Television digest and FM reports (Jan-Dec 1946)

r his company’s position on 50 me vs 100 me FM, doubted whether many stations would be on new band v/ith full output before 1947 (due to transmitter delivery delays, etc.) and concluded, "Thus, low-band FM will continue for some time and may continue indefinitely. Therefore, I ask that you do not hasten any conversion of existing facilities to the point where they will be crippled or reduced in any v/ay. It may be that you will wish to continue to use them." Meanwhile, two more companies report they are planning to market two-band ' 5 sets — Ansley and Freed-Eisemann. These are in addition to the previously reported t plans of Zenith, Stromberg-Carlson and Galvin to produce two-banders. r Inquiry reveals FCC may lean toward band-widening, but would be loath to ^ turn over entire 42-50 band, inasmuch as 42-44 includes police, maritime, highway and other governmental services. It also would only approve low-band for FM Area II, since Area I is regarded as too congested for long-range stations. This v/ould leave the 30 channels in 44-50 me band available for FM, and this has been reserved for TV, as Community Channel No. 1. Should TV lose this channel, i TV interests say, the entire TV allocation plan would be thrown out of kilter. They point to the 11 cities that are down for this Community TV channel (see Map, Supplement No. 24). Channel 1 must be replaced if it is taken away from TV, these spokesmen declare, and they admit eyeing 88-94 me, now scheduled for non-commercial educational FM (88-92 me) and commercial FM (92-94 me). The fact that FM transmitters and receivers, in most cases, already have been engineered for 88-108 me is pointed to by opponents of the Zenith position. The task of redesigning and replanning production would be immense, these antis claim. These and other points will be hashed and rehashed before all the commissioners at Jan. 18 hearing, in which intense interest is being manifested. TEL2VISI0H: Seems now that President Truman, for reasons politic, -won't deliver his annual report to Congress in person, as originally planned; instead, will send it "up to the Hill" on Jan. 17 to be read for him. Accordingly, the much-publicized plan to televise him while addressing Congress, to v/hich the White House had at first acquiesced, has had to be called off. And the historic inauguration of the Washington-New York coaxial cable, making intercity TV possible, has been deferred. Along v;ith AT&T, the CBS and NBC telecast departments and DuMont were all Set to do the job, and the last-minute decision provoked keen disappointment. The plan was to relay via coaxial to the stations in New York, Philadelphia and Schenectady. DuMont’s experimental W3XWT in Washington was made ready to telecast the show here, too, and some receiving sets v/ere even being brought down from New York for installation at key points so that some of the capital’s officialdom and citizenry might see it. There v/as some question about the desirability, from a program viewpoint, of focusing the TV camera on Truman for 45 whole minutes (it’s considered lese majeste in radio to cut off any portion of a presidential address) ; the programmers said it would be too much of the same, too tedious — but, then, they’ll always have that problem unless techniques are developed for focusing it away from the speaker from time to time. So now the coaxial’s debut is deferred. ' But plans are xan'der way to do the job up brown later. The telecast boys, while rivals, are cooperating smoothly in their mutual desire to make any initial Washington show a good one. There is still hope that the President v;ill participate in a landmark show, just as President Harding did when network broadcasting was started. With physical facilities all ready, the show should be announced reasonably soon. Meanwhile, the original plan to televise Mr. Truman evoked some interesting 1