Television digest and FM reports (Jan-Dec 1946)

telecasts to and from the sessions and exhibits; and some 50 papers by specialists at a dozen panel sessions covering receivers, programming, management, education, advertising, talent, set servicing. A glance at the ambitious program is enough to show what a small but well-knit trade organization can do with very little money and hardly any staff, but with fervid enthusiasm for a “cause” which is described thus by TBA’s President Jack Poppele: “to provide conclusive evidence that television is read}’’ to proceed on a greatly expanded commercial basis and that the new industry is well on the way to becoming one of the most important in the nation.” TBA consists of only 48 members, operates on a budget of between $2G,000 and $30,000 a year, has one paid executive (ex-newspaperman Will Baltin, secretary-treasurer) and headquarters in a modest little suite of offices. It was originally designed primarily for active or prospective TV broadcasters, but since they are as yet so few (see our Supplement No. 18A) it took in others. There are about 15 manufacturing concerns and a handful of, film companies, advertising and talent agencies and educational institutions. Dues are $1,000 a year for broadcasters, $500 for the others. mmi}? OF Ffi/l HEARINGS: Delay of at least 30 days more on New York FM decision (17 seeking 5 channels) can now be expected, in view of Examiner A1 Guest’s instructions to parties in the American Jewish Congress-New York News squabble to file their “findings” within that time. Guest himself will be hard-pressed to wrap up the New York affair in his own recommendations to the FCC before he leaves Oct. 15 to become alumni secretary of Amherst (where he was classmate of acting Chairman Denny’s). Four windup days of New York FM hearing this week v/ere spent debating allegations that Patterson-McCormick News slants news copy with racial bias. Close followers of FCC policy feel whole affair — even permitting such charges and probing editorial policy as measure of fitness for a radio license — is part of Commission’s implementation of Blue Book policy. And, of course, there is very sharp di\dsion of opinion as to whether that is good or bad. Chicago hearing will be reopened Oct. 12 to permit WCFL to amend testimony (Vol. 2, No. 39) — an unusually lenient FCC action, in minds of some attorneys. Boston applicants can relax a bit, for Raytheon dropped out this week, leaving 8 for 7 available channels. Winston-Salem hearing (5 for 4) was called off when Burlington-Graham Broadcasting Co., amended to ask for Class A, and got grant. COLOR TV HEARING SOON: An early hearing and quick action — that’s the inclination of FCC in the matter of CBS’s petition for commercial uhf standards for color TV (Vol. 2, No. 39). We should know next week what the Commission intends to do about the CBS proposals. For the moment, it certainly shows no signs of receding from its present policy of encouraging low-band monochrome to go ahead. Commission has two alternative courses of action. The most likely one is to set early hearing date, invite all and sundry to testify, then render immediate decision. All commissioners have seen CBS color demonstrations. Naturally, none will commit himself, but there’s obviously plenty of “doubt” in the air about the readiness of uhf, color TV apparatus and standards for immediate commercialization. Second alternative, not likety to be followed, is to turn CBS suggestions over to RTPB Panel No. 6, the industry committee working on TV system standards (on which CBS sits), and await its recommendations. That might take months and a hearing would still be necessary. Panel 6'Chairman David B. Smith, Philco engineering v.p., informs us that if problem is turned over to his committee, he will bend every effort to get its answers back within a few months. RTPB has been working on uhf standards for a long time, and one of its members says, “We are only about half-way through the job. We’re right in the middle of deliberations on performance standards,” he said, and these must come first. Another RTPB panel member, emphasizing the same approach, added empliatically, “There are a hell of a lot of things about color TV we don’t know yet.” He intimated CBS’s proposed standards are lower than the level of performance a good color system could obtain. OBSTACLES TO DECONTROL: There’s no doubt that production of table model radios now equals or exceeds demand. But there’s a good deal of doubt whether OPA will agree, when RMA’s industry advisory committee meets in Washington Oct. 16 to petition it to remove irksome price controls, that the supply of consoles equals demand. For, with very few exceptions, it’s in the consoles that FM bands are contained; and AM-FM combinations are still pretty hard to get. That factor, indeed, may make it difficult to persuade OPA Administrator Paul Porter, who as former FCC chairman was an ardent advocate of. FM, that over-all supply equals demand as yet. TV sets, incidentally, though still in short supply, are. not price-controlled. On the other hand, RMA has some persuasive figures. August production ran ahead of the pre