Television digest and FM reports (Jan-Dec 1946)

• WASTIfi CODEl’s AUTHORITATIVE NEWS SERVICE OF THE VISUAL BROADCASTING AND FREQUENCY MODULATION ARTS AND INDUSTRY PU3llSHta ^ELHIY BT ^ RADIO NEWS BiiHEAU, 1519 CONNECTICUT AVE. H.W., WASHINfiTON 6. D.C. TELEPHONE MICHIGAN 2020 VOL. 2, MO. 43 THEY SAID WHAT THEY Mm: Whatever your connection with radio, you should take time out to read and study the three spotlight speeches of this week’s NAB convention — by FCC’s Acting Chairman Charles R. Denny, by CBS’s Chairman William S. Paley, by NAB’s President Justin Miller. Read them in text (available from NAB, or we’ll get them for you) rather than merely in highlighted form. They are vitally important statements of principles and policies, directly affecting your business — so well put, for the most part, that no amount of excei’pting can do justice to their full import. These were men of high intelligence and good will speaking, men of authority among whom there is now every reason to expect, whatever their disagreement on specific problems, a meeting of the minds on the basic aim of radio — which is to function freely in a free American economy in the service of what Denny called their common boss, the American people. Read Denny particularly fur his clarifying and reassuring remarks (approved in full by his fellow commissioners) on the pux'port and intent of the Blue Book, and on policy with respect to AM station licensing. (His FM and TV statements are fully reported in this issue.) Read Paley for his candid and soul-searching, yet certainly not apologetic, appraisal of radio’s strong points and weak points and what should be done to meet its critics, some of them frankly right, some manifestly wrong. Read Judge Miller for his comprehensive discussion of radio’s problems and (at long last) his calmly judicial rather than name-calling approach to some of the more controversial ones, like the Blue Book and freedom of speech issues. If an era of mutual understanding and good feeling does not evolve out of such expressions of policy and intent, it will be because these men and others in the industry depart from the calm and measured and sensible (and generally dispassion October 28, 1946 ate) reasoning in these speeches — to this observer’s mind the most significant ever delivered before any NAB convention he has attended over a period oT 20 years. New faces, new names, new call letters, more young men and a lot of GI pins — that’s the most striking impression one carried away from NAB’s first post-war convention. It was, incidentally, the best-planned and most efficiently conducted NAB convention of all time, attended by well over 2,000 actual delegates plus hundreds of exhibitors, newsmen, etc. Biggest yet, its size taxed Chicago’s Palmer House, indicated rather clearly that the next one, like political and other major industry conventions, must be held in a convention hall rather than a hotel. THE FM RECEIVER STORY: Still harsh is the “one loud discordant note” on FM discussed at the NAB convention — set production figures. If set output is to reach the year’s total (350,000-400,000) predicted by GE’s Dr. W. R. G. Baker, vast portion of it will have to come in last 2 months. Even as Dr. Baker was speaking at the Chicago panel, RMA released its September figures — reporting 17,541 FM-AM combinations to bring year’s total to about 84,500. And October production isn’t expected to run more than 20,000-25,000, largely because wood for cabinets isn’t yet abundant. (One manufacturer is even offering inducements to his dealers to help him find wood consignments in small or big lots.) But Dr. Baker feels that current miniscule production may not be a completely unmixed evil, since most FMers are on the air with pipsqueak power pending delivery (expected in next few months) ot high-power transmitter units. Therefore, he feels not too many listeners will be forced to learn, as did broadcasters, that not even FM can overcome disadvantages of feeble signal (Vol. 2, No. 34). Dr. Baker predicted 1947 average for FM combinations will be 15-20% of total radio production. Copyright 1946 by Hadio News Bureau V