Television is all the talk—and all the talk is big. Its enthusiasts are sure that it will eventually (maybe sooner) make radio as obsolete as the horse—and empty all the nation's movie houses. Children will go to school in their own living rooms, presidential candidates will win elections from a television studio. Housewives will see on the screen the dresses and groceries they want, and shop by phone.
Television's future, says Jack R. Poppele (rhymes with floppily), president of the Television Broadcasters Association, "is as expansive as the human mind can comprehend. Television holds the key to enlightenment which may unlock the door to world understanding."
The Big Talk. Whether the prodigy will live up to its pressagentry, or whether its blessing will be unmixed, no one yet knows for sure. But one thing is certain: television is coming. It is already where aviation was when Charles Lindbergh flew the Atlantic in 1927—imperfect but inevitable. The chances are that it will change the American way of life more than anything since the Model T.
So far, not more than one American in ten has seen it. In all the U.S. there are only 27 television stations (radio has over 1,600). And there are only 325,000 tele-sets—nearly half of them clustered in the New York area (there are 66 million radios in the U.S.). But the infant is growing like Gargantua. Last week's television news:
¶ In Newark, N.J., WATV went on the air, giving the New York area its fourth television station. Buffalo's first station took to the air, and Boston is scheduled to start this week. On June 15 the New York Daily News will open its stationWPIX (New York City's fifth). A mile away, on the roof of the Hotel Pierre, ABC will start transmitting over station WJZ-TV (New York City's sixth) in August.
¶ Los Angeles, Don Lee's W6XAO, the oldest TV station in the U.S. (17 years), quit calling itself experimental, and went commercial. In Atlanta, Louisville, Cincinnati, Fort Worth, Stockton, Calif, and 50 other U.S. cities, television towers were going up.
¶ The number of sponsors, according to Television Magazine, has jumped nearly 800% in a year. (The $10 million to be spent by television advertisers this year is peanuts beside radio's $447 million.)
¶ Near Augusta, Ga., A.T. & T. was closing the last gap between the East Coast network and the great coaxial cable joining Los Angeles with Miami. But about 400 special television boosters will have to be built before New Yorkers can see Hollywood stars, or Californians can see a World Series. A Chicago-to-Denver-to-San Francisco system of radio relay towers may provide a shortcut. Without cables or relays, television's world would stretch little farther than the local horizon.
By the end of the year, the number of U.S. sets in use will be nudging the million mark; there will be 60 stations on the air. By 1950 the U.S. will have its first coast-to-coast television network, and by 1954, if the trend holds, television will have 16 million receivers and an audience of 65 million.