Radio, TV Add Millions To H - Y Game Audience

A sellout Stadium, along with the first television coverage and a 23-station radio hookup, will give this afternoon's Harvard-Yale game the biggest audience in the 65-year history of the annual classic.

On the northeastern seaboard, upwards of a million people will follow the game by radio and television, with Harvard and Yale men across the nation receiving joint reports through news tickers provided by alumni associations and clubs of both colleges.

Television will attract more than 300,000 in the local area, Ralph Giffen, football production director of WBZ-TV, predicted last night. Giffen based his forcast on the fact that there are approximately 23,000 installed sets, half of which are in private homes. "Figuring on an average of six watchers to a set in homes and many more at the taverns, even 300,000 becomes a conservative estimate of the number we will reach," Giffen said.

The local TV coverage--which can be seen in a radius of 40 miles--will be handled by Chris Shenkel and sponsored by a cigarette firm.

Students without tickets can view the game from any of several sets around the Square. Winthrop House's set will be on, as well as the Union's, since the Union Dance Committee plans to delay decorating the small common room for the evening dance in order to allow Freshmen to crowd the room for the contest. Sets in the Varsity Club and in Cronin's restaurant beerhall will also be tuned in.

Harvard Club Program

The Harvard Club of Boston has announced elaborate plans for the afternoon. Following the traditional buffet luncheon, member and their gentlemen guests will follow the play-by-play over television in "Harvard Hall," the main dining room, with possible celebrations afterwards.

Less formal gatherings of both Harvard and Yale men in the West will follow news-ticker accounts of the game at special joint meetings. Two years ago the halftime and final scores were cabled to the Harvard Club of London, but no such plans have been announced this year.

Despite the local advent of television, most Crimson rooters will still get their news of the game through radio. Local coverage will be handled by station WHDH while WNHC in New Haven keeps stay-at-home Bulldog enthusiasts informed of the play-by-play.

Elsewhere, radio coverage will extend as far south as Maryland, with New York City, Rochester, Buffalo, Atlantic City, Baltimore, Providence, and Worcester chief among the cities whose stations will broadcast the classic.