Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

NEW SERIES VOL. 3, No. 2 TELEVISION DIGEST— 9 RCA Sales Corp. Mktg. vp Raymond W. Saxon joined fray some day with firm stand against extended warranties. "To ask distributors, dealers & consumers to pay extra for what we consider unnecessary I warranty features," he told NARDA members, "is totally unrealistic. A warranty alone was never intended I to be a merchandising tool — it should be considered as port of the over-aU service program which accompanies the sole of the home entertainment product." He urged dealers to take fresh look at servicing, called it "undoubtedly the most neglected selling tool that a retailer has at his disposal." He said independent servicemen "handle more than 94% of the service business" on RCA TVs. Saxon also threw in new color TV figures: "Enough color TV receivers were sold in 1962 to account for a quarter of a billion dollars of retail business," said, adding : "More than half of our color TV dollar volume was shown by a survey to represent sales to consumers who would not hove bought a black-d-white set. This was plus business in a year when black-&-white unit sales exceeded 1961's rote by 10%. 'PACKAGE' HI-FI DEFINITION GOES TO FTC: Hi fi is almost as difficult to define os true love. With this in mind, EIA gingerly delivered group of comments to FTC — without calling them a "recommendation" — and made it clear that the material applied only to "packaged" music systems. Thus did EIA discharge its responsibility to FTC, which had requested proposed definitions in order to protect public from misleading claims about what is hi fi and what isn’t. EIA had circularized more than 1,000 interested parties, including component hi-fi manufacturers, received 154 replies (but virtually none from component people). Consensus of most, but not cdl, package hi-fi manufacturers approved this definition: (1) Amplifier must hove MPO rating of 5 watts. (2) Over-all phono system must hove minimum acoustical output of 77 db at 100 cycles, 80 db at 1,000 cycles and 74 db at 8,000 cycles. Test procedure for making these measurements was outlined. When this proposed definition leaked out several months ago, organized component hi-fi enthusiasts were beside themselves with fury. A single editorial in Dec. High Fidelity described tentative proposal as I "dangerous," "hokum" and "deliberately misleading." In submitting its comments to FTC. EIA's committee helpfully suggested that views of other groups, such as Institute of High Fidelity Manufacturers (component hi fi) might also be sought. Institute said it is working on its own definition to apply to component hi fi only, and hoped to submit it to FTC within 30 days. IHFM Pres. Raymond Pepe called the EIA-submitted definition "much too low for reasonable standards," urged separate and "much more stringent definition for components to protect the buyer." FTC has poked its head into nest of extremely wild hornets. Component hi-fi makers have always considered that "high fidelity" was stolen from them, and that, by definition, the phrase should apply only to I components. After FTC has heard all comments on proposed hi-fi definitions, we predict it will give up idea of trying to protect public and concentrate on protecting itself. To attempt to measure the height of fi would be as impossible as to try to determine the height of the component enthusiasts' dudgeon. 1962 TV PRODUCTION 6,484,501: With last of EIA's weekly production reports for 1962 completed ' at last week's end, here's how TV-radio output shaped up: Black-&-white TV had its biggest year since 1956; radio had its 2nd biggest year in history; auto radio set all-time high by wide margin. Industry-wide TV output totaled 6,484,501 (b&w only), highest in 6 years, but nowhere near the 7i million-plus years of 1953-56. Production was very close to estimated distributor-to-deoier soles — probably ' within 4% — indicating little overproduction. Total radio receiver output (including auto) came to 19,189,507. This compares with 17,373,846 in 1961, and is highest in radio's 41-yecrr history — except for record postwar year of 1947, when some 20 million sets were produced. With boom automobile business, auto radio production shot through roof — totaling 7,287,388, very close to total 1962 soles by auto industry. Previous high was 6,864,000 in 1955, and only other year when output exceeded 6 million was 1960 (6,432,000).