Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1953)

MARTIN COREL’S AUTHORITATIVE NEWS SERVICE FOR MANAGEMENT OF THE VISUAL BROADCASTING AND ALLIED ELECTRONICS ARTS AND INDUSTRY PBBLISHEO WEEKLY BY RADIO NEWS BUREAU • WYATT BLDfi. • WASHINGTON 5, It • TELEPHONE STERLING 3-1755 * VOL. 9: No. 19 MAy 1 0 1953 May 9> 1953 Hi In this Issue: Small Market TV — Practices & Prospects, page I Scramble for Leadership in Color TV, page I First Educational Station Starts Tests, page 2 Speedup in Filing by Educators Seen, page 3 FCC Grants 3, Sets More Hearing Dates, page 4 Subscription TV Enthusiasm Undimmed, page 6 Baseball TV Restrictions Gain Support, page 6 Siragusa Prods Trade to 'Sell Harder', page 7 SMALL MARKET TV-PRACTICES & PROSPECTS: TV's expansion into a truly nationwide service depends largely on success of stations in the so-called "small markets". A glance at the log of CPs already granted shows the tremendous number of enterprisers who plan to build stations in the smaller cities. What is the formula for TV success in the small markets? At last week’s NARTB convention, broadcasters heard some expert opinions — from the small market telecasters themselves — at one of best-attended sessions on the agenda. Because of the unusual interest in the panel discussion on small market TV, we’ve published all salient portions of the official transcript — including questions from the floor — into Special Report, which we enclose herewith to all subscribers. The 5 telecasters on panel represent good cross-section of small market TV. They're the general managers of 3 pre-freeze stations (Greensboro's WFMY-TV, Bloomington's WTTV & Huntington's WSAZ-TV) and 2 post-freeze stations (Lubbock's KDUB-TV & Colorado Springs' KKTV). SCRAMBLE FOR LEADERSHIP IN COLOR TV: This week saw beginnings of massive battle for position in color TV among industry's giants. At stake are markets, patents — even commercial leadership. The developments: (1) Dr. Allen B. DuMont proclaimed he's not satisfied NTSC color system is "right" for public, and made startling announcement that his company has developed a compatible 3-dimensional TV system "which adds more to the TV picture than color does" — which will be ready before color and can be used in conjunction with color. (2) Admiral president Ross Siragusa blasted those who would "force color set production before the picture tube problem is licked," and charged "the right tube simply doesn't exist at present." (3) Chairman David Sarnoff reiterated RCA's determination to go it alone in seeking FCC approval of compatible color "within the next few months", if NTSC is laggard in approaching Commission. * * * * Issue of 3-D TV got intertwined with color when Dr. DuMont told May 2 stockholders meeting that his laboratories are "quite far along" in development of 3-D color TV system with built-in "4-way compatibility". That is, viewers could see same picture in black-&-white , color, 3-D black-&-white or 3-D color, depending on what type of set they have. Three-dimensional TV is nothing new, of course. DuMont and others have been building 3-D closed-circuit camera chains for military and atomic contracts. The type demonstrated by ABC at last week's NARTB convention (Vol.9:18) has long been known to industry and generally discarded as impractical for the home, because (1) it's incompatible, and (2) it would require twice the bandwidth of present TV stations to give satisfactory resolution and eliminate flicker. But industry engineers perked up their ears at the DuMont announcement. For COFTiliMT 1#BS »Y RADIO NKVt IUIKAU