The race to bring the coronation films U.S. TV was lost by the fiercely competitive hares (CBS and NBC) and won by the easygoing tortoise (ABC). In fact, stay-at-home ABC did not even realize it was in a race. While CBS and NBC were spending hundreds of thousands on planes, men and technical gadgets, ABC spent only a few thousand on a microwave relay to link up the A.T. & T. at Buffalo to the Montreal outlet of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. ABC did not even plan to go on the air with its show until the evening of coronation day.
While...