Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

24 MAY 16, 1960 P. R. Mallory expects its lagging 2nd-quarter sales & earnings to rise and approximate the year-ago performance, despite “very disappointing” volume in April, Pres. G. Barron Mallory reports. The company opened the year on a rising curve as sales & profits both increased 9% over the year-earlier levels (Vol. 16:16 pl9). Despite the 2ndquarter softening, the company is still projecting record volume & profits for the year. Mallory anticipates a 15% gain in profits on a 5% sales increase in 1960, he said. In 1959, the company reported record earnings of $4.3 million ($2.87 a share) on $86.5 million sales. Pres. Mallory said new orders have been running some 10-15% behind the year-ago pace. He attributed the decline largely to shorter lead time on deliveries to TV, radio & automotive customers. Thompson Ramo Wooldridge expects 1960 sales to climb 10% above 1959’s $417.7 million and to produce profits “somewhat higher” than last year’s $9.7 million ($3.02 a share), reported Pres. Dean E. Wooldridge. TRW has a “continuing acquisition program,” he said, and is primarily interested in electronics firms making non-military products. Wooldridge said 60% of TRW’s products are military items, but the company hopes to reverse the ratio within the “next few years” by acquiring more commercial lines and switching product emphasis to industrial & commercial items. He described semiconductors as among TRW’s most promising new products, forecast that its Pacific Semiconductors subsidiary would “double sales” this year. GT&E anticipates a $100-million jump in 1960 revenues & sales to about $1.2 billion from $1.1 billion in 1959, Chmn. Donald C. Power told the N.Y. Society of Security Analysts last week. Consolidated net income, he estimated, will climb $9-14 million to a total of $80-85 million, compared with 1959’s $71.3 million. Power said he was “extremely pleased” with the results of the merger with Sylvania Electric Products, and forecast that Sylvania will continue to improve its profit picture. Control of Loew’s Theatres (radio WMGM N.Y.) is sought by hotelman Laurence A. Tisch, who owns 23% of the firm’s common stock. A special stockholders meeting has been called May 26 to increase the maximum number of directors from 10 to 15 and elect 5 additional Tischbacked directors, including Jay Wells, head of Wells Television Inc. (TV set lease & multiple installation firm). Pentron Electronics Corp. (tape recorders) reports net income of $108,604 on net sales of $2,168,214 for 8 months ended Feb. 29. No comparable 1959 figures are available. Cornell-Dubilier common stock delisting is sought by the N.Y. Stock Exchange in an application to SEC which said the company’s merger with Federal Pacific Electric (Vol. 16:7 p24) leaves less than 30,000 shares outstanding among less than 250 public holders. SEC set May 27 as a deadline for requests for hearings on a delisting order. Avnet Electronics stockholders last week approved a 2-for-l stock split to stockholders of record May 11 and authorized directors to sell $2 million of conv. debentures. Reports & comments available: Magnavox, report, Francis I. duPont & Co., One Wall St., N.Y. 5 . . . ITT, analysis, Laidlaw & Co., 25 Broad St., N.Y. 4 . . . Precision Transformer Corp., prospectus, John R. Boland & Co., 30 Broad St., N.Y. 4 . . . Teletray Electronic Systems Inc., prospectus, R. P. & R. A. Miller & Co., Philadelphia National Bank Bldg., Philadelphia 7 . . . Zenith, profile in May 11 Financial World. Educational Television Part-time ETV station for Charlotte, N.C. is planned by a group of local businessmen who propose to reactivate uhf Ch. 36, already assigned to Charlotte but dormant since WQMC-TV went off the air in March, 1955. Subject to FCC approval, the group would revive Ch. 36 as WUTV, erect a studio & transmitting facilities, and operate the new facility as a commercial uhf station. However, it would grant a minimum of 6 hours of gratis air time (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) to the local school board for ETV programming. The Charlotte Observer observes that “barring unforeseen delays, the station could be on the air by Sept. 1.” Associated with the venture is local ad man Hugh A. Deadwyler, onetime CP-holder for Ch. 36. GE will furnish schools with standard TV sets at minimum cost and update them with newer models every 12 to 18 months, under an ETV replacement plan announced recently by the TV receiver dept, at Syracuse, N.Y. GE estimates that the potential ETV set market will expand to 2,750,000 units by 1965. Educational institutions unable to make large capital outlays may finance through the GE Credit Corp. Under the ETV plan, the cost of using 100 sets would be less than $1 per set per week. New ETV science series. Lab 30, is being offered free by Westinghouse Bcstg. Corp. to 52 ETV stations, and to 10 commercial stations, provided it is unsponsored. The benefit to Westinghouse lies chiefly in a residual mention of Westinghouse research labs cooperation in the series. Said producer Ben Park of Lab 30, which is being produced at WBC’s KDKA-TV Pittsburgh: “We are not sugarcoating science for a mass audience. We are trying consciously to get into the rules & premises by which scientists work.” Host for the series is Hugh Downs. New govt, handbook on ETV, Educational Teleguide, has been compiled by the U.S. Office of Education’s TVradio staff headed by Franklin Dunham. The 79-page pocket-sized guidebook (available for 30^ from the U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington 25) includes lists of FCC’s educational assignments, operating ETV stations, state ETV networks, foundations supporting ETV, colleges & universities offering TV courses, bibliographies. Fully-equipped ETV studios, operated for the use of non-profit TV organizations by Metropolitan ETV Assn., have been presented to N.Y.U. They are valued at $300,000 and were owned jointly by the Fund for Adult Education, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and META (currently in the process of dissolution). The studios are in the Carnegie Endowment Bldg., 345 E. 46th St. Latest statistics on U.S. school systems is Office of Education’s Statistics of Local School Systems: 1955-56, Suburban Cities. The 156-page book is one of a series, each of which is published as completed. Copies are available at $1 from the Govt. Printing Office. Financial support for ETV at the state level was recommended in a report to the Cal. State Dept, of Education by special consultant William H. Allen. Allen proposed revising the Education Code to permit establishment by the state of ETV stations as educational facilities on the same basis as state colleges are operated. Correction: International ETV seminar under UNESCO auspices (Vol. 16:18 pl4) will be conducted at Purdue U. May 15-25, 1961, not this year, as reported in Vol. ,16:19.