ABSTRACT
“Color is here” is the motif of virtually every forward-looking broadcast operation, from NBC headquarters at “30 Rock” in New York to the smallest TV teapot in Open Switch, USA At any given moment in the past several years, First in Color is or has been the promotional slogan of at least 30 stations across the country, as transmitters are re-tuned for the relay of network tint offerings, color film projection chains are added to the equipment list, and a “real live camera” is delivered, uncrated and hitched to the system. When touting its jitney-painted color vehicle for advertisers, television crunches head-on against a veteran front line of competitors for the advertising budget, ranging from billboards and car cards to the heavyweights—magazines and newspapers. Basically, editorial color is a “few-and-far-between” item, limited to a scattering of major markets, and then mostly in Sunday feature sections illustrating socialite Bibsi von Snodgrass in the apparel she intends to wear in Easter parade.
