Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

2 There's a certain amount of bearishness about color in some quarters of the industry, but much of it is mistakenly attributed to failure of NBC "spectaculars" and CBS "extravaganzas" to achieve massive audiences every time. It's frequently forgotten that color has nothing at all to do with public reaction to the programs, because there are only 10-15,000 color sets in use. Complaint of some sponsors is that cost of the programs is way out of line with audience ratings, but it should be noted that the extra costs attributable to color are negligible — running 5-20% extra for production, nothing more for time or cable. The big "blockbuster" programs are a problem in psychology for the networks. The winds of publicity are fanned mightily in attempt to insure large waiting audiences, yet it's not humanly possible to produce a fresh miracle of showmanship every week. Everyone had been hoping, apparently, for a weekly or twice-a-week repetition of Ford Motor's fabulously successful 2-hour 2-network show last year (Vol. 9:25). The formula may need surgery, but it would be regrettable if the pendulum swung to opposite extreme, with sponsors and networks retreating to "safe" concepts, daring not to attempt such experiments. * * ♦ ♦ Those manufacturers and networks with greatest stake in color are hewing to implementation of announced plans, asserting progress to date is satisfactory. Motorola pres. Paul Galvin this week disclosed that he's shipping more than 1000 color sets weekly (see p. 7), and company officials say they'll sell the 20,000 or more they'll produce this year, noting that sets have .lust been introduced — and only in a very few markets at that. CBS reports 19-in. color tubes flowing nicely from CBS-Hytron plant, sales going well. RCA hasn't yet gone into quantity production of 21-in. tubes, but it has committed itself to program that is by no means niggardly. NBC pres. Pat Weaver and exec, v.p. Robert Sarnoff stoutly maintain that their judgment about "spectaculars" is correct. Weaver concedes that some sponsors are disappointed with initial ratings, but notes that others are not only achieving very respectable-sized audiences but are getting a lot of additional public attention due to novelty and controversy. Sarnoff, in talk to Detroit Adcraft Club Oct. 15, paid tribute to auto industry for jumping into color in big way now, asserting: "The advertiser with early identification in color will almost automatically inherit a position of leadership." He stated that color "is snowballing so fast that clients moving in now will top their competition in both the short and long runs." As for "spectaculars," he predicted that "they'll lift TV to a new high in entertainment despite the difficulty of starting something new." CBS spokesman says merely: "Our sponsors are happy; we're happy. The programs are doing very well." Incidentally, CBS's "Man Who Came to Dinner" on Best of Broadway Oct. 13 had some of CBS's finest color to date. Audience measuring services are having a field day, meanwhile, since each big show has up to $500,000 riding on it, and everyone is anxious for immediate report on "how did we do?" Furthermore, since results of different services vary widely, almost everyone can squeeze a measure of comfort from one or another. MORE MOUNTAIN-PEAK COVERAGE REPORTS: Usable signals up to 150 and sometimes 200 mi.. Grade A coverage 50-60 mi. are consistently reported by the TV stations fortunate enough to be able to locate their antennas on high mountain-tops. Our story last month on coverage of 3 new mountain-peak stations (Vol. 10:37) drew immediate response from others which have been operating for some time from extremely high locations, with facts and figures on reception. Because of the interest in the excellent large-area coverage which comes with height, we wrote to several other head-in-the-cloud stations and asked for their stories. Some of their replies, plus recent reports from other stations, are summarized below: Most populous area served by high-mountain TV is Los Angeles, where all 7 TV stations are located atop 6000-ft. Mt. Wilson, about 3000-ft. above average terrain.