Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 May 1949 — Page 33

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Section Theo 3

Sixteen Pages

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~The Indianapolis Times

Editorial ....coone 3 Politics : . ha see 35

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Work Pushed On WFBM-TV For May 30th

- Hoosier Station to Bring 500-Mile Race to Central Indiana Homes Thirty-three thundering racing cars will be traveling by microwave through the air of Central Indiana a week from tomorrow when the first Hoosier television station goes on the air, : Television's auspicious inaugural, timed to coincide with motoreracing’s most important world event, will record for the first time the complete race from pacemaking lap to

Television went into high gear several weeks ago when WFBM-TV announced it would be on the air with the race. Since then Central Indiana TV fans have besieged retail outlets to get sets installed by the time the race starts. It is expected some 2500 sets will be turned on for the race with more than 25,000 pairs of eyes focused on the roaring cars in television screens. Wie Harry Bitner Jr., owner-manager of WFBM-TV, credfted with bringing the first television transmitting station to Indiafia, has been working around the clock with his staff to put his station in readiness for the opening event. Hoosiers have opened their pocketbooks wide to get in on television from the start. Special shipments of receiving mets are coming in daily by express to meet the torrent of demand. pe : Installation is the problem as the race date neays. It takes time to Pp Bt a set in Its) ponsors will have been added to proper place in a home andthe already growing list of those

get it in working order. Usu- who will pay the television bg ally it is a two-man job, one on WEFEM-TV is oh aan in, the roof, and one at the receiving O7'° 0 ve allo or a set. Installers are working early 070 : ares 10 Donagtos i and late at the insistence of buy- gran x Fon 0. Ch nc mi to. make deliveries. aL leaves anne's s, 8 an ors 12 open, for which there are four - Reaches 100-Mile Circle applicants, WIRE, WISH, WIBC Mr. Bitner said the stationand the Crosley station at Cinplans to offer only the best in cinnaty, NLT: hin gone television entertainment and edu- ry osley now operates TV stations

cation. A careful selection of in Cincinnati, Dayton and Colum-|

ceptance of advertising, and an for Indianapolis. adequate film Library oL Sou. Four Hours at First mentary films, sound movies an at or ox Totty On ig Sevision In time wr] Tupke 2 and children is being ihstalled in| panpits of Central Indiana resithe WFBM-TV studios on the|gents, It can be used for sports fourth floor at 48 Monument events, political conventions and Circle. other centers of locs: _.#west. Clear, sharp reception is guar-| WFBM-TV will ‘$.2k- to the anteed in a 100-mile circle cen-istay-at-home hours, from 6 to 10

— SUNDAY, MAY 22, 1049

- DAY IN

Three Cameras. To Televise © 500Wie Race.

Four Lenses Ay Will Permit Variety of Shots

Thirty-three tire-sizzling racing cars will roar almost into the lenses of the three television came eras which will record the 500 {Milt Race for the first time Me» (morial Day. : ¥ = | The three cameras, each | equipped with four lenses, will be {divided between the Press Pagoda, Jd [where two will be stationed, and a {special platform at the top and {rear of Grandstand E. Each cam. {era will have one lens each fof |closeups, medium range, ordinary {long range and extra long range | shots, Directing the curtain-raiser on television in Indiana will WFBM-TV's Fred Mullen and |Gene Starbeck. | A technical crew of nine, headed by. WFBM-TV's Chief Engineer Harold 8. Holland, will strive for beat camera shots from strategic points. Two Announcers

Two announcers will “voice” the telecast. Both Richard Pite tenger and Earl Townsend, ex. perienced race broadcasters, will add words to the television

NAPOLTS

tering in Indianapolis, meaning that the signals may be relied upon within 50 miles of the city, but will be received farther. Mr. Bitner has rearranged his studio to accomodate the deluge of equipment needed for television. A new studio, with moveable backdrops, drapes, special lighting and acoustics, has been installed in the rear of the station’s quarters. The transmitting tower on tap of the Merchants National Bank Bldg., has risen to readiness in the last three weeks, after special supports were installed in the building to bear the additional tonnage of the structural steel. Relayed to Bell Bldg. Ir a penthouse atop the same building the transmitter is located with two engineers An charge. oy In handling routine telecasts

the programs will be camera-|fixed on the screen. |

recorded in the studio, and relayed by coaxial cable to the

p. m. daily, until audiences and programs demand more time at other hours. Saturday will be dark on television screens since it is a week-end shopping, golfing and visiting day. . TV set manufacturers frankly admit there are no major improvements in sight. They say television has had all of the value of radio’s experience which is now being bulit into the sets. And the probability of color is still ‘remote, in fact so remote that its consideration has been rejected by the Federal Communications Commission.

downtown stores will have sets in their windows as a promotional enterprise. Fe And everywhere you see a cluster of cars in front of a house a week from tomorrow, you can { pretty well\bet there is a tele-

On television’s first day, some|’

Door to Tomorrow Opens

2, z ES FB nat

{vision eet inside with anywhere] {from four to twenty pairs of eyes

Indi Bell Telephone Co., 240 N.| ; glass Bei Fuiepsone Co. 0 Expect TV Lift

will be amplified and relayed For Trade Lull

through another coaxial cable to|

the transmitter and tower on the Merchants Bank.

Television, from the experience of other stations, will be a losing proposition in Indianapolis for nearly a year. This is due to the

In Taverns Here

FROM THE experience of most metropolitan centers where television has made an auspicious {debut, Indianapolis taverns may

| FIRST REGULARLY sched- being worked out but that the! uled daily television programs in schedule is tentative, depending

{Indianapolis are expected to cover upon network programs, now in {four hours, from 6 to 10 p. m., the organizing stage.

Television Fans Plen to Televise 6 Days a Week Wait Test Signal ‘wes { g Saturday. { Movies will be shown. These WFBM-TV will come on the will be westerns, with some mys-

New Owners Anxious ,ir with its test pattern, giving terys, romance, travelogue and | For Set Adjustment set owners a chance to warm up cartoon features. and Rune their sets. The test! At the sign-off hour, the sta- | Hoosier television set owners pattern will be followed with a tion will preview the next night's {yesterday were blanking.out the two or three minute preview of programs,

period needed to build up a Te- | expect a lift in business from tele- \switchboard at WFBM to find out the evening's programs.

|For Indianapolis With TY

ceiving audience and acquire|gigjon lexactly when the new TV station . sponsors. But TV station owners| mpjg will especially be true 1 |would put its test pattern on are confident that as an Instru-i¢ne night baseball games are tele- | the air. vo ment of electronic communication cast says tavern owners. Late yesterday WFBM officials, video is far superior to anything am were unable to say exactly when] yet conceived. IN OTHER CITIES crowds|the pattern would be available to WFBM-TV goes on the air at gather well ahead of the start of Set owners, but gave the assur-

There will be some of the more popular network programs, taken on as sponsors sign and daily newsreels,

First Big Tests

The national Republican and {Democratic Conventions last year w..n.» {gave television producers and enFRANK SHARP, program di- gineers their first opportunity to

} highest

[two studies. rector of WFBM-TV, said yester- try out the new medium on a ma-|

ARTA SSS

the end of the winter TV Pro-'a ball game or any other major ance that it would be “very soon, day several local programs are jor national political events.

grams which makes it difficult to sporting event and arrange a steady program of top well filled by the time the umpire Week.” |

taverns are

stars who take vacations in the yells “Play ball.”

summer months. But by September WFBM-T

The tavern trade has been in

!doldrums here for more than a Which can be made only with the |

expects to have most of the top year and many operators are

talent programs on the air in In- signing up for TV sets to try to and The Times office for the test | diana. By that time there will be lure their once profitable trade date. !

vastly more sets installed and back into their places of business.

” ” .

Best Television Reception Area

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images. One Press Pagoda camera. will be focused on the pit area and the southwest turn, the short south straightaway, the Judges’ Pagoda and the garage area. The other Pagoda camera will pick up views of the straightaway and northwest turn and will also be used for activities inside the oval. It will also present local and atate political celebrities who 5 are present, as well as political leaders from other states. Frank Sharp, program director fof WFBM-TV, said yesterday he lunderstood that Mickey Rooney

Probable Race Day TV Program =

10:30 A. M.—~WFBM-TV goes on the air with test pattern, fol- + lows with outline of day's

events, First half hour to retivities, 1000-

Wayne Coy Sees a New Bro

By WAYNE COY : . present television band, ~ While ORMlrmEn Re ommiusions "'*** Ithis study is in process, action | With the debut of its new tele-/is being held up on some 300 vision station, the curtain rises applications to construet new on a new era in the history ofistations. This freese will be tai I hasan. th. soe Chaco mob thine cr fo cultural, recreational and econ-| 0 aon ny ne au hat improved because of this study.

omic life of the community. = | “Hope to Use Second Band

With the inauguration of ser-| vice by WFEM, ludianapoiis becomes one of the earliest cities] The other st - in the nation to enjoy the bene-igion has he aay he Comm . driver in Victory Lane. fits of the electronic miracle. means of utilizing a higher band With television only on thei, the gpectrum—the Ultra High|and his new wife would stop off threshhold of its developement, 63) Frequency Band. We hope to|at the races, Mr. and Mrs. Dick stations already haye been put on| gain additional channels for addi-|Powell, and Eddie Rickenbacker the air. tional stations in that band. Many|a1s0 are expected. They will be In another five years I expect rural areas and even some im.|invited before the television to see between 600 and 800 sta- portant metropolitan areas could Cameras, x tions in operation with receiversinot be served if we were to re- Route -of Telecast in from 40 to 50 per cent of the strict television to its present] The telecast will travel ine homes, {band. teresting route on its way to the The 63 stations in service bring| I gee televiison as a new force|2500 TV receivers which are ex« television within range of 40 per- ynioosed in the land—an irresist- pected to be installed by M

terrupt program. - y 3 P. M.-Plus—Cameras will record finish of first 10 cars, and=Miss

Linda Darnell kissing

winning

an to

on cent of the population. able force. It is a technological morial Day. 1.5 Million Sets discovery that he i want! It will go from the cameras to an emand. It will continue tothe Bell System mobile unit to an More thin 33 Tillion sevtlvat) grow by leaps and bounds until antenna on the Press Pagoda, are nov; in the hands o € the entire nation is served. From the Pagoda antenna to an (public. I believe that this figure, — i antenna on top of the Indiana |will rise to 3 million by the end! Bell Telephone Co. building. From of this year. Planes at 30,000 Feet |tnere it will go by coaxial cable | I anticipate that within the $ ’ to the WFBM-TV studios on the [next five years most Americans CoOVid Blanket Nation {fourth floor at 48 Monument 'will be getting most of their Hope for the future of nation- Circle, then back to the Bell Tele‘broadcast information, education wide networks of television is/Phone building, then to the transand entertainment from televison. contained in the Westinghouse Hjtter where it be telecast In its efforts to assure the systes mone gisget 15 the receiving ae widest possible distribution of] Under the Westinghouse plan . t ior service and also the planes flying at 30,000 feet on an- ro ason for 158 dousie {np technical performance, chored courses would relay tele-/s,4 the Bell Telephone building {the Federal Communications vision in a network blanketing is go the station may cut in the Commission is now engaged in the country. program with announcements The planes would be little more and some studio material,

One study has to do with cer- than airborne transmitters. They, Two engineers will be stationed’ tain Interference problems in the could also be used for FM. |at the transmitter atop the Mere

| SN .~ | Installers and set owners, anx-| Ny} |lous for the fina] adjustment] Saf oe

| It was explained that when the, \ {pattern goes on it still may not \ be perfect and additional time may be required by RCA engineers who are installing the WFBM-TV equipment to get the er test pattern in its final stage of MERCHANT. | perfection, | SAW BUN Once the pattern is on the air,’ |installers will work at a fever-| tsh pace to get as many sets as

test pattern, besieged both WFBM |

WEPM TELEVISION | TRANSMITTER. CHAN - 6

500-Mile Race. . This will require service day and night, whenever |the signal is on the air. 8 By the middle of next week, if {not - before, however, set owners 'should get. their first glimpse of /the official pattern of WFBM-TV.

Lip Readers Protested 'Durocher’s Language Television cameramen handling remote pick-ups of sporting events have learned to be cau-

|tious about the extreme details {their telephoto lenses are capable

There was a deluge of protests received by a station once after a close-up of Leo Durocher's face while addressing an umpire. The {protests came in from a group of {Np readers. =

Pierre, the Duck or

One of the first well-known animal personalities on television was a duck named Pierre which used to wander about during one of John Reed King's television |quiz programs. : ‘ ¥

ro. =

Sy How Telecast of ‘500’ Works (at 10:30 a. m. a week from te . {morrow with its inaugural test This self-explaining diagram shows how the pictures of the 500-Mile Race will be relayed through

cable and "dishpan” reflectors to the top of the Indiana Bell building on to the transmitter on top of the Merchants National Bank, with the WFBM.TV Studios looped into the circuit by coaxial cable.

chants National Bank building. Goes On Air at 10:30 WFBM-TV will go on the ale

{pattern. Betwéen 10:30 and 11 a, m. the station will record pre race activities including the tras {ditional . 1000-plece band, the singing of the “Star-Spangled Banner” by James Melton of Metropolitan Opera and radio fame, The cameras will show the line up of the 11 rows of three cars each. They also will pick up the trational picture of the assembled race drivers and officials, with Linda Darnell, movie star, : Alert cameramen will show the thousands of toy balloons which go aloft just before the race, They + |will even try to show the puff of smoke from the bomb which announces the start of the race at 11 a. m. Pacemaking Lap \ The pacemaking lap will be re corded with thé Oldsmobile leading the warm-up lap. Throughout the race the ane pouncers and cameramen will keegpvideo set watchers posted on laps, time and positions of the veumins ta drivers, i Coe The telecast will continue Tarn TER through the entire race until the {first 10 cars have passed the |checkered flag. Cameras will then {show Linda Darnell kissing the winning driver in Victory Lane. Spark plugs in the racing cars will not interfere with the telecast. Sparkplug ine | terference, WFBM-TV officials said, affects only receiving hk Tentative plans at WFBM. leall for a sample - pros |gram giving those who dttend |the race an ity to enjoy some of the features television. Als

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