Television digest and FM reports (Jan-Dec 1946)

WAITIHS TILL W2ATHEB COOLS: CBS*s color TV campaign is expected to be renewed ' unabated not later than September, whether or not it has by then made formal request of the FCC for hearings on proposed standards for opening up the uhf bands commercially. By October, GE factory at Bridgepoi’t is expected to have delivered all of the custom-built color TV receivers ordered by CBS. Only one has been delivered j thus far. Meanwhile, CBS this week concluded tieup with important N. Y. department i store. Lord & Taylor, for a windov/ promotional display for tint TV, calculated not only to sell color but to unsell monochrome. Later it is planned to place color TV receivers at strategic points throughout metropolitan area for demonstration. Coincidently , DoTAont is preparing for September deliveries of its first de luxe black-and-white receivers, so New Yorkers will be subjected then to barrage : of claims and counter-claims. As for current negotiations by CBS's own low-band station V/CBW with Ford Motor Co., through J. Walter Thompson Co. (also RCA-NBC agency), for sponsorship of Madison Square Garden and other sports events, CBS executives say this is perfectly logical: program techniques are being mastered pending shift to color. SIS.HT SOUHD: Unless with outgoing Chairman Wheeler’s blessing it sneaks through during these closing days of 79th Congress, fire-eating Senator Tobey’s svreeping resolution (S. Res. 307) to investigate FCC, introduced Wednesday, would seem to have little chance of passage; among other things, it proposes probe of much-controverted shift of FM to high-band, Tobey being keenly interested because Yankee’s rural-covering Mt. Washington station is in his state (N.H.) and because he claims high-band won’t serve rural audience. If resolution squeezes through, he would probably head between-sessions Interstate Commerce Committee subcommittee putting FCC on grill. .. .With recent defeat of Senator Wheeler, it’s conjectural v/hether he can now put over appointment of J. Burke Clements, of Montana Industrial Accident Board, to FCC vacancy even though it is apparent now Paul Porter isn't leaving OPA to return to FCC; anti-Wheeler Senator Murray of Montana is understood to oppose Clements. .. .Murray Garsson, one of principals in smelly munitions combine under Senate Meade Committee investigation, was once associated with late FCC Commissioner George Henry Payne' in several enterprises when latter was in "public relations" business. .. .Having dropped its FM application for Peoria, Grand Rapids, Ft. Wayne (Vol. 2, No. 25), Midwest FM Network Inc., subsidiary of FM-boosting Chicago Tribune, also dropped its Milwaukee application, v;hich probably spells end of its regional FM network plan. .. .Marshall Field's ^700,000 purchase of KJR, Seattle. if approved as expected, means another application for FM since all Field stations are in FM swim — with CPs already issued to KOIN, Portland, and WSAI, Cincinnati, v/hile WJJD, Chicago, is one of com.petitive applicants there; Seattle already has 4 CPs for FM (Supplement No. 38), is entitled to 10 channels. ... CPA, eager to further Veterans' Educational Program and showing increased leniency in permitting construction of laboratories, shops, etc., indicates it w'ill also ease building problems of Educational FM. .. .Farnsworth showed table TV set at recent Chicago Furniture Mart show, with 7-inch screen, 6 channels only; as part of package, company showed dipole, remotely controlled for orientation but price is in additior to set cost .... Trend in TV set marketing is to include installation and 1 year service charge in price of receiver; Sonora, for example, is already v/orking out deals with local service organisations ... .Despite reported plans by manufacturers to put out converters for present FM sets, only one model is known to be on sale in the New York area, that being a one-tube Hallicraf ters job retailing at $15. ....Applying for two new portable TV relays, RCA intends to use some mighty high frequencies — 480-920 me, 1,295-1,375 me, 6,950-7,050 me, 10,500-13,000 me — and with only 20 watts .... Nice thought, naming 'DuMont ' s Washington TV outlet WTTG, for its research chief. Dr. Thomas T. Goldsmith; as it named WABD for Dr. Allen B. DuMont, and as GE named WGRB for video-boosting Dr. W. G. R. Baker. . . .Highest power yet assigned anyone, in FM — 400 kw on 97.1 me, 480 ft antenna — went" this week to Minneapolis' WTCN, an amendment of previous 192 kw grant; before this, St. Paul's KSTP had the highest power FM assignment, 318 kw.