Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1953)

4 have been had there been no freeze. Had the FCC continued granting stations as it did before freeze, not only would the 108 have plenty of local competition but their fringe coverage would have been much smaller than it is and will be under present allocation plan. Reason is simple: present allocation plan places co-channel and adjacent-channel stations much farther apart, generally, than they would have been under old plan. Matter of fact, in case you've forgotten, whole reason for freeze was that interference was striking directly at heart of major-city coverage — not merely at fringe. Signals from Detroit, for example, were actually ruining a Cleveland station's coverage of significant part of Cleveland itself. * * * * Situation is going to jockey back and forth for some years. If an existing station boosts its power and height before its nearest co-channel and adjacentchannel stations get on air, it can achieve truly phenomenal coverage. Then, when newcomer gets going, coverage may be pared substantially. Yet, in the Commission's opinion, all will end up with reasonably good coverage. Though some viewers may lose some service temporarily. Commission says its allocation plan will eventually give more people choice of more signals. Chairman Rosel Hyde told ANA convention last week (Vol.9:39) that plan contemplates minimum coverage of 20-40 miles, maximum of 56-75 miles, per station. There's no good rule-of-thumb on mileage coverage to fit all stations. Each must be examined engineering-wise. Some stations, notably in sparsely populated West, are covering incredibly large areas. Others are scheduled for an inevitable trimming — but none, FCC insists, to an unreasonable degree. FCC's calculations are wrong, some stations claim, asserting that interference is reaching farther than expected. Not so, FCC retorts. Best informed engineers at Commission — Comr. Sterling, Broadcast Bureau chief Plummer, Chief Engineer Allen — stick by their engineering curves, say nothing has altered them. Aside from interference question, old stations are bound to lose some fringe viewers to new stations simply because newcomers are easier to receive. Assuming comparable program service — and that's a very big assumption, of course — viewers are naturally going to watch stations easiest and cheapest to receive. And there's nothing like proximity to produce ease of reception. ECONOMICS OF COMMUNITY ANTENNA OPERATION: What does a community antenna cost? And what can you expect on your investment? The most definitive answers to date were supplied this week by Milton Shapp, president of Jerrold Electronics Corp. , which has supplied equipment to about 80% of all systems built. Costs vary enormously, as you'd imagine, just as they do for TV stations depending on size of community, accessibility of antenna site, type of equipment, etc., but Shapp has found an excellent rough-and-ready rule-of-thumb to be: About $5-$6 for every member of population in community. Speaking for his own equipment, Shapp produces following breakdown of starting costs, i.e., costs of building system before any subscribers are tapped on: (1) Antenna, tower and cable run to town. This has tremendous variations. If site can be reached by road, has power supply nearby, isn't far from town — that's one thing. If phone or power poles are available for run into town, a 3channel system runs about $2600-$2700 per mile — up to 2-2% miles. If the run is longer, heavier cable is needed — running cost up to about $3500 a mile. If road must be bulldozed, power lines run, etc., costs mount accordingly. For example, Shapp says that one system under consideration takes $6000 for this portion of costs. Another, already built, cost $40,000. (2) "Wiring up the town,” i.e., getting cable within reach of homes on the streets. Jerrold figures roughly $3000 per mile. Another way of estimating is $20$22 per home — and Jerrold finds average community has 135 homes per mile. (3) "Other fixed costs" — trucks, legal expenses, office, test equipment, etc. This runs $5-$10,000 for most systems, depends upon whether the organization already has portion of these facilities on hand.