Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1953)

14 Trade Personals: William h. Eutzy promoted to asst, to T. J. Newcomb, mgr. of Westinghouse TV-radio div., now located at Metuchen, N. J., succeeding L. J. Fitzpatrick, now with lamp div., Bloomfield, N. J.; J. N. Van Deman resigns as special asst, to sales mgr. J. F. AValsh . . . Bruce R. Carlson, from Chicago investment firm of Stein, Foe & Farnham, named special asst, to Julian K. Sprague, pres, of Sprague Electric Co. . . . James T. McMurphy appointed TV-radio div. mgr. in reopening of Philco’s sales office at 1025 Conn. Ave., Washington; Alfred O. Tepper named mgr. of major appliances . . . Carroll J. Tressler, onetime Philco Chicago branch mgr., promoted to gen. mgr. of Servel Chicago sales . . . Frank J. Powers, ex-Federal Radio, named mgr. of industrial engineering dept., CBS-Columbia; Robert E. Savold promoted to mgr. of field engineering, Robert A. Caswell named midwestern sales mgr. . . . Joe Lowry resigns as Admiral electronics coordinator to join Republic Electric Co., South Bend, Ind., Admiral distributor . . . R. J. Burgess, exCanadian Westinghouse, named sales mgr. of Canadian Westinghouse Supply Co. appliance div., replacing G. L. Harrison, now mgr. of major appliances at Canadian Westinghouse; Eric Hall appointed Ontario regional mgr. . . . Newland F. Smith, ex-engineering director, MBS & WOR, New York, appointed gen. mgr. of Gray Research & Development Co., Manchester, Conn. (TV studio equipment) . . . William McAllister, ex-Shaw Television, named eastern sales mgr., Capehart-Farnsworth, replacing James D. Walker, who becomes gen. mgr. of N. Y. factory branch IT&T Distributing Corp., succeeding Martin L. Scher, resigned; J. L. (Jud) Albers, ex-Stromberg-Carlson, appointed Capehart’s New Orleans regional sales mgr., replacing L. W. Reynolds, resigned . . . W. Ward Willett appointed adv. mgr., LaPointe Electronics Inc., Rockville, Conn, (antennas), succeeding L. N. Kinnicutt, now asst, to gen. sales mgr. Webster E. Barth . . . G. Milton Ehlers, exCentralab and recently pres., Plerlac Corp., Milwaukee subsidiary of Sprague Electric, named Aerovox chief research engineer . . . Joseph H. Morin, ex-distributor sales mgr., Shure Bros. Inc., Chicago, named sales promotion mgr., Howard W. Sams & Co., Indianapolis (technical publications) . . . Samuel Portnoy named gen. traffic mgr., Emerson Radio. B TV ownership in Detroit area is analyzed in detail in report released this week by U of Michigan’s Institute of Social Research, which conducted survey with aid of Ford Foundation grant. Highlights; (1) 80% of area homes have TV, up from 26% three years ago. (2) 90% of set owners have children in home. (3) 92% of families earning over $10,000 have set, 40% under $2000 own TV. Edison Radio Amateur Award for “ham” who performs outstanding public service of 1953 now accepting nominations, which should be addressed to Award Committee, GE Tube Dept., Schenectady, N. Y. Judges: R. Roland Harriman, American Red Cross; George E. Sterling, FCC; Goodwin L. Dosland, ARRL; Gardner Cowles, Look Magazine. Admiral reports $2,000,000 fall ad schedule, plus separate campaign for radios, with alternate weekly 2-p color inserts on TVs in Life, Time, Look, Saturday Evening Post, Ebony, Farm Journal, Better Homes & Gardens. New Crosley product is industry’s first portable clock radio-phono combination, with 3-speed record changer and automatic cutoff; known as F-120, it weighs 24 pounds, has 4 tubes plus one rectifier, is unpriced. Hearing on sale of assets of bankrupt Tele-tone Radio Corp. was set this week for Sept. 24 in Newark Federal Court. Merritt Lane Jr., Newark, is court-appointed trustee for Tele-tone, which had plant at Elizabeth. DISTRIBUTION eastward, on which Hoffman Radio Corp., Los Angeles, is now bent, led pres. H. Leslie Hoffman to refer to himself as “Horace Greeley in reverse” at news conference and dealer dinner in Washington this week to announce expansion into Washington Baltimore market. On hand with his sales chief Walter Stickel, he announced appointment of American Wholesalers for Washington-Baltimore (D. L. Krupsaw, owner) as latest in growing list of eastward distributors that already includes: Emmons TV & Appliance Co., New York (Emmons Moser); Thompson & Hamilton Co., Columbus, O. (Gail Thompson) ; Midland Electric Co., Cleveland, O. (John U. Walker); Sacks Electrical Supply, Akron (Morris Sacks); Modern Appliance & Supply Co., New Orleans, (B. M. Meyers) ; Flamingo Distributors, Miami & Tampa (John Hunt); Jones Distributing Co., Omaha (Wm. Jones); Graybar Electric Co., Des Moines & Davenport; plus 3 others to be announced shortly. Trade newsmen asked Hoffman why he was breaking into highly saturated eastern markets, and the dynamic young manuacturer, whose white hair belies his 47 years and who hails originally from Jackson, Mich, and played and coached football at Albion College (’28), said it was because: (1) New $1,000,000 Kansas City plant opening Oct. 1, plus increased facilities in Los Angeles, will mean 50% increase in production this year. (2) Hoffman receiver is “ideally suited” for second set in home. (3) Price-cutting of established brands in established markets seems to open way for a “new, clean line, comparatively unknown in the east, which gives good performance and which looks good.” “California styling and merchandise,” he said, “is setting the pace in all of the major markets of the east as well as nationally.” He added: “Our industry is going through its awkward stages and there’s now a shaking down among manufacturers, distributors and dealers that will eliminate shoestring operators, pirating, and non-service dealers. Companies are being tested at all levels during this period — what I like to call the Selling Age. My own feeling is that TV, now running about $1% billion in output, will be double that by 1956. The country is heading for a $450 billion economy in 1960, and we’re right on top of it.” As for other industry problems, he commented: Color — If FCC approves NTSC standards by end of year, first color sets should be on market by April or May, but it will be at least 2 years before they come down to $500. Color, he said, is not going to revolutionize the industry immediately, any more than did Technicolor. The show’s the thing that will continue to sell TVs and there won’t be many color shows for awhile. He called the NTSC battle for compatibility “a great victory”; had the field sequential system prevailed, he said, it would have been the first time in history that the industry would have failed to keep faith with its customers — forced by a govt, order that would have rendered it impossible for millions of set owners to get the service for which the sets they bought were sold. Movies and subscription TV — Big movie companies will open vaults to TV very quickly, for “none of the new gimmicks introduced by the movie people (3-D, widescreen, etc.) has proved effective enough to stem the tide of TV competition.” Hoffman opposed pay-as-you-look TV as “completely unnecessary” and “contrary to the American way.” ■ Excise taxes on TVs, radios, phonos & components netted Uncle Sam $159,383,000 in fiscal 1953, increase of 34.8% over $118,244,000 collected in fiscal 1952. In June 1953, collections totaled $12,593,000, compared with $8,164,000 in June 1952.