Television digest with AM-FM reports (Jan-Dec 1951)

2 without TV sets. (b) Some 40% of the voters aren’t within range of TV pictures yet. (c) In 39 of the 65 TV areas there are only single stations. But the importance that members of Congress attach to potentialities of TV campaigning is manifest from fact that Senate & House office building "sound rooms”, where they make recordings to be sent their home radio stations, are being expanded into "sight-&-sound" studios. Director Robert J. Goar’s self-supporting operation, in fact, has just been authorized by Congress to purchase more cameras and otherwise enlarge facilities to produce "film strips" that can be sent to home stations. Members and their parties' national committee headquarters here pay approximately $25 per 5 minutes of filming. Senators and Congressmen with constituencies outside TV areas, like so many dealers & distributors shut out of lucrative TV trade by reason of freeze, are sure to have their appetites whetted by seeing what their colleagues can do via TV. This may translate itself, during 1952 session, into intensified interest in hastening end of freeze, now in 38th month and unlikely to thaw in time to bring forth many (if any) new stations or TV areas in time for November 1952 elections (Vol. 7:44). NO TRSATZ' TVs NOW OR IN NEAR FUTURE: You can buy a TV receiver today with full confidence that in your standard-brand "1952 model" you're getting undiminished quality in product, performance and durability. But what of next year? Will conservation and substitution — dictated by necessities of the mobilization program — take their toll in degradation of quality of the TV-radio industry's product? Looking ahead 6 months, it now seems virtually certain that there will be no significant changes — no new "conservation circuits" — in TV sets displayed by dealers during first-half 1952. Choice of models and brands may be more limited, for there definitely will be fewer receivers available. Conservation will be very much in evidence, but it shouldn't affect picture quality, since the actual circuitry will be virtually unchanged from today's. Nor are conservation measures likely to affect sets' durability, in opinion of industry engineers. "I wouldn't hesitate to buy a new TV set anytime in the next 6 months," says E.W. Glacy, chief of conservation section of NPA's Electronics Div. And he's one man who ought to know. One reason why there'll be no skimping on quality in next half year: The TV industry has trimmed its sales ; it's thinking now in terms of 4,000,000 sets in 1952 — 5,000,000 at most. It's not even trying to stretch available materials into more — but poorer quality — sets. Materials shortages, of course, get full blame for lowered sights. But TV industry, having burned its fingers once on over-production, would probably be equally cautious were materials plentiful. ^ ^ Materials rations haven't yet conflicted with production goals to noticeable extent; inventories are still high, though they're being sliced steadily by a reawakened buying public (see p. 7). This doesn't mean TV industry is ignoring conservation. Far from it ; from top to bottom, every conceivable materials-saving step is being explored, tested in laboratories. Some of it has been incorporated into current production. But the industry's conservation efforts for present and near-future sets have this aim; Cutting down on use of strategic materials in non-functional applications that require no major changes in circuitry. Healthy progress has been made. Immediate aim of component manufacturers is to reduce the scarce materials in their products — and yet leave them interchangeable with their predecessors. Research toward high-quality mica substitutes exemplifies component conservation progress which degrades neither component nor the set in which it's used. New-type capacitors eventually will save vast quantities of that precious mica, require no changes in wiring or circuitry of TV sets. Conservation in receiving tubes has perhaps been most outstanding. Aluminum and steel substitutes for nickel are now standard. From all reports, they work just