Broadcasting (Jan - June 1940)

il^OAPCASTDINIC ajxxL Broadcast Advertising MARTIN CODEL, Publisher SOL TAISHOFF, Editor Published by BROADCASTING PUBLICATIONS, Inc. Executive, Editorial And Advertising Offices National Press Bldg. # Washington, D. C. Telephone — MEtropoIitan 1022 NORMAN R. GOLDMAN, Business Manager J. FRANK BEATTY, Managing Editor • BERNARD PLATT, CircolaHon Manager NEW YORK OFFICE: 250 Park Ave., Telephone PLaza 5-8355 BRUCE ROBERTSON, Associate Editor # MAURY LONG, Advertising Manager CHICAGO OFFICE: 360 N. Michigan Ave., Telephone CENtral 4115 • edward codel HOLLYWOOD OFFICE: 1509 N. Vine Street, Telephone GLadstone 7353 • davh) h. glickman Subscription Price: $3.00 per year-15c a copy • Copyright, 1940, by Broadcasting Publications, Inc. OUR PLATFORM Keep American radio free as the press. Maintain a system of free, competitive broadcasting, rendering public service without undue restraint. Build programs to provide the greatest good for the greatest number. Avoid political partisanship on the air. Install radios in every home, classroom, office, automobile, passenger train and airplane. Keep pace with technical developments and foster their commercial applications. ^Broadcasting Day' JULY 4 fittingly will mark a new epoch for radio. "Broadcasting Day" will be observed at the World's Fair in New York. In effect, it will be a declaration of radio independence — • of an American radio as free as the press. The invitation of the World's Fair to observe "Broadcasting Day" on Independence Day is both apt and timely. The work performed by radio since its advent, which has made it indispensable in the American standard of living, could not have been performed except under the American system of free enterprise. When the founding fathers wrote the Constitution, with almost psychic vision they pro\'ided for freedom of the press, assembly and religion. Radio constitutes the modern fusion of all three. That these wise men would have provided for a radio kept inviolate, had there been the slightest notion of its evolution, goes without saying. Even the last few months have brought new praise for American radio from groups which in the past have sought its undoing. At the recent sessions of the American Newspaper Publishers Assn. radio was accepted as a contemporary handmaiden as broadcasters and publishers sat at the same conference table. In Columbus, where the Ohio State Institute on Education by Radio was conducted a fortnight ago, some 100 working broadcasters conferred with educators in joint cooperative efforts toward common goals. Women's organizations, which formerly were prone to slap commercial radio on general principles, now are coorelating their activities with the existing structure to bring about adjustments in programming which will enhance listening and at the same time help the cooperating sponsors sell their wares. All these developments effectively point to the permanency of radio's march of progress. There is, of course, the backdrop of business and regulatory problems which make broadcasting, as an industry, a perilous venture, but these can only be regarded as ephemeral, even though aggravating and disheartening at times. President Roosevelt himself on several occasions has called for an American Radio "as free as the press". His participation in the "Broadcasting Day" observance on July 4, in person if public affairs permit, will provide an appropriate setting for the "Declaration of Radio Independence." New Legal Quarry? IS COMMUNICATIONS— radio, telephone and telegraph — the next New Deal target for legal conquest? And will that old spectre of a public utility concept of radio broadcasting, with its rate-regulation implications, again be thrust forward, with the Corcoran-Cohen forces behind it? Those are the questions being posed with the new appointments to the FCC legal staff as replacements for the Dempsey-Koplovitz team. Telford Taylor and Joseph L. Rauh Jr., like their predecessors, are brilliant young government lawyers selected for merit rather than for political considerations. Both are HarvardFrankfurter schooled. Both are Corcoran-Cohen proteges, young Rauh actually having worked as assistant to Ben Cohen. Despite their youth, both have had extensive experience in New Deal public utility, holding company and power litigation and legislation. Speculation on communications as the next New Deal juridical battleground does not all stem from these new appointments. FCC Chairman Fly himself is former general counsel of TVA — a top-flight lawyer high in New Deal councils. The new FCC legal lineup, on paper, is as pretentious as the old. But its experience has all been in the public utility-common carrier sphere. The Administration has won smashing court victories in its pursuit of more stringent regulation of public utilities and power companies and in the securities field. Its strategy is generally attributed to the Corcoran-Cohen team. Communications, broadcasting particularly, has lots of legal glamour, and unquestionably presents alluring possibilities for government lawyers. Whatever way the wind blows, the Government's lawyers must reckon vidth the clear-cut provision of the Communications Act that radio broadcasting is not a public utility common carrier. In enacting the law in 1934, Congress saw the difference between the peculiar structure of broadcasting and the fixing of rates for freight or passengers or kilowatt-hours. It described broadcasting as a quasi-utility, and made clear that it did not regard its facilities as open to all comers who have the price. If the next New Deal foray does envelop communications, radio broadcasting and its corollary services cannot be lumped in with telephone or telegraph. They are different breeds of communications cats — technically, socially, economically and legally. Bank Mystery THERE IS PLENTY of success-story evidence that when banks use radio it's like money in the bank for them. But bankers, by and large, are ultra-conservative and the radio selling process has been slow. The best selling on bank advertising by radio that has come our way in recent months is from a banker himself — R. M. Meisel, advertising manager of the Industrial Morris Plan Bank of Detroit. He brings it home in the official publication of the Financial Advertisers Association, of which he is radio editor. He tells how officers of his bank questioned the audience available for its sponsored news flashes at 7:30 a.m. oyer a local station. A one-time announcement with an inexpensive giveaway was made. The response was more than eight times the number which the bank officers said would satisfy them! The Detroit bank since then has expanded its schedule to four Detroit stations. Mr. Meisel observes: "It is indeed surprising to note the small percentage of banks which include radio in their budget, even with all the evidence before them." And he concludes: "Radio has a place in bank advertising — a very important place, but like every other medium it depends upon what you say — how you say it and ivho says it." For our money, we can only add, "check". Everybody Wins EVERYBODY wins, particularly the St. Louis listening public, and certainly nobody loses by the untangling of the time-sharing and wavelength muddle in St. Louis, detailed elsewhere in this issue. We believe the settlement of this problem, wdth all direct parties satisfied and the FCC lending its guiding and decisive hand, points a moral: That competition is never so keen but that friendly and mutually beneficial relations can be maintained locally and that the Federal regulators of radio can do a constructive job when so minded. After needless protracted and costly litigation had failed, KSD-KFUO-KXOK got together, agreed on improvements for all of them, laid their cards face up on the FCC's table. One or two commissioners may harbor newspaper prejudices, at least one is openly antagonistic to the networks, another favors non-commercial stations — yet none could say that the St. Louis public was not entitled to the added hours of network programs that the new setup vidll make possible. We fervently hope the years will bring more such give-andtake on the part of competitors and more such willingness to strip away red tape and formalities on the part of the FCC. Page 50 • May 15, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising