Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

11 Distributors must control merchandise in their territory — and that means keeping closer tabs on dealers who sell to discount houses, warned Otter. He said: "You control the dealer, not the reverse." He indicated some distributors tacitly approved re-sale of merchandise by dealers to discount houses in effort to impress factory that they are moving merchandise. Philco pledged it wouldn't overload distributors, which Otter admitted was at root of much of trans-shipping and also was a big factor in indiscriminate price cutting and liquidations. Under new stock control system, which is companion to new franchise agreements, factory designates how much inventory of each model should be on hand in order for distributor to do specified amount of business. Factory will stop shipments immediately on any model when distributor has more than 10%' of "required inventory" of that model on hand. But if he has quite a bit less than the "required inventory" over a long period of time, that will be subject of investigation by factory for suspected trans-shipping. Philco said plan was designed to make franchise "more valuable. " denied any intent to "get tough" with distributors. Otter himself said company was trying to "keep the merchandise clean" and hoped other manufacturers would do likewise. * ♦ ♦ ♦ RETMA recapitulated 6-month TV-radio production in release this week, showing output of 2,845,147 TVs, 4,886,559 radios. TV production compared with 3,834,236 in first half of 1953 and 2,318,236 in first 6 months of 1952. Of total, 636,456 were uhf-equipped at factory. Production in June (5 weeks) was 544,142 (99,404 uhf), as compared with 396,287 in May (4 weeks) and 524,479 turned out in June 1953. Radio output was way down from the 7,266,542 turned out in first half of 1953 but not as far removed from the 5,456,035 in first 6 months of 1952. Radio output in June was 837,655 vs. 722,104 in May and 1,163,831 in June 1953. Revised tables; PRODUCTION RADIO PRODUCTION BY TYPES Total TV Total Radio Home Sets Portables Clock Auto January 420,571 871,981 271,036 46,571 159,932 394,442 February 426,933 769,232 233,063 98,275 105,933 331,961 March (5 wks) 599,606 940,352 244,110 206,130 119,863 370,249 April 457,608 745,235 165,232 175,424 73,590 330,989 May 396,287 722,104 173,480 174,735 57,370 316,519 June (5 wks) . 544,142 837,655 226,350 141,904 132,668 336,733 TOTAL 2,845,147 4,886,559 1,313,271 843,039 649,356 2,080,893 Trade Personals: James H. Carmine, Philco exec, v.p., at age 52 becomes pres., while Wm. Balderston, 58, steps up to chairman, and consumer products v.p. John M. Otter becomes new exec, v.p., in elections announced at this week’s distributors convention; James T. Buckley declined reelection as chairman after 42 years with the company . . . C. K. Huxtable named Montgomery Ward national TVradio mgr., replacing Peter J. Faber, resigned . . .Victor Emanuel, chairman of Avco, among 17 guests at President Eisenhower’s stag dinner in White House Aug. 4 . . .Dan D. Halpin, DuMont, reappointed chairman of RETMA sales mgr. committee; A. A. Currie, Sylvania, renamed eastern vice-chairman, E. L. Taylor, StewartWarner, westeiTi vice-chairman . . . Joseph F. Miller promoted to asst, managing director of National Electrical Mfrs. Assn.; Wm. J. Donald, managing director, reportedly will retire next April . . . Wm. J. Hopkins named supervisor of national accounts for Sylvania electronic products, succeeded as mid-Atlantic district sales mgr. by Robert C. Hoffman, who is replaced as mid-Eastern sales mgr. by J. B. Pomeroy; M. C. Koseto replaces Pomeroy as northern California sales rep; Norman B. Scott named southeastern regional mgr.; Alfred S. Ross metropolitan N. Y.-N. J. mgr.; John S. Dew.s, Cincinnati; John O. I’ainter, Wa.shington-Baltimore-Philadelphia; Ted Napp, Chicago; W. G. Itipley, Dos Moines . . . Dave Kaye resigns as v.p. of Kaye-Halbert, now operating under Chapter XI of Bankruptcy Act . . . Everett S. Calhoun, mgr. of electronic data processing research, Stanford Research Institute, left July 31 for 3-month inspection tour of European electronic research centers . . . Joseph C. Profita, ex-Methods Engineering Council, Pittsburgh, named asst, to Raytheon marketing mgr. Daniel J. Webster . . . Raymond W. Herrick, onetime Admiral national radio sales mgr., named Emerson north central district mgr. . . . Herman L. Weckler, Clevite Corp. operations v.p. in charge of manufacturing & sales subsidiaries, named corporate gen. mgr. with responsibility for all Clevite activities . . . Henry T. Roberts, gen. mgr. of Magnecord commercial music div., promoted to v.p. . . . M. A. Koetke named adv. & sales promotion mgr., Gramer-Halldorson Transformer Corp. ■ Dr. Cornelius G. Brennecke, 47, dean of N. C. State College electrical engineering dept, and nationally known for his electronics research, died Aug. 2 in Raleigh. A onetime RCA engineer, he helped organize and was pres, in 1948 of IRE’s N. C.-Va. section. Emerson’s Ben Abrams presented $10,000 checks this week to educational stations KQED, San Francisco, and WHA-TV, Madison, in line with his plan to give such donations to first 10 educational stations on air.