Television digest and FM reports (Sept-Dec 1945)

istics from their wartime uses, remains to be proved. A lot of time remains before uhf standards can be developed. This thinking, of course, was expressed to us as an ansv/er to CBS’s wellstudied campaign for uhf TV, which it' is waging almost single-handedly against both the FCC's go-ahead policy and TBA's urgings. CBS has shown its color TV to some members of the Commission, some engineers, and recently had another private demonstration of 500 me. operation to which we v/eren’t invited. But one of our friends was. And this was his reaction, the reaction of an authority who isn’t an engineer but isn’t a layman either: ”Color was fine, well up to 16mm home movie quality. Performance was swell. Pictures were clean and steady. No ghosts, and the engineer v/orking the antenna orientation even picked up reflected signals (from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and from Radio City) that were on a par with the direct signal reception. There v/as no aberration in the picture either.” The broadcast took place, with narrow beam transmission, from the Chrysler Bldg, antenna to CBS headquarters at 485 Madison Ave. Custom-built equipment, not yet on the line, was used, of course. "After seeing that demonstration," our informant added, "I’ve become a convert." It’s idle to attribute venal motives to CBS, as some have ; that company is too big, too important, too smart to want to hold back the inevitable simply for the sake of a few years grace and profits. At the same time, the other side strains at the leash; black and white, especially the large image, is excellent, certainly acceptable. The go-aheaders contend that, even admitting that TV ultimately will find lodgement in uhf, the art must not be "suspended" in the meantime; the pviblic can be properly advised and warned, and some even think the reconversion from vhf to uhf in home sets won’t be too much of a problem. Meanwhile, CBS has asked for none of the 13 available commercial channels other than the one used by its WCBW, New York. It isn't shutting down that mediumchannel station and it recently took its first commercials on it. But in Cleveland last week FCC Chairman Porter told the Radio Council that higher frequency TV is in the experimental stage while low-band, black-and-white TV is ready now. That’s the Commission’s thinking. Ts5S ILA20H RflllHBU?: James Caesar Petrillo’s action in the FM field last week, requiring dual musicians for AM-FJJI combinations, is but one facet of the manysided prism that is broadcasting’s labor problem. To say that FM interests, still chiefly AlA operators, are perturbed — see in the latest Petrillo move a danger signal that may slow down FM, if not stop it dead in its tracks — would be putting it mildly. Early this week an NAB committee went into a huddle in Washington on the Petrillo pronunciamento , and tossed into it nev/ President Justin Miller’s lap not only this but the whole problem of radio’s labor-employer relations. Sentiment seems to be that Petrillo is too shrewd to think he can get away with a move so drastic that it may retard FM development (which in its normal grov/th promises more employment for his men). Petrillo is believed playing some sort of game, possibly asking for a lot now and expecting to compromise for less v/hile at same time establishing firmly his jurisdiction. Back in 1943, AFM fought broadcasters over the use of canned music on the air. Petrillo’s predecessor Joe Weber wasn’t very successful, and finally had to withdraw, regroup and execute a flanking movement against the record makers. It is pertinent to recall, too, that when sound came to motion pictures, AFM fought it