Broadcasting (Jan - June 1939)

FORMATION of the North Carolina Assn. of Broadcasters was effected Feb. 21 at Raleigh by representatives of 15 of the State's 18 stations. Richard H. Mason, WPTF, Raleigh, was elected its first president. Shown at the meeting, standing (1 to r) are George Walker, WAIR, elected vice-president; Andrew Bennett, NAB counsel who spoke on copyright; A. J. Fletcher, WRAL, Raleigh, temporary chairman; Ralph Wentworth, Langlois & Wentworth, who also addressed the meeting. Seated, (1 to r) Avery Wynne, WEED; E. Johnston Neal, WRAL; H. W. Wilson, WGTM; Ben Farmer, WGTM; Richard A. Dunlea, WMFD, elected a director; Fred Fletcher, WRAL, secretary; Bryce P. Beard, WSTP, director; President Mason; Lincoln Dellar, WBT, director: Norris O'Neil, WSJS; J. H. Field Jr., WPTF; E. J. Cluck, WSOC, treasurer; Talbot Patrick, Goldsboro Broadcasting Co., and George Case, WRAL. Listeners Termed Radio Becoming Impotent From Fear Adequate Censors Of Federal Censorship^ Says Article 'Colliers' Editorial Rebukes Interference With Radio "READER censorship is all the censorship the magazines and newspapers ever have needed" and "listener censorship is all the censorship the radio needs." These statements are made in an editorial titled "We Needn't be SpoonFed" appearing in the Feb. 25 issue of Collier's, published by Crowell Publishing Co., which takes cognizance of proposals to "demike" certain kinds of broadcasts and takes a strong stand against interference with programs. Since America began, asserts the editorial, the country has had ranters of all kinds — merchants of religious, racial, class and every other type of hatred. Yet the "horse sense" of the American people, giving them a full and free hearing, has always prevailed, it continues, and "it seems most unlikely" that "we are in any more danger of being led into lunacy now than we ever were." It continues: Fingers in Their Ears "President Miller of the broadcasters' association, Chairman Frank R. McNinch of the FCC and kindred headshakers and handwringers seem to think the majority of Americans are mental slobs, whose delicate ears must be shielded from 'harmful' broadcasts. "Well, we aren't mental slobs, and the ears of most of us are not overdelicate. Generation after generation, we have proved capable of telling a sow from a Siwash * * *. "Listener censorship is all the censorship the radio needs. It's so easy to turn the dial and find a different tune. "We think President Miller of the broadcasters' association had better forget about any supposed duty of his to keep 'dangerous thoughts' (Japanese expression) off the radio. All he needs to worry about, so far as we can see, are the ordinary standards of decency and discretion that govern the American press. "And we think Chairman McNinch A SERIES of anecdotes, relating various incidents of self-censorship on the part of broadcasters, makes up the bulk of an article on "Radio Gets the Jitters" in the March American Magazine. The author is McClellan Patton, whose thesis is stated in the paragraph which includes this statement: "On guard against Government censorship, radio has clamped its own hand over its own mouth in a self-censorship as rigid as, if not more rigid than, anything the Government could order." Mr. Patton relates the Orson Welles' War of the Worlds "debacle" to show that "the broadcasters are scared silly" and that "their every decision is dictated by fear — fear of a club held over their heads by a handful of political appointees in Washington, who, in turn, are at the whim of any Nice Nelly in the country." Nelly's Jitters "Let the Commission try to overlook the complaints of a few Nice Nellies," he continues, "and immediately some Congressman is up on his feet to defend the fireside and demand an investigation. The result is that if even one Nice Nelly objects to something he has heard over the air, the Commission may threaten to revoke the license of the offending station. All of which is causing thinking people to wonder if radio isn't being rapidly Prim Pollied into a state of innocuous desuetude." Various examples of self-censorship are cited, including the frank efforts of network censors to keep the air free of indecent or sugges of the Communications Commission had better begin confining himself strictly to regulation of technical radio details, and drop the motions he has been making recently toward government radio censorship. Or if Mr. McNinch persists in trying to stick his fingers in the ears of American radio listeners, we think Congress had better shackle his official hands. "Like the press, the radio can be free, or it can be a slave, but it can't be both." tive statements or quips, especially capable of being put over by innuendo or inflection. The Mae West episode is discussed at length, and the Commission's actions in threatening NBC in that affair and in the Eugene O'Neill Beyond the Horizon complaint (the latter made by only one man and his wife, hearing it on only one of a chain of 40 stations) are cited as examples of the "jitters" that Washington imposes. Unlike the Stanley High article in the Feb. 11 Saturday Evening Post [Broadcasting, Feb. 15], the facts in Mr. Patton's article are with few exceptions correctly stated, whether one agrees with his conclusions or not. In making point of the Mae West and Eugene O'Neill episodes, he mentions Commissioner Craven as opposing censorship but fails to bring out that one of the prime movers for drastic action against networks and stations in the Commission's deliberations was Commissioner George H. Payne, who also has demanded by public statement and press release that something be done about children's programs, yet never has proposed any definite course of action to his fellow commissioners or to the industry. That something is being done, with one network engaging a child psychologist to check children's programs, is brought out in the article. Sophisticates' Viewpoint While the article as a whole is to some extent sympathetic with radio's problems, it was vsrritten from the point of view of the metropolitan sophisticate who apparently believes that anything that can be printed or staged can also be heard on the radio without change. Radio executives, however, are quoted to give the radio point of view — and they make fully as strong a case for self-censorship as Mr. Patton — ^who also dislikes actual or threatened governmental censorship— makes by putting together his series of anecdotes to prove that this censorship is sometimes "silly". CENSORSHIP STUDY STARTS IN CANADA By JAMES MONTAGNES THE RIGHT of free speech on public and private broadcasting stations and its alleged ban by CBC regulations, is being probed by a 23-man committee of the House of Commons, at Ottawa. The inquiry started Feb. 21 under the chairmanship of Arthur Beaubien, and will hear CBC officials and board of governor members, and representatives of private stations. The committee last year only heard CBC officials in probing broadcasting. This year invitations have been issued to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. The inquiry was brought about by CBC refusal in January to allow George McCullagh, publisher of the Toronto Globe & Mail, to buy a national CBC or private network for a series of talks on Canadian conditions. Publisher McCallagh got around the CBC refusal by recording his talks and placing them on a larger all-Canada list of stations than originally intended [Broadcasting, Feb. 1], and Parliament was forced to name a committee to inquire into the regulations. The Parliamentary committee will also delve into CBC finances, the CBC being financed by the returns of an annual listener's license fee of $2.50 per receiving set and the proceeds of commercial broadcasting on CBC networks and CBC owned or managed stations. CBC capital expenditures have been made partly with Government loans. William Hard Advocates American Radio Methods DEFENDING the private operation of broadcasting in this country, William Hard, noted journalist, declared before an audience in Washington's Town Hall Feb. 19 that some sort of balance between social control and individual initiative might be desirable. If broadcasting, as was suggested, is earning a high level of profits, he said, it deserves to do so because of the newness and riskiness of the business. Since it is subject to governmental scrutiny and regulation, he suggested that limited dividend corporations might eventually be desirable but declared the surplus over dividends should not be collected by the Government as taxes but instead should be ploughed back into programs. Mr. Hard vigorously defended the American system of broadcasting as against the British system under government ownership during his debate with Max Lerner, Williams College professor and former editor of the Nation. WRVA Starts 50 Kw. WRVA, Ricmond, went into fulltime operation Feb. 17 with its new 50,000 watt transmitter [Broadcasting, Feb. 15], a Western Electric unit with two 470-foot Blaw-Knox radiators, at Varina, 15 miles southeast of the city. Excellent coverage of the Virginia Tidewater area is reported. Formal dedication of the new station has now being fixed for March 17. Page 18 • March J, 1939 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising