Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

Record Details:

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r VOL. 15: No. 33 3 TIMETABLE FOR BIRTH OF ETV TAPE NETWORK: Full-fledged educational TV net work — a slumbering hope since the initial ETV station (KUHT Houston) went on air in 1953 — is forming fast on heels of announcement by National Educational TV & Radio Center (NET) last month (Vol. 15:29) that it had placed $2.5-million order with Ampex for 43 Videotape recorders to equip virtually all U.S. educational stations & NET's Ann Arbor program center. Educators, who in past haven't been in much of a hurry to adapt to major new ideas (TV, for example), have been quick to latch on to tape-network idea as a natural. Commercial stations, too, look with interest on tape network, seeing it as a sort of "workshop in action" which can furnish them with usable tape experience & ideas. Six stations will be equipped by month's end, 14 more by end of Sept., virtually all by Nov. 1, NET tells us. Slated for Aug. installation are: KUHT Houston, KTCA-TV St. Paul-Minneapolis, WUFT Gainesville, Fla., WTVS Detroit, WMVS-TV Milwaukee, WOSU-TV Columbus. Sept, installations are still being arranged, but 4 are already definite: WTTW Chicago, WQED Pittsburgh, WYES-TV, New Orleans, WEDU Tampa. Target date for start of projected tape-network operations is Jan. 1. Between now & then, NET & affiliated stations will familiarize themselves with equipment operation & potential, evolve national programming, and formalize network concept made possible by Ford Foundation grant (Vol. 15:26) of $2,706,000 in June. Under terms of equipment purchase, Ampex will conduct 4 workshops to enable engineers of each ETV-network station to spend a clinical week at Redwood City, Cal. to learn Videotape-recorder operations. One workshop will begin Aug. 31 for engineers of 6 stations scheduled for Aug. installation. Two workshops will follow in Sept., a final one in Oct. net's Ann Arbor headquarters will serve as distribution center for ETV Tape Network — and Ampex will establish there by Nov. 1 a "model copy center" comprising 5 recorders for rapid "mass production" of copies of taped programs for network distribution. These programs will be produced by outside sources as well as by affiliated stations. An Ampex unit also will be installed at NET's N.Y. office. Mass duplication of taped material will cut processing time & costs to the bone, open doors wide to broader sources of program material. Tape network, NET estimated for us, will chop two-thirds of normal processing time compared with film or kine, make possible virtual national distribution & scheduling in a matter of days as against weeks. However, import of tape operation includes economy as well as time. Heretofore, NET tells us, it has been forced to pass up special timely programming for mass broadcast because of prohibitive costs of duplicating film footage for one-shot use. Now such programs can be taped, mass copied, distributed and used nationally, then returned for erasure & re-use. net's network-programming plans are still formative, currently being worked out. Unquestionably, there'll be a step-up in NET programming volume to meet increasing needs of affiliates, some of which today depend upon NET for 50% to 75% of their material. Until NET's network tape programming becomes available, member stations are expected to do their own tape experimenting, principally for local in-school broadcasts. When it becomes available, it will mark major step-up from present "block scheduling" system under which NET furnishes limited film or kinescope copies of material, has them bicycled from one station to another in a limited area, then passed on to another area. NET presently furnishes 8 hours of programming weekly. Programming content also will change with advent of tape, but NET tells us the outlook at the outset is for increased programming both in quantity & scope of familiar source material rather than for dramatic departures into experimental areas. You can expect greater programming emphasis on: (1) children's programs, for out-of-school broadcast to pre-school & school-age youngsters; (2) social science subjects, for both adult & child audiences; (3) specials — one-shot news, feature, educational and civic programs such as historical anniversary ceremonies, discussion panels on national subjects; (4) outdoor programs. The lastnamed marks relatively new programming territory for NET but one now open to ranging exploration with tape's flexibility & economy. Outdoor programs, events and demonstrations of all types are now within practical range, will be obtained via mobile-equipped member stations or private tape-production firms. Whatever the program material, NET says, the coming tape network represents new dimensions of time, cost, flexibility and convenience for ETV in scope, staging, processing, distribution and mass broadcasting. Seven FCC procedural bills recommended by the Senate Commerce Committee (Vol. 15:32) were taken to the Senate floor Aug. 12 by communications subcommittee Chairman Pastore (D-R.I.), ready to be called up for a vote & expected approval. The measures (S-1734-38, S-1740 & S-1898) would amend the Communications Act to tighten off-the-record rules in adjudicatory cases, revise “protest” procedures, repeal “honorariums” for FCC members, redefine review staff functions. No House action on the legislation at this session is likely, however.