Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

6 JANUARY 18, 1960 More about DOERFER’S 9 PROBLEMS: A 9-point roster of problems is facing FCC this season, but will be tackled by the Commission as rapidly as possible in 1960, FCC Chmn. John C. Doerfer promised the RTFS audience last week. The problems (and FCC’s action on them) : 1. Procedures: Doerfer admitted FCC was “12 months behind in the processing of AM applications,” but added that “only Congress can aid us — by adopting the legislation we have proposed or endorsed.” 2. Spectrum management: In his opinion, a “single body will be eventually created” to maintain a “continuous study & inventory of effective use of the entire spectrum.” 3. CATV & boosters: Doerfer referred to the pending legislation designed to “significantly facilitate the continued operation of a TV station which is providing the only available locally-operated TV broadcast program service.” He declared: “This is a serious innovation into the American concept of broadcasting . . . the inevitable corollary of protection from competition is eventual regulation of service & rates. If such principal were established in the CATV and the booster fields, it would [be] a short step to eventual service regulation of all of broadcasting.” 4. Clear channels, sky waves: The proceedings surrounding dear-channel & daytime skywave matters “will be terminated in 1960, at least on Commission level.” 5. Political broadcasts: He saw no major election-year problems ahead for broadcasters in the realm of equaltime claims as a result of the amended Section 315. However, he foresaw “difficulties” with that portion which calls for discussion of conflicting views on public issues. 6. Allocations: “Nothing short of a Congressional act” would bring about a complete switch to uhf from vhf , Doerfer said. This is behind FCC’s current consideration of short-mileage drop-ins. 7. Payola: There is “not as much payola as was first assumed — little of it in the smaller markets,” Doerfer revealed, citing as his source the questionnaires recently rturned by broadcasters queried by FCC on payola practices. New rules, “or if necessary, legislation” to combat payola are the next step, he indicated. 8. Network practices: “Some definite determination of the extent of our powers [in the field of network practices] should be forthcoming shortly, after the staff can summarize the testimony in the present investigation.” 9. Programming: “There is no express language in the Communications Act which authorizes the Commission to intensively scrutinize programming,” he stated firmly, pointing to “the danger of building up a bureaucracy that would ultimately dictate the character of programming.” There should, however, be more prime-time public-affairs programming, Doerfer told his audience and offered a network-level formula for a fresh supply (see p. 4). Miami Ch. 10 conspiracy retrial of ex-FCC Comr. Richard A. Mack & Thurman A. Whiteside, now scheduled to start Jan. 25 (Vol. 15:52 pl6), will be held in Washington — not Miami, as asked by defense counsel. Attorneys for Mack & Whiteside were turned down at a preliminary hearing in Washington’s U.S. District Court when they argued that the case properly belonged in the District Court for Southern Fla. The defense last week also lost another move to have the Supreme Court hear an appeal from the District Court’s refusal to order acquittal of Mack & Whiteside in their first trial, which ended in a hung jury. The Supreme Court denied a petition for a rehearing. Congress More about HARRIS GETS SET: House hearings on TV & radio payola practices — awaited breathlessly by the press and apprehensively by broadcasters — will finally get under way Feb. 8 for a scheduled one-week run. Commerce Legislative Oversight Subcommittee Chmn. Harris (D-Ark.) announced last week. He said “all phases” of payola would be explored in the public proceedings, indicated that disc jockeys would be among witnesses summoned, refused to say what other witnesses might be called, and insisted that the subcommittee intends to keep the hearings going only long enough to establish a TV & radio payola “pattern.” “I hope it will not take over a week for such matters. It isn’t necessary,” Harris told more than 30 reporters who hurriedly converged on Commerce Committee’s hearing room in response to a sudden news-conference call. Some of the reporters expressed incredulity that the oversighters would let headline-promising payola drop so quickly. They reminded Harris of the scope of pre-hearing Avork by subcommittee staffers who proposed a 20-point agenda for hearings following field explorations across the country (Vol. 15:51 p6). In addition to payola itself, the staff report covered ad plugs, other reported abuses. “It is such a big problem that the subcommittee cannot afford to make spot investigations of every station in the country,” Harris said, adding wryly: “There’s a great demand among the stations to let them know if we’ve got anything on them.” Other Commerce Committee Plans In announcing his committee’s program for 1960 (with all work scheduled to be suspended in time for July political conventions), Harris also said: (1) Nothing will be done this session on a spectrum study started last year by his communications & power subcommittee (Vol. 15:24 p4). “There are those who feel that there have been enough studies in the last 10 years and something ought to be done,” Harris conceded, but he said his subcommittee can’t do much until govt. & nongovt. users resolve their “differences of opinion.” (2) There may be hearings — perhaps next month — on an omnibus bill (HR-4800) which Harris introduced at the start of the 1959 session for reform of procedures of FCC and other regulatory agencies. (3) There’ll be “action” by the communications subcommittee on a bill (S-12) by Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Magnuson (D-Wash.) for $51 million in state grants to buy educational TV equipment. But subcommittee members may want to do some more ETV field work first — possibly touring Albuquerque, St. Louis, Omaha and Champaign, 111. (4) The Oversight Subcommittee’s budget for 1960 is $410,000, of which $112,000 is available from unexpended 1959 spectrum-study funds and $23,000 from left-over Oversight money, leaving $275,000 to be appropriated by the House. When he gets the money, Harris said, he’ll add 7 or 8 more employes to the subcommittee’s 25-member staff — most of them investigators. First radio daytimer bill of the new Congressional session — extending stations’ sunrise-sunset operations from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (HR-9627) — has been introduced by Rep. Abernathy (D-Miss.).