Television digest and FM reports (Jan-Dec 1946)

BACKFIiBES AND I^OHS DBOPflUTS: Even as the TV go-ahead proponents were build ing backfires against CBS*s wait-f or-color offensive, still more TV applications were withdrawn this week. Latest withdrawals: Loyola University (WWL) , New Orleans ; and three from Pittsburgh — Scripps-Howard, WCAE Inc. (Hearst), and Allegheny Broadcasting Co. (KQV). Thus Maison Blanche (WSMB) and the still-to-be-filed TimesPicayune applications are the only ones left for New Orleans' 5 channels; Westinghouse’ and DuMont alone are now seeking Pittsburgh's 4. In its annual report for 1945 issued Tuesday, CBS again whacks black-andwhite, reasserting its conviction that "until a full-fledged television audience is created, there can be little expectation of the income necessary to put television on a self-supporting basis." For this reason, it states, it* "militantly sponsors color television in the ultra-high frequencies" — so militant a campaign that it has accounted in large part for the many dropouts (though TV's high cost is doubtless an even stronger factor) . Before Cleveland's Federation of Women's Clubs, NBC's Jack Poyal countered the CBS campaign by asserting: "There are some v/ho — crying in the wilderness — are suggesting that television should wait for color. I feel that to be an absurd statement. Our country was not made great by waiting. Progress never waits." This statement came shortly before Radio Daily took a poll of newsmen covering the UNO sessions who v/ere asked after watching TV coverage on 12 RCA video receivers in the "overflow chamber" at Hunter College: "Do you think television in its present black-and-white form is acceptable, or should it wait for color?" Radio Dally said 80% of those polled were for today's TV, against waiting. But it did not indicate how many of the 700 correspondents were polled, NBC immediately seized upon this for publicity purposes. It also got a good news play on its UNO video job, which included closed-circuit transmissions to 6 more TV receivers in Radio City besides the room-to-room showings at Hunter College. There were no telecasts on the air because its WNBT is shut down for reconversion to new channel. Images generally were reported excellent. YJIS HOPE IS FM: FCC's provocatiye Blue Book on commercial broadcasting (Vol. 2, No. 10) has apparently signalized an open season for radio critiques. V/hether by design or coincidence, two books that also give radio a hiding have just been published — Charles A. Siepmann's "Radio's Second Chance" (Little, Brown & Co. |2.50) and Morris L. Ernst's "The First Freedom" (McMillan, $3). Both see in FM, with its potential of many more stations and more, better and specialized programs, the answer to their objections to present broadcasting. Siepmann, British-born, ex-BBC employe, recent FCC consultant, doesn't like the "economic controls" he discerns being exerted over today's radio, uses FM as the cue for his title. His book is literally a restatement of the FCC Blue Book (now available from the Commission in printed form) and of Commissioner Durr's recent speeches. Mr. Ernst, crusading New York attorney, preaches his perennial theme — "the curse of bigness" and includes chapters on newspapers and movies as well as radio. ALL FPiOM ONE TOWER; Twelve FM, 6 uhf color TV, 4 black-and-white TV antennas, plus various pulse-time modulation units for microwave transmissions — these and other radio services will be possible simultaneously from the single 300-ft. tower which Federal Radio & Telephone Co. is installing at Nutley, N.J. That such common antenna towers should be used by TV and FM broadcasters, sharing them rather than each building his own, was recommended by Col. Sosthenes Behn, IT&T president, at the ground-breaking ceremony last week. Project, scheduled for completion by end of this year, incorporates (after fashion of Paris' famed Eiffel Tower) facilities for housing transmitters, studios, lounges etc. at base of tower and on platforms part way up. Eiffel Tower, incidentally, is now being turned back to French by Army Signal Corps, according to Paris dispatches, and all U.S. radio equipment is being dismantled and shipped back to States.