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Heinl Radio News Service
8/14/46
FCC PROPOSES AUTHORIZED USE OF TELEPHONE RECORDERS
Telephone recording devices were recognized as legitimate in a proposed decision of the Federal Communications Commission, issued over last week-end, and the way has been paved for telephone companies to file tariffs applicable to such apparatus.
Objections to the Commission's proposed report are to be filed before September 20th and in the meantime the FCC has suggest¬ ed that telephone companies file new charges or rates affecting re¬ corders. Under its proposals, the FCC said it will eliminate tariff regulations which bar the use of recorders in the manner contemplat¬ ed by the Commission.
In its proposed report, however, the Commission strongly stressed that telephone recorders are to be used only when they are physically connected to the telephone instrument and emphasized that parties to recorded conversations have knowledge that the ap¬ pliances are being used.
Two ways were suggested for informing the public of the use of recorders (1) that a distinct automatic tone warning signal be employed and, (2) that a special indicator, such as an asterisk, be put in directories alongside names of subscribers using recorders. The Commission also proposed that both the telephone companies and recorder manufacturers "undertake a publicity campaign designed to inform telephone users generally of the use of telephone recording devices and the import of the warning signal. "
On what was a high point of contention at the January hear¬ ings on recorders, tne Commission emphasized that telephone recorders be physically connected to the telephone line. The recording com¬ panies had been strongly in favor of either the acoustic type of recorder, consisting of a microphone placed near enough to the tele¬ phone to pick up conversation, or the inductive type, which receives signals without any direct physical contact. It was felt the Com¬ missions decision in this vein was directed at preventing unauthor¬ ized use of recorders. On the same public protection basis, the Com¬ mission also directed that all recorder connecting equipment, "as distinguished from the recording apparatus itself, should be provided, installed and maintained by the telephone companies. "
The Commissions proposed report stems from an investiga¬ tion initiated by the Commission last October 31st and which arose, according to the report, from conflict between the presently effect¬ ive telephone tarif fprovi sions and "the growing demand for telephone recording devices. " With the exception of installations for two newspapers, the Bell System has not itself supplied recording devices and in testimony at the January hearings it was brought out that the telephone companies had had only 41 requests for recorder installa¬ tions in 11 months of 1945, whereas the principal recording manu¬ facturers reported that from 1937 to 1945 they had installed more than 19,000 of the devices, about a third of them having been sold to the Army and Navy.
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