[78-L] Dragnet Xmas Album (Was: Re: Rochester)

[David Breneman]

 From: J. E. Knox <rojoknox at metroeast.org>


> Hmmm. My understanding of this is that David Sarnoff of RCA was  
> behind efforts to "declare color TV a war materiel product" -- in  
> order to stymie the sequential system and stick it to CBS. Not sure  
> where I read this though.

RCA did have an interest in delaying the adoption of the
CBS system so that they could develop their all-electronic
system.  They certainly welcomed CBS' withdrawal from the
market, but CBS found itself with a white elephant with
their color system.  Consumers were still buying their first
monochrome TV sets, and few manufacturers wanted to produce
more expensive dual-format sets because there was little
demand for them when there was almost nothing being broadcast
in color.  And with the licensing freeze in effect, the only
station in the world broadcasting the CBS system was the CBS
station in New York, which was broadcasting a few hours a week
with now viewers. On top of that, DuMont was agitating for an HD
system (~800 lines) with the argument that B&W TV should be
"perfected" before there was talk of color.  DuMont didn't
have any color patents of their own, but they did have some
HDTV patents.  Everybody was jockeying for a patent advantage.