Television digest and FM reports (Sept-Dec 1945)

6. Amona radio manufacturers proposing to enter commercial FM broadcasting — in addition to Crosley and Farnsworth who are already proninent in AM, and GE, Westinghouse and Zenith, already in FM — there are such firms as Raytheon, Teapletone . Lear and Harvey. 7 . Nearly every applicant has a different idea of what it will cost for plant , few any clear idea of operating costs. The variations in the figures reported are complicated by fact that most AM operators simply intend to add FM and thus not spend too much for overhead. Average estimated cost of plants would seem to run somewhere betv/een $40,000 and $60,000. NBC, v;hich should know costs by reason of its experience with its New York AlA, let alone its RCA affiliation, estimates §53,000 as the cost of its proposed Washington plant, §3,000 for monthly operating costs. On the other hand, there's little ICENO, Las Vegas, Nev. , which estimates only §3,500 for plant, §300 for monthly operating cost — the lowest figures v/e've seen. The highest reported figures for FM plant are San Antonio WOAI's proposed §220, 000-§225 , 000, St. Paul KSTP's proposed §225,000, .Crosley's proposed §175, 000-§200,000 for the station it seeks in Washington, D. C. 8. Plant cuid operating cost figures, we think, are guesswork at best, often uneducated guesses by lawyers or engineers — but the fact does remain that a market for more than §50,000,000 v/orth of FM studio and transmitter equipment is opening up. 9. Few of the big interests — whether AM owners, newspapers or newcomers such as labor unions — seek less than the prescribed limit of 6 FM outlets. You'll find many multiple applicants in our log. 10. Eleven of the 64 "conditional grants" issued this week by the FCC (Part II, Supplement No. 13) went to newcomers in radio, mostly newspapers. You can check up on the identities, cost factors, technical data of all these 64 (v/ho must yet present additional data to FCC before they get final grants) by referring to Supplements 14A and 14B. We'll have additional dope for you later, when we have completed the full log for your files and ours. The foregoing, and what v/e reported in these pages last week, just gives you some preliminary ideas on trends, etc. of a picture that should shape up more clearly as more applications are processed, more grants are made and more FM stations go on the air. I!0LLYW00D-!H-HAHLm: RKO Television Corp.'s Ralph Austrian last week described details of "A Complete Motion Picture Production Plant for Metropolitan New York," before Society of Motion Picture Engineers in New York. Not the least important phase of plan, v/hich encompasses altering Pathe News' recently acquired ll~story building at Park Ave. & 101st St., is project for shooting commercial pictures and films for television. Building has 35,000 sq. ft. with shooting stage 97x74 ft., 32 ft high. Only other comparable space for shooting films or staging TV shows in New York to date is Duljlont's projected Wanamaker studios, CBS's Grand Central Terminal studios — and, of course. Signal Corps Fort Lee, N. J. studios. SIMTOVISIDN TSSTS: Westinghouse got go-ahead signal from the FCC Oct. 24 to test its Stratovision (see Sept. 1 issue). Grants for 5 developmental stations were made to study; (1) effects brought about by ground reflections on signals transmitted from moving planes, especially fading, fluttering and ghosting; (2) feasibility of relaying programs from plane to plane; (3) effectiveness of antenna designs and other equipment ; (4) area served by transmission from 30,000 feet ; (5) best methods of transmitting signals from ground to plane in flight.. Frequencies are to be assigned by the FCC chief engineer; power, 5 kw.