Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

GOVERNMENT continued cials during the pay tv telecasts. The station also stressed that it retained the right to substitute any other kind of programming at its discretion. The application contained a number of contracts, or drafts of contracts, between WSES and the sporting clubs — but deleted from this information were the monetary payments promised by the station to the clubs. Nor was any mention made of any financial arrangement between the station and Skiatron. Although the WSES application was the first such filed with the FCC, RKO Teleradio Pictures Inc. announced some weeks ago that it intended to apply for pay tv permission. Also expected is an application for toll tv authority by WCAN-TV Milwaukee, reportedly to be filed shortly after the New Year. KISD Questions 'New Sound' At KIHO; FCC Sets Hearing Is the "new sound" emanating from KIHO Sioux Falls, S. D., the result of operation of the station's transmitter in violation of FCC rules or only a "sparkling, bright and lively sound" through better management? This is one of the questions to be decided during a Commission hearing on the sale of 49% of KIHO by James A. Saunders to William F. Johns Jr. The Commission stayed its approval of the sale, originally granted Oct. 30, and set it for hearing following a protest by KISD Sioux Falls. KISD claimed, among other things, that music broadcast over KIHO now has a new and distinctive sound, creating a "juke box" effect by an emphasis of bass notes and suppression of the treble range. This "juke box" effect is attained by a "deliberate attenuation of all frequencies in the range from approximately 150 cycles to 5,000 cycles," according to KISD. KIHO replied that if it has a new sound, it is only a "sparkling, bright and lively sound which the management has attempted to develop through improvement in announcing techniques and continuity and the substitution of new records for wornout records." WBRC-TV, WBIQ (TV) Plan Tower WBRC-TV ch. 6 and WBIQ (TV) ch. 10, both Birmingham, Ala., have asked FCC permission to construct a new tower which they would use jointly, according to an announcement made last week by Robert T. Schlinkert, general manager of WBRCTV, and Raymond Hurlbert, general manager of the Alabama Educational Television Commission, which operates educational WBIQ. The new tower would be located on Red Mountain, with an overall height of 789 feet above ground. WBRC-TV would construct the tower and make it available to WBIQ (TV) without cost. Panel Disapproves Tall Tower The Air Space Panel of the Air Coordinating Committee has refused to ask FCC approval for a 1,578-foot-above-ground tower 30 miles south of New Orleans for Oklahoma Television Corp., one of three Page 58 • December 30, 1957 THE ANNUAL WINK Midnight on New Year's Eve, as broadcast on radio-tv, should be a time of uninterrupted celebration, the FCC feels. Thus the Commission again has announced its waiver of station identification rules (Sees. 3.117, 3.287 and 3.652) "insofar as such rules require station identification on the hour, during the period beginning 11:50 p.m., Dec. 31, 1957, and ending 4:50 a.m., Jan. 1, 1958." It is expected that stations will endeavor to identify themselves as soon after the hour as possible. applicants for ch. 12 in New Orleans. Air Space did recommend FCC approval for a 308-foot-above-ground tower for Oklahoma Television, but advised the applicant to utilize the antenna farm in the vicinity of WDSU-TV New Orleans. The other two applicants for ch. 12 in New Orleans are Coastal Television Co. and Crescent City Telecasters Inc. WDON Asks FCC to Reclassify 1540 Kc as Class II Wavelength The FCC was asked last week to change the classification of 1540 kc as a clear channel frequency to make it a Class II wavelength. KXEL Waterloo, Iowa, is at present the Class I-B station on 1540 kc, which is given Class I-A status for ZNS Nassau, Bahamas. WDON Wheaton, Md. (in the Washington, D. C, area), filed the request not only to change the classification of 1540 kc, but also to sever it from the current clear channel and daytime skywave cases. WDON operates on 1540 kc daytime with 250 w. For three years WDON has had on file with the FCC a request to permit it to boost its power to 1 kw. The gist of WDON's argument is that under the 1946 NARBA, 1540 kc was assigned to the Bahamas as a Class I-A wavelength, with use in the United States limited for protection of the dominant Bahamas station. The pending Third NARBA permits a Class I-B assignment on 1540 kc in Waterloo, Iowa — but this treaty has never been ratified by the U. S. Senate. WDON also pointed out that three commissioners dissented to the 1956 revision of the rules by the FCC to permit this I-B assignment. FCC Denies Dominican Request An attempt by the Dominican Republic to force CBS to offer "free time or some form of redress" in the wake of the network's broadcast, "The Galindez-Murphy Case," has met defeat. The FCC has ruled that it is "unable to conclude at this time that CBS has failed to discharge its responsibilities" and has refused to take further action. "The Galindez-Murphy Case," broadcast last May, was concerned with the much-publicized disappearance of Dr. Jesus de Galindez, teacher at Columbia U. and outspoken critic of the Dominican dictator, Generalissimo Rafael L. Trujillo [Networks, May 27, et seq.]. Early Data Indicates Success Of California Conelrad Alert Preliminary findings following the Conelrad test of Dec. 9 in Southern California indicate that in most areas the broadcasts on 640 kc came through quite well and that if there is a trouble spot it's at the 1240 kc end, according to Henry S. Eaton, Region 1 coordinator of the California Disaster Office. More than 400 "Con-check" monitoring teams in 158 local civil defense jurisdictions in the southern part of the state made tape recordings and filled out reports for study and evaluation by the FCC as well as by CDO and the Federal Civil Defense Administration. While not all the reports were in last week and Mr. Eaton stressed that no accurate evaluation of the test can be made until they have all been received and studied, he expressed confidence that this was "perhaps the most thorough check of Conelrad ever undertaken." When completed, the results of the test will, for the first time, present tangible evidence of exactly what happens during a Conelrad alert, when those radio stations participating in Conelrad leave their assigned frequencies to join station clusters on 640 kc or 1240 kc and all other am stations, plus all fm and tv stations, go off the air for the duration of the alert period. The purpose of Conelrad is to prevent enemy planes from using a broadcast station as a navigational guide. This is accomplished by grouping six or seven stations serving the same community into a cluster operating on the same frequency, with the signal switching rapidly from one transmitter after another so as to make it impossible to use any of them as a guide. This evidence, Mr. Eaton said, will show both the strong and the weak points in the present Conelrad setup and so show the way toward strengthening the system. One weak point in the test held Dec. 9 at 1-1:30 a.m. was that KFOX Long Beach, Calif., missed the alert and stayed on the air during the period through an error attributed by the KFOX management to an equipment failure. Antenna Comments Extended The deadline for filing comments on rule making to establish "antenna farms" was extended by the FCC last week from Dec. 30 to Jan. 31. The proposal provides for the grouping of antennas in the same area and the use of towers to support more than one antenna. The extension was granted at the request of Storer Broadcasting Co. Elliot Against Uhf Tax Break An am broadcaster last week attacked proposals to remove the 10% excise tax on uhf tv receivers in that they "might be discriminatory" because they favor only one portion of the broadcast industry. In a letter to Rep. Aime Forand (D-R. I.), chairman of the House Excise Tax Subcommittee, Tim Elliot, president of WCUE Broadcasting