Dimension 5: Bob Mulhall Interview (AV12800)

d5 mall interview robertson Mahal is the general manager of wo I am FM and TV we've been talking about television what the past was what the present is and some slight informations about the CP it's going to be the question of what the future holds for television Bob well I suppose a lot of things a person could say I could glibly say I don't have a crystal ball and anybody that knows the future television doesn't know the future of television because nobody does I could say well I'm an expert on that identifying an expert is somebody from the east with slides or I could I could say well this sort of reminds me of the two very elderly gossips that we're talking with each other on the phone and one of them fine they said well Gertie I better hang up now I've already told you more to know about whether I go ahead good I think that anybody that anybody that's dealing with a medium that has developed so quickly over well we say 30 years but let's face it so terribly quickly over the past two years past five years that we've got to kind of put this into perspective a little bit get back to the basic saying well what do we understand television to be well simply it's a medium of communication and beyond that it's an electronic system of transmitting messages over a wire or through the air and we also know this electronic Marvel as a as a system that's a voracious user of program material those things that the audience at home watches and now and in the past we have known television as the racist user of materials visa be the network's the three networks and the independent networks and regional networks sport networks all using copious amounts of film and tape productions from basically independent suppliers and throw into this all of the efforts of all of the stations in the local programming such as news and public affairs and the delightful things such as the magic window for years and years and years okay this is the television that we've grown up with and that we're you know we're seeing now but the thing that we as a public on accustomed to yet is what I call a whole new generation of the electronic goodies that are lurking around the perimeter and sometimes some of them not around the perimeter some of them very simply located in in the business of what are we talking about what we're talking about video cassette recorders VCRs that beta maximum is it isn't it interesting that right now the Walt Disney Productions and some other company are still being Sony for something like twenty one not for money really they're they're so able to stop not even to use the Betamax because it's it's going to allow people to to record movies and one thing and another and store them or sell them or trade them or whatever they want or use them once and erase them and record something else so they can program at a time that they want them to be seen that's but it's strange so but if I have a good movie of snow right in the Seven Dwarfs who wants do you resent you know my neighbor can record something else and we'll trade but more about that a little bit later listen you're establishing a network let me know there's fiber optics which is a new way of transmitting signals rather than over wire we're we're into a whole new generation of capabilities of storing and retrieving information putting an entire encyclopedia on the equivalent of a page in af so so absolutely necessary for libraries in the future computerization itself you might say this is not a new generation of electronic said it's not new in electronics but it's certainly adaptable in this present form to very high compatibility with television and this thing we talk about the satellite being able to receive signals from transmitting points from around the world our own radio station will have will have one within an ear or within a year capable of receiving will also be able to to uplink or descend by satellite and then we have the thing called cable television now these these modes or this apparatus or whatever you want to whatever you want to call it or all products or television electronics they've all occurred since the census started television and they're all cousins they're all cousins and they're all compatible with the television that we know all riley compatible with the television that we know so this brings up an interesting aspect that I would like to mention currently it's very camp or very enter its the mode to be distressed about something about television be distressed about the serials that the the the meeting is advertising or whatever so we got all kinds of organizations and individuals that are charging off on white horses and going to congressional committees and just generally being the watchdog I'm the type of person myself it because I don't think I can stand anymore he's barking watch dogs I can tell my kids what to eat and what to watch and and whatever else and you know Betty Lou that's something that we've learned about the audience as broadcasters over the years what they've always said is folks you put it on and we'll make the decision about whether watch it or not and the amazing thing is the little state in the general audience yeah that the outsiders have but the broadcaster's really do see how they're getting the getting into area is that the general public hasn't become a learn to dodge yet or where they ultimately will stand up and say put it on the shelves and we'll make a decision about whether we buy it or not but anyway this this list this type of this type of an unrest this type of a challenge is not bad I'm not saying that it's bad at all I'm saying this particular time it's a little bit a little bit misdirected and I think it also it it's a it's a heck of a waste of time on their part because whereas people are now talking about the quality of programs talking about the number of commercials within programs talking about the quality of commercials in terms of the of the helpfulness of the products involved in one way or another that it won't be too long until those people that are complaining because their families are watching four hours a day of television or whatever are going to have an opportunity to watch cable television to watch home box office to watch pay television have Tooley access into their home one in and one out all going into a little box into their living room that's attached to the television set so they can have programming of all types from 36 channels now when you get back when you get the possible input of all of these things of home box office the movies the sporting events the the local channels also all sewn into into one television set and you hook a Betamax one to all of this let's say and to do the recording when you can't possibly watch I think maybe instead of watching television four hours a day if I were average in this particular yeah I have to quit my job so that I could watch so that I could wise actly I could watch television all you know watch the television all day long not all day long so you're saying the some of these people should be grateful for the words the television has because make it perfect and it's going to be completely irritable well what I guess why we're saying that he is but it's that it is an argument it is yeah it's an interesting argument and I think I think what we're saying is that drastic and radical changes in the medium are are right are right around the corner the the developing technologies such as cable which we've mentioned in pay television and home box office and the pre-recorded video cassettes will enable the television medium to sidestep the networks and this is where people are going to have going to have problems and be able to satisfy all of the tastes of the viewers who aren't being served now see home box office for example right now can can give you a last Las Vegas overview give you uncensored nightclub routines of such performers as Redd Foxx and Bette Midler and interestingly even George Carlin doing is act with the seven-word you supposedly can't say on TV and for which our engineer who is writing heard on us right now would lose his license if we're allowed to go over the air okay so this comes down to the bottom line that says you evidently you can if you choose the right form of television and I think this is the key a television is is going to change form and it's going to take the audience the public awhile to to become tuned tuned to this type of thing and many many times in the future years I think people are going to say well one did want it be nice to have it like it was in 1977 or seven we have people another say gee there was good television when wo ITV had all four networks and did the selecting what wasn't particularly that good I think it's slacking to go back and look at some of those golden days remembers it's nice to remember them in the mind's eye instead of the actual eye because we have come a long way what we'll be losing night I feel is is this thing that broadcasters instinctively guard and that is the business of being an intermediary for the public protecting the public's trust in the public ownership of broadcasting now when you get into the exotic exotic philosophies of cable broadcasting and home box office pay television and that sort of thing the public doesn't own anything and the public will get what it pays for they'd be surprised I think that the cost eventually of what their what their entertainment is going to is going to cost them I think they'd be now I'm talking like a broadcaster and we're criticize you see because we we we seem to be anti cable that's not the point where we're Pro free and open TV that's what we are and we just say remember it as you remember it as you see it now okay what what you pay for later on is presumably what you want and if it's what you want is what you pay for fine the to the tool will come will come together but I think a broadcaster especially person that has been in the business for many many years probably clutches up a little bit at this because you can see that the money interest in investment is following is following the fast horses which is cable and that's ultimately where the money is that is not the same type of television as the network's as we know them now that are willing to risk and invest for example 60 million 16 million dollars in a series called routes and I don't think you're going to you're going to find very very many of those very very many of those things because it's it's indigenous that Kable we'll live off of live off of the available the available product if the available product isn't all that good then that's what's going to come into the homes this there's a interesting bit of information that I picked up the Getty oil company mr. Getty has a few dollars you know and you pay for you know a nickel for all the phone calls you make when here this house - that's how he got it I'm told yes yes yes yes well that money for example just acquired 85% of in a network called entertainment and sports programming Network and it's based in Bristol Connecticut and they plan to begin full-time all sports programming in the fall of 1979 now the sports coverage will highlight in c-double-a events via satellite on the cable if you can get that under satellite you can get that under every cable installation in the country I think the thing that that we have to notice here is that they have come to an agreement with the n-c-double-a for the rights to 18 different Championships of n-c-double-a sporting events now this of course does not include the major sporting events such as football or or such as basketball because the the free television networks now have those tied up for maybe four or five years but wait'll that same season yes wait'll the six way to the sixth season and you might be watching the you might be watching the Rose Bowl for $4 I don't know but definitely see that frankly if that's the way it is that's you know that's that's the way the public is the public is going to take it but I think if we want to talk want to talk futures of futures of television talk futures or communications broadly because this it's a whole new ballgame and it's into so many of so many of what I'll call the electronic Cousins that that had been spawned had been spawned by by television electronics and well you can take this all the way back to World War two and radar and sonar you know we can take it all the way back to your first newscaster who involved driving a tryout in the country yes the optic and slides to you right it's not amazing that in that amount of time the thousands or not let's be close to millions of hours that have done that have been produced and that people have watched watch more than others but it's the same it's the same medium that has produced the gong show and is now in the process of producing all of Shakespeare's plays it's the same set that showed us walking on the moon or a little robbery or an accident on a local freeway make anything toss this in but I doubt very seriously there's any cable company or whatever produce a series of Shakespeare's plays it's for such a be for such a small audience that only free television can afford to do those things but it's still an all public or public television yes public job the kind of grant said that have been have been forthcoming any other words about what to think the future is going to hold it besides the question of where we work tomorrow because if not I have I have a last question I'd like to ask you well why don't you ask that last okay if we were putting together a reflective reel of scenes or shows and we wanted to represent some of the best moments that television has produced as far as involving the viewer which is this basic purpose what are some of the things that you'd include other than say walking on the moon which we would have to say is yeah it's not a fantastic thing to have been part of yes it's a fantastic thing to have been part of I have one thing that sticks out of my mind more than walking on the moon maybe I'm disclosing myself as what they may say as an unscientific person but that's not that's not true it absolutely median is a very sign is a very scientific medium you deal in this business very very long and you you would have to say walking on the moon entirely possible because anything is possible in this in this electronic age we see it happening in television all the time it marvelous engineering and you name it you've got it see but but if you want to come right if you want to come right down to something the television has done that is a was of more importance and had more of an impact on on people and their lives it was the McCarthy hearings I'd have to buy yeah that's that was that were the first and they didn't and any million dollars doing it they just walked right into the West permission of course walked into the committee rooms and said okay folks we're going to create this to the American people and they killed him without anyone standing in the middle of saying take that scene and we'll cut this and put this it was there the way it is not the way someone is is telling us it is or reflecting it through through their own personality there it is but you know talking about the the space shots and and the men on the moon they could never approve to me that that a man walked on the moon if it hadn't been for television you realize that they never say about that is that we saw the foot go down because the camera was very general not that the camera came down your son and his handler the camera is there and then we saw the first Oh fantastic fantastic it's been fun to be part of it it's it's been more than it's been more than fun Betty it have we changed many lives well said murder Murrow says that we won't know for 50 years how we change them interestingly I was thinking about this the other morning when I was started reflecting on on this particular segment of the show it's time now it's time now for somebody to take on an evaluation and an appraisal of people of certain ages to see if if if my children for example in those in their 30s who who were caught in to television netted at as a part of their life have turned out any have turned out any differently then then people who have who are safe 40 years old who weren't caught up with that that much television in other words a formative years were pretty pretty well gone before they before television came along that can be that can be done now I mean they can get into all kinds of things I mean our higher percentage of bank robbers that that grace were raised on television as opposed to those that weren't or a higher percentage of them divorced a higher percentage of them dying of heart attacks because of the serials they're eating and yes it's time I can't answer the question I don't know but it's my observation I don't see that much difference in people I don't see that much difference in people I think that I think that if we want to talk about intellect and and awareness there's no there's no comparison at all no comparison at all the kids in school now as compared to 25 years ago there is absolutely no comparison none not it not at all the teachers of course teachers of course say this but not whether this is whether this is this is good or this is way it supposed to have been I don't know but those are answers were going to get later on I'm sure and going back for the last word to the cartographers line on the edge of the maps when they call mrs. day in before when they didn't know what happened beyond a certain point that have been charted they put here be dragons oh that's right to television you know we don't know what the future is we dragon some may be real some may not we'll just have to wait and see we will wait and see thank you very much in fun to this point