Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1958)

GOVERNMENT continued RADIO TRAFFIC AID CITED TO CONGRESS • House group holds hearings • MBS, WIP, NAB appear Radio broadcasters told Congress last week that radio can be used to beat death on the highways. "The only possible way of reaching the man or the woman driving a car is through radio," one of them told a subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee. MBS' Charles Godwin described Mutual's network of East Coast affiliates which furnish road and weather information to Florida-bound motorists in winter months. A unique aspect of this Operation Roadbeat program, Mr. Godwin pointed out, is that participating Mutual stations tell listeners where to turn their dials for additional information enroute from one area to another. He called for the establishment of a centralized reporting system so all media could receive traffic information quickly and easily. Mr. Godwin illustrated his statement with a 2V2 -minute tape recording of a WIP Philadelphia broadcast on road and traffic conditions. He also read a statement for MBS president Armand Hammer, saying 36 million automobiles are equipped with radio. Ralf Brent, WIP executive, told committee members, that the Philadelphia station broadcasts almost 100 traffic announcements weekly, and has been promoting highway safety for 22 years. One special WIP program, Heading Home, runs from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. for homeward bound workers, Mr. Brent related. He also said that the General Motors Acceptance Corp. sponsors 30 traffic announcements weekly. WIP is one of the stations in the country carrying the GMAC campaign on a 52-week-a-year basis, he said. During the summer months, he explained, GMAC expands this campaign to 300 stations. WIP also uses an airplane in the summer months to spot traffic conditions, Mr. Brent said. Reports from the plane are broadcast direct to listeners in cars via WIP, he explained. sHe also said WIP has received many grateful calls from motorists during the severe snowstorm three weeks ago expressing appreciation for the advice on what to do and what not to do if an automobile ran into a fallen power line or one fell on a car. Vincent T. Wasilewski, NAB government relations manager, told the committee that radio-television placed 2,114,515,000 "home impressions" on traffic safety during 1957. This was attributed to A. C. Nielsen Co. Mr. Wasilewski also related what some stations were doing to bring traffic conditions to the attention of motorists. In Los Angeles, he related, one station uses a helicopter to survey traffic conditions and broadcast them to the motoring public [Programs & Promotion, March 31]. Georgia broadcasters conducted a "Deathless Weekend" campaign in 1957 which contributed substantially if not entirely, to a reduction from the average nine traffic fatalities per weekend to only two. Kentucky broadcasters use daily beeper reports on statewide traffic conditions, furnished by the State Police, Mr. Wasilewski said. Radio works in other ways to promote traffic safety, Ed Kiester, travel editor of Parade Magazine, reminded. He alluded to the companionship radio brings the solo driver as well as its news function. The only dissent to the unanimous presentation calling for greater centralization in the handling of traffic news came from Ross D. Netherton, legislative counsel for the American Automobile Assn. He praised the ability and service radio performs in alerting the public and the motorist to traffic and road conditions — describing also the cooperation which AAA furnishes in collecting and disseminating this information — but he expressed his opposition to the "commercialization of travel condition news." He also said monopolies of such information are not in the public interest. The special House Subcommittee on traffic safety is headed by Rep. Kenneth A. Roberts (D-Ala.), and includes Democratic Reps. Walter Rogers (Tex.), Samuel N. Friedel (Md.) and J. Carlton Loser (Tenn.), and Republican Reps. John V. Beamer (Ind.), Alvin R. Bush (Pa.) and Paul F. Schenck (Ohio). The hearing was held at the behest of broadcasters who asked for the opportunity of explaining how they could help in bringing down traffic fatalities. CBS' Salant Counterattacks On McDonald Network Charges "Nightmarish fantasy." That is what Richard C. Salant, CBS vice president, termed the letter sent to newspaper publishers by Comdr. E. G. McDonald Jr., president of Zenith Radio Corp. [Closed Circuit, March 31]. Mr. Salant told Mr. McDonald in a March 26 letter answering the Zenith attack on CBS and NBC that it was inconceivable that anyone "remotely acquainted with both the statutory and practical safeguards under which the broadcasting industry in this country operates could voice such charges." The Salant reply, also circulated to members of the Senate and House Commerce comdr. Mcdonald mr. salant Committees, noted that broadcasting is regulated by the FCC and that it is impossible, even if a broadcaster wished, to operate contrary to the public interest. He also stressed that the public would not let un fair play go undetected and uncorrected without reaction. "Indeed," Mr. Salant said, "the record of the broadcasting industry in controversial matters is conspicuous among all media for the diversity of views that it presents." Comdr. McDonald's March 21 letter to newspaper editors and publishers accused the networks and their affiliates of scuttling proposed tests of pay tv through a campaign of distorted editorials. He also expressed great concern at the potential for "thought control" inherent in the broadcast medium. FCC Upholds KTVI (TV) For Ch. 2 St. Louis The FCC last week granted ch. 2 in St. Louis to KTVI (TV), licensed to Signal Hill Telecasting Corp. The station had held a license for ch. 36, but has operated on ch. 2 under temporary authorization for about a year. The grant affirmed an initial decision in February by Hearing Examiner Herbert Sharfman favoring the grant. The approval is subject to any future action the FCC may take concerning minimum mileage separation requirements between the St. Louis ch. 2 and proposed sites for co-channel 2 at Terre Haute, Ind. Examiner Sharfman recommended the grant after a merger agreement between Signal Hill (KTVI) and Louisiana Purchase Co., both applicants for ch. 2, in which Louisiana Purchase agreed to become 10% owner of KTVI [Government, Feb. 24]. The terms of the agreement called for Louisiana Purchase principals to pay 10 cents a share individually for a total 135,190 shares of KTVI stock and for Signal Hill to reimburse Louisiana Purchase for part of that firm's actual expenses by payment of $41,000. The FCC in making the grant last week waived its mileage separation requirements in the Terre Haute-St. Louis cases contingent on location of the Terre Haute ch. 2 transmitter at an antenna farm area there at an exact site to be approved by the FCC. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat owns 25% of KTVI. The newspaper exercised its option to acquire this interest (also at 10 cents a share) after relinquishing its 23% interest in the St. Louis ch. 4 station, bought by CBS Inc. WQXR Challenges WDXR Grant WQXR New York has asked the U. S. Court of Appeals in Washington to reverse the FCC's 1957 grant of 1560 kc with 1 kw unlimited to E. Weaks McKinney-Smith in Paducah, Ky. (now WDXR). WQXR is the Class 1-B station on 1560 kc. WQXR's petition for rehearing was denied by the FCC in February of this year. The 1560 kc grant was made after a hearing, with WQXR as a party. An examiner ruled against the grant to McKinney-Smith, but the Commission overruled and granted the application in February 1957. New York Times-owned WQXR claimed that its license was modified without a hearing and that the Page 68 • April 7, 1958 Broadcasting