Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

-PROGRAMS& PROMOTIONS PROGRAM SERVICES CONDUCTS COKE CAP AUCTION IN CONJUNCTION with the Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Syracuse, N. Y., WHEN-TV there is auctioning off cartons of king-size Cokes and other gifts for the largest number of Coca-Cola bottle caps produced by a bidder. In a planned audience participation show titled Auction Block, WHEN-TV will auction off more than $100 worth of gifts a week to viewers who bid on particular items with the highest number of bottle caps. BIG SEND-OFF FOR WREC-TV MEMPHIS knew about it when WREC-TV went on the air. Preceding the Ian. 1 debut of Hoyt Wooten's new station the Memphis PressScimitar and the Commercial Appeal each carried a 10-page WREC-TV section. Full page station ads led off news sections filled with congratulatory advertisements by Memphis businesses, CBS program features and tv news. WREC-TV also used day and night painted billboards, sheet posters, bus cards and other promotions. WOV ANNOUNCES JAZZ CONTEST WOV NEW YORK, American-Italian language independent, has announced this year's jazz piano scholarship competition among high school and college jazz pianists, whereby three winners are given free advanced training by such jazz pianists as Mary Lou Williams and Hank Jones. Closing date for applications is Jan. 29, with finals scheduled for late March. Further information may be obtained from Ruth Thompson, WOV, 730 5th Ave., N. Y. 19. BUYING THE BUYERS WOWO Ft. Wayne has launched a contest among 4,000 advertising agency account executives and timebuyers to point up the "neglected" market that lies between Detroit, Cincinnati and Chicago and is served by the station. The Westinghouse station has issued the first in a series of mailings outlining the importance of WOWO in serving its market covering 4 million people and ending with a "teaser" announcement that details on the contest will be provided in subsequent brochures. Prizes will include a two-week, all-expenses-paid trip for two to Jamaica, a Westinghouse laundromat, 10 Westinghouse electric blankets, 10 Westinghouse "Ccok-N-Fryers," in addition to radios and watches. LIFE MUSIC INC. BRINGS SUIT TO NULLIFY BMI, ASCAP, SESAC BLANKET LICENSING Ultimate dissolution of three organizations, $7.5 million as treble damages under antitrust laws sought in court action. Among codefendants are RCA, NBC, CBS Inc. and Columbia Records. A SUIT to nullify blanket licensing by BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC — and seeking ultimate dissolution of those organizations — was filed Thursday by Life Music Inc., which split with BMI some two years ago and undertook to license broadcasters directly [B«T, March 8, 1954; Dec. 13, 1954]. In the suit Life Music also seeks, among other things, $7.5 millon as treble damages under the antitrust laws. Named as co-defendants with the three performing rights organizations are RCA, NBC, CBS Inc., and Columbia Records and three of its subsidiaries: Columbia Music Publishing Co., Master Records Inc. and Okeh Music Publishing Co. Counsel for the various defendants said late Thursday they had not seen Life Music's complaint and accordingly could not comment on the suit. In all the years of stormy relationships between BMI and ASCAP, the suit marks the first time the two have been named co-conspirators. Spokesmen for both BMI and ASCAP called attention to this precedent, and a spokesman for ASCAP cracked: "You might say we're amused by the association." Life Music, a music publishing firm whose principals are Barney Young and D. M. Fox, has had numerous disagreements with BMI, extending back to the period when it was a BMI affiliate, and more recently has been reported quarreling also with ASCAP. Its suit was filed by Sidney W. Rothstein, New York attorney, in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit charges that through the ownership of stations, networks, and "the major record producing and distributing companies," NBC and CBS have "control over a major segment of the supply and performance of music in the U. S.;" that NBC and CBS are "the major stockholders" of BMI and "exercise a dominant position" in its operation; that records "must" carry a label showing that the composition "is in either the BMI or ASCAP catalog and, to a lesser degree, in the catalog of defendant SESAC," and that "in the absence of any such BROAp^STING TELECASTING THE NEWSWEEKLY OF RADIO AND TELEVISION 1735 De Sales Street, N. W ., Washington 6, D. C. PLEASE START MY SUBSCRIPTION WITH THE NEXT ISSUE. I've checked service desired. □ 52 weekly issues of BROADCASTING • TELECASTING $7.00 □ 52 weekly issues and BROADCASTING Yearbook-Marketbook 9.00 □ 52 weekly issues and TELECASTING Yearbook-Marketbook 9.00 [~] 52 weekly issues and both Yearbook-Marketbooks 11.00 □ Enclosed □ Bill name title/ position company name address city Pleate send to home address zone state label or marking ... the broadcaster will not perform or use the composition." Although representatives of the defendant companies declined to comment on the action pending receipt and study of the complaint, observers pointed out in connection with the attack on the blanket licensing procedure — a key target of the suit — that blanket licensing by both ASCAP and BMI has been permitted by the government under consent decrees involving these organizations. The suits asks for: 1. "A preliminary and permanent injunction" outlawing the blanket license agreement; forbidding defendants to give preference or priority to "the performance, recording, publication or exploitation" of works to which BMI, ASCAP, or SESAC hold copyright or performance rights; forbidding the marking of records "as either BMI or ASCAP records;" forbidding BMI to give rebates or discounts to its licensees or to provide them with any service (e.g., clinics, programming services) "other than a title clearance service;" forbiddng BMI to enter into any agreement with a member or affiliate "whereby the compensation paid or to be paid by defendant BMI to such members or affiliates is based upon guarantees or other arbitrary considerations regardless of actual performance or use of the musical works and compositions of such members or affiliates;" 2. "A permanent, mandatory injunction" directing BMI, ASCAP and SESAC to offer licenses on a per-use-per-selection basis with rates "fairly and reasonably fixed;" and requiring NBC and CBS and their subsidiaries and affiliates to divest themselves of all common stock and other interest in BMI. 3. That radio and tv stations owning capital stock in BMI — the complaint placed the number at about 700 radio stations — "be directed to divest themselves of such stock in any ancillary or supplementary proceeding to be instituted;" 4. "For separate, different and affirmative relief," that the court instruct the "appropriate" U. S. government agency to take steps to enforce compliance with antitrust laws and also such action "as may be necessary and proper for the dissolution of the defendants BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC." 5. That Life Music be awarded $7.5 million as treble damages to date, plus "threefold the amount of damages which plaintiff may hereafter sustain up to the entry of judgment herein, by reason of the illegal and unlawful acts and conduct of the defendants in violation of the antitrust laws." Life Music charges in the suit that BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC own or control the performance rights to "upwards of 95%, if not all, of the music performed by radio and television stations and other users throughout the U. S." The annual gross volume of business of these three organizations, the complaint claims, is approximately $30 million. Life Music contends that during the time it was affiliated with BMI — from about Oct. 20, 1948, to about Feb. 28, 1954 — performance of the music in its repertory, which had been assigned to BMI, increased to a point where, in 1953, Life Music's earnings from BMI "amounted to upwards of $250,000." Before Page 94 January 16, 1956 Broadcasting Telecasting