Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1959)

Climbed Capitol Hill • The top drawer panel of government and industry spokesmen who made known their views on the radio spectrum to a House subcommittee last Monday and Tuesday: (1) Dr. Irvin Stewart, member, Presidential Advisory Committee on Telecommunications; (2) Victor E. Cooley, chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on Telecommunications; (3) E. R. Quesada, administrator, Federal Aviation Agency; (4) John C. Doerfer, FCC chairman; (5) Robert T. Bartley, FCC commissioner; (6) Harold E. Fellows, president, NAB; (7) Lester W. Lindow, executive director, Assn. of Maximum Service Telecasters; (8) D. R. Hull, president, Electronics Industries Assn.; (9) Frank Kear, member, Presidential Advisory Committee on Telecommunications; (10) Harold R. Huntley, chief engineer, AT&T; (11) W. L. Everitt, dean, U. of Illinois School of Engineering; (12) Paul Goldsborough, former communications director, Department of Defense; (13) Leo A. Hoegh, director, Office of Civil & Defense Mobilization. The witnesses were asked to file additional material later. tablishment of a three-member National Telecommunications Board in the Executive Office of the President to formulate telecommunications policy, oversee government use of the spectrum, study the overall use of the spectrum and the management policies of both government and non-government users. This is essentially the recommendations of the so-called Cooley committee. Last week's hearings stem from the resolution last year by then Sen. Charles Potter (R-Mich.) for an investigation of the government use of the radio spectrum. This was passed in the Senate. When it reached the House side, it was amended under White House pressure to include non-government services as well. Civilian users of the radio spectrum, including broadcasters, opposed such an investigation and the bill was allowed to die. Ike Named Committee • Late last year, President Eisenhower appointed a Presidential Advisory Committee on Telecommunications, asking it to report back by the end of the year its recommendations on frequency management. This committee recommended what is essentially embodied in H.S. Res. 7057 (Broadcasting, March 9). The committee was headed by Victor E. Cooley, a retired Bell Telephone executive and former deputy director of the Office of Defense Mobilization. Other members were Dr. Stewart, former president, West Virginia U. and former FCC commissioner; Dr. Kear, consulting engineer; William G. Thompson, retired Bell System official and Maj. Gen. W. Preston Corderman (retired), vice president of Litton Industries. Dr. Stewart was chairman of a Presidential Communications Policy Board which in 1951 submitted a report on the spectrum resulting in the appointment of Haraden Pratt, Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., as telecommunications adviser to President Truman. When the Eisenhower administration came in telecommunications was relegated to the OCDM where it is handled by Fred C. Alexander, deputy assistant for telecommunications. Democratic committee members stressed repeatedly that the radio spectrum is a natural resource and therefore under Congressional supervision. Rep. Harris recalled that the House Committee was instrumental in resolving the airspace problem through the creation of the Federal Aviation Agency. All evinced great interest in the idea of a Federal Spectrum Authority as the super-agency to control overall the radio spectrum. They also seemingly agreed that some action was necessary to put the government's spectrum house in order. Government frequencies are administered by the Interdepartmental Radio Advisory Committee. This is a group on which sit representatives of federal BROADCAST! NG, June 15, 1959 6»