Broadcasting (Oct - Dec 1950)

Record Details:

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1940 (Continued from page 120) who depended largely on phonograph records and transcriptions, BMI met with representatives of the major transcription companies, securing from each the promise that his company would immediately make transcriptions of eight nonASCAP tunes, with no duplication between companies, who would themselves absorb the cost of the masters and charge stations only $2 apiece for double-faced discs. In addition the transcription companies agreed to include about 50 nonASCAP tunes a month apiece in their transcription library services which, even with duplication, were estimated to insure a minimum of about 150 selections a month. The transcription companies owed this cooperation to BMI for setting its recording fee two cents a composition for transcriptions as well as for phonograph records, breaking with the custom followed by most publishers of charging 25 or 50 cents for each transcription despite the statutory limitation of a maximum of two cents a pressing. The Dept. of Justice had renewed its investigation of ASCAP's activities by subpoenaing the Society's files and records as a prelude to criminal prosecution. Broadcasters and other ASCAP licensees had been questioned about their dealings with ASCAP and by August, when the NAB held its annual convention in San Francisco, ASCAP was more than willing to effect a settlement with radio that would halt the government action. When ASCAP's request for a place on the convention program was rejected by NAB President Miller, who declared "San Francisco will be no Munich," top ASCAP executives established themselves nearby to be available for conferences with individual broadcasters. E. R. Craney, KGIR Butte, told an NIB meeting preceding the NAB conclave that the Washington and Montana broadcasters had arranged to get ASCAP music on a pay-for-use basis, which the industry had long demanded, but even this news failed to sway the industry conviction that now was the time to end the threat of ASCAP monopoly. They rejected all ASCAP dealings in favor of wholehearted support of BMI. BMI Builds Up Its Music Stock BMI continued to acquire music for radio, including the catalogs of Southern Music Co., Southern Music International, Mexican Assn. of Composers and Authors, De Musica Internacional, E. C. Schirmer Music Co., G. Ricordi & Co. and Edward B. Marks Music Corp., which by December gave it radio rights to some 250,000 compositions of all types of music. "The networks gradually curtailed their use of ASCAP music until in December there was none on their sustainers. Advertisers and agencies cooperated, changing their signature and theme music to non-ASCAP selec ASCAP NEGOTIATORS for return of its music to the air were in Washington in 1940 to confer with IRNA representatives in a preliminary conference. The officials (I to r): E. Claude Mills, chairman of the Administration Committee; John G. Paine, general manager, and John O'Connor, director, also took in a couple of days of the White Resolution hearings in the Senate. tions and gradually shifting musical programs to BMI-controlled tunes, too. Everything was set for the complete break with ASCAP on New Year's Eve, and not even word that the Dept. of Justice was filing suits against BMI and the networks, for boycotting ASCAP music and conspiring in restraint of trade, as well as against ASCAP, could dampen the industry's feeling that at last it had won its copyright independence. The Justice Dept. also figured in averting a strike of AFM, threatened at the beginning of 1940, when, after talks with Thurman Arnold, assistant attorney general, the broadcasters told the union they had been advised that the industry -AFM agreements were illegal and that their renewal would bring prosecution for conspiracy in restraint of trade. AFM President Joseph N. Weber notified local unions to negotiate individual contracts with network affiliates whose contracts expired in January and subsequently James C. Petrillo, who had succeeded Mr. Weber as top AFM executive, authorized the same arrangement for contracts of nonnetwork stations. Disputes of KSTP St. Paul, an NBC affiliate, and WRVA Richmond, a CBS station, with AFM locals in those cities assumed nationwide proportions late in June when the AFM national office ordered NBC and CBS to stop feeding remote dance band pickups to those stations. The networks both refused to take such action, which would have been a breach of their affiliation contracts, and AFM pulled the bands from the networks, threatening further curtailment of network musical programs if the Mr. Weber local differences were not settled. They were, and a possible network strike was averted. In October, Mr. Petrillo informed the networks that after the end of current commercial commitments musicians would not be allowed to perform on network co-op shows, which, he said, were sold to local advertisers "for less than the same number of local musicians would cost if the programs were sold locally," terming this "the worst kind of unfair competition." Samuel R. Rosenbaum, WFIL Philadelphia, chairman of IRNA, wrote the union that these programs were not in reality affecting local employment of musicians as no local sponsor could afford to present comparable programs on his own. The union did not immediately alter its rule, but notified Mr. Rosenbaum that he would have the chance to present his views to the AFM board at its next meeting, not scheduled yet but customarily held early in the year. A major musical victory for broadcasters was announced July 25 in a decision of the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that broadcasters could freely purchase phonograph records and broadcast them without obtaining permission of either the recording company or the recording artist and "in entire disregard of any attempt" by either company or performer to restrict such use. This precedent-making ruling reversed a decision of the Federal District Court in the action of RCA against Paul Whiteman, WNEW New York and Elgin Inc., sponsor of a record program on WNEW, that had given both the company and the artist the right to control, restrict or prevent the use of their recordings on the air. Mr. Whiteman RCA had followed the earlier decision by issuing licenses to stations to use its records, but at the insistence of NIB President Harold A. Lafount had discontinued this practice and refunded license fees already collected, pending a final court ruling. Decca also had withdrawn restrictions on the use of its records and Columbia had never imposed any restrictions. The Circuit Court decision became the official precedent at the end of the year when the Supreme Court of the United States refused an appeal for its review. AFRA Strike Threat Peacefully Settled A threatened strike of AFRA against the nationwide networks after a breakdown in negotiations for a new network sustaining contract was averted in October when William H. Davis, chairman of the New York State Mediation Board, called union and networks together for one last session before allowing a strike to occur. So successful was Mr. Davis in the role of peacemaker that the parties emerged from these new bargaining sessions with not only a new sustaining agreement but also a new commercial code, although the former one would not have expired for four months. AFRA gained a number of wage increases for work by performers and announcers on network sustainers, but the networks secured a renewal without change of the commercial contract whose terms had been fought out so bitterly less than two years before. They also gained a threeyear contract for both sustaining and commercial employment, longer than AFRA wanted, by agreeing to a provision for increases in minimum scale if the national cost of living index were to rise 10 points or more over the last year's level. The national agreement, for good measure, also settled a dispute of long standing over the fees to be paid announcers at the network key stations in Chicago. Chain Monopoly Group Issues Recommendations In June, the FCC chain monopoly committee issued its long awaited report which recommended to the full Commission that networks be barred from transcription and talent booking activities and be required to extend program service to remote areas even though such extension might be unprofitable, that long-term exclusive affiliation contracts be banned, that clear channels be duplicated to provide for more stations, that station ownership be strictly limited with networks perhaps to be forbidden the right to own stations at all, and that advertising agencies be prevented from having the final say regarding network programs. These recommendations were vigorously opposed by IRNA as well as by NBC and CBS, with MBS supporting the ban on exclusive affiliation contracts, both in briefs and at a two-day hearing in Page 122 • October 16, 1950 BROADCASTING • Telecasting