Evening star., 1939-06-18
Grid Battle Scenes
Are Scheduled for
Fall Broadcasts
Boxing, Track Pictures
Recently Flashed Get
Favorable Reaction
BY c. E. BUTTERFIELD,
Associated Press Radio Editor.

Associated Press Radio Editor
NEW YORK, June 17.-Television
when it gets going strong, appar-
emily will depend a great deal on
the sports arena for thrills through
the air.
Just how much might be indi-
Gated from the fact that already 1t
has sampled baseball, six-day BIZ
cycle racing, a track meet and prize
fighting.
1t has many other subjects In
view. Prime among which would be
next falls football.
All OF the samples have been
broadcasts to the New York area
through the N. B. C. transmitter in
the Empire State Building, W2XBS.
Most were made possible by use of
the mobile pickup equipment housed
IN two motor vans.
Looking Reaction" Good.
So far the looking reaction-nat-
urally the viewing audience hasn't
been so large because of the limited
number of receivers-has been
highly favorable. In fact, those who
have compared these broadcasts with
other types of televised programs
think they hold the interest to
larger extent.
OF all the sports thus available
boxing offers probably the best sub
ject. That's because the action all
takes place within a small area,
which is more in keeping with the
limitations of the scope of the tele-
vision camera.
Baseball, in the only game tele-
vised hereabouts, didn't do nearly so
well because the camera used had
to be set at long range to take in
as much of the diamond as possible.
AS it turned out, the commentator
voice was an important essential in
grasping the action. Images of the
players were small and the ball itself
could be seen only at brief instances.
This was a recent game between
Columbia and Princeton at Baker
Field.
Better images came when N. B. c.
televised two afternoons of the I.
c. A. A. A. A. track meet at Ran
dalls Island. The camera was To-
Gated near the finish line and 1t
wasn't such difficult matter to
follow the speedy athletes.
Poor Lighting, Good Results.
Even at the 6-day bicycle race In
Madison Square Garden. under the
handicap of poor lighting as far
as the television camera was con-
cerned. the results were regarded
as worthy of the effort.
In the list of boxing was New
York's first televising of regularly
scheduled heavyweight match, the
nighttime battle between Max Baer
and Lou Nova. with the accompany
ing preliminaries. 1t was almost
like being at the ringside.
Before that, however, Nova had
appeared in a studio exhibition
match for three rounds with Patsy
Perroni. and several other studio
snatches of boxing had been put
on.
Like at the bicycle races, the
cameras at the Baer-Nova go had
to function without the aid of ex-
ira lighting and produced what
were described as excellent pic
lures.
But. 1t being summer, more base
ball will be put on the air, it is ex-
pected. And when that comes up,
the lessons learned in the first dia-
mond pickup will be applied. For
one thing, 1t is planned to use two
cameras instead of one to provide
both closeups and distance shots.
Can't Move Camera
In televised sports outside of studio
boxing the job is to get the camera
located where most of the action is
taking place. Once set up, it cannot
be moved during a broadcast. Then
1t Is up to the man running the
camera to be quick both with his
eye and his machine to get in all
Of the best action
Most of the sports transmissions
have run upward of two hours. with
the interest of the audience closely
held throughout.
Just how large have been these
viewing audiences is question
difficult to answer, but an estimate
placed one of them at around 10000
persons.
While New York has been getting
its first taste of televised sports, the
same subject is not exactly new
over in England, which is consider
ably older in pictures through the
air than is the United States. That's
in view of the fact programs were
started there about two years ago.
Horse racing, particularly the
famous English Derby, has been on
the air several times.
Lockers even have gone so far as
to crowd into theaters at so much
per look to watch an event unfold
itself through an enlarged image