Broadcasting (July - Dec 1943)

memo was based on a statement of the superintendent that "everything which Wolfgang said might not be untrue." Upon further discussions with the FBI, he added, he decided to discard Wolfgang's charges entirely. Cox Sees Attempted Censorship By FCC When the FCC investigation cleared Mr. Brunner of the charges against him, WBNX was advised of this fact, Mr. Guest said, and told that its application for renewal of license would be acted on at the earliest possible moment. The station has since received a permanent license, he said. Mr. Garey charged that this was tantamount to telling the station "you wouldn't refuse them a license if they decided to put Brunner back on the air," a strictly illegal procedure, since the FCC has no authority to censor program content or program personnel. After hearing the evidence about the FCC investigation of WBNX personnel, Chairman Cox asked the THE VOICE OF MISSISSIPPI MISSISSIPPI BUSINESS ACTIVITY UP 38% June 1943 continued the UPWARD trend of previous months in Mississippi by showing an increase in business activity of 38 per cent over June of 1942. (Average increase 12-months ending June '43 was 26.58%.) WJDX D-O-M-l-N-A-T-E-S the UP-MARKET in Mississippi. Let the "Voice of Mississippi" speak for you in Jackson and in Mississippi. Ronzoni 100% Radio RONZONI MACARONI Co., Long Island City, through its newly-appointed agency Emil Mogul Co., New York, will devote its entire advertising budget to radio. Firm has purchased time in several eastern markets in the past and plans to augment its schedule shortly. witness, "What were you after? Did you want to give the public clean radio, frightened, terrorized radio? Did you ever think about free radio ? If people don't suit you do you just call them Nazis and take after them?" Luotto Commended for Deliberation on Citizenship Dorothy Waring, director of investigation for the Anti-Nazi League, took the stand briefly in the afternoon, but was dismissed when questioning revealed she did not possess the information Mr. Garey desired about the League's personnel and the conduct of its affairs. Andrea Luotto, also recalled briefly, testified of a conversation with Arnold Hartley, who had been program director of WGES, Chicago, at the time of that station's dismissal of Stefano Luotto, following Mr. Hartley's acceptance of a similar position at WOV New York. Mr. Hartley, Mr. Luotto said, avowed the highest esteem for Stefano and offered to do whatever he could to assist in righting the injustice done him. Stefano Luotto, the final witness of the day, denied having any Fas Background for Old License Refusals Explained As FCC Denies Censorship ... also selling many other products on many other stations. ANSWERING the charge that the FCC activities concerning domestic foreign language broadcasts constitute censorship, which it terms "without foundation", the FCC on Tuesday issued to the press background information citing court decisions on the KFKB (Dr. Brinkley) and KGEF (Trinity Methodist Church) cases, following the original Federal Radio Commission's failure to renew licenses. In the first instance, the failure to renew was based on "the fact that a good deal of the station's broadcast time was devoted to the sale of medicinal products of Dr. Brinkley and in the prescription by Dr. Brinkley over the air of remedies for ailments described to him only in letters," which the Radio Commission held not to constitute operation in the public interest. Religious Charges In the second case, the Radio Commission refused to renew the license because 'the broadcasts of Dr. Shuler were scurrilous, antireligious, debasing of the Jewish and Roman Catholic Church, etc." The FCC, after reciting these cases, said: The rationale of these cases also applies with respect to domestic foreign language broadcasts. The Commission in moving in this field does not undertake to tell the stations what programs they may or may not carry. The Commission's only function is to assemble information as to whether stations are operating in the public interest. We do not tell the station to carry or not to carry programs but we can look at the service the station has rendered in determining whether the operation of the station has been in the public interest and whether the continued operation of the station is likely to be in the public interest. In time of war it can scarcely be denied that the Commission can consider the foreign language broadcasts of radio stations in order to determine whether these programs are conveying information to the enemy or are spreading enemy and subversive propaganda and disparaging the cause of the United Nations, etc. If any of the stations carrying foreign language broadcasts have been engaging in such activity, there can be no doubt that upon the authority of the decisions in the KFKB and Trinity Methodist Church cases, the Commission's right to refuse to renew the licenses of such stations would be upheld by the courts. cist or Nazi sympathies, explaining his failure to apply for United States citizenship until 1941, 10 years after his arrival in this country from his native Italy, on the grounds that after spending 36 years as an Italian citizen he was reluctant to become an American citizen until he was convinced that he could honestly forswear all ties with his native land. In 1941, he said, when it became probable that the United States and Italy would find themselves on opposite sides in a war, he reached the decision that the United States had become his true country and applied for his citizenship papers. He denied the charges in an FCC press release that he had waited until after the passage of the Alien Registration Act, stating that he had not known of the act and that it had no bearing on his decision. Regarding the Dante Alighieri Society of Chicago, he testified that contrary to the allegation of the FCC this organization was purely cultural, with no political leanings, and that several Jewish refugees from Italy had become members. Questioned about his dismissal from WGES, he corroborated the previous testimony of his brothers. Garey Calls Witness 'Obviously a Perjurer' Commending Stefano Luotto for his careful deliberation over taking out citizenship papers, Chairman Cox said: "You may be a dangerous man to be turned loose on the American public over the wavelengths, but I can't see it. I think you have the sympathy of the public and that you and your brother have been unfairly treated and persecuted." Giuseppe Lupis, publisher of II Mondo, a monthly magazine, and George E. Halley TEXAS RANGERS LIBRARY HOTEL PICKWICK • KANSAS CITY, MO. ine In KANSAS CITY it's "COMMERCIAL RADIO'S" K49KC K.C/s Pioneer Commercial FRLQULNCY MODULATION STATION Owned and Operated by LAMAR LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL RADIO EQUIPMENT COMPANY Page 56 • August 23, 1943 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising