Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1958)

RELAXING OF ENGINEERING RULES NEEDED TO ALLOW FOR VHF: DOERFER GOVERNMENT continued then Illinois auditor did not plan to take action. Herman C ohen testified that he and his brother, Louis (father of Richard) had loaned WM AY-TV $13,000 to purchase a site for the proposed station. Also, he said, the Cohens planned to build a $175,000 physical plant and lease it to the station. He said he had never discussed the WMAY-TV application with Mr. Hodge, Mr. Hall, or anyone else outside the WMAY-TV stockholders. He denied any knowledge of two $7,200 entries in Mr. Hodge's "brown envelope" hank account — one a check by Mr. Hodge in payment to a Louis Cohen and the second a deposit to the account by a "Mrs. Cohen" of Grant City, 111. McConnaughey, L'Heureux Dissolve D. C. Law Firm Former FCC Chairman George C. McConnaughey and Robert D. L'Heureux, his administrative assistant at the FCC, who have operated a law partnership in Washington since leaving the Commission last year [Government, July 1, 1957] have announced they are dissolving the firm. Mr. McConnaughey explained the partnership is being dissolved because Mr. L'Heureux has decided to devote the bulk of his time to the teaching and practice of law in Washington. The former FCC head said that since Mr. L'Heureux has been "on the scene" to work "on legal matters that I had in Washington" and since Mr. L' Heureux no longer will be available for this work, "I have decided to handle both my Columbus and Washington practice from my Columbus law office." The Columbus firm, in which Mr. McConnaughey also has been a partner since leaving the FCC, is McConnaughey & Stradley. Mr. McConnaughey said that his Columbus law practice has demanded "virtually all of my time since I left the FCC." Mr. McConnaughey said he and Mr. L'Heureux and George O. Sutton had shared the same suite of offices in the National Press Building in Washington, with the two partners paying rent to Mr. Sutton, and that the three had a law firm (McConnaughey, Sutton & L'Heureux) in name only. "Our arrangement with Mr. Sutton has been ended by mutual consent," he said. The Ohio Republican was FCC chairman from Oct. 4, 1954, to June 30, 1957. Mr. L'Heureux joined the FCC as his aide in January 1956 after several years' service as counsel on the Senate Commerce Committee and other congressional committees. Goldwater to Oppose McFarland Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) last week announced that he would seek a second term in the Senate. Sen. Goldwater's opponent will be the man he defeated in 1952 who currently is Democratic governor of Arizona, Ernest W. McFarland. Gov. McFarland was majority leader of the Senate and chairman of the Commerce Committee when defeated by Sen. Goldwater in 1952. He is the author of the 1952 amendments to the Communications Act, which bear his name. FCC Chairman John C. Doerfer told Congress last week that some relaxation of tv engineering standards is necessary in order to add more vhf channels to top markets, thus equalizing facilities. He also hinted strongly that the FCC and the President's Office of Defense Mobilization would sit down soon on an exploration of the whole spectrum, including television allocations. The FCC chairman testified before the Senate Commerce Committee last Tuesday. He was flanked by the entire Commission plus aides. The Senate committee was chairmanned by Sen. Frank J. Lausche (D-Ohio), who for the most part is the only senator present. Kenneth Cox, Seattle attorney who supervised the 1957 hearings on tv allocations, was again special counsel. The inquiry was ordered to determine what progress the FCC has made in the uhf-vhf allocations problem. It also looked into the impact of community tv systems, boosters, satellites and translators on small town regular tv stations (see page 56). Deintermixture has yielded little results and has no future, Mr. Doerfer told the Senate committee. It is only a partial answer to the problem, he said, adding that as far as he is concerned "it's too little and too late." Mr. Doerfer declared there must be some flexibility in applying the engineering standards. For example, he said, suppose a third vhf channel can be allocated to a city but it is only 167 miles from its co-channel station. Since the rules require a 170-mile separation, the Commission is stymied. There must be flexibility, he iterated, and that includes such other techniques as directional antennas and cross polarization. Other commissioners, however, differed with Mr. Doerfer. Most insisted that no change be made in present engineering standards until the results of the Television Allocations Study Organization investigation is submitted. This is due late this year. When the report of the Television Allocations Study Organization is submitted, by the end of this year, Mr. Doerfer said, the FCC will have the "tools" to grapple seriously and from a long range viewpoint with the allocations picture. In the course of his testimony, Mr. Doerfer referred several times to the recent "invitation" issued by ODM for the two groups to sit down and take a long range look at the future use of spectrum space in the U. S. ODM acts for the President in assigning frequencies to government agencies, including the military services. The FCC and ODM in 1956 attempted to work out a method of trading uhf frequencies for more vhf channels, but this was turned down by ODM in April of that year. Mr. Doerfer reviewed the work of the FCC in grappling with the allocations television situation. He referred to the June 25, 1956, FCC memorandum which suggested the ultimate solution might be the change over of tv from vhf to uhf for the whole country or for the eastern half of the nation. This, the Commission held, should await an intensive engineering study of the potentials of uhf as a mode of propagation and its equipment. This is under study by TASO now. As a short-range first step, the Commission in 1 956 suggested a program of deintermixture— unmixing areas where uhf and vhf channels had been assigned together. Mr. Doerfer reported that the FCC has deintermixed 12 areas, denied 12 petitions for deintermixture and has pending 14 petitions. The FCC also has shifted channels in 44 cases, denied 4 and has 13 such petitions still pending, the chairman said. He also said that the Commission had acceded to requests to delete educational reservations in six instances, and denied such petitions in three. There are two such petitions still pending, Mr. Doerfer said. Craven Takes Long View Comr. T. A. M. Craven told the committee that a basic problem is the difficulty of manufacturing tv receivers which are required to cover wide spreads of the spectrum. He alluded to developments on the horizon which would require a portion of the 25-890 mc band for longe range communications and for national security. (Later, Mr. Craven said he was referring to tropospheric scatter propagation for space flight communications and telemetering.) He urged immediate deintermixture in major markets so that there are comparable facilities. He suggested that any intermediate steps be deferred until the TASO report has been completed. The long range approach must await a study between FCC and ODM, he said. Mr. Craven was the author last year of a plan to permit the establishment of at least three vhf channels in the top major markets in order to ensure comparable facilities. Other commissioners said that uhf should not be abandoned and that it is a worthwhile service where uhf stations are not in direct conflict with vhf stations. Mr. Cox questioned whether the FCC could not make some move now to alleviate the plight of uhf broadcasters without waiting for the TASO report. The special counsel also read a portion of a letter from an unidentified network official to his salesmen which brought out ABC-TV's "risky" position regarding station clearances and which was to be used in selling advertisers against ABC-TV. This showed, Mr. Cox said, that one network was not averse to using ABCTV's lack of vhf affiliates in top cities against that network. Page 68 • June 2, 1958 Broadcasting