Radio: At the End of the Rainbow

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In it, the FCC found that the RCA system was unsatisfactory both as to "color fidelity" and "texture." It described RCA color itself as "soft," reported the system to be "exceedingly complex," and noted that a "time error of 1/11,000,000 of a second results in color contamination." As for the CTI system, it was "unduly complex"; it had a "serious line-crawl problem, its picture texture was not satisfactory," and there was "great doubt" of CTI's compatibility.

The FCC held that CBS's picture (see chart) "is most satisfactory from the point of view of texture, color fidelity and contrast" and that "receivers and station equipment are simple to handle." Its most serious limitations: 1) lack of compatibility, and 2) its present limited picture size (12½ inches).

The drawback of picture size might well have a happy ending, thought the FCC. It is caused by the one "mechanical" feature of the CBS apparatus—the spinning, motor-driven color wheel which must be more than twice the size of the TV screen. The FCC saw a way out through the adoption of a tri-color picture tube which would do away with the wheel, all limitations on picture size, and make CBS as fully electronic as any other system. RCA had demonstrated such a tube late in the hearings, but the FCC reported that it was deficient in registration and color fidelity. CBS, Philco, Du Mont, Paramount and others are working on tri-color receiver tubes of their own design. None of them has yet been proved in field tests.

In the First Report, the FCC had given TV manufacturers a month to indicate that they were willing to start making new sets internally adapted so that they could receive CBS colorcasts in black & white. Most of the manufacturers protested that the time was too short for such a radical changeover. But the FCC wouldn't wait. In October, it handed down a final decision in favor of the CBS system.

The Winner. CBS President Frank Nicholas Stanton, 42, who spearheaded the CBS color fight, stands just under 6 ft. and weighs 175 Ibs. His expression is at once attentive and stolid; his strong jaw is often clamped firmly on a pipestem. A certain lack of facial animation, together with his carefully parted, yellow-blond hair, have led wags to call him "the Veronica Lake of CBS."

Stanton's success story makes Horatio Alger seem believable. Last year he signed a ten-year, million-dollar contract with CBS, and bonuses will raise his annual income to $130,000. Last month he had the heady experience of turning down a job, for which he could "name his own price," offered him by rival RCA. Refusing jobs has become almost a matter of routine. In his 15 years at CBS he has said no (sometimes repeatedly) to Pollsters Elmo Roper and Nielsen, FORTUNE, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and two other universities, three advertising firms, assorted Government agencies and well-heeled foundations.