Television digest and FM reports (Sept-Dec 1945)

E'SPAFiTHSlIT STOKES PSBX UP: Paced by Wanamaker*s of New York (Sept. 1 issue) and the powerful Federated Stores group (Bloomingdales , N. Y. ; Abraham & Straus, Brooklyn i ; Filenes, Boston; Shillito, Cincinnati; Lazarus, Columbus; Foley, Houston) department stores may be expected to be big factors in both TV and FM development. Federated's subsidiary. Metropolitan Television Inc., has been operating an FM station in New York City for nearly three years, and holds .CP for experimental TV station. So many stores missed boat on broadcasting (with such notably successful exceptions as Macy's WOR, N. Y. ; Gimbel's WIP and hit's V/FIL, Philadelphia; Outlet's V/JAR, Providence; Maison Blanche's WSMB, New Orleans; Gable's WFBG, Altoona; Marshall Field's WJJD, Chicago, and WS^AI, Cincinnati; and the Shepard Boston and Providence stores) that others don't want to be left behind again. Nearly all AM stations owned by department stores are already FM operators; many more are FM and TV applicants. In Canada, the Eaton chain, often called the Dominion's Montgomery V/ard, has ordered a wired system of intra-store television from DuMont for its Toronto store. That TV particularly is a natural merchandising medium for department stores, is self-evident. Its special adaptations for intra-store use — for fashion shows, product displays, demonstrations from floor to floor — is graphically described in a booklet titled "RCA Victor Television — Opening a New Merchandising Era for Department Stores." It may be obtained by writing Thomas J. Bernard, adv. mgr., RCA Victor Home Instrument Division, Camden, N. J. Recommended reading also is "Television for Department Stores," by James D. McLean, obtainable from the publicity dept.. General Electric Co., Schenectady. BAILHOIkD EYE: One of the principal railroad lines is seriously considering placing television cameras at front end of locomotives of crack trains and piping results to lounge and dining cars so that passengers may see country ahead of trains' on which they are traveling. It is believed that television may thus fulfill boyhood ambition of many of us to ride in an engine cab, and can thus attract travel business when competition resumes normal proportions. ilEWS AHD VIEWS: Add to Washington radio law practitioners new firm of Miller & Schroeder, Munsey Bldg., formed by Neville Miller, ex-NAB chief recently back from UNNRA duty in Balkans, and Arthur Schroeder, just out of Army, formerly with George 0. Sutton. .. .And then there's the new consulting engineering partnership of McKey & Shaw, 1108 Sixteenth St. NW, formed by Dixie McKey, recently with the Oklahoma Publishing Co. radio organization, and Robert C. Shaw, ex-Bell Labs antenna expert recently released from war duty with National Defense Research Council. .. .Pent-up demand, as indicated by study, forecasts market for 25 million radio sets, double industry's best pi’oduction year, Philco President Ballantyne reported in talk on MBS Sept. 6. He also recalled RMA estimate of 145,000 jobs in radio industry, 68% over prewar levels. .. .DuMont is completing audience survey of present television set owners to determine program preferences; Buchanan & Co., agency, is doing the job... .NBC ' s WNBT is planning to step up its schedule to 7 nights a week shortly; CBS's WCBW recently went to 3 nights a week. . . .American Broadcasting Co. resumes TV activity over DuMont's WABD Oct. 2 with 13-week series comprising two half-hour programs a week; ABC will also handle special events cooperatively v/ith DuMont ... .Margaret Rice, daughter of Playwright Elmer Rice, is employed by Television Productions Inc., Paramount subsidiary, for sole purpose of reviewing video shows, as produced on New York's three stations, for company's files. Reviews have been compiled by company for a year and a half.