Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

MARTIN CO DEL’S AUTHORITATIVE NEWS SERVICE FOR MANAGEMENT OF THE VISUAL BROADCASTING AND ALLIED ELECTRONICS ARTS AND INDUSTRY PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY RADIO NEWS BUREAU • WYATT BLDG. WASHINGTON tn this issue: Successful UHFs Take Look at Future, pp. I & 8-9 'Operation Threshold' An Eye-Opener, pp. I & 16 Million-Watt UHF Stations This Year? page 2 Notre Dame's Commercial, 2 More Starters, page 2 Furore Over FCC's 'Satellite' Policy, page 3 TV's Share of the Advertising Budget, page 4 5. D.C. • TELEPHONE STERLING 3-1755 • VOL. 10: No. 3 3 August 14, 1954 New Rep Firm for Stations Outside Major Markets, p. 6 Transmitter Shipments & Upcoming Stations, page 10 Trade in Upswing, TV Output at Year's High, page 11 Crosley Adds 21-in. Consoles, New 'Super V', page 12 Color Notes: RCA Retort to Philco; Slashes 15-in., p. 15 Color Lines to 47 Cities, 100 by Year's End, p. 15 SUCCESSFUL UHFs TAKE LOOK AT FUTURE: Uhf can be beautiful — under the right set of circumstances. Though it's been virtually Ignored in the publicity attending recent Senate uhf hearings, many successful uhf stations are doing a top-notch .job of serving the people of their community — and at a profit. Most of these stations have little or no direct vhf competition — hence virtually no conversion problems. We asked a dozen reputedly successful uhf telecasters to give us their views on the problems and future of uhf — both in general and in their own home situations — and we received 9 detailed replies. Similarity of the replies is striking, in many respects. Most of the 9 are in the black — some have been profitable almost from the very start of operations. Nearly all say Senate uhf probe publicity has had no noticeable effect on business. Most see rosy future in uhf in their particular locations. Showing through the optimism, however, is undercurrent of feeling that intermixture of vhf and uhf stations in same markets was a mistake — but there's difference of opinion whether anything can or should be done about it now. We've digested the replies from uhf operators — except those who asked not to be quoted — and they are excerpted on pages 8-9. 'OPERATION THRESHOLD' AN EYE-OPENER: We saw military — and electronics — history made at Fort Meade, Md. last Wed. (Aug. 11) when, seated in a big tent simulating a command post and signal center, we watched a mock battle via TV while it was going on a short distance away. On a bank of 8 TV monitors, on two 21-in. monochrome sets, then on a half dozen 15-in. color sets, we saw the Second Army's crack 3rd ArmoredRegiment go through battle tactics under direction of a battle commander who could ! see everything as it happened and even command his troops by remote control. \ Thanks to fixed* and portable cameras, even long range lenses, we could follow aerial reconnaissance, amphibious landings, assaults on fortifications, hits on tanks, evacuations via helicopter — even the capture and interrogation of prisoners. All of the time the commander could talk to any one of the camera chiefs, tell TV control where to pan next, see exactly what was transpiring, relay orders to the field officers, receive radio reports from them. It was an idealized setup, of course (for details, see p. 16) — but it had Army's top brass and newsmen alike gasping at its execution and implications. This was so especially when, after an hour of it in black-&-white via closed circuit, it was picked up and broadcast in color over NBC-TV. The black-&-white was Army Signal Corps' job, in collaboration with RCA Service Co. and NBC personnel. Color job was all RCA-NBC. Apparatus was called an "interim tactical TV system" — but obviously it's the forerunner of a big future item of Army procurement, training and usage. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, chief of staff, was so impressed that he called it "a new battle weapon as revolutionary as gunpowder and the atomic cannon." Chief COPYRIGHT 10B4 BY RADIO NRWB BUREAU