Television digest and FM reports (Sept-Dec 1945)

vigorously because it spelled the doom of theater orchestras. But that didn't stop the "talkies." Czar Petrillo's network shenanigans are thought to go much deeper than ostensible union difficulties with affiliates. Best guess is that union jurisdiction over broadcasting employes is root of his strategems. In TV, rumor has it that AFM has thrown its influence to the International f Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW-AFL) to oppose the International Alliance of Theatrical & Stage Employes (lATSE-AFL) in return for aid when AFM v/ants it. • Currently, cameramen and technicians at CBS are IBEW ; stagehands, lATSE. NBC has technicians who belong to the National Assn, of Broadcast Engineers & Technicians (NABET-Ind. ) and stagehands who are members of lATSE, At D-uJAont , a 5-year contract was recently signed v;ith lATSE covering all TV workers. Awaited is NLRB decision on where CBS white collar TV v/orkers belong. Recent CBS integration of TV operating personnel into whole CBS organization, according to those in the know, was management attempt to do away with any distinction among different departments on labor matters. lATSE, however, wants TV office workers considered separately. pulse pickup FOH TV: A new TV pickup unit, utilizing pulse-time modulation, has been announced by Westinghouse. The unit, for high definition monochrome and color television pictures, is based on CBS development. Westinghouse was custom-builder of CBS's color studio equipment. Pickup handles both picture and sound transmission simultaneously on same carrier. Picture signal is transmitted by the camera tube in the pickup apparatus. FM sound is added in the fraction of a second in which the electron beam is moved back to the left edge of the picture to begin scanning the next line. The techniques are based on wartime radar and point-to-point radio relay. Economies in that only one transmitter will be necessary for TV broadcasting instead of two — one for video, one for sound — are apparent. The new units will only pick up pictures from film or slides. Development work is going ahead, however, for live pickups as well. FM CHAHSSOVEBS: One by one, existing FM stations are going off the air — to convert transmitters to upper bands allocated by FCC (see Supplement 13, Part 1). This v;eek. New York's WEAF-FM, WABC-FM and WBAM closed down for equipment changes, and others are doing same. FCC schedule calls for tests on new frequencies by Dec. 1, program service by Jan. 1. Already on the air on upper-band channels are WDUL, Duluth; WMFM, Milwaukee (which has been sending programs out on upper band as well as old channel via two transmitters) ; V/HFM, Rochester, also using dual transmission. Most conversions thus far are improvisions since no commercial transmitters are available as yet. According to an RMA report, first transmitters (250 watts to 3 kw) will be ready sometime between next February May from 6 manufacturers ; 10 kw jobs between April August from 3; above 10 kw, not for some time yet. BAD STABT, GOOD FiHISH: Our observers at RCA's intra-store TV demonstrations in Gimbel' s big Philadelphia store tell us they got off to a rather poor start last week, but reports since then are that improvements in technical setup have been made and response of keenly interested public has been very good. Criticism from press observers at first day's demonstrations centered around limitations of "telesite" scheme and Class B productions staged in store auditorium. Receivers were placed badly, caused traffic tieups. Unfortunately RCA had to use 16 of old