Around the Corner

In a typically ambiguous statement, the Federal Communications Commission last week announced that it "proposed" to add 42 UHF (ultra high frequency) channels to the existing twelve television channels. No one would explain exactly what this mysterious announcement meant, but it looked important. It could mean that all TV sets in use today will be obsolete unless they can be converted to the UHF band. It could also mean that color television, which works only on UHF, is just around the corner. Even so, the FCC moves so slowly and cautiously that something it "proposes" to do might take years.

The fuzzy vagueness of FCC announcements, usually tricked out in federalese, has long irritated members of the Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. New Hampshire's crusty Charles Tobey has been trying to pry a definite word from Edward M. Webster, who is up for confirmation for a new term as FCCommissioner.

Tobey: Did you ever contemplate warning the public . . . that these changes are impending and they might go a little slowly in buying the sets?

Webster: I don't see how we're going to progress in this art unless the public buys receivers. If we put out something that says, "Do not buy anything now until you get UHF . . ." everything is going to stop.

Tobey: That would be tragic . . .?

Webster: It would be tragic for the manufacturers who sell the obsolete sets, but [it] would not be tragic for the public who kept their dollars in their stockings to wait for color television. The only way to get the industry going is to have the public buy sets.

Tobey: In other words, have the public as suckers.

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