Evening star., 1950-04-30
TeIevision-Radio
Thus We Play the Fools With the Time,
And the Spirits of the Wise Mock Us
By Harry Macarthur

Whatever comes Of the District s
daylight time muddle tomorrow
or whenever something comes Of 1t
II anything ever does-the local
televiewers are in for some un-
happy days. Life is made a lot
easier by habits (the right ones,
of course). but you'd better not let
habit guide your viewing today If
there's program you don't want
to miss. You get minded
about this and you are likely to
snap that channel selector and
come on an old friend saying
good-by rather than hello.
For today Is the day New York,
along with other large areas which
can decide for themselves about
such things, went on daylight
time. The District, as you well
know, did not. This means that
television programs coming out of
New York and Chicago at their old
accustomed times will be arriving
here an hour before they start, the
way your Washington clock reads.
Since kinescoping everything
isn't feasible-from the stand
point Of time, cost and program
quality-local TV outlets will put
programs on the. air at the time
they are on the network. Some
local shows will remain at their
regular times. Your Junior Re-
vue," on WNBW at noon today,
for instance, will not be affected,
but virtually every other tefevision
program this afternoon and to-
night will be an hour ahead Of
itself.
Radio. thanks to the tape re-
corder, can make things easier
for you. The networks simply
will transmit shows at their reg
ular times to daylight time areas
and an hour later transmit re-
cordings to stations still on stand
ard time. There will, of course.
be a few exceptions. Special
events broadcasts will be sent to
all areas simultaneously. stop
the Music" will be on WMAL at
7 tonight. instead of s, since tele-
phone calls while the program is
on the air are an integral part of
the show.
And you know what will happen
about the time you get used to
all this-daylight time in the Dis
trict. x
All is not unhappiness today,
however. Variety, the show bust
ness journal which keeps track Of
entertainment news, good and
bad, is ready to report a welcome
trend. "Simulcasting on Way Out"
is the way it headlines the story
and the gist of the report is that
simulcasting is, indeed, on the
way out. Two of the major
simultaneous AM-TV programs
I'VE, the People" and Voice of
Firestone"-are expected to see
the light when autumn arrives,
leaving only Arthur Godfrey's
Talent Scouts" trying to be fish
and fowl at the same time. (This
is a figure of speech and is not
intended to mean that there is
anything f1shy about Godfrey's
program, or that it is foul, for
that matterD
For a long time too much in
fuential network thinking was
guided by the premise that tele-
vision was nothing more than
radio with sight added, a sort of
gadget to let everybody into the
studio audience. 1t is gratifying
now to learn that those who are
aware that radio and television
are distinctly separate forms of
communication are both increas-
ing and gaining more influence.
This is especially good news
around here on several counts.
The first is, of course, that pro-
grams thus separated will improve
in both radio and television ver-
sions. The second count is that
1t occasionally feels good to be
able to say, Il told you So" Back
on January 80. 1949. to name one
date. this corner was wailing.
There is too much radio in tele-
vision already" 1t took some
time, but the boys seem to be
coming around.
X x
There is another trend here.