Radio: At Last, Color TV

Color television, the shore dimly seen, broke into the clear last week when the Federal Communications Commission announced it would authorize a new compatible color system which can be received in black & white on existing TV sets.

The announcement is not the final word. The FCC will hear any objections until Sept. 8, but the big networks and set manufacturers seem agreed that the time and the system are right. Although the method is the product of the three-year-old National Television System Committee, a technical group representing most of the major manufacturers, the victory is RCA's. Its "dot sequential" color system lost out to CBS's noncompatible "field sequential" system in 1950, but a 1951 defense order halting color-set production gave the N.T.S.C. time to perfect its own method.

If there is no opposition, the FCC's final adoption announcement (probably before the end of the year) will be the signal for full-scale manufacture of color sets, perhaps with some on the market within six months. Pioneering televiewers will pay $700 to $1,000 for the earliest models, but mass production is expected to bring prices down to 25-50% above the cost of comparable black & white sets. By the end of 1954, color TV ought to be available. Both CBS and RCA plan to start sample color telecasts this year.