Color Enigma

After eight months of hearings and three more of a process that the bureaucrats call deliberating, the Federal Communications Commission handed down a semifinal decision on color television. Like many FCC decisions, it proved an enigma wrapped in federalese and tied with red tape.

FCC decided it liked the partly mechanical CBS color system better than its all-electronic competitors made by RCA and Color Television, Inc., of California (TIME, Nov. 28 et seq.). But RCA and CTI, or any other hopefuls, were told they still had three more months to prove they could outperform the CBS system.

Turning to set manufacturers, FCC suggested that they get right to work turning out sets that, at least, could pick up CBS color telecasts in black & white. As a prod for the reluctant manufacturers, who are having trouble making enough sets for the current market, FCC hinted that if the manufacturers' response is lukewarm it might make a final decision in favor of CBS next month.

If the CBS system should be adopted, the owners of 7,000,000 U.S. sets now in use could receive CBS color telecasts in black & white by adding an adapter (estimated cost: $25). To get the same telecasts in color would require an additional converter (estimated cost: $50). Explained the FCC report: "It would not be in the public interest to deprive 40 million American families of color television in order to spare the owners of 7,000,000 sets the expense required for adaptation."

TV manufacturers, put on the spot by the FCC report, complained bitterly. Said one: "The masses might just as well forget about color TV until 1953 at least." And even Air King's President D. H. Cogan, who had strongly supported CBS color during the hearings, protested: "It would be suicidal now for a manufacturer to switch to making color receivers in the face of today's material problems."

Many observers thought that the FCC decision and the argument it started were academic. With the electronics industry shifting to military production, the U.S. may consider itself lucky three months from now to get a constant flow of existing black & white TV sets.

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