Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

RATINGS WE'VE GOT! LET'S TALK ABOUT WOMEN! Ratings we have aplenty. Like KELOLAND TV's huge ARB— 67% METRO SHARE.* And more homes reached in the total Sioux Falls-96 County area than on all other tv stations combined. But it's the women in those homes we're proud of. Stout women, 36-year-old women, motherly types, a mother of quints, newly marrieds, romantic singles, Lawrence Welk fans, Candid Camera fans, afternoon tv watchers — women of all sizes, shapes and shopping tastes. KELO-LAND TV delivers more darlings than you can round up on all other channels in this market all pitching together. Want an introduction (several hundred thousand of 'em) ? Tell H-R that Joe Floyd sent you. *ARB Sioux Falls TV Audience estimate. Feb.March '63. 9 a.m. to midnight, 7 days a week. ^^^^ CBS • ABC KELO-tv • KDLO-tv • KPLO-tv (interconnected) * JOE FLOYD. President Evans Nord, Executive Vice Pres. & Gen. Mgr. Larry Bentson, Vice-Pres. Represented nationally by H-R In Minneapolis by Wayne Evans Ceneral Offices: Sioux Falls, S. D. 66 (GOVERNMENT) PACIFICA DECISION Commission gets staff report The Pacifica Foundation case, which has been sidetracked in the recesses of the FCC for four years, appeared last week to be finally moving into a position where the commission could take action on it. A staff report on Pacifica, licensee of four listener-supported FM stations whose cultural and sometimes unconventional programing has occasionally shocked listeners, has been submitted to the commission. It's understood that the report, if approved, would lead to qualified grants of four outstanding Pacifica applications— three for renewal of licensees and one for a license to cover a construction permit. Two sets of issues are involved. One concerns obscenities. The other, growing out of a Senate Internal Security Subcommittee hearing last winter, involves possible Communist infiltration of Pacifica's stations (Broadcasting, Jan. 14, et seq.). The commission stalf, reportedly, recommends "washing out" the complaints about obscenity. But it would make any grant to Pacifica "without prejudice" to any further action the commission might take regarding the Communist infiltration question. Action Not Imminent ■ There was no indication last week how soon the commission would act on the Pacifica license applications. The report itself technically does not present them to the commission for a decision on whether to approve them to the commission or set them for hearing. Commission approval would be expected to swiftly follow acceptance of the staff recommendations. But some officials predicted that the commission would want all questions concerning Pacifica answered before deciding on the case. But the report is believed to be the first one on Pacifica to be submitted to the commission since the case originated in 1959 after complaints were received about the programing of some of the foundation's stations. Pacifica's applications for renewal of kpfa(fm) Berkeley and for a license to cover a construction permit for kpfk(fm) Los Angeles, both California, have been pending since 1959. Its applications for renewal of wbai (fm) New York and kpfb(fm) Berkeley, have been on deferred status since 1960 and 1962, respectively. The commission staff is said to have recommended wiping out the obscenity complaints after consulting with the Justice Department. That department is said to feel there are no grounds for ac MAY BE NEAR on outstanding applications tion since the complaints involve language in poetry and other works of recognized literary merit that were read on the air. The commission staff is also said to have noted that the material which gave rise to complaints was carried late at night and was not broadcast repeatedly. Senate Inquiry ■ Although the Pacifica case has been hanging fire for four years, it didn't attract any attention until the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee hearing last winter. Senator Thomas J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who presided at the closed-door sessions, said the hearing was to determine whether Communists had infiltrated the Pacifica stations. Pacifica officials acknowledged that Communist party members had appeared as commentators on their stations. But, they said, representatives of right wing groups, including the John Birch Society, had also broadcast on the stations. One Pacifica spokesman told the subcommittee that the foundation believes the public should have "access to the full spectrum" of political ideas. The subcommittee two months ago made public the testimony taken during the hearing (Broadcasting, July 29). But it has neither issued any report, nor made any recommendations. This puts the commission in the position of resolving a delicate issue raised by a Senate subcommittee. Senator Kenneth B. Keating (RN. Y) is the only member of the subcommittee to have commented on the hearing publicly. Shortly after the testimony was published, he said it wasn't the subcommittee's function "to judge or condemn any individual, but it is useful that certain facts were brought Surgery for Murrow Edward R. Murrow, director of the U. S. Information Agency, was scheduled to undergo major surgery Saturday (Oct. 5) at the Washington Hospital Center to free a blocked bronchial tube. The former CBS vice president and CBS News correspondent noticed speech difficulty during engagements in Philadelphia a week earlier. Mr. Murrow contracted pneumonia during a Middle East inspection tour almost exactly a year ago. He was hospitalized then for several weeks. BROADCASTING, October 7, 1963