Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1961)

2u JULY 3. 1361 "We'll have about 100 dealers in the metropolitan N.Y. area by the end of the week," Thalberg told us. Among outlets already offering the Sony 8-incher: Bloomingdale's, Abercrombie <& Fitch, Victor Appliances. Any maintenance problems which develop will be handled by 5 Sony service centers in the N.Y. area. "It's our policy not to spread out until our service centers are properly supplied with all necessary replacement parts," Thalberg said, explaining the reason for limiting introduction of the set to N.Y. As Sony's service centers across the country are supplied with parts, the battery portable will be introduced in their sales areas. (For profile of Sony Corp., see p. 21.) Delmonico International expects to begin deliveries of its 8-in. Japanese battery portable by the end of July, exec, vp Herbert Kabat told us. He expects the unit will be priced in the "$250 bracket — but this is still indefinite." Pres. Albert Friedman was slated to leave for Tokyo July 2 to confer with Victor Co. of Japan about quantity & pricing details. Deliveries of Delmonico's Japanese color TV are scheduled to start about 60 days after their first showing at the Music Show in Chicago this month. Kabat said that 2 color models are "in the works," but final decision has not yet been made as to which will be introduced at NAMM. The 2 are a table consolette and a combination embracing AM-FM-stereo phono. Both models employ RCA 21-in. color kinescopes. Prices have not been finalized on either model. Another feature of Delmonico's NAMM display will be the $99-list 19-in. Japanese portable introduced at the Summer Home Furnishings Mart. Kabat told us deliveries are slated to get under way before July 31. TV-RADIO PRODUCTION: EIA statistics for week ended June 23 (25th week of 1961): June 17-23 Preceding wk. 1960 wk. '61 cumulative '60 cumulative TV 137,655 131,765 123,707 2,668.491 2,866,790 Total radio 350,684 339,468 347,687 7,205,157 8,238,602 auto radio 110,338 117,246 131,752 2,301,431 3,224,586 GE’S FIRST STEREO RADIO: Good looking, good sounding and high priced. That’s capsule description of the first stereo multiplex table-model radio to be made & marketed by GE. The T-1000, now in production, and due to be marketed in stereo-FM areas, is a slim all-wood set, modern in design, with detachable doors, each containing an 8-in. speaker. It measures 19-in. wide, 13-in. high, 8%-in. deep. The doors’ hinges serve as conductors between the speakers & amplifiers when the set is played with the speaker-doors attached. The speakers may be removed and placed up to 8 ft. from the set by using plug-in cables between speakers and set. The set has 6 controls and a vertical sliderule dial for AM & FM tuning. The controls perform these functions: on-off, AFC, phono (for phono jack), AM, mono FM, stereo FM, loudness, stereo balance. The price will be about $175. The 10-tube set is the first in a series of GE stereo radios; lower-priced ones will be introduced later this month at the Music Show in Chicago. GE apparently has rejected the 2-piece approach for table radios. Although it originally had designed 2-piece sets, it’s understood the company believes that the detachable speaker approach has more appeal. It tested 12 designs through consumer panels, and in every case the two 2-piece designs came out last in order of preference. GE also has entered the AM-FM portable market, and last week showed an 11-transistor model at $125. Admiral, meanwhile, announced that its FM multiplex circuit will be fully transistorized. Designed for Admiral’s stereo consoles, it’s advertised as “not an adapter ... an integral component of Admiral’s multiplex sound system, available as built-in or 60-second plug-in unit.” Motorola said last week it would have stereo radios around the first of the year. At week’s end only 3 FM stations were broadcasting stereo, and the FCC had granted no new type-acceptances for stereo multiplex broadcast equipment. Type-acceptance proceedings reportedly were “in the works” for RCA conversion gear, but it was expected that no final action could be taken for a couple of weeks. Although RCA has now shipped 7 prototype multiplex stereo generators to station (see pl8 & Vol. 17:26 pl6), they may not legally be used to transmit stereo programs until the equipment is type-accepted. D. Duck, Color Salesman: Walt Disney and his animated characters will act as spokesmen for color TV in RCA’s upcoming ad campaign, termed its “most extensive in years” and reputed to be budgeted at more than $5 million. RCA’s color strategy this year is to plug all color TV in general — not only RCA — geared to the RCA co-sponsored (with Eastman Kodak) Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color on NBC-TV. Other RCA ad plans, as outlined last week by RCA Sales Corp. ad & sales promotion vp Jack M. Williams: (1) Individual ad campaigns for each RCA product category. (2) All ads in major circulation magazines to be in color. (3) Heavy introductory campaign for each product in September. (4) Print ad campaign in 2nd half of 1961 to reach 39.9 million homes. (5) Series of “color TV nights” to attract consumers to stores to watch a complete evening of color programming. J. Walter Thompson is RCA’s agency. Canadian Color Sets: Although color telecasting isn’t permitted in Canada, RCA plans to start producing color sets at its Prescott, Ont. plant in time for fall sales. With the increasing number of colorcasts reaching Canada from the U.S., demand for color sets from Canadian border areas has been increasing, Canadian RCA spokesmen say.