Television digest and FM reports (Jan-Dec 1946)

TO VOTS OH ISA BILL: Showdown vote on HR 5117, Lea Bill dealing v/ith Petrillo and his hold on broadcasting, is now calendared for Thursday in House. Bill seems to have good chance to pass, even Rep. Marcantonio, who voted against reporting bill out of committee, saying he has had no support from either AFM or AFL. Only reaction to bill, he admits, was one letter signed by 20 New York musicians, asking that he buck passage. On Friday, Marcantonio issued minority report, taking issue with sweeping character of bill. He especially objected to phrase "and other means" in description of coercive practices, said it could be used to prohibit speech in favor of strike or used against attempt to induce employer to hire more personnel in order to lighten load on workers. Da?0HT HSSH m TV: When commercial sponsors really take to television, you can expect DuPont to be a leading advertiser of its industrial products. Itself a major contributor to the TV art with plastic gadgets making possible large-screen images, DuPont, through its agency BBD&O, is experimenting seriously with visual broadcasting. Last week it telecast, via WNBT, a full-hour preview of "Cavalcade of America" before an audience of advertising executives, liked it so well it repeated Sunday night, Feb. 3. To insure audience, program was attractively advertised in Sunday newspapers in form of big old-fashioned theatrical handbill. LABOR'S FJ! 3USIHFSS: Reader’s Digest for February, in article on "Labor Is Big Business," cites union applications for FM not only to support this thesis but also to make the point that "many labor leaders see FM as the ansvver to efforts to restrict labor broadcasts over the big networks." Examples given are UAW' s 6 applications for FMs in as many cities, the 4 of Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union (Sidney Hillman), the 4 of International Ladies Garment Workers Union (David Dubinsky) . Next Monday, ILGWs radio affiliate. Unity Broadcasting Corp., will file for 2 more — in St. Louis, Los Angeles, according to Washington counsel, Marcus Cohn. CiR's BALLSSH AHTEHHA: First it was V/estinghouse with its Stratovision system of "spraying" and relaying TV and FM from and to 6-mile high planes. Then last week Army revealed how it had "shot the moon" with radar, crediting the veteran engineer Lt. Col. Jack DeWitt and others with carrying to fruition experiments conducted long ago by the venerable Dr. A. Hoyt Taylor for the Navy and by Maj . Edwin H. Armstrong. Now comes the news that GE has begun experiments looking to the use of captive balloons to v;iden range of TV and FM by raising antennas skyv/ard. First GE tests took place recently under GE's Dr. W. R. G. Baker, more are planned. I?RWS AHD VIEWS: The rich Denver Post, hitherto aloof to radio, may get into swim via FM now that it has a new editor and publisher. Palmer ("Ep") Hoyt, who as publisher of Portland Oregonian has always shov/n keen appreciation of importance of the medium as newspaper adjunct; city has 10 channels allocated to it, only 2 applicants. ... Television may be used at Westminster College, Fulton, Mo., when Winston Churchill speaks there March 5. Balaban & Kata's WBKB, Chicago, is negotiating to pick up the former Prime Minister and possibly President Truman when they appear there, using station's portable equipment to give overflow crowds look in.... Holder of a CP for FM since before the war, WAAT, Newark, reports its FM station (WAAW) , using GE equipment thruout , v/ill be on the air by June.... John Lord Booth's WLOU, Detroit, is shifting this month to 96.5 me, 20 kw. . . .No more news commentators on V/QXR-WQXQ ; instead, the New York Times-John V. L. Hogan stations after April 5 will use forum formula entirely on controversial issues.... Newly appointed director of CBS Television Plans Division is Leonard Hole, who .will be responsible for planning and developing network's future TV uhf color stations and network. ... Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. (Radio News) has filed suit to enjoin Fred Kugel's Television Magazine from using that title, claims it has been publishing magazine under same title since 1938, registered it in 1943.... Paul Hollister. CBS v.p., has resigned to become N.Y. studio representative of RKO-Radio Pictures. i