Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

VOL. 16: No. 1 7 “Televising of Nudes” might not be good public-service programming, acting FCC gen. counsel Edgar H. Holtz and his staff soberly advised the Court of Appeals in N.Y. last week. Filing a friend-of-the-court memorandum in the govt.’s appeal from a District Court ruling (that unexpurgated Lady Chatterley’s Lover is mailable, not obscene), the FCC attorneys asked the higher court to “avoid any holding that might be construed” as applying to broadcasting as well as book publishing. “The tolerance by the community of sexual frankness on the broadcast media is obviously less than that which is acceptable in books,” the brief said. “Radio & TV programs enter the home and are readily available not only to the average normal adult but also to children and to the emotionally immature or disturbed.” Citing First Amendment protection given in an earlier court decision to a nudist magazine, the memorandum said “the televising of nudes might well raise a serious question of programming contrary to the public interest under the Communications Act” & criminal law governing indecency on the air. “Similarly,” it stated, “regardless of whether the ‘4 letter words’ & sexual descriptions set forth in Lady Chatterley’s Lover (when considered in the context of the whole book) make the book obscene for mailability purposes, the utterance of such sexual activity over radio or TV would raise similar public interest and [criminal code] questions.” Deletion of Ch. 6 New Bedford (Providence) has been proposed by FCC but the way seems to be clearing for the Commission to keep it there through several developments: (1) Coast Guard, which had told FCC it wouldn’t object to a TV site beyond 3 miles from its Loran station on Martha’s Vineyard, presumably approves the new site proposed by applicant WNBH 6 months ago — because it hasn’t objected. (2) Co-channel WCSH-TV Portland, Me. has filed an application to move to a site which would enable the New Bedford station to meet FCC’s mileage rules. Assn, of Maximum Service Telecasters stands ready to withdraw its objection to the New Bedford assignment if WCSHTV’s application is granted. Grant of the WCSH-TV move awaits airspace approval; FCC processing is complete. (3) The 4 New Bedford applicants are ready to merge, and it’s expected that WNBH will be the surviving applicant — the other 3 getting a percentage of the grant or being paid for their expenses. (4) ABC has told FCC that it favors the Ch. 6 assignment which would give it a full-time affiliate in the Providence area. CP for Ch. 10 Helena, Mont, has been granted to Helena TV Inc., operator of CATV system there. Feuding with KXLJ-TV (Ch. 12) Helena, the grantee had told the FCC it would build a station if KXLJ-TV went off the air. KXLJ-TV had previously informed the Commission that it would have to go dark if the CATV were permitted to microwave signals from Spokane stations. The microwave was authorized, KXLJ-TV shut down, Helena TV applied. The microwave authorization was then suspended by FCC following a court order — KXLJ-TV has resumed operation. Low-power vhf translator rules proposed by FCC (Vol. 15:49 p4) were endorsed quickly by KMSO-TV Missoula, Mont., even though comments aren’t due until Jan. 11. The station asserted that “many small settlements located in the canyons of Western Montana . . . can only be served by the use of vhf translator stations. In fact, there are 2 populated canyons located within the city limits of Missoula that cannot he adequately served by KMSO-TV-” Increase from 110 to 316 kw was sought by WABCTV N.Y. in a petition for a waiver of FCC rules. Advertising FTC STRIKES AGAIN: In the second phase of its swift drive against payola on TV & radio, FTC last week issued 11 more complaints charging 14 record manufacturers & distributors with making under-table payments to disc jockeys in violation of fair-competition rules of the Federal Trade Commission Act. The new FTC clean-up campaign — launched last month with filing of payola charges against 9 firms, including RCA, which promptly agreed to stop payola practices it didn’t admit (Vol. 15:51 p6) — still has a long way to go. Commission sources indicated. With a total of 23 companies now cited, FTC staffers were digging through a mass of reports & rumors involving many other outfits in widespread pay-off customs in broadcasting. Nobody at FTC would say just how many more formal complaints might be issued, but at least 30 additional cases were reported in process of preparation. “There are matters on payola at all stages in the Commission in substantial numbers,” said FTC Chmn. Earl W. Kintner. In the latest actions announced Jan. 2, FTC accused 5 record manufacturing companies & their top officers of complicity in giving unnamed disc jockeys payola: Fury Records Inc., 271 W. 125th St., N.Y., Pres. Morgan Robinson & secy.-treas. Clarence L. Lewis. Laurie Records Inc. (with Abel Productions Inc.), 1755 Broadway, N.Y., Pres. Allan Sussel, vp Gene Schwartz, treas. Robert Schwartz and secy. Eliot Greenberg. Class Record Sales, 3617 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, Pres. Leon Rene. Roulette Records Inc., 659 10th Ave., N.Y., Pres. Morris Levy, treas. Morris Gurlek, vp Philip Kohl and exec, vp-secy. Joseph L. Kolsky. Atlantic Recording Corp., 157 W. 57th St., N.Y., Pres. Ahmet M. Ertegun, vp Nesuhi Ertegun, vp Miriam Bienstock, vp Gerald Wexler and secy.-treas. Vahdi Sabit. 5 Distributors Accused Five individual record-distributing firms and 4 companies which are affiliated were similarly charged by FTC : Duke Record Inc., 2809 Erastus St., Houston, Pres. Don D. Robey. Marnel Distributing Co. Inc., 1622 Fairmount Ave., Philadelphia, Pres. Nelson Verbit. Lesco Distributors, 71 S. 21st St., Philadelphia, operated by Edward S. Cohn. Main Line Distributors Inc., 1510 Fairmount Ave., Philadelphia, Pres. Haskel Colder & Barry Colder. Action Records Inc., 452 46th St., N.Y., Pres. Louis Klayman, treas. Morris Price and secy. Herbert Cohen. Cosnat Distributing Corp. & Jay-Gee Record Co. Inc., 315 W. 47th St., N.Y.; Cosnat Distributing Corp. of Cleveland, 1233 W. 9th St., Cleveland; Cosnat Distributing Detroit Corp., 3727 Woodward Ave., Detroit. (The FTC identified Jay-Gee as a manufacturer, the other firms as distributors, and cited these officers: Jerry & Elliot Blaine, connected with all 4 companies; Charles Gray of Cosnat Distributing Detroit, and Bennett Blaine of Jay-Gee.) Names of disc jockeys allegedly involved in the payoffs were withheld by FTC, since they weren’t charged with any violations in the agency’s jurisdiction. But lists of the jockeys were made available to FCC for use in connection withdts station-questionnaire investigation of payola practices (Vol. 15:49 pi), in which first replies are due Jan. 4. In announcing its 2nd batch of complaints, FTC said: