Presto

sion available for the first time to the American public.
RCA's entire New York exhibit has been built to fit this an-
nounced plan. David Sarnoff, president of RCA, announced
last fall that the National Broadcasting Company would in-
augurate the first regular television program service in the
New York metropolitan area during Fair time. The first
programs will go on the air just as RCA is offering the first
television receivers designed for the home market. Televi-
sion studio and transmitting equipment has been available
to broadcasters and other interested parties for several
months.
THE PUBLIC BELIEVES
that commercial television will soon be another achievement
of American industry. For years it has been just around
the corner but the activity of recent months suggests that
the corner will be turned before 1939 is out.
Sooner or later music dealers will be stocking television
sets. Some dealers will make a lot of money in this new
department of the music business. It is more than probable
that the entire music trade will be investigating the new
field before many months have passed.
Just how soon a music dealer will stock television sets
and how much money he will make on them depend on three
things: (1) how close the dealer is to a big city; (2) the
retail price of television receiving sets and (3) how quick-
ly television catches on with the public.
IF YOUR STORE IS IN
OR NEAR A BIG CITY
you may be handling television apparatus before long. For
an indefinite time telecasting is going to be very expensive
and the transmission range of television programs is going
to be short. And it is not possible to turn any broadcast-
ing station into a television transmitting plant overnight.
High installation and operating costs for television sta-
tions and the small area in which television programs can be
received mean that for the near future commercial televi-
sion will be confined to the big cities.
THE RETAIL PRICE OF
TELEVISION SETS
will of course determine the size of the market. No prices
have been announced, but one manufacturer is said to be
readying a model to retail at $175. Other manufacturers
are supposed to be ready to announce models to retail at
anywhere from $90 to $1,400.
Estimating the retail prices of television sets is at the
moment the rankest kind of guesswork. It is probable that
this new business—like the radio and automobile businesses
—will reduce its prices as its market grows.
BUT T H E BIGGEST PROBLEM
facing the new industry is that nobody knows what kind of
telecasts the American public is going to demand. The
common belief that watching a telecast is just like watch-
ing a movie is unfounded. The movie-goer sees his heroes
projected on a large screen to several times their actual size ;
the owner of a television set will see them in miniature, on
a screen about half the size of the top of an ordinary bridge
table.
In effect, the movie-goer looks through a telescope; the
television fan will look through the wrong end of a tele-
scope.
Courtesy of The (Joodhcnrt-Willrox Company, Inc., from "Kl
by CJeorff.' II. Eckhnrdt.
Haird Television Receiver
'tronic Television"
(England)
Nor is this difficulty the only one. The materials used in
telecasts must also be different. Radio scripts are general-
ly built on character studies or ideas that require sound and
not sight for their development. Telecasts, however, must
appeal to the eye as radio now appeals to the ear. Psycholo-
gists maintain that the eye is more fickle than the ear and
will not tolerate uninteresting material; consequently, ma-
terial must be novel and arresting. Further, the small
screen used in receiving sets mean that television requires
the entire attention of the watcher. The watcher must sit
down and concentrate as he would if he were in his seat in
a theatre.
What will be developed for this new theatre in the home
is still up to the "idea" men and to the American public.
After the highly seasoned diets the public eye has gorged
upon in picture houses, television owners will not be content
with commonplace telecasts.
Those Broadwayites who still cling to the legitimate stage
are looking hopefully to television. In this connection it
is significant that NBC has hired Max Gordon—who has far
more stage than movie experience—to supervise its tele-
casts. NBC probably selected Mr. Gordon because its offi-
cials feel that telecasting will resemble the legitimate stage
more than it will resemble the movies.
The enormous cost of telecasting and the comparatively
narrow range of the television camera prohibit the use of
pictorial material in telecasting which would rival the pic-
tures in the movies. The stage uses pictorial material but
on a smaller scale, and each "picture''—or stage set—re-
mains in place for at least a scene, and possibly all through
a full length play. The most lavish play can hardly use
V
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