EAST FAREWELL
NEWS
Thursday, April
7, 1960 Vol. C771
LOCAL
NEWS
TELEVISION COMES TO EAST
FAREWELL
East
Farewell – By any measure television has far surpassed radio as the American
entertainment medium. In the past 10 years television has gone from being an
interesting gadget to a household appliance that take center stage in the
majority of America’s living room. The giant radio receiver has been replaced
by the flickering black and white screen showing cowboys, lawyers and fancied-up
vaudeville variety shows. Towns in the more rural areas like East Farewell have
been slower in getting swept in the change. While some have been able to use
tall antennas to receive distant signals most just have not had a set at all.
This all changed last week when the town council announced they will award a
franchise contract to a local entrepreneur, Manny Horowitz, to string TV cable
wires through town and set up an master antenna way up on Mount Walker.
Horowitz has presented a detailed proposal to the council showing how he would
wire the town and how each house would have access to his service.
“This is a big step for
the town,” said Town Council president Tom Connelly, “We have to make sure
we check out exactly how he plans to do this and exactly what he is offering.
It is an immense job and will create lots of disruptions all through town. We
are looking forward to this service and I just heard the Wards will be soon
offering TV sets for sale. In the long run I don’t see any viable alternative
to this type system, many communities around us have already completed systems
and I have looked at them and they seem to work pretty well.”
Horowitz said he expects to start
production immediately and hopes to have the system up and running within the
year. “I have assembled a top notch group of experienced builders, most from
the phone company, and they know how to put up cable. My engineering crew is
also the best around and we are working with the best manufacturers to bring
the town the best of the best.”
The service will be offer to the
citizens of East Farewell on a subscription basis and will offer stations from Pittsburgh, Erie and possibly some New York stations. Horowitz was intentionally
vague as to exactly what the lineup would be because he is still working with
the stations over retransmission fees. He hinted that there was a possibility
that even stations from as far away as Philadelphia may be in the mix.
Typically, CATV systems offer 4 to 10 stations, all found in the VHF range of
frequencies.
Many people in town are very excited
about the announcement and are looking forward to the service. “We can’t wait,
our friends in Slate Mountain have it and it is really neat,” said local high
school junior, Stacie Butler when she heard the announcement.
SPORTS
COUGARS HONORED – ALUMNI GAME PLAYED
East Farewell- The league champion Cougars were
honored during at an after school ceremony in the gymnasium. The Championship trophy
was presented to the team and after the ceremony there was a novel activity, some
of the alumni from the 1955 team, the last Regional High championship team and
some other former members of the basketball team challenged the current champs
to a matchup game. The stands were full and the atmosphere was jubilant. The
alumni team was pulled together by Coach Wilson. He tries to keep in touch with
his charges after they graduate and has followed many as they played in
college. The 1955 team was an exceptional team, not only did they win the
league championship they came in second in the state tournament.
The point guard, the center and one of the forwards
from that team were able to make it back. Tim Green, Tom O’Hare and Michael
Watson, respectively, took the floor along with Bobby Fox and Fergal Conner to
face a much younger and admittedly in much better shape Cougars squad in a fun,
loose short game (first team to 30). Watson and current center James Hawkins
had a great time moving each other around and fighting for rebounds but Hawkins
was able to come away with more offensive rebounds and surprisingly Watson led
the defensive rebound category. The whole game was fairly lighthearted and both
backcourts tried showing off a little. The older Bobby Fox and Tim Green showed
they still had a lot of flair in their game as they put on an exhibition of
ball handling but not to be out done young Bobby Fox (surprisingly they are not
related) and Mack Mackenzie put on a little display of their own with a lot of
fancy dribbling and quick, short passing. The crowd loved it. The players loved
it. The game went on for about 45 minutes and the current champs were able to
prevail 34-30, the winning team had to win by more than two. “I think they just
outlasted us,” laughed Michael Watson after the game, “Their young legs just
lasted longer than the old guys. It was great fun and these kids are very good.
They deserve every honor they get. I hope the seniors go on to play in college,
they could really be good.”
The
team will be changing as all five starters along with two players from the
bench will be graduating. There are underclassmen on the team but they did not
see much action throughout the season. It looks like the team and Coach Wilson
will have its work cut out for it next year. For now though, the will be
nothing but glad hand backslapping and lots of hugs and a trophy parade around
the gym floor.
NATIONAL NEWS
NEW WEATHER SATELLITE SHOWS TV PICTURES –
WISCONSIN SENATORS CHOOSE KENNEDY – BEN-HUR WIN 11 OSCARS – CENSUS TAKING
BEGINS
The
United States launched the first weather satellite, the 270
pound TIROS-1, from Cape Canaveral at 6:40 a.m. EST.
The name was an acronym for Television Infra-Red Observation
Satellite. The same evening, satellite weather photos were introduced to
the world, on television, for the first time. Taken from an altitude of 450
miles, the pictures of cloud cover confirmed the spiral pattern of winds in a
storm.
Choosing
between two U.S. Senators, voters in Wisconsin overwhelmingly
favor John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts over Hubert
Humphrey from neighboring Minnesota, by a margin of 478,118 to
372,034 in the first major primary for the Democratic nomination.
Vice-President Nixon was unopposed for the Republican nomination.
At
the 32nd Academy Awards ceremony, Ben-Hur won a record
eleven Oscars, including Best Picture.
National
Telefilm Associates (NTA) becomes the fifth applicant for Philadelphia’s
channel 12. Other applicants include WHYY Inc. (an educational group and
Metropolitan Broadcasting headed by John Kluge. Channel 12 went off the air in
October, 1958 after Storer Broadcasting kept losing money on the operation. No
one would buy the station, so Storer simply turned-in the license to the FCC.
Many, many
thanks to www.mrpopculture.com for
contributing to this section of the East Farewell News.
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