Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

MARTIN CO DEL’S I AUTHORITATIVE NEWS SERVICE FOR MANAGEMENT OF THE ! VISUAL BROADCASTING :aND allied ELECTRONICS ARTS AND INDUSTRY PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY m ';'ll R ^ "■ ! ' ■' J t wi N ^ } ASHINGTON 5. D.C. • TELEPHONE STERLING 3-1755 • VOL. 10: No. SEP V 1954 September 4, 1954 (lfs-&-Buts Fading — Color About Ready, pp. I, 10 & 12 'Continual Coaxial'? — Look at the Record, pp. 2 & d 'High-&-Mighty' Stations Among Starters, page 2 iggUCS Three CPs Include Tampa Ch. 13 Reversal, page 3 I Satellites — Background and Prospects, page 4 \ Rebuttal & Debate on CBS Editorial, page 5 Arguments About Network Radio's Destiny, pp. 6-7 Transmitter Shipments & Upcoming Stations, page 9 Live Color Programming by More Stations, page 70 New CBS-Columbia Line Has 3 Color Sets, page 10 Black-&-White Booms Despite Color Push, page 1 1 What Price Color TV Sets & What's Coming, page 12 IFS-& BUTS FADING-COLOR ABOUT READY: ^ lingering doubts that color TV will begin to "snowball" soon, as again predicted by RCA's Gen. Sarnoff at another enthusiastic NBC-TV affiliates convention in Chicago's Drake Hotel this week, could be dispelled by (a) listening to his latest promises and predictions, then (b) strolling over to a nearby room and watching some colorcasts received on CBS-Columbia ' s 19-in. sets at its distributor-dealer meetings which happened to be going on in the same hotel. The 19-in. pictures on CBS's 44-tube set were clear, sharp and thoroughly acceptable — superb, we'd say. The size is as adequate as was the 19-in. black-&white before the 21-in. tppk over. Technicolor film on closed-circuit was reproduced so excellently that the distributors rose and cheered. Next night, dealers also came to see the live 'Danger' show off air, piped via network — and again the pictures, even the Kelvinator & Amm-i-dent commercials, drew gasps of wonderment and applause. The prices of $950, $1000 & SHOO, plus $175 for installation and a year's servicing — well, that's another matter. But if CBS is out for "position" in TV receiver field, black-&-white as well as color, it may well be on way (see p. 11). The main point is that such great strides have been made in image quality and size that you can begin to see whither the industry is now headed. It's toward color — and in a big way, once prices are nearer reach. With the backing of the 2 biggest networks, to say nothing of RCA and its licensees, with the promotion power of the greatest of all media for creating interest and moving products, color TV into taverns and clubs and then homes is nearer than many even in the industry think. * * * More and more color shows on the networks, more and more cameras going into local stations (see p. 10), inevitable refinements in manufacture, intense competition in the marketplace — all spell color very soon. This is where Gen. Sarnoff 's latest observations are pertinent, for the record shows that he and his company have a habit of delivering what they promise. Not only will RCA have a 21-in. color tube ready to demonstrate at Princeton Sept. 15, offering 40-sq. in. more surface than CBS's 19-in. "Colortron 205", but it has a set with a simplified circuit that uses "very few more" tubes than the 21-in. black-&-white set. So says Sarnoff, and the guessing is that tubes total around 30. Moreover, he promises, some color tubes will go to customers this year, and RCA's own set will reach market before year's end and be produced in quantity next year. Sarnoff would say no more about the set itself, but he intimated it would be priced lower than anything yet offered — meaning certainly his own already-obsolete 15-in. which started at $1000 and was unloaded at $500. This means, too, it should be lower than CBS-Columbia ' s lowest set at $950 and than Motorola's 29-tube set that uses the CBS Hytron tube Ltnd is being offered at $895 (Vol. 10:28). Guess is that RCA's culoi will come on mai-ket at betweeii $bOU & fejjOCj — but it's only a guess. Our hunch is that RCA itself hasn't decided yet. COPYRIGHT 1954 BY RADIO NEWS BUREAU