Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

KOTV'S JACKSON JOINS IKE STAFF WILLIAM H. JACKSON, chairman of the board of KOTV Inc., Tulsa, joins the White House staff March 1 as special assistant to President Eisenhower. He becomes the third broadcast executive holding a high position in the President's administratve organization. Serving as aides to the President for more than a year are ex-Gov. J. Howard Pyle, of Arizona, deputy assistant handling relations with state governments, and Fred A. Seaton, former Assistant Secretary of Defense and exsenator (Rep.) from Nebraska, who is deputy assistant handling relations with federal departments. Gov. Pyle is a vice president of KTAR Phoenix and Arizona Broadcasting System. Sen. Seaton and his brother, Richard M., own Seaton Publishing Co. (KHAS Hastings. Neb.), as well as other midwestern radio and newspaper properties. Mr. Jackson recently was a managing partner of J. H. Whitney & Co., New York. He takes the post vacated Dec. 31, 1955, by Nelson A. Rockefeller and will help coordinate the government's foreign policy action. Mr. Rockefeller's major assignment had been the planning of cold war strategy. Mr. Jackson will attend meetings of the Cabinet and National Security Council. Communist Ties Valid As Revocation Reason THE FCC has the right to ask applicants for a radio operator's license or those seeking renewal of that license questions relating to membership in the Communist Party or other subversive organizations, an FCC hearing examiner ruled last week. Furthermore, refusal to answer such questions, the examiner declared, can be grounds for FCC denial of a license or renewal of it. The case involved Travis Lafferty of Oakland, Calif., an employe of a San Francisco firm called Mobile Radio Engineers. Mr. Lafferty refused to answer FCC questions concerning past or present membership in communist and/ or subversive groups. Mr. Lafferty said the questions had no bearing on his qualifications as a radio operator and he questioned the FCC's authority to ask such questions. In recommending denial of Mr. Lafferty's renewal application, Hearing Examiner J. D. Bond said the questions asked constituted a "proper demand" falling within the licensing responsibilities of the FCC and not violating any constitutional provisions. GOP Meddling in FCC Charged by Paul Butler DEMOCRATIC National Chairman Paul M. Butler last week called the FCC a "slumbering sentinel" and charged it with "looking the other way when the public interests should require forward thinking and action." Addressing the Administrative Law Section of the District of Columbia Bar Assn. in Washington, Mr. Butler charged that the Republican Administration has "tampered with and impaired the federal administrative process." He said the last three years have seen "serious and continuing departures" from the fairness of the federal administrative process by the FCC and other agencies with quasijudicial and quasi-legislative powers, through their licensing and rulemaking activities. He said this has been done by appointing as members of administrative boards and commissions officials "openly hostile to the statutes they are called upon to implement. They have sent goats to guard the cabbage patch." He said the FCC, under the pressure of "press and business interests favorably disposed to the Republican Party who naturally are anxious to secure the maximum amount of radio and tv channels available," has "obligingly" reduced educational tv channels to the "barest minimum." Nor has the FCC been disturbed, he said, in awarding radio and tv licenses to "press interests that already held a considerable monopoly in particular local areas so long, of course, as those press interests were, as most of them are, reliable reflectors of sound Republicanism." Am Grants Recommended For Minnesota, Pennsylvania INITIAL DECISIONS released by the FCC last week recommended am grants for LevittownFairless Hills, Pa., and Hopkins-Edina-St. Louis Park, Minn. In the Pennsylvania case, FCC Hearing Examiner Annie Neal Huntting favored Drew J. T. O'Keefe, Jack J. Dash and William F. Waterbury for 1490 kc, 250 w unlimited time and recommended denial of the competing application of Mercer Broadcasting Co. (WTOA [FM] Trenton) for the same facilities in the capital city. Radio Suburbia Inc. was recommended by Examiner Basil P. Cooper for 950 kc, 1 kw daytime, serving the tri-community Minneapolis-St. Paul suburbs. Mr. Cooper recommended that the competing application of Suburban Broadcasting Corp. be denied. House Antitrust Unit To Probe Regulated Industry THE House Antitrust Subcommittee begins hearings at 10:30 a.m. today (Monday) on monopoly problems in industries under jurisdiction of federal regulatory agencies, including the FCC, Rep. Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.), chairman, said last week. He said the subcommittee initially will conduct exploratory hearings in the television and airlines industries. Rep. Celler said that in its television hearings the subcommittee will try to determine whether the FCC has utilized its regulatory powers in accordance with the congressional policy of providing a nationwide competitive system of broadcasting. He said the House group will explore FCC policies to find whether networks have attained a dominant position in the industry to a point where this may be "inconsistent" with antitrust objectives. The subcommittee, he said, will explore the uhf-vhf problem to find whether existing policies and practices may thwart the congressional objective of a nationwide competitive system of broadcasting. Witnesses announced: Today (Mon.) — Stanley N. Barnes, Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, Dept. of Justice; Louis B. Schwartz, professor of law, U. of Pennsylvania Law School; Wednesday — Horace Gray, professor of economics, U. of Illinois; Marver H. Bernstein, professor of government, Princeton U. The House group, which first announced hearings in January [B*T, Jan. 30], also has indicated it may examine antitrust implications in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.'s control of television college football [B»T, Jan. 23]. HARTFORD, PEORIA PETITIONS DENIED PETITIONS to intervene and asking the FCC to stay vhf grants already recommended in two areas proposed for deintermixture — Hartford, Conn., and Peoria, 111. — have been denied by the Commission. In the Peoria ch. 8 case, the FCC turned down petitions of ch. 19 WTVH (TV) and ch. 43 WEEK-TV, both Peoria. Commission said uhf stations' plea to intervene in hearing was too late. WIRL Peoria holds an initial decision; WMBD Peoria is other contestant, proposed to be denied. Tn Hartford, where Travelers Broadcasting Service Corp. (WTIC) holds an initial decision over Hartford Telecasting Inc., the FCC turned down petitions for intervention and stay filed by ch. 18 WGTH-TV Hartford, ch. 30 WKNBTV New Britain, Conn., and ch. 40 WHYNTV Springfield, Mass., and ch. 22 WWLP (TV) Springfield. The FCC said denial of the stay request will not be prejudicial to stations' request for reconsideration of Hartford grant in overall rule-making proceedings; to grant a stay, however, the Commission said, would only delay bringing tv service to the Hartford area. Comrs. Rosel Hyde and Robert Bartley dissented from FCC majority in the Hartford case, saying they would grant the stay pending disposition of overall allocations proceedings. Oral argument on the Hartford initial decision is scheduled for March 12. FCC Asked to Approve Telrad Sale to WCOA PROPOSED SALE of Telrad Inc., permittee of prospective ch. 2 Daytona Beach, Fla., from Mr. and Mrs. W. Wright Esch (WMFJ same city) and Louis Ossinsky to WCOA Inc. (WCOA Pensacola, Fla.), was revealed in an application filed last week asking FCC approval of the transfer. The application comes on the heels of a decision by the Florida State Supreme Court upholding a lower court's refusal to dismiss a breach of contract suit against Mr. Esch filed by Theodore Granik and William H. Cook. Messrs. Granik and Cook allege that Mr. Esch refused to convey, per agreement. WMFJ and the construction permit for WESH-TV. They also charge that prior to their suit Mr. Esch entered into another contract to sell WMFJ to another party. According to last week's application, WCOA would pay $5,000 for 496 of Telrad's 500 outstanding shares of stock. The 496 shares were described as not subject to the Cook-Granik suit. Under the agreement the Esches, who would be retained as consultants for the tv station, would lease certain property to the purchaser. Lansing Tower Decision Goes to Appeals Court THE struggle between ch. 5 WNEM-TV Bay City-Saginaw, Mich., and ch. 6 WJIM-TV Lansing, Mich., over allegations of interference moved to the U. S. Court of Appeals in Washington last week. WNEM-TV filed an appeal there against an FCC decision refusing to accept its protest against the Commission grant of 980-ft. antenna height to WJIM-TV [B»T, Nov. 28, 1955]. The Bay City-Saginaw outlet also asked for a stay. Page 82 • February 27, 1956 Broadcasting Telecasting