Broadcasting (July - Dec 1941)

ANPA Enters Press Battle {Continued from page 7) WFMJ Youngstown's Favorite Station A HooperHolmes survey shows that WFMJ has more listeners than any other station heard in the Youngstown district. SEARS and AVER, Rep. ^. larg chunk oriLLIN Test your campaigns in a dual market — BOTH agricultural and industrial. WSOY gi ves you coverag l' of such a market. 2B0 WATTS -la^O-FULLTlME Columbia's Station for the SOUTHWEST KFH WICHITA KANSAS Call Any Edward Petry Office present indication of a postponement request from the newspaper group, created last April to combat the regulations. Harold V. Hough, Chairman of the Committee, and Sydney M. Kaye, associate counsel for the group, were in Washington last Wednesday and Thursday with C. H. Sundberg, secretary of the committee, to complete arrangements for the inquiry, presumably to be conducted before the FCC sitting en banc. It has been an open secret that Chairman Fly did not propose to postpone the hearings unless the burden was squarely upon the newspaper committee, and even then, because of the most recent developments, some doubt was expressed as to his action. Chairman Fly has insisted that the hearings should be started promptly because of the hue and cry from the industry about the holding up of applications for both standard and FM facilities where newspaper-ownership is involved, however indirectly. Since promulgation of the inquiry order (No. 79) last March, the FCC has shunted to the pending file all applications for new facilities involving newspapers, save in a few instances which have been branded as discriminatory, but has authorized improved facilities in some cases with the proviso that they are subject to whatever policy action the FCC might take pursuant to the inquiry. On behalf of the NewspaperRadio Committee, it was indicated it will state it is not ready to make an affirmative presentation on behalf of newspaper-owned stations on July 23, but intends to appear in the proceedings. In Midst of Summer The newspaper committee originally had requested a postponement of the proceedings from July 25 until Sept. 15. The Commission, however, granted an adjournment only until July 23. It was then presumed that, upon proper petition, it would grant another postponement since several members of the Commission have no intention of sitting through such proceedings day in and day out during the heat of a Washington summer. Aside from calling upon all of the press associations, FCC investigators have visited such operations as Hearst Radio in New York; the Cowles stations headquarters in Des Moines; WDAF, Kansas City, owned by the Star; WSPA-WORD, Spartanburg, S. C, non-newspaper owned; WTMA, Charleston, S. C, owned by the News & Courier and Post, WCBA, Allentown, owned by the Call, among others. In one instance, more than a week was spent examining files, including personal memoranda, contracts, news continuities, newspaper program listings and, in fact, everything having any bearing, direct or indirect, upon newspaper station operation. Questions often ran to ridiculous extremes, it was reported. The investigators wanted to know who dictated the news broadcasts, whether advertisers had any degree of control over news content, relationships with press associations, complaints against stations or newspapers, whether the stations had an "editorial policy" and a myriad other inquiries. Files as far back as six years, including those stored away in attic or basement, were carefully perused. But, according to one broadcaster, only such data that might be employed to show partiality, wrongdoing, unfair competition or public complaint proved of interest. In this particular case, the organization took the position it had nothing to hide and threw open everything. Preparing the Data The Newspaper-Radio Committee, it is understood, has a staff of nearly 40 preparing data for the hearings, based largely upon the results of a confidential questionnaire dispatched June 27, a day before the FCC questionnaire went out. The committee, with well over $100,000 already committed by newspaper-owned stations toward a budget of some $200,000, proposes an exhaustive presentation. Questionnaires were not due until July 10, and it was thought it would be physically impossible to prepare all of the data in time for presentation to the FCC July 23. Thomas D. Thacher, former Solicitor General of the United States, is chief counsel for the committee, with Mr. Kaye and Abe Herman, of Fort Worth, as his associates. Unlike the FCC questionnaire, the committee asked no questions about program listings in newspapers, or other matters regarded as extraneous to the main issue. The four-phase questionnaire covered station ownership and history, including profits and losses for each year and physical investment; commercial policy, covering joint sale of newspaper space and station time or combination rates; news broadcasting, covering news services subscribed to; news program breakdowns, both commercial and sustaining; handling of news and commentators; and general policy of stations, relating to NAB code adherence on controversial issues, religious services, complaints, public service programs and the like. In its preface, the committee said the survey was intended to portray a faithful picture of the effects of newspaper relationship on radio stations. "No matter how slight or tenuous the relationship," the stations were told, "it is imperative that these questions be answered fully. Whether your station is directly licensed to a newspaper, directly controlled by a newspaper through a broadcast corporation, or even if only as little as lO'/c of the stock is owned by any persons connected with any newspaper anywhere, your station is concerned." Bosco Adds BOSCO Co., New York (milk amplifier) , on July 7 started Bosco Bandstand, a program of transcribed music, 8:30-8:45 a.m. (EDST), six times weekly, on KYW, Philadelphia. Also on that date the company shifted a program of the same name on KNX, Los Angeles, from 7:45-8 a.m., (PST), Monday, Wednesday and Friday, to 12:30-12:40 p.m., Monday thru Friday. Agency is Kenyon & Eckhardt, New York. KINY, Juneau, Alaska, was authorized b.v the FCC last Wednesday to increase its iiower from 1,000 to 5.000 watts fulltime. subject to approval of transmitter and antenna site. VIBHX MOST JHT1MAT| LARGEST MARKET. n i i n i 35 5000 WATTS Page 48 • July 14, 1941 OVER METROPOLITAN NEW YORK BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising