Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

|:obacco farmer in the Tarheel state, a Texas Danker, Rep. William L. Springer (R-I1L), ind Sen. W. Kerr Scott (D-N. C). The DBA witnesses asserted that under he present sunrise-to-sunset hours of operation, farmers in communities without daily newspapers or clear channel radio service wouldn't get local weather forecasts or price reports before they began the day's work. Rural housewives also were handicapped by lack of weather information and school bus schedules, and were forced to send their children out into bad weather without knowing if schools would be open, the group said. In addition to Mr. Livesay. Rep. Springer and Sen. Scott, those testifying or entering prepared statements into the record for the DBA cause last Monday were Alf M. Landon. former Republican candidate for President in the 1936 campaign and present owner of KSCB Liberal. Kan.: Ralph L. Weir Jr.. owner of KJCK Junction City, Ran.: Edward Mason, general manager of KXXX Colby, Kan.; John Charles Thomas, former Metropolitan Opera star and nowexecutive vice president and managing director of KAVR Apple Valley, Calif.; Joe Leonard Jr., general manager of KGAF Gainesville, Texas; and Frank Morris Jr., president of the First State Bank of Gainsville. Others were Hecht S. Lackey, president and general manager of WSON Henderson, K\\: Richard E. Adams, general manager of WSOX Framingham. Mass.: Charles B. Stafford of Fairmont, N. C secretary and treasurer of the Tobacco Board of Trade; Mayor Voit Gilmore of Southern Pines, N. C. and station KMMJ Grand Island. Nebraska. In rebuttal testimony at the end of the hearing Tuesday. Benedict J. Cottone, Washington attorney for the DBA. said the engineering concepts formulated for radio stations by the FCC in 1934 or 1935 were outmoded, and stated that the DBA petition "'must be decided basically and initially upon the question of whether the public will best be served by the extended hours of operation." The problem is not one which should be decided solely on technical engineering considerations, he said. Most of the early engineering concepts established by the FCC were arbitrarily decided, and the question of interference is not the only one to be considered in the problem, Mr. Cottone added. He outlined the history of the DBA petitions, noting that the initial petition was filed in March 1954 and was followed by briefs in July 1954 and April 1955 and a petition in December 1955 asking that DBA be allowed to be an intervenor in the clear channel case where it involved hours of operation of daytime stations. In answer to the charge by CCBS and FCC officials that the daytimers had offered either no engineering data or insufficient technological facts to support its petition, Mr. Cottene said, after the hearing, that the DBA will file '"an additional statement which will show the fallaciousness of their engineering principles." He stated that the briefs filed before the Commission in July 1954 and April 1955 Broadcasting • Telecasting included engineering data to support the daytimers' position. This information was prepared by Comr. Craven, who was at the time a member of the private firm of Craven, Lohmes & Culver, consulting radio engineers, and by Ralph Bitzer of St. Louis, Mo. Opening Monday afternoon's testimony in opposition to the daytimers' petition was CCBS Director Hollis M. Seavey. Noting that the clear channel organization is composed of 14 Class 1-A stations and has the support of some 59 other clear channel and regional stations, Mr. Seavey said daytime stations operating on extended hours would cause "intolerable interference"' to existing fulltime stations: would interfere with stations in Canada. Mexico and Cuba, which operate on the same frequencies as 410 U. S. daytime stations and would hamper the daytime stations themselves, and the listening public. Extended hours of operation for daytime stations "would destroy all of the secondary or skywave service of clear channel stations and severely limit the groundwave service of Class 1-A stations during the ex caster "since his service area would be severely reduced twice during the broadcast day," nor the daytimer himself "since during the additional time he would be permitted to broadcast the service area of his station would be severely restricted." Mr. Cullum told the subcommittee he also had interest in a daytime station — "I'm sympathetic to the DBA problem but I couldn't ask for extended hours of operation for my station to the great detriment of so many other stations." He also noted that all daytime station owners must be cognizant of the limited operating hours when they apply for a daytime facility. To extend operating hours of daytime stations would require revamping the present international treaties with Canada (NARBA). Cuba and Mexico, he added. Mr. Cullum defended the FCC delay in finalizing the daytimer and clear channel problems because "they couldn't decide something arbitrarily while the government was negotiating treaties with these foreign countries." In a prepared statement, the engineer LIVESAY BAKER AND CRAVEN SEAVEY FCC FINDS ITSELF IN THE MIDDLE BETWEEN DAYTIMERS AND CLEARS tended hours," he said, and "would substantially degrade existing nighttime radio service to rural and remote America, which service is already admittedly inadequate." As an example of actual interference to a clear channel station by daytime stations operating on the same frequency after sunset and before sunrise, Mr. Seavey cited WCAU Philadelphia, and noted that four daytimers on 1210 kc during the winter months "would destroy the entire secondary service area of WCAU in which reside 30,167,942 people and would deprive 4,459,351 people of the interference-free primary service they now receive . . ." Adding engineering support to Mr. Seavey's testimony was A. Earl Cullum Jr.. consulting engineer, representing WBEN Buffalo. N. Y., who asserted that "engineering considerations . . . are the basic considerations upon which any broadcast service must be built." Mr. Cullum stated that approval of the DBA petition would not benefit the public "since their accustomed radio service would be made unusable in large areas during portions of the day:" nor the full-time broad said "these studies indicate that the proposal would result in a net loss of service to the public. The proposal is . . . utterly Unsound, in violation of engineering experience and the laws of nature and cannot be in the public interest. If the Commission is at fault in the handling of this petition, the fault lies in not dismissing it promptly." Terming the DBA proposal an "irresponsible one" which would create "bedlam," Louis Seltzer, president of WCOJ Coatesville, Pa., cited his earlier letter to Sen. Morse denouncing the daytimers' cause. He said the petition was a "something-for-nothing proposal" which would cause more harm than good to the DBA stations themselves. Also entered into the record in opposition to the DBA petition was a statement by Stuart L. Bailey of Jansky & Bailey Inc.. Washington, D. C. consulting engineers, on behalf of WTAR Norfolk, Va. Testifying for the FCC in last Tuesday's session were Comrs. Craven and Rosel H. Hyde, General Counsel Warren Baker and James Barr. assistant chief of the Commission's broadcast bureau. Reasons cited by Mr. Baker for the CornMay 6. 1957 • Page 75