Broadcasting (Jan - June 1940)

Bill Clips FCC Authority (Continued from page 19) '"'•^.J'^''' INC. tal American principle". This type of censorship is far more dangerous than if the Commission would promulgate standards in advance, he said. The present method is "just plain ex post facto censorship and is too powerful a weapon to be entrusted to any such agency." Asserting that Congress never intended to delegate to the FCC the power to impose its judgment as to what are good programs and what are bad programs, Mr. Ditter declared the Commission was established primarily to deal with a technical problem in order to prevent interference, assure an orderly and efficient use of the ether, and effect a fair, efficient and equitable distribution of broadcast facilities over the country. "From all I can find out, it is to these primary duties they pay the least attention, while they fritter away their time on forbidden and, I believe, unconstitutional fields of activity," he said. Discussing the provision of his bill which would make it clear that the Commission is not to take alleged program offenses into account in any way of its actions on applications, Mr. Ditter said the only leeway left to the Commission is in the case where a licensee has been finally adjudged guilty by a Federal court of one or more violations of specific provisions of the Act, such as the provisions against obscenity and lottery information, and then only where the offense is of so Make a Mote o-k ihii . . . KARK is consistently doing a bigger job — for bigger customers — than any other station in Arkansas! Before doing business in Arkansas, do business with KARK! LITTLE ROCK, ARK. 890 KC— 1,000 Watts N.B.C. and Southcentral Quality Network, Comprising WMC, KARK,KWKH, WSMB, KTBS Edward Petry & Co., Inc., National Representative Strictly Stenchy CONTEST to end all contests is being conducted on KVOO, Tulsa, by Eddie Coontz on his daily 45-minute KVOO Morning Watch. Coontz is offering a set of NBC chimes to the person sending in the "lousiest" joke of the week. Worst joke of the month earns its sender a $30 Nesco electric roaster. Mail count on the program is reported to have jumped more than 400% since the contest started. serious or repeated a nature as to show clearly that the licensee or applicant is not qualified in character to operate a station. "We do not put newspapers out of business because of occasional infractions of laws against lotteries, obscenity, defamation or any other improper utterances. We punish the persons responsible by fines, imprisonments or damages. Why should any other principle apply to radio station licensees?" New Station Grants Hitting the mooted question of competition from new stations, Mr. Ditter said obviously a newcomer should not have the right to replace an established station unless there is some consideration of public interest involved. He charged that the Commission "under the influence of a deluge of authoritarian jurisprudence is taking the position that it may grant any application for a new station or for an increase in power or change of frequency for an existing station without hearing, no matter how disastrous its action may affect any existing station or the public served by that station." Asserting it is not necessary to put a station off the air to ruin it, Mr. Ditter declared that if another station is placed on the same wavelength so close that interference is caused over most of the area served by it, then its usefulness is effectively destroyed. Until last year the FCC itself did not entertain any such notion of its powers, he pointed out. To remedy this situation, he said his bill provided that the Act be amended to require hearing where the Commission's action would aggrieve or adversely affect the interests of any holder of a license or any applicant therefor. Mr. Gannett in his address Feb. 23 in St. Petersburg declared that since Sept. 8, when a limited national emergency was declared, the President has had the power of life and death over every station. The powers conferred on the President over radio were described by the publisher-broadcaster as the same powers with which Adolph Hitler is keeping the German people in the dark, the powers that Stalin and Mussolini exercise over the radio in Russia and Italy. Urging enactment of the Ditter Bill, Mr. Gannett said freedom of speech over the radio "is another battleground for preservation of CKWX, CJOR Granted Power Boosts to 1 kw. CKWX, 100-watt, and CJOR, 500watt Vancouver stations have been authorized by the Department of Transport, Ottawa, to increase to 1 kilowatt, according to Reg Dagg, manager of CKWX, which changes frequency to 950 kc, while CJOR remains on 600 kc. Two Vancouver stations go off the air effective April 1, as annual licenses expire March 31. CKCD, station owned by the Vancouver Province, ceases to operate, and the newspaper will cooperate with CJOR, though it will not have any financial interest. CKFC, station of the Vancouver Sun, will likewise go off the air, and the Sun will cooperate with CKWX. Two other stations will remain in Vancouver, CKMO, 100-watter, and CBR, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. 5,000watt station. CKWX will build a new transmitter and radiator on Lulu Island. MILWAUKEE PICKS HOPE AND BERGEN BOB HOPE won top honors as radio comedian in the 10th annual radio poll conducted by The Milwaukee Journal, operating WTMJ. Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy again captured the "favorite program" laurels, followed by Hope, Jack Benny and Fibber McGee & Molly. WTMJ personalities led the field in sportscasting and woman commentator divisions. Kay Kyser was named top bandsman; Bing Crosby, leading male popular singer, as well as most popular m.c. Other leaders named in the poll included Nelson Eddy, male concert star; Don Wilson, studio announcer; One Man's Family, serial, with / Love a Mystery in second place. For the ninth consecutive year Russ Winnie, WTMJ sportscaster, led his division, with Bob Elson second and Ted Husing third. Nancy Grey, commentator on WTMJ's What's New?, led the field in her bracket for the eighth straight season, with George Comte, of WTMJ's Today's Events, running second to H. V. Kaltenborn among the news commentators Baukhage Shifted BAUKHAGE, NBC Washington commentator, on Feb. 19 returned to a regular news commentary spot on the NBC-Blue National Farm & Home Hour, resuming his post on the program after an absence of nearly 17 months, during which he handled special NBC news assignments both in this country and Europe. In the new series, Bauk hage comments on the national scene in the light of his personal experiences on the European front and in Washington. (I LENOX R. LOHR, NBC president New York, has donated a large silver trophy which will be awarded for the best collection of United States stamps on display at the annual International Philatelic Exhibit currently being held in Hollywood. our civil and constitnitional liberties." The President's own son, Elliott Roosevelt, he said, "had the courage to come out against his father and oppose vigorously restrictions on freedom of speech on the air." Page 62 • March 1, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising