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Hill vast expansion of video relay facilities means that scores of new television towns, with either UHF or VHP stations, will be able to tap into the'terminals along the route and relay the major network programs through remote rural areas. Main Street's Role
It Is difficult to forecast accurately today how quickly Main Street. U.S.A., will erect the nearly 2,000 new statiohs for which licenses might be available and how quickly extensive home coverage will be obtained. There is the question of material shortages* in a defense economy, of local financing of new stations and of the speed with which the FCC processes license applications.
Yet, there ls)k regional pattern established since 1946 when the National Broadcasting Company introduced regular commercial television in the United States. This was the first era of expansion; in many ways the second era might rival it. For example, set sales in the present television regions have maintained a fairly uniform pace. In 1951, there were 27,412,700 families residing in TV areas — that is, areas where some type of video signal, however faint, could be picked up on home receivers. Of this total, 15,166,000 had purchased television receivers. Since 62,914,200 people reside in these areas, the ratio of TV set sales to individuals is about one to six. In terms of families it is a little better than one set- for each two families. And the pattern is fairly consistent between different size cities. New York, for example, has 4,152,100 families and they own 2,720,000 home receivers. Omaha, Neb., ha3 210,500 families and they own 104,000 TV sets. Using the same yardstick, the scores of towns which look forward to their own transmitting stations can expect an audience cf one out of every two families in the’r municipal and sttrburban regions. They can anticipate, tljis. audience within perhaps three or four years after their first video signal is broadcast.
The number of listeners, of course, is dependent on the numb-r of stations erected. Recent history indicates that they will go up fas. In 1948, when the freeze on station construction was imposed bj the PCX! for fear of over-extending the VHP channels and thus creating Interference between stations, scores of small-town business men, industrialists, radio station owners and newspaper publishers hpid applications for station licenses on Ole.
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