Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1953)
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STARTERS IN LINCOLN, FRESNO & FARGO: This week’s 3 new starters brought TV's total of on-the-air stations to 181, of which 56 are 1953 vintage. If we take their word for it, there might be as many as 30-odd starters during June alone — but advance estimates are usually overoptimistic . On basis of equipment deliveries and experience with normal installations, however, we'd guess 20 next month. This week's new ones:
KFOR-TV, Lincoln, Neb. (Ch. 10) turned on juice Monday, May 25, goes commercial on 6-10 p.m. schedule May 31 (ABC-TV) , reports mgr. George X. Smith. It's RCAequipped, city's second (KOLN-TV started Feb. 10 on Ch. 12). Raymer is national rep.
KMJ-TV, Fresno, Cal. (Ch. 24) became state's first uhf, and first uhf with a directional antenna, when it began testing May 26. It goes on NBC-TV June 1. Owned by McClatchy Newspapers (Fresno Bee), it's managed by Wm. S. Sanford. Raymer is rep.
WDAY-TV, Fargo, N. D. (Ch. 6) started testing May 28, takes all networks from June 1. Equipment is RCA, mgr. is Earle Reineke, rep is Free & Peters.
Due very soon now are WFTV, Duluth, Minn. (Ch. 38); WNAO-TV, Raleigh (Ch. 28); WAKR-TV, Akron (Ch. 49); WCSC-TV, Charleston, S.C. (Ch. 5); KCSJ-TV, Pueblo, Colo.
(Ch. 5); WGBI-TV, Scranton, Pa. (Ch. 22); WOSH-TV, Oshkosh, Wis . (Ch. 48); KROC-TV, Rochester, Minn. (Ch. 10); WR0M-TV, Rome, Ga. (Ch. 9); WTVP, Decatur, 111. (Ch. 17).
COLOR HELPS BIND Y/0UNDS0F NBC AFFILIATES: The prospect of color television and the
RCA-NBC record of encouraging broadcasters to get into TV, pointed up sharply by an aroused Gen. Sarnoff, carried the field for NBC-TV with its affiliates after meetings and demonstrations in New York and Princeton this week. It will be surprising now if there are many, if any, more defections from the NBC-TV ranks.
Put bluntly, CBS's past record of selling TV short, of discouraging its own affiliates from going into TV, and of promoting an incompatible color system that was ill-starred from the start and opposed by virtually the entire industry — all this arose to plague it in its efforts to improve its facilities position by "raiding" key NBC stations, particularly in one-vhf-station cities (Vol. 9:20,21).
Not only did Sarnoff get a rising ovation of 10 minutes, following his one hour & 20 minute heart-to-heart, ad-libbed talk with the 76 executives from 57 TV stations attending closed Princeton session Tuesday, but next day he was waited on by a delegation headed by WTMJ-TV's Walter Damm, one of the network's severest critics, bearing a resolution unanimously adopted by the group. It tells its own story:
"Be it resolved: That we, the TV affiliates of the NBC, who today at Prince
ton had the privilege of reviewing in detail with Gen. Sarnoff the position of RCA and NBC in broadcasting and TV, hereby reaffirm our complete confidence in the NBC and heartily endorse its program as revealed to us by Gen. Sarnoff.
"This confidence is predicated upon the unquestionable leadership displayed by RCA and NBC in radio and TV over the past years and the steadfast belief that Gen. Sarnoff 's position with respect to color TV and various other current and future developments in the broadcasting field are fully as sound and unerring as previous decisions and predictions which he has made, including his prophecy of the assured future of TV, pronounced in Atlantic City in 1947.
"The rapid approach of color TV and RCA's tremendous strides in that area in our opinion more than justify our confidence in our future as NBC affiliates, and a careful analysis of the present and projected program and sales plans of NBC leaves us with the conviction that they cannot be successfully assailed by expedient competitive attack or propaganda.
"In this confidence we adjourn our meeting with unanimous approval and endorsement of the RCA-NBC program as outlined to us today." Accompanying Damm were Crosley's Robert Dunville, WDSU's Robert Swezey, WBAP's Harold Hough.
* * * *
The intensity of rivalry between CBS & NBC — the bitterness of competitive feeling as CBS rings the changes on its April leadership in TV as well as radio billings (see p. 12) and sets out to wean away key NBC affiliates — was reflected in talks by other NBC topkicks. Like Sarnoff, they pulled no punches either in their counteroffensive or in their retorts to CBS claims.
They denied loss of TV program leadership, called loss of top billings a tern