NBC had talked about remote broadcasts on W2XBS in October 1937. But the equipment wasn’t ready so the idea was postponed. The same with CBS announcing it would get W2XAB on the air “soon.” It had to admit in October 1937 it wouldn’t be ready until 1938.
One station that returned to the air, judging by local newspaper clippings, was W9XK at the University of Iowa. It resumed broadcasting once or twice a week, 15 minutes at a time, that month, after stopping its programmes earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, the FCC assigned frequencies specifically for television, even though manufacturers said they couldn’t be used yet to send signals.
Below are some of the news stories of the month pertaining to television. We’ve again skipped various opinion pieces. There’s a brief description of a W2XBS broadcast, and word that NBC was setting aside space in its about-to-be-built studios at Sunset and Vine in Hollywood. KNBH would not begin broadcasting until 1949. NBC outgrew the lovely building and it was torn down some years ago.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1937
TELEVISION OFF MT WASHINGTON
Summit Station Planned by Col H. M. Teague
Confers Here With National Broadcasting Officials
A long-range radio television station, equipped to send pictorial images through the air in synchronization with speech and music, is being planned for the bleak summit of Mt Washington, 6293 feet above sea level, the highest point in New England.
Out over the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the modern miracle at television will flash to local radio sets, if Col Henry M. Teague, president of the Mt Washington Railway Company—the famous cog railroad—is successful in negotiations he opened in Boston yesterday [4].
He visualizes a sending station on the summit, far above timber line, in the coldest, most windblown spot east of the Rockies, that will be powerful enough to reach to the larger communities—Boston, Portland, Montpelier, Springfield, Providence.
Height Primary Factor
The mountain top, he believes, will be an ideal location for such a station, because height is of primary importance in the broadcasting of television waves. These waves do not follow the curve of the earth like radio waves, but go forth in straight lines. The horizon is practically their range, at the present stage of development.
Col Teague came to Boston yesterday to confer with officials of the National Broadcasting Company. Little was said about the outcome of the day-long conference, but it is known the price of rental is one of the stumbling blocks to a completion of negotiations.
The railway company owns several acres on the summit, reached both by the cog railroad from the western slope and a toll automobile road from the east. A hotel shares the summit with a year-round meteorlogical [sic] station.
Tanks Ready at Fabyans
Col Teague, in anticipation of a successful outcome to his idea, has drawn plans for a site and the necessary equipment. Several steel tanks, to be used for gasoline storage, are loaded on flat cars at Fabyans, ready for the steep trip up the mountain. These tanks, it is planned, will be located near the marker to Lizzie Bourne, who perished years ago during an attempted climb to the top. She died in her father's arms with the summit almost in sight.
The Mt Washington Railway Company is a corporation within itself, although it is virtually a subsidiary of the Boston & Maine Railway. It acquired the rights for the cog railroad and purchased the summit area from the heirs of Coe and Pintree, many years ago.
Col Teague, who is the proprietor of the Mt Kinco House, in the Moosehead Lake section of Maine, spent several hours yesterday with John Shepard, head of WNAC. No statement was made about further discussions. (Boston Globe, Oct. 5)
DAVID SARNOFF REPORTS ON TELEVISION PROGRESS
By DAVID SARNOFF
DURING my five weeks abroad, I studied the latest developments of television in Europe. While interest is shown everywhere in this new branch of the radio art, greater progress has been made in England than elsewhere in Europe. Nevertheless, the experience to date with television in England, has only served to emphasize the formidable nature of the problems which must be solved before a satisfactory service of television to the public can be rendered, and a new industry soundly established.
The question is often asked: "Is England ahead of the United States in television?" I shall try to answer this question by stating the facts as I have now observed them on both sides of the Atlantic.
British Broadcasting Corp. has been operating its television transmitter, located at Alexandria Palace in London, for about a year. The range of this transmitter is more than 25 miles and covers all of London and its immediate vicinity. The system employed is known abroad as the Marconi E.M.I. Television System which is fundamentally based on the RCA Television System first developed in the RCA Laboratories in the United States. Under an exchange of patent licenses, this British company may use RCA patents in England and in turn, RCA and its American licensees may use British Patents in the United States.
Each side is therefore in a position to benefit from developments and improvements made by the other.
For nearly one year BBC has been broadcasting television programs to the public on a regular daily schedule of one hour in the afternoon and one hour in the evening.
Some fifteen British Radio Manufacturers have been offering television receiving sets to the public at prices ranging between $200 and $500 each. At the Olympia Radio show which I visited while in London, all the manufacturers exhibited their latest television sets and the BBC arranged special programs so that the public could view the actual operations of television while visiting the radio show. From a technical standpoint the results were highly satisfactory. The public filled the television booths and showed great interest. But while hundreds of thousands of ordinary broadcast receivers were sold during the show the public bought less than 100 television receivers in total.
During one year's operation of a public television service in England, less than 2,000 receivers in all have been sold to the trade and less than 1,000 are actually in the hands of the public. There is but one television transmitter in London, and I was informed that it will probably be two years more before a second transmitter is erected in any other part of England.The foregoing represents the present status of television in England despite the fact that geographically its problem is simple compared with the vast area to be served by a television service in the United States. Also it is to be noted that in England the costs of erecting a television station, the establishment of a special organization, and the furnishing of television programs, have been paid by the Government out of license fees paid by the public annually for the privilege of listening or seeing by radio.
The range of the RCA television transmitter atop the Empire State Building now operated by the NBC from its television studios in the RCA Building in New York City, is approximately the same as that of the BBC station in London. The television receivers installed in the homes of our experts, who have been carrying on field tests during the past year, are likewise of the same order of performance as those in use in England.
The major problem of television, in both countries, is to provide a program for the home that will meet public requirements and maintain public interest.
To place television on a commercial basis in the United States, it is necessary to establish a sufficient number of sending stations, that must be interconnected and able to furnish a regular service at least to the population residing within the principal market areas of our country. The erection of such stations, the provision of necessary interconnecting facilities, and the establishment of a regular program service that would meet public requirements and hold public interest, call for vast financial expenditures before any returns can be reasonably expected.
I firmly believe in the American System of private enterprise, rather than Government subsidy; of free radio to the home, rather than license fees paid to the Government by owners of receiving sets; and I have no doubt, that in due time, we shall find practical answers to the practical problems that now beset the difficult road of the pioneer in television. The road calls for faith and perseverance as well as ingenuity and enterprise but it is a road that holds great promise for the public, for artists and performers, and for the radio industry. (Radio Daily)
MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1937
Says Tele Must Create Own Program Technique
New Brunswick, N. J. — Television must develop its own program technique, and the ultimate characteristics of such programs should be "spontaneity"— in other words, television must capture images of the world in action — declared Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA technical consultant, in a talk before the New Jersey Press Ass'n here yesterday [4].
"Television networks of stations comparable to those existing in sound broadcasting," said Dr. Goldsmith, "must await the development of either the co-axial cable or automatic radio relay stations. Meanwhile, if public service should be inaugurated, individual stations can use local talent, films and traveling units."
Dr. Goldsmith said more than $10,000,000 had already been spent on television experiments, and current research appropriations may total between one and two million dollars a year.
New York presents problems in television transmission that are unique, Dr. Goldsmith stated, because of the effect of tall steel structures on the ultra-short radio waves employed in the new art, but he said that communities in northern New Jersey are in direct air line with the antenna on the Empire State Bldg.
Charles L. Allen, executive secretary of the press association, said newspapers must learn to use television as a supplement for their services in future. He termed coming of television as "an age of terrific competition in eye appeal." (Radio Daily, Oct. 5)
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1937
Television Up Another Notch
Special Demonstration Scores Hit.
By C.E. BUTTERFIELD
NEW YORK (AP)— Television is trying to grow up. It's [sic] latest demonstration had 25 persons in the "cast."
That was when the RCA-NBC system, now being used for field tests in New York, was operated yesterday [7] to give a preview of the National Business show open here Oct. 18.
The special Television studio on the third floor of Radio City was transformed into something on the order of an exhibit hall and the electric camera was moved about much as would a show visitor. The 25 persons included demonstrators, Albert Tangora, champion speed typist [right], and Miss Eleanor Rankin of New York, who was in charge of the televised tour. The guests, business executives, looked on by means of receivers installed three floors above and connected to the studio by a special wire line. They thought the demonstration “interesting and marvelous." It took 45 minutes for the preview.
Urges Launching Television Without Awaiting Perfection
Upper Montclair, N. J. — The sooner American television goes on a regular program basis, with television sets made available to the public, regardless how crude and no matter what the obstacles may be, the sooner this country will realize practical television. So says Allen B. Du Mont, head of the Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, a pioneer in the cathode-ray tube field, following his recent return from abroad and an inspection of television progress in England and on the continent.
Du Mont says there has been too much loose talk about television in this country, whereas in England they have gone ahead and started television broadcasts, thereby learning more in six months of practical activity than the U. S. is liable to learn in six more years of laboratory experiments. He believes that the only way to get the right answers to questions about technique, programs, service areas, networks and economics is to bring television out of the laboratory and make a real try.
Some 10,000 television sets have already been sold in England, according to Du Mont. Average price now is $350, but will be reduced to $200 shortly. He said the range of the London BBC transmitter is 100 miles.
Du Mont also declared the BBC has proved there is no absolute need for special co-axial cables for transmission of programs from pickup source to remote television transmitter and to associated stations of a network. (Radio Daily)
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1937
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30—Television program with radio station WSUI, 910 kcs.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1937
BROADCAST TESTS OF TELEVISION TO START NEXT YEAR
By C.E. BUTTERFIELD
This belief is based on the progress made at the RCA laboratories at Camden, N. J., where the equipment is being put together. It is just about ready for the preliminary power checkup before shipment to New York.
The transmitter, designed for ultra short waves, is in two sections, one for sight and the other for sound. It will be placed on the 73rd and 74th floors of the Chrysler building, to be connected by cable to a special studio in a building across the street. The antenna is to be built around the spire on top of the skyscraper.
While no date has been set to begin the actual broadcast tests, it probably will be well on toward summer before they get under way.
Meanwhile, the NCB-RCA setup on the Empire State building, with studios in Radio City, is making preparations to extend experimentation into the outdoor field by the addition of mobile equipment.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1937
Television on 3x4' Screen Is Demonstrated by RCA
First demonstration of the RCA projection tube in the reception of a broadcast television program took place last night on the tower of the Empire State Building with the sending of a program received from the NBC studios back to the RCA Building.
An enlarged picture, approximately 3x 4 feet, was thrown on the screen by the projection tube. Recent advances made in black and white television picture transmission and reception also were shown by RCA. The NBC television transmitter recently was equipped with a new antenna system which is expected to materially improve the field test transmissions.
Demonstration was held in connection with the convention of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, and President David Sarnoff of RCA addressed the group.
The New RCA cathode-ray tube of intense brilliance enabled the projection of moving images in black and white on the 3x4-ft. screen, marking the first demonstration of a broadcast television program on such a screen.
Addressing the engineers, Sarnoff pointed out that although television progress seems slow at times, and "television today is an unfinished product," the size of the screen has been increased from approximately 5x8 inches to 7x10, and in addition important progress has been made in projecting pictures 3x4 feet on a screen.
Television programs will cost much more than present radio shows, Sarnoff stated, and this constituted a tele problem as formidable as the technical problems yet to be solved. A program technique also must be worked out, and advertisers must be provided with assurance that the more costly medium will be worth the expense, he added.
Both film and live talent were used for the demonstration. Show included two dramatic sketches written for television, harp solos by Margaret Brill, a comedy skit by Herman and Banta and a newsreel. The show was picked up by iconoscope cameras in the NBC studios at Radio City, relayed by coaxial cable to the Empire State Tower transmitter, and broadcast from there back to the RCA Building. (Radio Daily, Oct. 15)
PROGRESS MADE BY TELEVISION DEMONSTRATED
Special Studio Show Is Put on for Motion Picture Engineers
By C.E. BUTTERFIELD
Associated Press Radio Editor
NEW YORK, Oct. 15 (AP)—Television on a screen came out of the laboratory temporarily last night [14] to show members of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers how far it has gone.
Studio Show Given
While the images it reproduced were somewhat dim, it did indicate some of its possibilities by putting them on an area three by four feet.
The apparatus was operated under actual broadcast conditions, displaying a 35-minute studio show of both live talent and films, in its first semipublic demonstration. In a test last summer before the Institute of Radio Engineers there was only a still picture without transmission.
The projector, which uses a special cathode ray tube and other apparatus, differs from direct reproduction in that the tube is designed to pass the image through a set of lenses onto the screen. In direct reproduction the picture appears on the flat end of a much larger cathode ray tube, which despite its greater size can handle pictures only about seven by ten inches. However, the resulting detail is better than in the case of projection.
Still in the process of development, the projection tube is part of the research now under way by Radio Corporation of America and National Broadcasting Company engineers. This work includes field testing in New York by the use of a special studio in Radio City and an ultra short wave transmitter for both sight and sound on the Empire State Building.
Receiver Demonstrated
Besides the projection, the movie engineers were shown the direct type of receiver, 13 of which reproduced images in black and white and two of which were operated in the shade of green of earlier cathode ray experiments. The black and white tends to give a sharper picture.
David Sarnoff, president of R. C. A., told the guests that while "television is today an unfinished product," its progress to date led him to express the belief that "the same pioneering spirit of private enterprise that has produced the great industries of the automobile, motion picture and radio will likewise provide us with a nation-wide system of television." Participating in the entertainment, put together much like a vaudeville revue, was Betty Goodwin, who has become known as NBC’s "television girl." Improvement in production was noticeable in that one scene was blended into another with much greater ease than in previous demonstrations.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1937
PHILCO APPLICATION REFUSED
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15—The Communications Commission returned today to the Philco Radio and Television Corporation, Philadelphia, its application for authority to build a new television broadcast station.
The commission said the Philco application was “not in proper form.”
MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1937
FCC SEES TELEVISION LONG DISTANCE AWAY
Washington.—A virtual admission that television is actually rounding the corner in the United States is seen in the action yesterday [18] by the Federal Communications Commission in clearing the upper traffic bands in an allocation move which is considered one of the most important in recent years. The FCC order is a significant basic step in paving the way for the actual development of reliable service and proper technical standards preparatory to the practical use of television.
Air space will be increased ten-fold by the FCC act. Ultra high frequency bands from 30,000 to 300,000 kilocycles are affected by the new allocation standards set up by the FCC order. Seven channels between 44,000 and 108,000 kilocycles, and 12 channels between 156,000 and 300,000 kilocycles are assigned to television, including in six megacycle width, both pictures and synchronized sound.
In the 41,020 to 43,980 kilocycle band, 75 channels are made available for assignment to aural broadcasting stations. Sixteen channels for relay broadcast stations are provided in the band from 30,830 to 39,820 kilocycles.
The FCC order is effective October 13, 1938, but due to the scarcity of assignments at present in ultra high frequency bands, the commission may make assignments before that date. (Hollywood Reporter, Oct. 19)
Television Test To Be Delayed
More Time Needed To Assemble Equipment.
By C.E. BUTTERFIELD
NEW YORK, Oct. 18.—(AP)—Outdoor pickups of experimental television broadcasts here are not to get under way as soon as it was first hoped. The indications now are that it will be two or three weeks before they do.
The delay is due to the fact that more time is being required to put the equipment together. It is being housed in two mobile units, one for the electric camera and the other for the ultra-short wave relay transmitter. When the apparatus is ready it will be put to work about the streets of New York and other sections of the big city as another adjunct for the field test studio and Empire State transmitter be operated with the RCA-NBC system. It is not expected that a demonstration will be conducted until some time after the arrival of the apparatus because of a desire to iron out any possible kinks.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1937
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30—Television program with radio station WSUI, 910 kcs.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1937
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30—Television program with radio station WSUI, 910 kcs.
Westmore Says Television Won't Need Freak Makeup
Television performers will be required to use only natural makeup, and probably less of it than the average New York woman uses for street wear, it was predicted yesterday [21] by Percy Westmore, prominent Hollywood makeup man, following an inspection of the NBC television studio in Radio City.
Westmore scoffed at the oft-circulated stories that purple lipstick, green rouge and blue powder would be required for makeup of artists appearing in front of the television camera.
"I have had an opportunity to study studio conditions and see the television image, and I am convinced the development of makeup technique for television will follow the current trend in motion pictures," said Westmore. "We are using less grease paint today, less powder and less lip rouge. There is every reason for television to do likewise, particularly because spontaneity and naturalness are keynotes of the medium."
Makeup's two biggest contributions to television, Westmore believes, will be to define features more clearly and accentuate the plans of the face.
Gloria Dickson, Hollywood actress, accompanied Westmore on his NBC tour and did voluntary duty as a subject for the iconoscope camera. (Radio Daily, Oct. 22)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1937
Parts for Television Sets to Be Sold Soon
Receiving apparatus, like first radios, will be home-made
New York, Oct. 23 (AP)—The first television sets, like the first radios, will be home made. Engineers confirmed this today after word leaked out that the Radio Corporation of America will soon market parts from which such sets can be built.
The first sets will probably cost from $200 to $300.
The parts will be sold, it was explained at the RCA offices, because television experts have found no better way of bringing radio pictures from the experimental stage into widespread practical use. Programs too Expensive From the time television emerged from the dream phase, engineers have striven to bring the new medium to life full grown. They wanted receiving sets, broadcasting apparatus and programs perfected together so the thing could start at full tilt. The Federal Communications Commission co-operated in this limiting television broadcasting licenses to an experimental basis.
But experience has shown that television programs are too expensive to attract commercial sponsors unless those sponsors are assured a large audience. The audience will not be there unless buyers of television sets are assured a steady flow of good programs. And—here is the big catch—television engineers are afraid to sell complete sets now because developments are coming so fast the sets soon would be out of date.
So the television men are turning deliberately to the man who, accidentally, was responsible for the development of radio—the great American handy-man-around-the-house—the fellow who can build anything as long as he has the parts.
Builds Own Set
The handyman builds his own set, and when a change comes he makes 'it by inserting a new part instead of buying a whole new set. His experiences help the television engineers, and when commercial sets are ready they are compact and cheaper because they are made for mass consumption.
The growth of television will thus be like that of radio, but it will also be different. In the earliest days of wireless anyone anywhere could sit in his parlor with his crystal and earphones and listen to dots and dashes of the Morse code. That was great stuff then because no one thought of anything better. The voice and music broadcasts which followed could also be heard over a wide range.
The first television sets, on the other hand, will be dependable only within a 100-mile radius of New York and Philadelphia, the two cities from which regular picture programs are now broadcast. Another difference between young television and young radio is that the first radios had innumerable, crude parts.
In television, much of this preliminary detail has already been eliminated in the laboratories. The main part in the home made sets will be a large cathode ray tube, similar in appearance to an over-grown radio tube, through which electrical impulses are filtered, amplified and converted into light rays. Other important parts "scan" the picture, picking up light and shadow line by line just as your eye reads a book, from left to right, down the page; focus the screen and “stepup” the current.
The parts, which will go on the market within a few months, can be assembled and hooked up to an ordinary radio set.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1937
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30—Television program with radio station WSUI, 910 kcs.
Philco has re-submitted to FCC its application for television station, on 204,000 to 210,000 band. (Radio Daily)
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1937
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30—Television program with radio station WSUI, 910 kcs.
Many FCC Tele Channels Too High, Says Murray
Philadelphia — FCC assignment to television of channels 44-108 megacycles has given television companies a number of desired channels, but some of them are so high that they cannot be used today for this purpose, according to A. L. Murray, Philco Television engineer, and Chairman of the Television Committee of the Radio Manufacturers Association. In addition, Murray said, the television channels are sandwiched between those used for other purposes.He pointed out that the assignment does not cover commercial television. "The commission," he said, "made it very clear that there does not appear to be an immediate outlook for the recognition of television service on a commercial basis. These assigned channels are solely for the continuance of experimentation and the solution of the many problems that still confront television, and must not be taken as an indication that commercial television is right at hand."
The R.M.A. committee told the FCC that before television experimentation could be successfully carried on the whole band from 42 to 90 megacycles had to be cleared for this purpose. (Radio Daily)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1937
Zenith Amends Charter For Television Activity
Chicago — The way was paved for Zenith Radio to enter the television field at a meeting of stockholders here this week amending articles of incorporation permitting the firm to broaden its activities to include the field of visual radio. An application for permit to build transmitter had previously been turned down by FCC on grounds company charter did not permit television activity.
E. F. McDonald Jr., president of Zenith, told stockholders that while problems of television are not insurmountable, commercial application appears to be well in the future. He expressed the belief that television will come over telephone wires instead of through the air by radio waves. Added that he expects American Telephone and Telegraph Company to handle the transmission of television programs, with the public paying for the service as it does for phone services today. Radio manufacturers, he thought, would probably restrict their television activity to building receivers. (Radio Daily)
NBC STARTS BUILDING IN HOLLYWOOD
TO REPLACE its present Hollywood studios, already outgrown although built only two years ago, NBC will begin immediate construction of its new Hollywood home at the famous intersection of Sunset Blvd. & Vine St., site of the original Famous Players-Lasky film lot.
The new structure will provide for the immediate needs of NBC, occupying about half of the five-acre tract, comprising two city blocks, and leaving ample room for future expansion as well as for television studios when needed. Designed by O. B. Hanson, NBC chief engineer, and the company's design unit, working in cooperation with the Austin Co., which will erect the building, the studios will be patterned after the motion picture unit plan.
Four large individual studios under separate roofs, each with an audience capacity of several hundred persons and four non-audience studios will be used for broadcasting. Executive offices will be housed in a central office building at the corner of Sunset and Vine, which visitors will enter through a three-story lobby from which a huge master control room with its intricate panels and apparatus will be visible. Modern in every respect, with the latest lighting facilities, air conditioning, acoustical treatment, the studios will also represent the latest development of NBC engineers, including an automatic pre-set switching system.
"This development," said President Lenox Lohr [on Oct. 29], "marks a definite step in the importance of Hollywood as a center for the radio industry. That Hollywood is important in radio is borne out by the fact that less than two years ago we opened the most modern broadcasting center we could construct. Already we have outgrown it."
It is expected that Don Lee Broadcasting System, Los Angeles, will take over the present NBC Hollywood headquarters. (Broadcasting, Nov. 1)
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