Tests, tests and more tests greeted television viewers on the East Coast in March 1939 as NBC worked to get W2XBS set for its regular schedule on April 30.
CBS’ W2XAB still had a way to go before it could put anything on the air. DuMont’s W2XVT was broadcasting overnight, but turned down in a bid to experiment during the day, while General Electric’s W2XB in Schenectady was erecting a new tower to enable it to resume broadcasts after several years.
Meanwhile, W6XAO, the Don Lee station in Los Angeles was on the air regularly with little notice as the East got most of the ink that month. And little W9XK, the University of Iowa station, carried on with its twice-weekly, 15-minute simulcasts with radio.
The FCC made its decision on what do about TV channels. While Broadcasting magazine talked about 19 of them, newspapers spoke of 13 channels (1 through 13).
The papers gave feature-page space to stories about the status of television and the financial problems to expand it outside major cities, at least for the interim. We have only transcribed a few of the stories, which you’ll find below.
Thursday, March 2
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.
Passaic Television Station is Refused Experimental Time
WASHINGTON, (AP)—The Federal Communications Commission denied Station W2XVT, operated by Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc., Main Avenue, Passaic, N. J., special temporary authority to operate its experimental television broadcast station from 9 A. M. to midnight, for a period of not more than 30 days. The special authority was asked to conduct certain tests.
Television Progress Depends Largely Upon Its Acceptance By Fickle American Public
By Central Press
NEW YORK—Television coming in 1939? Yes. But there is a big "if" in the minds of radio executives. The big "if" is the American public.
At once the most discriminating, the most fickle and the most exacting entertainment audience, Americans still have to express an opinion on television.
The British public's reaction to television is scarcely comparable. Under government control, the BBC monopolizes the ether and offers a single program service. The free system of American broadcasting will. however, enable televiewers in large cities to select a program from several competing services. We may expect that American television will have a wider variety of interest.
Kind of Entertainment
In the spring and summer of 1939, NBC's metropolitan New York broadcasts, for example, will in one way or another resemble stage, movies and sound radio entertainment, but in many respects the program will be utterly different. Television combines a number of techniques and practices that originated in the older fields of entertainment; but even in its brief career television has done more than borrow. It is slowly but surely fusing some of the finest features of screen, stage and radio production into one art, besides adding a few of its own kinks. This is television as we shall know it.
One important job just completed by Thomas H. Hutchinson, director of NBC television production, is the balancing of items on a program menu. His projected programs for the first eight weeks of broadcasting indicate a complete upset of traditional radio practice.
Music, by far and large the chief item offered to sound radio fans, becomes secondary in television. At present about 60 per cent of the total sound broadcasting time is taken up with music, popular and classical. Television will cut this figure down to a mere 12 1/2 per cent!
The chief items on NBC's television are adaptations of stage plays, short stories, etc. Documentaries will embrace a wide variety of non-fictional programs based on events behind the news, adventures, explorations, discoveries, travelogues, etc.
Informative Programs
Another item on the television menu, comprising 12 1/2 per cent of the total time, will be informative programs. These are mainly demonstrations, exhibitions, techniques, experiments, etc. An informative program may teach geography or demonstrate the latest dance steps or take you on a tour of an art exhibit.
Television will also attempt to revive popular interest in a form, of entertainment that has virtually dropped out of the American scene, that is, vaudeville. Basically the same as theater vaudeville, certain changes will be made to meet the requirements of the tele-picture, medium.
At present about one and one-half per cent of sound radio time is devoted to a coverage of sports events. Present indications are that television will increase this coverage, giving both the words-eye view and the birds-eye view of outdoor and indoor athletic contests.
The sight radio system also will devote an estimated 12 1/2 per cent of its total time to news pickups. The telemobile unit and movie film recordings will be used alternately.
Public Acceptance Problem
The above program menu is not based upon speculation but upon a careful survey which Noran E. Kersta, NBC's assistant television coordinator, has made over the past two years. During that period of experimental broadcasting, Kersta has made a statistical compilation of the televiewer's reaction.
A "command" audience of about 500 people witnessed the programs on 100 sight receivers in the homes of NBC and RCA executives. Only time will tell whether the programmers have struck just the right balance. If not, the menu will be readjusted to meet conditions.
Whether John Q. American Public will be willing to change his domestic habits for television is one question which perplexes the radio bosses. You cannot "see in" a television show while wandering all over the house, as in listening to a sound program. The hope is that John Q. will be willing to sacrifice his wanderlust for increased enjoyment.
The increased enjoyment will come from closer contact with many accomplished and talented personalities whom the public knows slightly. When such people appear in a living room and speak out, you will know them better.
Television Faces Technical And Economic Limits
NEW YORK. — New York City, Schenectady, and possibly Los Angeles will be the starting cities for television this year. Albany, Troy, Amsterdam, and Saratoga, New York, will be in the range of the Schenectady transmitter. A 50-mile radius from the Empire State Building will be the maximum range for Metropolitan New Yorkers. There is a very important reason for these limited areas. Modern television calls for a very wide channel in the air to transmit pictures and sound. The actual width is six times the entire present broadcasting band, that is, six times the air band from the bottom to the top of your broadcast receiver—and that for a single program.
Naturally there is no space for this in the already crowded broadcast range so the transmission must go down to the relatively new field of ultra short waves. Now these waves have much of the characteristics of light. When transmitted they tend to end at the horizon. Thus a television sending station is limited by the horizon visible from its antenna.
Skyscrapers and Television
One way of increasing this horizon distance and thus the station's range is to locate the antenna on a point as high above the ground as possible. So New York's tallest skyscrapers are in demand. The National Broadcasting Company has taken over the top of the Empire State Building and the Columbia Broadcasting System the top of the Chrysler Building. It is thus apparent that tall buildings are going to have a special value in the real estate market because of this.
The General Electric Company at Schenectady solves this problem by putting its transmitter on a 500-foot mountain and thereby expects even wider range than that of the Empire State Building station.
Naturally comes the question, "Even if a television station is limited in range, why can't all the major cities have television stations, hooked together like the present sound networks?" The answer to that question is not technical so much as economic.
Television, unlike sound radio-casting, is an experimental art. The government has not released television wave lengths for paid programs as yet. But even if it had the fact remains that those factors which support sound radiocasting are missing in television.
Early Revenue Limited
Sound broadcasting stations are paid by advertisers because of the thousands of potential customers making up the millions in the listening audience. In television the sets sold, even in the first year in New York, may be numbered in the hundreds, certainly not more than 10,000. And this is in the most concentrated and wealthiest market in the country!
Thus the broadcasters must foot the bill of putting on television programs for some time to come, until enough sets are out to make television attractive to advertisers. Naturally only those major distributing groups of radio such as the National Broadcasting Company. the Columbia Broadcasting System, and the General Electric Company could logically finance the trial period.
Rather than scatter their fire it appears wiser to concentrate on a few markets until the art has proved itself and its effectiveness in a given area has been determined. Then the duplication of such areas could be undertaken relatively quickly, with assured income in sight.
High Cost Also Cited
The next logical argument is that if more stations were set up in different cities the cost of programs could be split as in network broadcasting. The answer to that is that the wide band of channels required to send a television picture cannot be carried on existing telephone wires as is sound broadcasting. Even the new so-called cable which will carry 240 telephone conversations simultaneously is not "wide" enough for present day television pictures. If this cable could carry such programs, its cost would be so prohibitive that any saving in spreading program costs would be more than offset by "wire charges."
So it is apparent why two or three major centers will be the sole beneficiaries of television broadcasting this year. Just how rapidly stations will be set up in other cities next year will depend upon set sales and program developments during the next ten months. (Wainwright Sun, syndicated)
"Gunga Din" Film To Be Television Pioneer
Marking a milestone in the oft-rumored tie-up between television and the cinema, a special television version is being made of "Gunga Din," the $2,000,000 RKO Radio production starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
This television version will be in synopsis form, approximately 1000 feet in length, and will have about 10 minutes running time. It will be composed of close-up and medium close-up scenes, with special sound effects to achieve smooth flowing continuity.
Following conferences with National Broadcasting Company television experts, for whom the film is being prepared. "Gunga Din" was finally chosen as the vehicle best suited to the new medium treatise of its many spectacular outdoor scenes.
The television version will be shipped to New York for exhaustive tests until the end of March, at which time it is expected the new television broadcast station, now building, will be completed. At that time "Gunga Din" will be televised generally, and put on the high frequency waves for local and foreign consumption.
“This special version is, in a sense, a ground-breaker," stated Pandro S. Berman, executive vice-president of RKO Radio production. "Confident, however, that television will eventually use studio output generally, I feel certain that 'Gunga Din' will go down in history as a pioneer in this new field." (Bates County Democrat)
Friday, March 3Plan to Use Television in Motion Picture Merchandising Points to Scope of Possible Application of New Art
While the question of how fast television will progress to a stage comparable with radio broadcasting cannot presently be answered, there seems little doubt that its utilization in all its phases will be pushed as rapidly as is technically feasible.
This is again indicated in the announcement that Paramount Pictures is planning to use televised trailers in sales promotion of coming features. The first experiments will likely be under taken within the next two months on the transmitter now being tested at Montclair, N.J. by the Allen B. Dumont Laboratories, Inc., which Paramount controls.
PREPARATORY MOVE
The Paramount officials are preparing for the advent of television on the practical basis that when it does reach a broad-scale commercial status, their organization will have made beneficial adjustments. The present move in their opinion should help the exhibitors in the territory where the trailers are televised. Stanton Griffis, chairman of the executive committee of Paramount Pictures, Inc., who is also chairman of the board of Madison Square Garden Corp., in a recent address expressed the following views:
NEW DEPARTMENTS
"From the point of view of the film industry, we of Paramount believe that the development of television will bring into being in the studios important new departments, both for the adaptation of old films to television programs, but as well the manufacture of new specialty films of an entirely different nature for the television programs. Our laboratories are already working along these lines, for it is our belief that for the next few years a tremendous percentage of all televised programs will be from films and not from direct photography.
"For the exhibitor, we see the televising of great sports and other current events as an important adjunct to his newsreel program, and some day he will use direct transmission of the world panorama of news for projection directly on his screen—but I fear this is a long way off."
TO BOOST REVENUE
Mr. Griffis does not believe that Madison Square Garden will suffer at the box office from television in the future but rather will expect a tremendously increased revenue from its television activities. Likewise he sees television not as an enemy but as a friend of motion pictures and that it will be t h e source of great profits to the industry. The gregarious instinct in people, he holds, will continue a potent factor in public entertainment and amusement.
He called attention to the progress being made in television in Britain, where he was informed that about 10,000 television sets had been sold in the last few months and that the British Broadcasting Corp. was co-operating with the manufacturing associations on a drive to increase the number of sets to 100,000 during 1939. (Wesley Smith, Los Angeles Times)
TELEVISION TESTS PROVED SUCCESSFUL
One of the most ambitious television tests ever attempted was made recently when a cafe variety show was televised for the first time at Rockefeller Center by the National Broadcasting company. The program consisted of a floor show in the restaurant and an exhibition by ice skating experts on the Rockefeller Plaza Skating Pond, adjacent to the cafe.
O. B. Hansen, a vice-president of the National Broadcasting company, pronounced the show a success, and it is believed that this test is a forerunner of similar programs that will eventually be presented from other sections of the city. (Lynn Daily Item)
Saturday, March 4
When television brings the likeness of speakers into the American home, as radio now does their words, here is a hint what may be expected. These pictures were televised as three public figures spoke at the annual dinner of the Inner Circle, association of New York political writers, held last night [4] at the Waldorf-Astoria. Demonstration was arranged by National Broadcasting Co. (New York Daily News)
Sunday, March 5
Public Goes Behind The Scenes In Television at NBC
NEW YORK—The newest radio innovation in America—regularly conducted tours of "behind-the-scenes" television — was made available to the public by the National Broadcasting company at Radio City on September 1, to give visitors an opportunity not only to view real telecasts, but to participate in television demonstrations themselves during their visit to the studio. Each group appears before the camera for the party following, which sees the first group on receivers in an adjoining room.
The exhibit includes a complete television studio. This is a self-contained unit, entirely separate from the one now in use for 'the current experimental telecast by NBC-RCA over Station W2XBS atop the Empire State Tower; an explanation of the fundamentals of television is provided, together with an opportunity to examine the apparatus at close range. Television reception is shown on RCA experimental receivers, and there is a display of miniature settings, backgrounds and special visual effects used in television.
As with the NBC Studio Tours, which have attracted nearly 3,000,000 visitors since their inauguration four and a half years ago, there is an admission charge for the television exhibit.
Daily from 9:00 a.m. to 11 p.m., parties leave every ten minutes from the mezzanine floor of the RCA Building in Radio City. The groups are escorted by a corps of trained guides who have had special schooling in the technical phases of television for several weeks.
The tour begins in a television museum, where are displayed some of the early television devices. Here is the mechanical scanning machine used by Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, noted radio engineer, for his first demonstration of television in an Albany, N. Y., theatre ten years ago.
Also on exhibition are mechanical scanners dating back to the earliest days, from the one which scanned images in 48 lines progressively through the 60, 120 and 343 line scanners. There also is a. visual demonstration of scanning, the process by which the machine receives light impulses from the image in tiny dots, received in rapid succession across one line after another as one reads a page in a book.
The exhibit shows how the RCA all-electronic system was developed; how the Kinescope eliminated both the mechanical scanner and the neon lamp in television receivers, and how the Iconoscope made mechanical scanners obsolete in television cameras with the arrival of the present scanning standard of 441 lines, televising a complete image each thirtieth of a second.
Next stop on the tour is the receiving room, where four receiver-monitors are placed; then the control room, behind a glass partition. The tour continues to a room fitted with miniature sets used in television studios for panoramic shots, and finally to the television studio itself, equipped with a camera exactly like those used in the current NBC experimental telecasts. This studio has stage sets and a small, glass enclosed "theater" for televising moving diaramas and puppets.
In the regular experimental telecasts over W2XBS, the Iconoscope in the television camera converts light rays into electrical impulses. These are conveyed by coaxial cable to the video amplifier in the adjacent control room, thence to the transmitter which sends the pictures through the air.
For the studio demonstration, however, the transmitter is eliminated, but the principle of television is accurately illustrated. Coaxial cables carry the impulses from the camera direct to the four receiver-monitors, or receiving sets, placed in the next room. One of these receivers is fitted with a glass front, with mirrors behind it to disclose the interior of tomorrow's television set. With this special view of the Kinescope as it translates electric impulses back into light rays and throws them onto the screen at the rate of thirty pictures each second, visitors will complete their survey of the all-electronic television cycle developed by RCA and NBC. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
Monday, March 6
Television Plant Near
By Science Service
SCHENECTADY, N. Y.—(Special)—A new type, cubic-shaped antenna for the 10-kilowatt vision station of the General Electric company atop a 1,500-foot mountain in the Helderberg hills region near here is nearing completion.
Radical both in shape and design, the antenna will radiate picture-carrying waves polarized horizontally so that the signal will have more power than any existing television station in America.
Using four and one-half meter waves, the station, W2XB, will blanket the region of Albany and the entire capital district of New York state. Expected range of the station is about 40 miles, the distance to the horizon.
Schenectady's new television station will soon be completed but because there is much engineering investigation to be done prior to actual broadcasts, public transmission will not start before early summer.
Part of the system is an ultra short wave transmitter which will relay programs from Schenectady out to the mountain top station.
This relay station may be the forerunner of future chain vision broadcasting for it has been suggested that major cities might be linked through such small relay stations spaced at intervals of 10 or 12 miles across country.
Philco's Portable Video Transmitter Shown to Dealers at New York Session
A PORTABLE television transmitter, with all its apparatus contained in a box 4 1/2 feet high, 2 feet deep and 1 1/2 feet wide, and weighing approximately 420 pounds, mounted on wheels so that it can be easily moved indoors or out, was used by Philco Radio & Television Corp. to demonstrate television to the dealers and distributors attending its "All Year Round" convention in New York the week of March 6.
With power of less than 1 watt, the transmitter has a broadcasting range of about 175 feet, but during the tests it is so arranged that it does not send out signals which would interfere with other services in the ultra-high frequency region, between 50 and 56 megacycles, in which it operates, according to A. F. Murray, engineer in charge of television at the Philco plant.
The scanning camera, which is mounted on top of the box containing the 83 tubes and other transmitting apparatus, contains a cathode ray tube which produces images of 441 lines, 60 frames per second interlaced, in accordance with RMA standards. Images as viewed on the receivers were clear and of good quality. The receivers were laboratory models, as the sets which will be offered the public will not be shown until they are placed on sale May 1 in New York, Philadelphia and other cities having video transmission, Mr. Murray explained. Philco does not intend exhibiting television at the New York World's Fair.
Won't Market Transmitter
The portable transmitter will not be sold, he said, but was designed by two of his staff of television engineers, Charles Stec and B. E. Schnitzer, purely for use by Philco research men, permitting them to experiment with televising under all sorts of light conditions both indoors and out. It was first demonstrated before the Society of Automotive Engineers in Detroit Jan. 7, he said, and in February was taken to Palm Beach where a beauty contest was televised at the Sun & Surf Club, the bright costumes and the brilliant Florida Sun giving pictures seldom seen around Philadelphia. (Broadcasting, March 15)
Tuesday, March 7
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.
Thursday, March 9
Puppets Used in Television Show
Since "'The Drunkard" opened several years ago at the Theater Mart, members of the cast have appeared in various and sundry pictures and some of their services are in frequent demand on the radio. The other day Lois Hunt, leading woman of the melodrama, and a well-known puppeteer, staged a novel experiment for television by presenting three of her creations, namely "Arabella," "Way Down South" and "Aggie and Her Dog," with Miss Hunt doing the voice and dancing and William Young handling the puppets. (Los Angeles Times)
Television Sprouts Commercial Wings, Backed by 10 Years’ Experience
By JOSEPH W. LaBINE
Western Newspaper Union
History will remember April of 1939 as the month America became television-conscious.The research of more than 10 years, the expenditure of more than $10,000,000 will be climaxed when radio manufacturers place commercial television receivers on the market for the first time.
At least this announcement was made last October by David Sarnoff of the Radio Corporation of America, speaking for the American Radio Manufacturers' association. Simultaneously, when the New York World's fair opens April 30, commercial telecasting will begin in the Manhattan metropolitan area.
Before the year is out additional transmitters will be operating commercially at Schenectady and (possibly) Los Angeles.
But this most fascinating of modern sciences will still be wearing short trousers, ensnared in more technical, economic and artistic difficulties than the complicated motion picture industry ever imagined.
Strange to say, the least of these problems is that of technique. Ten years ago visionary television engineers dreamed of the great future in this business, once equipment could be perfected. The weird situation today is that television is mechanically quite perfect but programming and financing have been neglected.
Horizon Is Maximum Distance.
The receivers going on sale next month will project an 8 by 10-inch image into your living room, provided you live within horizon-range of the Empire State building or a 1,500 foot mountain near Schenectady. Also provided you can pay from $150 to $1,000 for a receiver. The former has sight only, the latter both sound and sight.
Behind that image in your living room is a devastating complexity of electrons, light beams, photography and ultra-short waves. Standing before a camera in the Empire State building, your favorite politician will harangue his no-longer-unseen audience with gestures as well as vocal inflections, all of which are picked up by a camera-sound combination. Whereas a regularly photographed image is transferred to the plate chemically, television does it electrically on a plate made up of several thousand tiny silver dots which react electrically to light.
The trick is that these silver dots are arranged regularly in lines across the plate. There are 441 lines on the full plate and by the time each is filled with its light and dark dots you have a finished picture not entirely different from the halftone pictures used to illustrate this story. Examine the pictures closely and you'll see the dots.
From Dots to Impulses.
Somehow, these television dots are transferred to electric impulses, amplified and shot through the air to receivers, whence the picture is recreated bit by bit. All this takes place in about one-thirtieth of a second, Since each complete image contains 200,000 dots, you get 6,000,000 a second, which is a lot of dots.
There's good reason for television's narrow broadcasting range. To transmit both pictures and sound requires a "channel" six times the distance from top to bottom of your radio dial, which means that television must turn to the unexplored field of ultra-short waves. Here is encountered still another problem. Regular "long" radio waves shoot into the air, bounce off the ionosphere and come back to earth. Not so ultra-short waves. Highly independent, they proceed in a straight line out over the horizon and zip off into space, never returning. Consequently all television audiences are confined to eye-shot of the transmitting station.
The one exception is that broadcasts may be "piped" from one city to another with coaxial cable, but a mile of this wire costs a small fortune and it is therefore impractical.
'Ghosts' Cause Interference.
Even on ultra-short wave and within the horizon radius, television does not always have clear sailing. "Ghosts" pop up occasionally in the form of reflecting surfaces which send an extra delayed image into the receiver. Empire State building broadcasts often encounter a ghost in the Palisades, a vertical wall of rock on the Jersey side of the Hudson river. Large surfaces like gas tanks also provide ghosts.
Sometimes freak waves may be reflected from the ionosphere, producing ghosts of broadcasts being made miles away on the same wavelength. During the past winter Dr. DeWitt R. Goddard, working on television at Riverhead. L. I., received fairly clear images televised from London and bounced off the ionosphere.
Artistically television compares with motion pictures. Only it has more ramifications. The first performance must be letter-perfect because it is the last performance. There are no retakes to correct poorly acted scenes, nor any time to debate the proper instant to "fade in" a second or third camera. Technicians, actors and audience are constantly alert, which indicates the change television may make in your home life.
New Field for Programming.
Once established, television holds tremendous program possibilities. Writing for the Christian Science Monitor, Volney D. Hurd visualizes evening foreign affairs discussions with the commentator pointing out spots of interest on the map of Europe. A few minutes later news events of the day may be recreated by motion pictures taken at the actual scene a few hours earlier. The next morning a cooking school will show someone actually preparing food. Visual education broadcasts will become an important factor in training both children and adults. If $10,000,000 has already been spent to bring television into its present Infancy, many more mil-lions must be spent to give it the polish of our modem radio pro-grams. The distance handicap and the expense of "piping" may be technical problems, but they're business problems, too. Add to this the fact that a half-hour television production will cost $60,000 (over one station) while a full-hour sound radio show costs only $30,000 over the complete national hookup. These things frighten would-be sponsors. Many firms now using sound radio would gladly invest $60,000 in a half-hour television show—provided they got something in return. But in New York, where American television has reached its highest development, the number of receivers by next December will be far less than 10,000. It's simply not worthwhile to spend $6 on each of these possible 10,000 prospects!
Population Counts.
Meanwhile, however, televisionists realize the New York metropolitan area will—by virtue of its population—be the first site of self-liquidating operations. That's why experimentation and sale of commercial receivers is being confined largely to this vicinity.
Much can be learned from England's experience. Youthful John L. Baird began experimenting with British television back in 1925 and today there are 10,000 receivers in the 30 to 50-mile radius surrounding Alexandria palace, London. This, incidentally, includes more than 25 per cent of the total population of England and Wales. making British television more feasible commercially. Two systems are used, the Emitron camera which—like the American method—uses electrical signals, and the Scophony system which uses a mechanical process and "scans" by strips instead of dots. The latter camera permits televised pictures to be reproduced on a large screen, encouraging the development of television theaters.
Don't expect television too quickly; in fact, be thankful its pioneers are holding back their achievement until they've something more permanent to offer, otherwise your investment might be a total loss. In the opinion of the federal communication commission, television is not ready for standardization or commercial use by the general public. But by the time 1939 is out tins viewpoint may change.
Saturday, March 11
Local Television Station On Air
Gets First Permit In New Jersey
The State Board of Public Utility Commissioners today authorized the first permit for an experimental television station in New Jersey, to be operated by that Allen B. Dumont Laboratories, Inc., of 2 Main Avenue, Passaic Park. The station, which received the approval of the Federal Communications Commission a month ago, has been on the air since conducting tests and experimental work. Within three weeks, it expects to begin broadcasting moving pictures with sound.
Eventually, said Dr. Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr., director of research, the station will broadcast outside events and staged productions.
The Dumont Laboratories is working on a different system of transmission than the National Broadcasting Corporation [sic], the Columbia Broadcasting System and others are using in their experimental work, he said.
As explained by Dr. Goldsmith, the either experimenters are using a transmission system which will crystalize the quality of reproduction at a certain point. To go beyond this will necessitate radical changes which will render receiving sets obsolete.
The Dumont system, on the other hand, permits improvement of the quality of the image received without necessitating any great changes in the receiving equipment. In other words, the improvements will be made at the transmission end.
The receivers will remain essentially the same, said Dr. Goldsmith, while improvements are being made in transmission.
The results of the experiments being conducted nightly, said Dr. Goldsmith, are “very promising.”
The Dumont station, whose call letters are W2XVT, is on the air from midnight to 9 o’clock in the morning.
It operates of a video frequency of 46.5 megacycles in sending pictures, and an audio frequency of 49.75 megacycles in sending sound.
The station has a 50-watt transmitter, which is of fairly low power. Dr. Goldsmith said, however, it is planned to step up the power so the entire metropolitan area will be covered.
The Dumont Laboratories already has receiving sets in three different models, a table and two console types, on the market. It is with three sets, most of which are at the homes of Dumont employees, that the experiments are being carried on.
The receivers reproduce an eight by ten-inch image in black and white.
Dr. Goldsmith also said the Dumont Laboratories are working on television in color, but because it is more expensive than black and white transmission and reception, it has not yet been offered to the public. (Passaic Herald-News)
Monday, March 13
Ultra-High Bands Allocated by FCC
ALLOCATIONS of frequencies in the ultra-high range from 30,000 to 300,000 kc., announced March 13 by the FCC to become effective April 13, reaffirmed previous assignments to general services, including television and "apex" broadcasting, except for several minor changes.
Renewing its action of Oct. 13, 1937, with respect to television, the Commission set aside the same 19 bands for this service, but specified that three of the bands (162,000-168,000, 210,000-216,000, and 264,000-270,000 kc.), while primarily for television, may be used secondarily for general or specific experimentation. Such experimental stations, however, will be required to vacate these bands if operation results in interference to any television service.
Also renewed were the assignments to aural broadcasting and facsimile of 75 channels in the band 41,000-44,000 kc. Twenty-five of these channels have already been allocated to non-commercial educational broadcast stations. [BROADCASTING, 1939 Yearbook].
In order to make way for additional aviation service, the new allocations shift experimental broadcasting in the ultra-high range to the 116,000-118,000 kc. band, heretofore assigned to amateurs. The band 142,000-144,000 kc. formerly broadcasting was assigned aviation.
"Nationwide" Television
In announcing the new assignments, no change in allocations for frequency modulation, as opposed to amplitude modulation, was made. Frequencies above 40,000 kc. provide for both types of experimentation, so that relative merits of the two types may be evaluated. It is anticipated, the Commission said, that as a result of such experimentation proper standards eventually will be developed.
Respecting television, the Commission said that to permit it to be inaugurated on a "nationwide" basis, a minimum of 19 channels should be reserved below 300 megacycles. This, it was made clear, is in connection with provision of service to urban as distinguished from rural areas, there being no immediate outlook for nationwide service paralleling network operations which would provide adequate rural coverage.
Aside from these changes, the new allocation order is identical with that issued in 1937 (Order 19) relating to relay, high frequency and experimental operations. Existing licenses for frequencies above 60,000 kc., except those operating in the broadcast services, were extended to Oct. 1, 1939. Under the changes, applications for renewals due to be filed on Aug. 1, 1939, must specify frequencies in accordance with the allocations, it was stated, as must all new instruments of authorization. (Broadcasting, March 15)
Tuesday, March 14
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.
