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Show Escalante Service Co. Incorporates To Bring Television Into Cedar City Plans have been in the making for some time on a project to bring television to Cedar City and other southern south-ern Utah towns, and have now reached a point where indications in-dications point to at least reasonable assurance that television tele-vision will come in the near future. Since Cedar City, particularly, par-ticularly, cannot be reached by direct television beam, apparently the only way that the city can be served by television is on a subscription basis, and this is the plan now under consideration. A corporation to be known as the Escalante Service Corporation and to be incorporated under the laws of Utah has been formed and articles of incorporation are being drawn up. Along with this much engineering work has been done and preparations are under way for the application for franchises and permission for operation from the Utah Public Service Commission and the Federal Communications Commission are being made. Officers Named Officers of the Escalante Service Ser-vice Corporation Include John Rowberry, Cedar City, president; Howard Johnson, Salt Lake City, a major stockholder In KNAK Radio Station, vice president and chief engineer; Maurice Barnes, Washington, D. C, vice president and attorney; Ray Richards, Salt Lake City, promotion manager; D. W. Corry Cedar City, director and sales manager; William I. Palmer, Washington, D. C. Incorporator; Incor-porator; Harold Cllne, Milford, Incorporator and Utah legal representative; rep-resentative; Gage Anderson, Salt Lake City, Incorporator and engineer. en-gineer. Under the present plans the television signal will be brought to Cedar City through a series of reflecting towers coming first to Milford and then changing direction di-rection to reach Into this area. From the city limits the television televis-ion picture will be wired or piped pip-ed Into the homes, and engineers who have studied the project indicate in-dicate that television would be put Into the homes of Cedar City with a clarity within two per cent of that In Salt Lake City. Subscription Fee Under present plans the subscription sub-scription rate would be at $150 for installation followed by a $5.00 monthly fee, plus taxes, Representatives Repre-sentatives of the service corporation corpora-tion Indicate that no antenna would be necessary, and this saving, together with the present pres-ent rates of television sets, would make It possible for local residents resi-dents to purchase sets and pay for Installation costs for not more than the users paid for. TV sets when It was first Installed In Salt Lake City. , Four major steps must be taken tak-en before actual construction work can. be started on the project. pro-ject. First a franchise must be obtained from the city, articles of Incorporation must be filed and approved, Public Service Commission and Federal Communications Com-munications Commission approval approv-al must be obtained. Incorporation Incorpora-tion is under way, and the next step on which all else will hinge is community franchise. The corporation cor-poration has informally discuss-the discuss-the application for franchise with the Cedar City Council, and will file written application In the near future. A franchise has already been approved by the Miliord City Council. Thus the maior step has been taken. Milford Mil-ford Is an Important key In the wholo program since, because of geopraphic location, the beam must first be brought to Milford and then reflected to Cedar City. Engineers have definitely proved that after a certain point In the Milford area Is reached the beam can be brought to Cedar City. No Advance Subscriptions The promotors point out that the project is not predicated on advance subscriptions in any way. In fact no subscription will be accepted until signal demonstrations demon-strations are made In the vicinity vicini-ty to be served. Thus no one buys or subscribes for an unknown product. Under the plan the television tele-vision service to be provided will be demonstrated before subscriptions subscrip-tions will be accepted. It will be a mrtter of offering a service to the public with no compulsion for acceptance In any manner. If the project Is undertaken, the very latest In television transmitters trans-mitters will be Installed, so that new Improvements including col-1 or television can be handled as r&pidly as the advancements are made. The corporation Is not a broad -1 casting firm In any way. It Is strictly a service corporation, that for a stipulated fee will bring to the people of Cedar City who wish to subscribe for the service the three channels now In service ser-vice In Utah, KSL, KDYL, and KUTA. After the service is provided for Milford and Cedar City, ad-ditlonal ad-ditlonal communities may be Included In-cluded such as Beaver, Parowan, St George and possibly Hurricane. Hurri-cane. Engineers have not determined determin-ed the exact number of reflection reflect-ion towers that will be needed. It is possible that two may do the Job, but as many as five may be needed. |