Evening star., 1939-05-14
Problems
Remain
Uns0lved
F.C.C.Endeavoring
To Establish Guide
For Buyers
By William J. Wheatley.
Television is on the air today!

Television is on the air today!
Choosing the opening OF the
Worlds Fair as the occasion Tor
formally inaugurating the first regu-
: lar programs of pictures hurting
through the ether, the manufacture
ers of television receivers have sought
to show the general public that years
of experimentation have now brought
this new form of home entertain
ment to the point where the con-
sumer can have receiver in his
home.
Of course. television has been on
the air for years. But it has been
laboratory development up to the
present. and the receivers have been
in places where the experimenters
can observe their workings. 1t is
only now that they are being offered
to the general public, and even now
only in small area surrounding New
York-to be exact a distance OF 50
miles in each direction from the En-
pire State Building atop which is
located the transmitting antenna.
But the question that is botnerlng
the Federal Communications Com
mission, that governmental agency
charged with the duty of regulating
radio in all its phases, is whether
the experimentation has reached the
stage where the general public should
be permitted to put out its good
money for the purchase of expensive
receiving sets which, in short time,
may become obsolete. The develop
ments and changes are so rapid that
the commission committee which is
studying the problem has decided to
collect further information before
attempting to lay down standards to
guide the radio listening public in
its purchase of receivers.
The committee is fully mindful of
the fact that the listening public has
by far the greatest investment in
the radio industry, through owner
ship of receivers, according to figures
just made public by the commission.
For the aural sets now in use, the
commission has found that the con-
suming public has an investment in
the amount of S3724,0 100000 as
ers in their stations of SAT 900 900.
The investment in television re-
ceiving sets would be even greater,
If the public we're encouraged to get
into the market for them. For in
stance, it was asserted. if in the light
of the fact that programs now are
being broadcast in the New York
area. 25 900 people should purchase
sets at an average cost of 5000 set,
the investment there alone would be
$5.000000.
The manufacturers of the television
sets now are bringing pressure to
bear on the commission to give its
approval to this form of broadcast
ing to the end that they might
capitalize on the millions of dollars
that have been spent on the expert
ments that have brought television
to it's present stage of development.
The commission is fully cognizant
of this as it is also of the fact that
those who have been experimenting
obtained their licenses for the eX-
perimental stations for the sole pur-
pose of conducting tests in this
phase of the radio art. They believe
that the manufacturers should be
able to get back some of their money
as quickly as possible, but there is a
more important phase of the matter
which is the protection of the gen.
eral public against putting millions
into sets that may become so much
junk in short period of time.
A committee of the commission
charged with the duty of studying
the development of television with a
view to making recommendations as
to what standards should be pro-
mulgated at this time has Just COM
pleted an inspection of laboratories
conducting television experiments in
and around New York. This COM
mittee is composed of Comdr. T. A.
NJ Craven, former chief engineer
and now a member of the commits
sion. and an outstanding engineer in
the radio field, chairman; Commits
sioner Norman S. Case, and Com
missioner Thad H. Brown. Ac-
companying this committe on its in
spection also were Commissioners
George Henry Payne and Pau
Walker together with members Of
the technical staff and the legal de-
partments.
While the commission has hitherto
kept abreast of the development Of
television, it has not until recently
found 1t necessary to take any actor
tending to affect the details of tht