Evening star., 1951-09-06
On the Air
Video Links
| The Coasts
With Ease
By Horr Macarthur

Dy notIy WucAItnuI
| There Is one thing that must be
said for television. More and more.
as time goes by, it develops its
knack for taking its historic mile
stones in stride. Continually it
offers new evidence that the elec-
ltronics engineers are learning
more and more about making the
electrons behave.
1t wasn't too long ago that the
coaxial cable linking New York
and Washington was looked on as
one of the modern worlds won-
ders. It also was a somewhat less
dependable wonder than Old
Faithful in its early day. 1t came
as no surprise, rather as semi
expected disaster, on that night
wnen WITTY, New York. was
launching its service with a gala
show from the old Palace. when
| the coaxial cable overseers lost
the picture somewhere in their
maze of wires. Lost it completely.
It went into the equipment in
New York but for some time no.
body knew where it came out.
certainly not at WMAL-TV here.
There was that proud day, too,
when television was loudly hailing
Its latest advance. the coaxial
cable linking together the East
ern and Midwestern networks.
This ultimately was to bring us
such delights as "Kukla, Fran and
Ollie" Zoo Parade" Studs
Place" and "Garroway at Large"
but the early impression given
televiewers around these parts was
that a heavy smoke pail from the
great fire still hung over Chicago,
seeping even into the TV studios.
Those early television pictures
out of Chicago were probably the
only thing the medium ever had
which kinescope recording was
better than. They were fuzzy,
they had an alarming tendency
to dissolve into venetian blinds.
causing a lot of unnecessary knob
twisting by viewers suspicious of
their receivers, and they occa-
Isionally wandered up some cul-de-
sac in the Alleghenies and got lost
completely.
Improvements in TV network
transmission, which brought us
! the top-notch special effects of
the Garroway show and bring us
nightly that clean, sharp picture
on ''Kukla. Fran and Ollie should
have prepared any one for the
latest television advance. None OF
that fumbling of the early pioneer
days was noted when TV passed
the milestone of the first trans
continental telecast Tuesday night.
Viewers who expected Interrupt
tions, interference, or hazy pic
ture of barely recognizable fea-
lures were agreeably surprised.
The announcer merely noted
that this was a historic occasion.
the first coast-to-coast telecast.
Secretary of State Dean Acheson
introduced President Truman. the
President delivered his speech
opening the japanese peace treaty
conference. the band played him
of with Hail to the Chief" and
that was that. Transcontinental
IteleviSion was here.
1t was a real triumph for the
American Telephone and Tele-
graph Co. engineers. The program
came over without a hitch. There
was a bit of that venetian blind
effect at first, but. it might have
been due to a misbehaving camera
and it was soon cleared up. There
was some loss in definition, as
there is in any long distance
transmission, but the picture
seemed TO sharpen as the broad
cast went on and was completely
satisfactory. If it never is any
less clear-cut than it was Tues
day night, we won't have any COM
plants about the quality Of the
television picture from the West
Coast.
The size of President Truman's
television audience can only be
guessed at, incidentally. 1t could
have been close to 40 million and
Iif you want to make your own
estimate you can start with these
figures. There are 13,300, 1000 tele-
vision homes, according to the
American Research Bureau, and
j95 per cent of these, according to
NBC, now are in range Of the TV
network.
That would be 12,435, 900 pos
Isible TV homes and the usual
average of three viewers per set
would mean 37.305, 900 possible
viewers. It's anybody's guess how
many of these sets were on and
what the average number of view
Iers per set was.
4 x X n
Program NOteS-Charles Col
ingwood, CHS White House COR
respondent, will be moderator and
host on a new public affairs pro-
gram which will start Sunday at
Is pm. on CHS (WTOP-TV). "The
Big Question" will be the title and
the first discussion will be Of the
Japanese peace treaty, by dele
gates to San Francisco. An
other documentary on Communist
confessions" is scheduled for TV.
this one called THAT Men May
Know" to be seen Sunday at 8
(WNBW) on American Inven-
tory" An interim show, "Au-
thor, Author!" featuring stories by
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