Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr - June 1951)

RAN All A RFPflRrr'/T"""'0" Hits UnlinUn ilLl USIl Private Programming CASTIGATION of private broadcasting station programming, more government aid for Canadian Broadcasting Corp., and no private television stations until CBC system is in operation are among the highlights of the 500-page report of Royal Commission on Arts, Letters and Sciences, tabled in House of Com * mons at Ottawa late on June 1. It took two years for the Royal Commission to hold hearings on all cultural subjects and make its report, and with it, independent Canadian stations lost all hope for a long time of a separate regulatory body. Government's decisions on the Commission's recommendations are not expected for some time. The private stations also learned that according to the thinking of the Royal Commission, they were laboring "under a false assumption that broadcasting in Canada is an industry. Broadcasting in Canada in our view," said the commissioners, "is a public service, directed and controlled in the public interest by a body responsible to Parliament." The Canadian Assn. of Broadcasters had proposed an independent regulatory body on the grounds that the present set-up makes the CBC judge, jury and competitor. The majority report of the commission felt that "legislation to set up a separate regulatory body would alter the present national system and would result in two independent groups of radio broadcasting stations, one public and one private." One commissioner, Arthur Surveyer, civil engineer of Montreal, favored the CAB independent regulatory body "as a matter of elemental equity." He found elements of unfairness in present CBC policy of refusing to grant television licenses to private stations so as to permit competition. "This is a surprising condition and I do not see why the private stations should not be permitted to venture money in telecasting if they have the courage to do so," he wrote. Favor Status Quo The other four commissioners, university professors and Vincent Massey, chairman, former Canadian ambassador to the United States, favored the status quo, with strict state control of TV. Without such control, the commissioners said, TV development in Canada would become established in "commercial north-south channels" which would be almost impossible to break in order to make EQUIPMENT FOR SALE? • equipment for sale 8 need an engineer 9 looking for a job # want to buy a station The best way to get results from any of the above classifications is to place an ad in Broadcasting • Telecasting, . . . where all the men who make the decisions meet every Monday morning. Situations wanted, lOtf per word ($1.00 minimum) Help wanted, 20tf per word ($2.00 minimum) All other classifications 25tf per word ($4.00 minimum) Display ads, $12.00 per inch Please address all correspondence to Classified Advertising Dept., BROADCASTING, 870 National Press Bldg., Washington 4, D. C. the changes necessary to link the country east and west with national programs. It recommended that arrangements for the use of desirable U.S. telecasts in Canada should "follow and depend on the organization of a national system of television production and control." The commission also recommended a TV receiver license fee, and that no privately-owned TV stations be licensed until the CBC has available national television programs and that all private stations be required to serve as outlets for national programs. It recommended that TV in Canada be reviewed by an independent body not later than three years after the start of regular Canadian telecasting. It estimated that a national TV service in Canada would cost between $35 million and $50 million and should be paid for out of the national treasury with annual grants. While private station programming and U.S. content of programs came in for severe castigation, the CBC did not escape unscathed. The commission condemned CBC policy of soliciting local advertising for its own stations and recommended CBC refuse all such advertising in the future. The CBC also was urged to eliminate "less desirable" commercial programs on commercial networks and replace them with programs more appropriate to Canadian listeners. The report expressed the fear that the CBC might already be following too closely the wishes of important sponsors on questions of programming. On the other hand, the commission felt that to eliminate all commercial programs from CBC would make CBC programs so highbrow that many Canadian listeners would turn to U.S. stations. Independent Stations On independent station programming, the commission pointed to what it called the commercialism and low intellectual level of the programs offered by many private stations. The majority of the commissioners recommended that broadcasters be entitled to a public hearing of the CBC board of governors as a matter of right, not as a matter of privilege as at present. It was also recommended that decisions of the CBC board be subject to appeal in a federal court. The commission found that Canadian "use of American institutions, or our lazy, even abject, imitation of them has caused an uncritical acceptance of ideas and assumptions which are alien to our traditions." Fear of further Americanization of Canadian culture, particularly via radio and TV, runs throughout the 200,000 word report. To finance the CBC the commission recommended that the present license fee for listeners of $2.50 a year per radio home, be not increased, but that a statutory grant SPEAKER at Portland (Ore.) Electric Club, Walter Evans (center), president of Westinghouse Radio Stations Inc. and vice president of Westinghouse Electric Corp., talks with Norman Miller (I), Portland manager, Westinghouse Electric, and J. B. (Steve) Conley, manager of Westinghouse's KEX Portland. Mr. Evans in his May 24 address compared production in the United States with that in Soviet Russia. be given the CBC of about $5 million a year, or whatever necessary amount to keep CBC operations at about $14 million as estimated. It was also recommended that CBC board of governors be enlarged from present nine persons to make it more widely representative; that present three year licenses for independent stations be granted for five years, that a second CBC French network be set up, a French station be established in the Atlantic coast provinces, and that CBC spend more money publicizing its operations. The commission also felt that to preserve the freedom of the press the CBC should not have control over facsimile transmission except to allocate channels for facsimile transmitters. Present CBC regulations have control over program content, advertising and political broadcasting, which if applied to facsimile transmission would interfere with freedom of the press. KXO El Centro, Calif., reports an increase of 66.1% in national spot business for the first four months of 1951 against same period last year. Local business is ahead 4.2%, according to Riley R. Gibson, general manager. Page 58 June 11, 1951 BROADCASTING • Telecasting