Television digest and FM reports (Feb-Dec 1947)

EiARTIil 03DEL’ AUTHORITATIVE NEWS SERVICE Of THE VISUAL CROADCASTINS AND FREQUENCY MODULATION ARTS AND INDUSTRY F83USHZS WEEKLY BY .1519 CG^ECTiCUT flVE. N.W., WASillNSTDH 8, B.S. TELEPHONE M3CH1SAH 2020 • VOL 3, NO. 10 March 8, 1947 DECISIONS NEXT V/ZEK, MAYBE: For whatever it's worth, latest assurances from RCC are that its apparently dormant New York TV hearing case and most if not all of its FM hearing cases, some pending nearly a year, are due for decision before end of this month. In the works are final drafts of decisions on New York TV (5 seeking 4 channels; see Supplement • No . 18-B) and FM decisions on New York:, Cleveland-Akron, Indianapolis, Chicago, Providence, Bridgeport. These may be announced week of March 10. By month's end, also, it is hoped to have Boston, Philadelphia, Dayton-Springf ield cases decided. Plan is to be current on completed applications by May 1. Philadelphia FM case presents a poser since sale of WDAS to Theatreman William Goldman (Vol. 3, No. 5) ; new owner must await Avco procedure delays, was not party to hearing, So question is whether all applications should be held up pending transfer. WEBSTER A MERIT APPOINTMENT: There probably won't be a dissenting vote when Commodore Edward M. Webster comes up for Senate confirmation — not even from Maine's powerful Senator White, who plumped so hard for his own candidate for the FCC vacancy. Miss Marion E. Martin (Vol. 3, No. 2). For Commodore Webster's appointment Friday was strictly on merit. He is perhaps the nation's outstanding authority on aviation, mobile, maritime, emergency and Safety communications — a veteran of 16 international conferences. And he not only helped Senator White frame the Communications Act of 1934, but served as technical advisor to the U.S. delegation headed by the Senator at the International Radio Conference in Cairo in 1938. Naming' of the self-effacing ex-Coast Guardsman gives 7-man Commission a preponderance of career men, should assure minimum of politics on a body less under political Sway now than ever in its stormy existence. It's gratifying not only to industry, but particularly to Chairman Denny and Comr. Hyde, both up from FCC's legal ranks, and Comr. Jett, himself ex-Navy, who as former FCC chief engineer had "Web" as one of his assistants. Indeed, Denny only recently had asked Webster to serve at the next International Telecommunications Conference Starting in Atlantic City May 15, and is understood to have urged President Truman to make the appointment. The 58-year-old retired wartime chief of Coast Guard Communications ( 194246) takes the job at considerable sacrifice, for only last August he was named to lucrative directorship of telecommunications for National Federation of American Shipping. A native Washingtonian, he was graduated from Coast Guard Academy in 1912, served until 1934, rising to chief communications officer, retiring for disability in 1934, then serving with FCC 1934-42 as assistant chief engineer. He was a Lt. Comdr. on retirement, recalled for war duty as captain, won Legion of Merit. PARLEY C? THE MAGIC MAKERS: These are the dominant impressions a lay reporter, concerned primarily with broadcasting in all its aspects, carries away from this week's huge and cumbersome IRE convention in New York — more than 10,000 professional and amateur engineers registered out of a total IRE membership of some 20,000: That the day of the attic inventor is gone ; that electronics engineering is now definitely part and parcel of big business; that, judging from the exhibits and preponderant papers, broadcasting is becoming relatively small potatoes in the whole Copyright 1947 by Radio News Bureau