Television digest and FM reports (Jan-Dec 1946)

FIHST LABOB SQHDlTICHAiiS: Among the 19 conditional FM grants this week (bringing total to 523) were the first to labor unions — CIO's United Automobile Workers, for Detroit ; Sidney Hillman's clothing workers (Amalgamated Broadcasting System Inc.), for Rochester; David Dubinsky's Unity Broadcasting Corp. of Tenn. (ILGWU). for Chattanooga. All got Metropolitants . State Radio Council (Wisconsin) was granted 2 CPs for non-commercial, educational FM stations — at Madison and Deerfield. These are the first 2 station in projected 7-station State-owned network blanketing Wisconsin with main studios on the campus of the U of V/isconsin. One additional applicant for Washington's 11 channels brings number of contestants to 14. Date for Washington hearing was set for March 11. LAUBS DOLOB TV: ^ out for color TV v/ent Zenith Radio's Comdr. Gene McDonald last v/eek after viewing a CBS demonstration (Vol. 2, No. 5), and he promised that his own Chicago experimental W9XZC will take the air sometime before April 15 on the uhf 500 me band. He called the CBS show "phenomenal, out of this world." Even second-rate movies in color are made boxoffice successes, he said, arguing against black-and-white, and magazine advertisers are more than willing to pay premium for color. His own firm, he said, won't produce TV sets until color is ready because he thinks that would be an "imposition on the public." There is no great future for TV except on the uhf, he added. T:SLr/ISIOH MOTES: Irwin Rosse, Promoter Mike Jacobs' radioman, assures us that all reports on televising Louis-Conn fight are mere conjecture at this time. There have been no negotiations yet, but Paul Raibourn, Paramount TV head, has had preliminary discussions with Gen. Kilpatrick, Madison Square Garden president, about showing fight at Paramount Theater in New York City .... CBS is continuing uhf color TV demonstrations until end of month, v;ith showings largely to manufacturers, agencies, broadcasters, then will show them irregularly until live pickups are ready in May; an interested spectator last Tuesday was Secretary of State Byrnes .... Dul^ont announces its technicians will reconvert all its TV receivers in the hands of the public to the new frequencies for a flat fee, making extra charge only if other v/ork is necessary .... Philco's new temporary TV studio at 17th and Sansom Sts., Philadelphia, is being readied for use about March 8 when WPTZ expects to resume after its changeover to Channel No. 3 (60-66 me) .... Balaban & Katz TV station WBK3, Chicago, moves to its new channel next month; it goes off the air March 1, returns on Channel No. 4 (66-72 me) on March 18 .... Hoyland Bettinger, former manager of GE's V/RGB, has deal with Harpers for publication of his book, tentatively titled "TV Programming in Practice and Principle." mm AMB VIEWS: FM and TV operating problems are prominent on agenda of Broadcast Engineering Conference, resuming after 3-year lapse with sessions week of March 1823 on Ohio State U campus .... Milwaukee Journal has asked FCC that its WTMJ-FM be classified Rural, requests CP for new equipment, antenna change, increase in service area from 8,500 to 16,287 sq. mi Pushing mobile FM. Bell Labs plans vehicular radiotelephone service first in St. Louis, 30 other cities by end of year .... Jack Poppele. job-gathering engineering v.p. of WOR and president of TBA, has been elected to the board of Veteran Wireless Operator's Assn. ; he was a shipboard "sparks" in 1917 .... John Lord Booth, scion of the noted Michigan nev/spaper family, operator of FM station WLOU and AM station WJLB, Detroit, is filing shortly for FMs, in addition to the AMs already applied for, in Lansing, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Kalamazoo, Flint. .... RadiOhio Inc. (Wolfe family), one-time eager beavers in the Ohio FM field, are cutting down. Licensee of WELD, pioneer Columbus FM, RadiOhio had applications in for Marion, Portsmouth, Zanesville, Springfield, but has withdrawn all four. Counsel Horace Lohnes gives reasons — costly, unsettled problems of frequency stability in new FM band .... First FM application to be filed from State of Vermont is that of Brattleboro Reformer (see Supplement No. 14F).