Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

House unit readies action on FCC's budget MINOW TESTIMONY AT MARCH HEARING RELEASED Air Express gives fast, simultaneous delivery of highly secret promotion materials to 3,500 Pontiac dealers! MacManus, John and Adams Advertising Agency has the problem of releasing new car news across the country, simultaneously. . . and at the last possible moment to insure secrecy. Air Express allows them to do both. The agency gives Air Express the addresses of their suppliers. REA Express trucks pick up the promotion materials, rush them to nearby airports, and put them on the first outbound flights. (Air Express has official priority on all 38 scheduled airlines.) At destination airports, REA trucks speed them to the dealers. In most cases, the entire operation is done overnight! You may not have a Big Secret to keep, but are you sure you don't need Air Express' speed, dependability and economy? BROADCASTING, October 7, 1963 The House Independent Offices Appropriation Subcommittee is to meet in closed session today (Oct. 7) to consider the FCC's $16.5 million budget request for fiscal 1964. The request reflected an increase of SI. 5 million over the 1963 budget. The subcommittee held a one-day hearing with FCC witnesses back in March, and that, too, was behind closed doors, as are all House appropriation sessions. The record of the March session was made public Sunday (Oct. 6). and an examination of the transcript shows the commission had a considerably easier | time behind the House's closed doors than it did later in June in open session with the Senate's counterpart subcommittee (Broadcasting, June 24). The Senate unit may call the FCC back but is waiting for final House action. There were other differences than simply open and closed hearings. The j Senate session marked the first congressional hearing at which Chairman E. William Henry was the commission's spokesman. And, having been the man in charge at the FCC's controversial local programing hearing held in Omaha, Chairman Henry had to face the wrath of a Nebraska senator of the opposite political party who lives in Omaha— Senator Roman L. Hruska (RNeb.). Teamed up with his colleague, Senator Gordon Allott (R-Colo.). Senator Hruska ripped into Chairman Henry with sharp criticism of the programing hearing. And Senator Allott added fire of his own for the commission's pro A broadcaster from Representative Oren Harris's (D-Ark.) home town has advised the congressman that the FCC's holdings in fairness cases could result in broadcasters "informing ourselves right out of business." Commenting on a recent decision on two Alabama radio stations (Broadcasting, Sept. 23). W. N. McKinney, general manager of keld El Dorado. Ark., wrote that according to the FCC's interpretation, "a broadcaster would spend over 50% of his air time letting all the crackpots express themselves. This, Oren. is not in the public interest." Only last month Representative Harris, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, took the commission to task in a major speech before the Arkansas Broadcasters As posal to adopt commercial time standards similar to those in the commercial code of the National Association of Broadcasters. Senator Allott later filed formal comments with the FCC (Broadcasting. Sept. 30). Sotto Session ■ The House session was handled for the FCC by thenChairman Newton N. Minow. And, according to the printed record, the day seemed to have passed mildly for the commission, although there were some mysterious off-the-record discussions on some hot or hypothetical issues: possible ex parte contact among commissioners and elected federal officials, the history of broadcast ratings, program duplication by AM and FM stations and FCC engineering inspections. (Off-the-record discussions that are held in open hearings may be reported by news media, but when they are conducted behind closed doors, only the participants may know of them because they are not recorded by official reporters of the committees.) Milder in March ■ All in all. March in the House was milder than June in the Senate for the FCC. The House subcommittee met on March 11, about the time that the House Commerce Committee was unveiling its investigation into broadcast ratings. Mr. Minow assured the appropriations unit that while some proposals for regulating ratings had been discussed. "We have made no such proposals." Later FCC testimony on ratings was consistent with this statement (Broadcasting, March 11. et seq.). In a discussion of AM station earn sociation (Broadcasting. Sept. 9). Using texts of his letters to the FCC and to a mythical broadcaster friend. Representative Harris said that the FCC's July 26 public notice on fairness "gives to the public interest standard of the Communications Act an interpretation which is contrary to the basic pattern of the act." In the case of the two Alabama stations the FCC held that licensees are obligated to keep the public informed, and if this means giving free time to answer commercial broadcasts, then this may be necessary. However, the commission left the door open for a review of a licensee's overall performance in fulfilling his obligation to serve the public interest and provide discussion of controversial issues. (GOVERNMENT) 63 McKinney to Harris: 'Fairness' isn't