Television digest and FM reports (Feb-Dec 1947)

troversy is consistent with their obligation to operate stations in public interest, (2) relationship between any such editorial expression and obligation of licensees to insure fair and equal presentation of all sides of controversial issues. Meanwhile, hot code issue got hotter Friday after NBC's Niles Trammell, at fully-attended NBC affiliates' convention in Atlantic City, Friday, sounded call for "a new code — and a new code now." He received strong support from Young & Rubicaa's Sigurd Larmon and General Food's Charles Mortimer, who decried excessive commercial time and poorly balanced programming. =~ ' :: 53GHT AND SOUND — ■ No one believes World Series won’t be telecast — it would be stupid public relations for baseball to bar it — but Commissioner Chandler turned down firm $100,000 offer (asking price) from Rheingold Beer. He frowned on beer because of kid interest, ignoring fact beer sponsors TV of big league games throughout season in Detroit, St. Louis, etc. No other sponsor in sight yet, Chandler also turning down Ford offer of $1,000,000 for 10-year rights. Rheingold offer still stands, says Foote, Cone & Belding’s new TV v.p., Ralph Austrian, who’s handling this as first agency chore since quitting RKO Television. FCC hearing on TV Channel 1 deletion and elimination of sharing is certain, but date has not yet been set. Sept. 15 deadline for appearances found these companies had filed in addition to Fred M. Link Co. (Vol. 3 No. 36) : RCA-NBC, objecting to loss of TV channel, requesting assurance of TV allocation stability; National Bus Communications Inc., approving deletion of TV Channel 1, but asking assignments in 44-50 me band be held up till after General Mobile Service hearing scheduled for Oct. 27; Motorola, endorsing proposal. Major Armstrong asked for extension until Oct. 1 so he can file data, believed to be in favor of using all, or portion, of 44-50 me for FM. TBA will object along lines previously indicated (Vol. 3, No. 35, 36). Lowest cost figure for equipping TV station ever cited is DuMont’s. This week it offered, for $80,000, this full outfit: 500-watt visual and 250-watt aural transmitters, antenna, 2 cameras, 16mm film projector, slide projector, sound equipment, light banks. GE’s bedrock price is $128,373, but this includes 5 lew transmitter. Figures, of course, are entirely apart from real estate, tower, buildings, etc., which still add up to blue chip status for TV. NAB higher-ups were much perturbed this week when Broadcasting published summary of purported Standards of Practices Code due to be presented at convention. Summary was based on initial draft, which was said to be far cry from final — especially so far as touchy ratio-ofcommercial-time provisions are concerned. So President Miller, irked, wired board members disclosure was not only unauthorized but “substantially incorrect.” RCA reports deliveries of TV transmitter TT-5A thus far to WNBW, Washington; KSD-TV, St. Louis; WTMJTV, Milwaukee; WLWT, Cincinnati; WBZ-TV, Boston; KOB-TV, Albuquerque. First two are already operating. WTMJ-TV reports Dec. 1 start, is promoting TV heavily by exhibiting and demonstrating equipment. KFI-TV, Los Angeles, decided debate between it and NEC as to who should get TV Channel No. 4 wouldn’t serve any good purpose, asked FCC this week to cancel argument scheduled for Oct. 3. KFI-TV was assigned Channel 9 at original Los Angeles hearings last year. Jack Dempsey, quoted in Aug. 25 Sports-Week, says TV, just like movies, radio, etc., will help build audiences for sports; that drop in attendance at sports events due to poor programs, not stay-at-homes viewing via TV, etc. TV’s powerful non-broadcasting potential got a big boost this week when great number of doctors attending American College of Surgeons Congress at WaldorfAstoria watched operations being performed at New York Hospital. Daily demonstrations, set up by RCA and using microwave relay, moved Dr. Arthur W. Allen, president, to say, “This is a teaching medium that surpasses anything we have had in the past.” This was second such demonstration, first being done (by wire) at Johns Hopkins last February. And, in Washington, when CBS’s Ed Scovill told teachers conference Tuesday about advantages of TV, he addressed them from WTTG-DuMont, 2 miles away, while they heard and saw him on sets in meeting room. “The Terrible Tempered Mr. Damm” is subject of series of 3 from-the-scene articles on Milwaukee Journal’s well known radio chief by able John Crosby, New York Herald Tribune syndicated columnist. Theme: [Walter] “Damm is one of the few broadcasters, possibly the only one, who tells advertisers where they can go and what they can do when they get there.” He’s called a “ruthlessly eftkient” and “dictatorial personality” made to tick by “ferocious egotism, pertinacity and blind bullheadedness” — but WTMJ is described as “one of the richest and most successful, possibly the most individual and easily the most independent station in the United States today.” Western Union says newspaper group apparently misconstrued immediacy of its New York-Chicago microwave relay system (Vol. 3, No. 35). Correct Western Union position is this: Buildings and towers are already up on New York Philadelphia Washington Pittsburgh system. Equipment deliveries and installation will take 6 months, maybe longer. First leg available will be New YorkPhiladelphia, then Washington, then Pittsburgh. When other circuits are completed, telegraph company hopes to make them available for TV relay immediately. 20th Century Fox’s experiments with large-screen theatre TV, for which it has just contracted with RCA for equipment, will be centered in Movietone Newsreel studios in mid-Manhattan, with Earl I. Sponable supervising. Warner Brothers, first to order RCA setup (Vol. 3, No. 29), is centering its work at Burbank studios. Deal with RKO is expected to be announced next (Vol. 3, No. 36). In spite of more FM equipment and relaxed building restrictions, stations are still very slow in reaching ultimate facilities. FCC, last week alone, granted extensions of completion dates to 62 CP-holders. But Commission isn’t as liberal as it used to be, granting 3 months where it once granted 6. Installment buying is seen boosting TV set sales, and lots of banks are already handling financing for dealers. Latest to go into field on big scale is Industrial Bank of Commerce (Morris Plan), financing at 4.88%, by arrangement with U. S. Television Mfg. Corp. Operation of ABC since purchase in 1943 by Ed Noble is subject of business section story in Sept. 15 Neivsiveelc.