Television digest with electronics reports (Jan-Dec 1953)

11 employment , and many others did not show the usual employment upswing characteristic of the Christmas season. Hours worked showed declines in still other regions. * * # * Like TV, radio production also dropped week of Nov. 27. totaling 219,156, down from 280,244 preceding week and 276,657 week ended Nov. 13. It brought month's production to about 1,060,000 and for year to date to about 12,415,000. compared to 10,934,872 for all of 1952. Topics & Trends oi TV Trade: Full new tv lines will be rarities — and even additions to lines are spoken of only in whispers, as manufacturers prepare for annual winter exhibitions at American Furniture Mart and Merchandise Mart in Chicago, Jan. 4-15. Set makers are generally maintaining competitive silence on their plans. Advent of color, of course, has accelerated industry’s drift to one line a year. As one manufacturer put it: “With everybody’s mind on color now, introducing a lot of black-&-white models is like swimming upstream. You’re wasting your time.” Only Westinghouse, in wake of big price cut on six 21-in. models (Vol. 9:46), has revealed plans for full new line. Admiral will introduce a few supplementary models at national distributors’ convention at Chicago’s Conrad Hilton Hotel, Dec. 28-30. Philco plans to introduce additions via closed-circuit telecast shortly after first of year; its Jan. 4-8 Atlantic City convention is said to be for white goods only. RCA conducts quarterly field sales meeting at Atlantic City’s Haddon Hall Hotel, Dec. 7-11, will introduce only one new set — a 24-in. console — at the Marts. American Furniture Mart will have these TV-radio exhibitors: Admiral, Arvin, Bendix Radio, DuMont, Hallicrafters, Jackson Electronics, Motorola, Philco, RCA Victor, Sparton, Westinghouse, Zenith. At Merchandise Mart, permanent exhibitors include Capehart-Farnsworth, CBSColumbia, Crosley, GE, Magnavox. * * * * Applicable to TV, Federal Trade Commission this week approved new trade practice rule permitting use of word “free” in ads even though “receipt of article or service described is contingent on compliance with certain conditions,” provided all conditions are “clearly and conspicuously disclosed at the outset” of the ad. Heretofore, FTC rules prohibited use of “free” if any conditions were attached. Rule forbids use of “free” to describe gift if increase in price of tie-in merchandise has been made to cover cost of gift. Rule is available on request of FTC. Electronics industry prospects for 1954 look good to Sylvania chairman Don G. Mitchell, who told his salesmen at national conference in Rye, N. Y. that heavy expansion is contemplated next year. But he warned that 1954 will mark “the first year in entirely too many years that business will have to get back to selling” and that a salesman “will have to stop thinking about his product only — and concentrate instead on the customer’s needs.” About 40,000 TVs will be sold in Puerto Rico first year after telecasting starts, according to Admiral’s Joe Marty Jr., who planned this week end to hold big “sendoff” meeting with Admiral’s distributor, Tartak Distributors Corp. New WAPA-TV (Ch. 4) is due to start in San Juan before end of month. “Three-for-one” coin box is being offered its distributors by Raytheon in 1954 TV line. It permits 3 minutes of free viewing as come-on to hotel or motel guest to insert coin for 30 minutes. RCA Victor tube dept., following recent reorganization (Vol. 9:44), will move headquarters of newly-created CR-power tube operations & marketing divs. from Harrison, N. J. to Lancaster, Pa. NO DEARTH of color activity and talk this week. Examples from various fronts: (1) GE announced “limited quantities” of color tubes will be offered first quarter 1954. Made in Syracuse, they’ll be conventional 15-in. glass mask type, sell for “about 10 times” price of black-&-white tubes. (2) RCA has scheduled 2 more color clinics in Camden for engineers from stations ordering color equipment. About 75 are expected at Dec. 7-8 and Dec. 14-15 sessions. (3) Packard-Bell took nearly full-page ads in Los Angeles papers, much like recent ads of Magnavox (Vol. 9:44), designed to urge public to buy black-&-white instead of holding off for color. It stressed expected cost and size of color sets, compatibility of black-&-white, etc. Also in Los Angeles, Electric League sponsored dealersei vicemen meeting at which industry speakers expressed great hopes in future of color but stated that growth is bound to be gradual. (4) DuMont network director Ted Bergmann, in Dec. o talk befoz’e Dayton Ad Club, dwelled particularly on fact that stations won’t be able to telecast local commercials without substantial equipment investment and that advertisers won’t shell out heavily for color until color set saturation is substantial — which will take time. (5) RCA took occasion to deny reports, in Time Magazine and Tide, that it will guarantee current purchasers of black-&-white sets 80% of purchase price toward cost of color set bought next year. Though some RCA distributors are advertising such guarantees, RCA emphasized it has not adopted such policy nationally. (6) Dec. 7 Newsiveek included color roundup, nub of which was: “Color, for the average family, will be a long time coming” and “Black-&-white TV is here to stay for a while. ’ Article shows considerable confusion over tube sizes. It tabulates size of color pictures to be offered by 18 manufacturers, showing range from 11% -in. on up. Fact is, of course, that 17 of the 18 will use exactly same size tube— 15-in. envelope with 11%-in. picture. Crosley promises 17-in. on Lawrence tube. In same article, TVradio editor Joan Walker comments on color quality, finds best “pure magic,” poorest “tough on the eyes.” (7) Dec. 5 Tide polled manufacturers, found 150,000 color sets to be average estimate for 1954 — with range between 50,000 for Seymour Mintz of Admiral to 200,000 for Frank Stanton of CBS. m Radio shipments to dealers in first 9 months — exclusive of auto radios— totaled 4,807,332, compared with 4,599,083 in corresponding period year ago, reports RETMA (state-by-state and county-by-county tables available from RETMA on request). For third quarter ended Sept. 30, shipments totaled 1,593,308 vs. 1,614,697 for the same 1952 quarter. Special 13-page article on color in December Electronics Magazine is devoted to “what design engineers need to know” about NTSC standards, by Donald G. Fink, ex-editor of Electronics, now Philco director of research for TV-radio-appliances. Bell & Howell acquires Three Dimension Co., 4555 Addison St., Chicago, manufacturer of tape recorders, slide projectors & viewers.