Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1953)

2 dealers, distributors, viewers. Our aim at all times was an impartial evaluation of uhf progress and problems. The reports covered Atlantic City and York (Vol.9:6), Wilkes Barre (Vol. 9:7), South Bend (Vol. 9:9), Youngstown (Vol. 9:10), Roanoke (Vol. 9:12), and Reading (Vol. 9:15). These 7 markets run the gamut of conditions likely to be faced by the new uhf telecaster — with respect to terrain, population and competitive TV services. From our surveys we've drawn these conclusions about the business of uhf TV, from the standpoint of the telecaster and the trade, as it exists today: * * * * If we were to select the "ideal uhf market”, we would look for an area flat as a breadboard (except for one nice hill for our antenna) — an area heavily populated within 10 or 15-mi. radius and with no vhf station within 75 mi. That last consideration is by far the most important at this stage of the game. When a uhf station comes on air in unserved or sparsely served area, it has little difficulty building set circulation or selling time. When it's the first station, it's "TV"; when it's the second, it's "uhf". In rough terrain, "shadows" have given considerable trouble. To eliminate so-called "dead spots" and to cut down shadows, antenna height and location appear to be far more important than power. Uhf coverage areas are quite a bit smaller than comparable vhf areas, as the situation stands today. And a circle drawn on a map doesn't necessarily give an accurate representation of coverage — in mountainous or hilly areas there may be big holes within the circle, where reception is difficult or spotty. * * * * Attracting national sponsors has been biggest problem faced by first batch of uhf telecasters. Despite bargain-basement rates in many cases, sponsors have been quite reluctant to "go uhf", especially in situations where the new uhf station is in an area already claimed by an established vhf station. Most uhf stations have found there's more money on Main St. than Madison Ave. Many of them — especially those in vhf fringes — are carrying more local programming than they had anticipated and are now doing big selling .job on local advertisers. Basically, uhf today is providing a community TV service. * * * * The small coverage areas and reception difficulties — even the "dead spots" — are not necessarily part-&-parcel of uhf, any more than they are characteristic of high-band vhf. While antenna height and transmitter power are important in overcoming these deficiencies, infinitely more can be done on the receiving end. Today's receivers are much less sensitive on uhf band than on vhf. At least half of the uhf receiving antenna installations have been unsatisf actory ; nearly all could be improved on. But these are merely temporary obstacles, for the manufacturing and servicing industries are making tremendous strides in overcoming them. Uhf set sales have posed no problem in areas not reached by good vhf signal. In these communities, too, we heard fewer reports of "dead spots", poor reception, etc. — indicating that "where there's a will, there's a way." When uhf is the only picture available, servicemen always seem to find how to pick it up. But since uhfonly areas will be something of a rarity, most of our comments here apply particularly to areas with intermixture of vhf & uhf. * * * * New uhf station doesn't always bring TV boom. There have, in fact, been "buyers' strikes" in several communities after new station made debut. Sluggish set sales usually can be attributed to public disillusionment. Oftimes, uhf set and converter sales are high until station goes on air, and then — plop — everything stops. When this type of paralysis sets in, it's generally found that several or all of these conditions exist: (1) Station gave widespread publicity to target date, then missed it by a month or more, or first few weeks of telecasting were annoyingly intermittent.