Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

GOVERNMENT L'HEUREUX MOVE TO FCC POST IMPENDING Republican counsel for Senate's network probe is headed for assignment as FCC legislative liaison. ROBERT L'HEUREUX, Republican counsel for the Senate Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee's investigation of tv networks and uhf-vhf troubles, last week was ready to move over to the FCC as legislative liaison, but the transfer was being held up while the Commission sought for a way to give him a salary substantially equivalent to his present one. M r . L'Heureux' transfer to the FCC to become liaison between that agency and Capitol Hill was being held up while the FCC sought a means to give him a Civil Service grade (GS-16) which would be only $700 less than the present $13,600 he receives as a top-salaried counsel on the Senate committee. The FCC has no GS-16 vacancy at present and is conferring with Civil Service Commission officials for creation of that grade within the FCC. The impending move of Mr. L'Heureux to the FCC comes in a matter of days before the MR. L'HEUREUX Senate Commerce Committee begins hearings. Jan. 17. Members of the FCC itself are scheduled to be first on the witness stand. Committee Chairman Warren G. Magnuson (D-Wash.) only three weeks ago [B»T, Dec. 26, 1955] named Kenneth A. Cox, a Seattle attorney, as majority counsel for the probe, filling a vacancy created several months ago by the resignation of Sidney Davis. Mr. L'Heureux' services were requested by FCC Chairman George C. McConnaughey, acting upon recommendations made last summer by a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. Technically, Mr. L'Heureux' status will be that of administrative assistant to Chairman McConnaughey— a position provided for in the Communications Act — but he would be assigned legislative liaison functions. The appointment is not to be confused with that of executive director or "expediting officer" of the FCC, advocated by Chairman McConnaughey and now involved in intermural controversy. Mr. L'Heureux said last week he was "glad to round out my experience with service in the executive branch of government." All his previous government service has been in the legislative branch. The FCC's authority for creating the new legislative liaison position comes from a report last summer by the Senate Appropriations Committee's Independent Offices Subcommittee, also headed by Sen. Magnuson. The appropriations group, in approving a $6,870,000 fiscal 1956 budget for the FCC last summer, recommended that the FCC and other FINANCING KIDDER, PEABODY &f CO.— •Has underwritten over $1,000,000,000 of publicly offered securities in the past ten years. • Has negotiated private financings in excess of $680,000,000 in the past five years. — We Invite You to Call Upon Our Experience. Address inquiries to: ROBERT E. GRANT Kidder, Peabody & Co. First National Bank Building Chicago 3, Illinois Telephone ANdover 3-7350 KIDDER, PEABODY & CO. FOUNDED 1865 NEW YORK BOSTON PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO Offices and correspondents in thirty other principal cities in the United States regulatory commissions "maintain a closer liaison with the Congress." The report said the Senate group "has noted with concern a steady deterioration of the relationship between the quasi-judicial, quasi-legislative boards and commissions and the Congress." These agencies, the report said, are "arms of the Congress" and therefore should maintain closer liaison with the legislative body. Such liaison, the report said, should not be concerned primarily with presentation of testimony on pending legislation, but rather with performance of the dual service of keeping the Congress informed of the work of the respective agencies and to provide a "convenient source" where congressmen may secure prompt answers to inquiries from constituents for information, copies of decisions or rulings. The liaison officer, the report added, also could keep his agency up-to-date on legislation and congressional activity affecting that agency and serve as a personal contact with congressmen and the various committees. To Commerce Committee in '53 Mr. L'Heureux originally joined the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee at the beginning of the 83rd Congress in 1953, becoming chief committee counsel under chairmanship of the late Sen. Charles Tobey (R-N.H.). Mr. L'Heureux, also from New Hampshire, previously had served as chief counsel of the Senate Banking & Currency Committee. He also has served as counsel to the Joint Congressional Committee on Defense Production. Upon Sen. Tobey's death in 1953 [B»T, July 27, 1953], Mr. L'Heureux became counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee's Business & Consumer Interests Subcommittee, and remained on the parent committee, when Democrats won control of the 84th Congress, to perform various committee jobs in behalf of GOP members. As GOP counsel for the tv investigation, he succeeded Robert F. Jones, Washington radiotv lawyer and former Ohio congressman and FCC member. Mr. Jones joined the committee in the summer of 1954 under the chairmanship of Sen. John W. Bricker (R-Ohio) and resigned after submitting a progress report [B*T, Feb. 21, 19551. Mr. L'Heureux is a graduate of St. Anselm's College, Manchester, N. H. (1934) and the Georgetown U. (D. C.) Law School (1938). He holds master's degrees from Georgetown U. and George Washington U. (D. C.) and a Litt. B from the U. of Montreal. Education Group Approves Joint Operation Request REQUEST by WJPB-TV Fairmont, W. Va., for FCC rule-making which would change educational ch. 5 at Weston, W. Va., to a joint educational-commercial channel has received support from an educational group. WJPB-TV has suspended operation on uhf ch. 35. The West Virginia Research Center Inc., which by its charter is authorized to operate and promote an educational tv station, asked the Commission to rule favorably on WJPB-TV's request. The center had protested WJPB-TV's original petition to have ch. 5 designated as commercial. J. Patrick Beacom, president of WJPB-TV, amended the petition to specify joint educational-commercial operation. Mr. Beacom's operational plans in the amended petition will be in the best interests of area residents, the Center said. When the educational-commercial channel is ready for operation, the Center said it expected to be ready to provide educational programs. 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