Evening star., 1951-07-18
Ion the Air
|Set-kukers
| Will Agree
T his Once
BY Harry Macarthur

!
for televiewers to remember. It is
Ifraught with possibilities. Fraught
lif nothing else.
Tonight is the night when you
may find the makers of Admiral
Itelevision sets telling you, in ef-
feet, to rush out tomorrow morn
ling and buy a Crosley. DuMont,
General Electric, Motorola, Philco,
|RCA, Sylvania or Westinghouse
Itelevision set. Or, you may find
any one of these manufacturers
urging you to buy any television
set just so you buy one.
Competition will, of necessity,
be forgotten, these nine TV set
makers having banded together in
common cause. They have chosen
to demonstrate the deSirability of
downing a television receiver by
|outbidding the theater TV group
for rights to the Charles Walcott
fight, to be telecast on DuMont
(WTTG) at 10 pm. land broad
cast on CBS-WTOP).
This places the nine sponsors
in unique position. wherein none
will be able to tell you his set is
better than the others. This is
going to be tough on the adver-
|tising boys. But fight conceiv-
ably can last only the length of
time it takes one battler to reach
the other and belt him a solid one
lin the chops. Each of these spon-
sors win have to get equal repre-
sentation for his money "a total
of $100,000 in each spot an
nouncement, just in case there are
only two.
1t may seem strange, but it
appears for once that there will
be no talk of black daylight, glare
proof, sealed beam, magic eye,
million proof superiority. It may
throw prospective buyers into COM
|plete confusion, but for this once
at least not one of these TV sets
is going to be a bit better than
the other eight.
4 y
Precedent: This business of TV
set makers providing programs to
make set ownership attractive is
not without precedent, of course.
When radio was young and before
the ad agencies discovered these
vast sponsor funds they could get
Is per cent of, the radio set makers
thought they were going to have
to provide the programs to in
duce people to buy sets.
1t was this theory, in fact, which
was responsible for the founding
Of the National Broadcasting Co.,
now celebrating its 25th ami
versary. The first advertisement
announcing NBC read In part:
"The Radio Corporation of
America is the largest distributor
of radio receiving sets in the
world. It handles the entire out
put in this field of the Westing-
house and General Electric fac
tories.
ut does not say this boastfully.
It does not say it with apology.
1t says it for the purpose of
making clear the fact that it is
more largely interested, more
selfishly interested. if you please,
i'm the best possible broadcasting
in the United States than any
|one else"
There was none of that CUFF
about giving you good programs
because you're so deserving. NBC
proposed to give you good pro-
grams because RCA wanted to sell
radio sets. In a day when every
broadcasting project is an altru-
istic public service with never a
thought for making a buck, that
1926 candor is a fresh breeze
across the years.
y X X II
Another "First": This move by
the TV set makers to obtain the
Charles Walcott championship
bout. for home viewers does not
mean that the big-screen televi-
sion protector at Keith's will not
be put to use tonight. There will
be some theater television there
as part of the ceremonies at
tendant upon the world pre-
miere at popular prices" of
"Cyrano de Bergerac."
It will be something of a minor
milestone, too. since 1t will be
the first showing of a local Tv
program on theater television
when the last five minutes of the