Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct - Dec 1951)

'LORAIN JOURNAL CASE ™= THE CASE of the Lorain Journal I probably will be decided on narrow legal grounds — but the Supreme I Court decision will have real meaning for every radio station that ever ran afoul of a competing local j newspaper. The Supreme Court heard the case last Wednesday. A decision j may be rendered in 30-60 days. ' Technically, the question before ? the Supreme Court is the constitutionality of the U. S. District Court finding that the Lorain Journal I I was guilty of monopoly in refusing i to accept advertising from Lorain merchants who advertised on Elyria station WEOL. ' The Lorain Journal and its publishers, Samuel A. and Isadore Horvitz, were found guilty of that : charge by the U. S. District Court in Cleveland last January [B • T, | Jan. 8]. The case made by the Lorain j Journal's counsel, William E. I Leahy, before the Supreme Court was that neither the newspaper nor the radio station is in interstate commerce [B • T, Oct. 1]. Has Protection Right He also argued that the newspaper has a perfect right to protect itself by the means for which it was found guilty in the "economic struggle" with a competitor. The radio station sought and received an FCC license for a purei ly local operation, Mr. Leahy said. Even though its signals can be heard in other states, its service is SELL LOCAL RADIO Richards Tells NCAB A PLAN for "selling radio to listeners" at the small station community level was suggested to the North Carolina Assn. of Broadcasters, meeting in Asheville, N. C, j last week. The technique was outlined to delegates by Robert K. Richards, NARTB public affairs director, in an address on the value of local news coverage in whetting community interest in local station operation. Mr. Richards has been stressing such coverage in talks the past year. Under the plan, all staff members of small stations are urged to contact at least 10 listeners a day on their program preferences, reactions to station operation and other facets bearing on the rela I] tionship of radio to the community. Members report their findings to , station managers, who in turn send out letters to listeners contacted touching on their views. Two-day sessions were held at i Asheville's Battery Park Hotel. About 80 association members at i tended the meeting, with Mr. Rich [ ards addressing a luncheon session Thursday. His subject was "Selling Radio to Listeners." rendered only to northern Ohio, he emphasized. Most Washington radio attorneys are skeptical of this approach. They say that the Supreme Court innumerable times in the past decade has found that radio stations are engaged in interstate commerce. Both the Lorain Journal and WEOL are engaged in interstate commerce and therefore come under the Sherman Act, U. S. Solicitor General Philip B. Perlman argued. The newspaper buys its newsprint from outside the state, gets news from such wire services as AP, UP and INS, all outside the state, takes national advertising, etc., Mr. Perlman claimed. The station is heard over state borders, he continued, buys its transcriptions and records from Hollywood and reports news of sporting events from outside the state. Present at the Oct. 17 oral argument were all Justices except Associate Justice Sherman Minton. Justice Tom C. Clark was present at the opening of the session, but absented himself during this case. He was Attorney General when the Dept. of Justice undertook the prosecution. All the Justices evinced a great Ziv Names Carpenter FREDERIC W. ZIV Co., producers of transcribed-syndicated radio shows, has appointed Kenneth Carpenter as sales representative for Chicago, it was announced Thursday. Associated for the past year with the Vogue-Wright Co., TV film producers in Chicago, Mr. Carpenter previously was manager of the Boiling Co., station representatives. His business background includes 11 years with NBC, the last eight of which were as sales manager of the midwestern division. WHILE there was every indication that the FCC "majority" comment on the proposal to create a National Citizens Advisory Board had dented acceptance prospects for Sen. William Benton's (D-Conn.) plan, there was no sign last week that the Senator has thrown in the towel. Questioned about the FCC letter, received a fortnight ago by the Senate Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee [B • T, Oct. 15], John Howe, Sen. Benton's aide, asserted the Senator did not see his plan in the same light as the majority of the Commissioners. The Commission majority had warned of censorship dangers involved (see editorial, page 52). Mr. Howe told Broadcasting • Telecasting that most likely Sen. interest in the case. Their reactions ranged from Justice Hugo L. Black's angry, "Can you think of any better way that the newspaper could take to suppress the radio station?" to Justice Stanley F. Reed's analytical probing to determine whether a news monopoly existed in Lorain before the station went on the air. WEOL was established in 1948 in Elyria, eight miles south of Lorain, which is on Lake Erie. It operates on 930 kc with 1 kw and is owned by Roy Ammel, also owner of the local, independent telephone company. Back in 1946 the Lorain Journal applied for AM-FM stations in Lorain and also in neighboring Mansfield, where the same publishers own the Mansfield Journal. FCC turned down all four applications on the grounds the publishers were unqualified to be a licensee due to their boycott practices in both cities. The Journal appealed the case, but FCC was upheld by the U. S. Court of Appeals in 1950. The Dept. of Justice has a suit pending against the Mansfield Journal charging anti-trust violations for the same practices found in Lorain. Other highlights at the oral arguments were: # WEOL had an income of $175,000 in 1949— its first full year of operation. (It has filed a civil suit against the Lorain Journal for $300,000 damages due to the newspaper's boycott, it was learned. If the Supreme Court upholds the Journal's conviction, the station stands to collect treble damages — more than $900,000.) 0 Lorain Journal grosses about $1 million a year. $ About 30-40 advertisers were affected by the Journal's policy of refusing to accept advertisements from merchants who used WEOL. Benton would answer the FCC letter in "subsequent testimony" at which time the Senator would go into the issue at "greater length." However, there did not appear to be any inclination on the part of the Senate Commerce Committee to proceed in the forseeable future with its study of the Benton legislation (S 1579 and S J Res 76) to set up the advisory board. Since bills introduced in the first session of Congress do not die in the second session, the Benton Plan will still be very much alive next January, it was pointed out. However, the FCC comment, including the dissent voiced by Chairman Coy and Comr. Paul A. Walker, will be included as part of the committee hearing record. HERE's one station executive who is not out of place when he steps out on a college football field in an official's uniform. Lloyd Yoder, general manager of KNBC San Francisco, who has been signed for six Pacific Coast Conference games this season, officiated at the Santa ClaraLoyola U. game in San Francisco Oct. 14. A former Ail-American guard with Carnegie Tech, Mr. Yoder was an official for the Rocky Mountain Conference for several years while station manager at KOA Denver. Dan Russell Named DAN RUSSELL, KFWB Hollywood production director, has been named to head the radio-TV branch of Young & Rubicam in Mexico City effective Nov. 1. During 20 years in radio Mr. Russell was head of the Latin American Dept. at NBC, later with CBS as production head of its International Div. and later KFMV (FM) Hollywood production director. He joined KFWB last January. L. M. Milbourne LEWIS MORRIS MILBOURNE, 82, retired radio executive and father of L. Waters Milbourne, president of WCAO-AM-FM Baltimore, died last Tuesday in Baltimore. The late Mr. Milbourne was president of WCAO from 1932 and continued in that capacity until his retirement last February. In addition, he was a former state senator from Somerset County, Md., and state auditor for seven years. On Board Plan Meanwhile, Sen. Alexander Wiley (R-Wis.), who has been watching developments in the broadcast field with increasing interest during the first session of the 82d Congress, inserted a lengthy statement in the Congressional Record last week on TV's part in visual education. Points made were that the 1952 election could hinge on the use candidates make of television and motion pictures, that under an enemy attack Congress could conduct its proceedings via a TV hookup, and that the Joint Recording Facility, under Robert Coar's supervision, has produced between 30-35 TV films showing legislators describing current events (length from 2-to-9 minutes). . BENION UNDtlERKD BROADCASTING • Telecasting October 22, 1951 • Page 33