Radio: At the End of the Rainbow

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One of the answers is easy: CBS color is good—in some ways better than Technicolor. It adds depth and detail to the TV picture. The colors themselves are vivid but not harsh. Some programs—sports, for example—gain immeasurably with the addition of color. But a poor TV show, of course—tasteless comedy, tired drama or stale vaudeville routines—cannot be freshened by all the hues in the spectrum. An entertainment egg can be laid as easily in color as in black & white—perhaps more easily.

For the answers to the other questions, the TV fan has to wrestle with the six-syllable words "compatibility" and "convertibility." Around these words swirled the fiercest arguments of the FCC hearings.

The weak point in the CBS system is its lack of compatibility. This means that the 9,000,000 TV sets now in use in the U.S. cannot receive CBS colorcasts even in black & white. The RCA system is fully compatible. If a station were telecasting RCA color, the ordinary sets now in use would show black & white pictures. RCA's big argument: Why make all U.S. TV sets obsolete by using the CBS system instead of RCA's?

On the witness stand, CBS President Stanton offered to withdraw his system if a really workable compatible system could be developed. The FCC has given RCA good marks for compatibility. The trouble, as FCC sees it, is that RCA's color is not good enough.

On the subject of convertibility, which just means changing over a black & white set so that it can receive colorcasts, CBS is in a better position. In the CBS system, convertibility can be managed, though awkwardly. First, an adapter (estimated price: $30-$50) is added to an ordinary set to make it compatible. Then a clumsy converter (estimated price: $75-$100) is fitted in front of the screen to produce color.

The RCA system stumbles over convertibility. Though it claims to have a workable converter, RCA will not estimate its possible price. The FCC "First Report" states flatly that "no practical [RCA] converter was demonstrated at any of the demonstrations on the record."

Three Sequentials. The FCC hearings, which began more than a year ago, took place in the splendid isolation of the large Department of Commerce auditorium in Washington. The busy lawyers and technical experts often outnumbered the spectators—usually a few leg-weary tourists. The testimony of engineers, executives and experts fills 40 volumes and 11,178 pages covering everything from RCA's patent position (which is well-nigh impregnable) to the precise emphasis Frank Stanton placed on "love" when he said he loved compatibility.

When the evidence was all in, and the FCCommissioners had taken a long look at CBS's "field sequential," RCA's "dot sequential," and CTI's "line sequential" systems (TIME, Nov. 28, 1949), they issued the First Report.