Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

MARTIN COREL’S I AUTHORITATIVE NEWS SERVICE FOR MANAGEMENT i OF THE I VISUAL BROADCASTING I AND ALLIED ELECTRONICS ; ARTS AND INDUSTRY • WYAH BLD6. • WASHINGTON 5. D.C. • TELEPHONE STERLING 3-1755 • VOL. 10: No. 24 June 12, 1954 Corpus Christ! & Orlando Opened Up, page 1 FCC Probe of Edw. Lamb Argued in Court, page 5 After the Senate UHF Hearings — What? page 7 Transmitter Shipments & Upcoming Stations, page 6 Week's CPs All VHF, UHFs Rare Nowadays, page 3 Daytime TV Viewers 'Best Customers', page 7 Community TV Holds Up Despite New Stations, page 3 RCA Offers 20 Models, Lowers Leaders, pp. 8-9 One-Fourth of TV Revenues From Sundries, page 4 Kansas City Merger Okay — Fulltime KMBC-TV, p. 12 CORPUS CHRIST! & ORLANDO OPENED UP: Two new TV markets — one vhf, one uhf — came into being this week with first tests of KVDO-TV, Corpus Christi, Tex., and WDBO-TV, Orlando, Fla. With imminent deletion of Kansas City's share-time WHB-TV, which is i being amalgamated with KMBC-TV (see p. 12), that brings stations on the air to 585. ; There was also a report, not yet confirmable, that WTAC-TV, Flint, Mich. (Ch. 16), I which quit April 20 for economic reasons and reverted to CP status (Vol. 10;19), may soon be sold and revived. This week's starters: WDBO-TV, Orlando, Fla. (Ch. 6) starts programming June 15 as primary interconnected CBS outlet, having begun tests June 5. Nearest other station is WSUN-TV, St. Petersburg (Ch. 38), 94 mi. distant. Orlando is 124 mi. south of Jacksonville, I 150 mi. north of Palm Beach, other nearest TV cities. Station uses 35-kw GE trans; mitter, 500-ft. Stainless tower, 6-bay GE antenna. Harold P. Danforth, pres. & gen. mgr., and James Yarborough, v.p. & chief engineer, are principal owners, each 18.4%. i Walter Sickles is program and John Thorwald sales mgr. Base rate is |200, rep Blair. ' KVD0-TV, Corpus Christi, Tex. (Ch. 22) began testing June 9, goes commercial June 20, possibly with ABC affiliation. Gen. mgr. L. W. Smith, stating city has been largest in U.S. still without own TV (pop. 139,000), claims coverage area embracing I 295,000 with 19,000 TV sets already owned and 8000 already converted. Nearest cities ; with TV are San Antonio, 130 mi., and Harlingen, 111 mi. Transmitter is RCA, tower j is 326-ft. Emsco. It has no AM adjunct, is owned by 10 local stockholders. Eugene ; Tinsley is commercial mgr. , Edward F. Joslyn program director, Nestor Cuesta chief engineer. Base rate is $150. Rep is Adam Young. ( AFTER THE SENATE UHF HEARINGS — WHAT? tv industry's most explosive issue comes to the fore again Tue. , June 15 when the communications subcommittee under Sen. Potter ^ (R-Mich.) convenes for 3% more days of hearings on uhf problems. The uhf stations already have outlined their case (Vol. 10:21), and more will come to the stand next week to reinforce previous testimony. In hearings' opening I week, the Senators were impressed by uhf ' s "matter-of-lif e-or-death" presentation. I Vhf stations and networks found themselves on the defensive — faced with un I expected proposals, made before U.S. Senators, for a new freeze, an al-l-uhf allocation, strict network regulation, and a share-the-networks program, i Against this background, what kind of action can be expected from Congress? : Legislatively, there's almost no chance of any action this session — except I possible passage of a measure to kill or reduce excise taxes on uhf-equipped TV sets. Sen. Johnson (D-Colo.) and the Senate Finance Committee breathed new life into the proposal this week after it had been written off as virtually dead (Vol. 10:22). I Swayed by pleas of Johnson and of Potter subcommittee — which unanimously endorsed it — Finance Committee agreed to consider excise tax removal proposal as an amendment to next tax bill it considers, which happens to be a bill relating to inlthim immmmz COPYRiaHT ■•■4 RT RAOIO NrWR BUREAU