and that sales are considerably ahead of last year. General tone of the replies was one of extreme well-being. "Sales have never been this good," said the sales manager of one of the major producers. "Demand is way ahead of a fantastically good supply," was the reply of another major manufacturer. Present demand for sets is the "greatest in the history of the industry; we can't keep production up with it," said a third. Besides the seasonal upturn, lower prices are a main reason for the run on sets. Prices are generally a third lower than they were a year ago, and in some cases have been reduced almost 50 per cent. In addition, better programming has brought about a general acceptance of the medium. "Video has moved out of the novelty class." a manufacturer said, "and now is something that everyone feels he must have." KPHO-TV Starts Nov. 27 Phoenix, Ariz.— KPHO-TV, owned by Phoenix Television, Inc., and managed by Rex Schepp, has set November 27 as the day upon which it will begin operations.