Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1959)

GOVERNMENT SENATE GROUP CONSIDERS NARBA Treaty with Mexico also argued before Morse subcommittee Two international broadcasting agreements were the subject of a oneday Senate hearing last Thursday (July 9) with the plea of daytime stations for more time on the air remaining the chief stumbling block to Senate ratification. The special 5-man ad hoc subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is headed by Sen. Wayne Morse (D-Ore.). Topics of the hearings were the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, signed by five countries Nov. 15, 1950, and the Mexican-U.S. treaty, finalized Jan. 29, 1957. Parties to the NARBA agreement, in addition to the U.S., are Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Bahama Islands and Jamaica. The treaties set up guarantees that one country will not interfere with the internal broadcasts of another country. They reserve 25 clear channels for U.S. use, seven in Mexico and six in Canada. Canada and Cuba have ratified the NARBA agreement, while all countries have been operating through a "gentlemen's agreement" embracing its terms in the nine years since the agreement was reached. Champions for Treaties • FCC Comr. Rosel Hyde and W.T.M. Beale Jr., deputy assistant Secretary of State for economic affairs, led eight witnesses testifing in favor of immediate Senate ratification of the treaties. Two witnesses, including a congressman and Daytime Broadcasters Assn.'s J.R. Livesay, opposed ratification of the Mexican treaty only. Comr. Hyde, chairman of the U.S. delegation in the negotiation of both treaties, was questioned closely on provisions of the treaties relating to daytime stations. He said that Mexico already has given the U.S. an "emphatic no" on requests to boost power and hours of U.S. daytimers operating on the seven reserved Mexican clear channels. Sen. Morse read a letter from C.E. Franklin, president of WCEF Parkersburg, W.Va., which accused Comr. Hyde of protecting only the interests of the large stations in the Mexican negotiations. "I have never taken a position as being for the high-powered stations and against low power at all," Comr. Hyde stated. He further said the record would show this to be true. He said all interests were frequently consulted during the negotiations and that the daytimer spokesman gave his somewhat reluctant approval to the Mexican treaty. Comr. Hyde pointed out that the overall interest of broadcasting had to be protected over the interest of a particular group. The commissioner pointed out, as did following witnesses, that utter chaos would result if the treaties are not ratified. Comr. Hyde pointed to fm as one course open to daytime sta FCC's Hyde More delay can be chaotic tions for extended hours. Fm offers a "real opportunity," he said, because if present service should be extended for daytimers 25 people would lose service for every two persons who gained. Hyde Under Questioning • Comr. Hyde answering a question by Sen. Frank Carlson (R-Kan.), said many daytimers can extend their service into the night by using directional antennas. He said the evidence is "overwhelmingly against" letting daytimers operate beyond local sunrise and sunset. Sen. Frank Lausche (D-Ohio), queried Comr. Hyde about the differences in clear channel reservations between NARBA, as related to Can ada, and the Mexican treaty. The commissioner explained that U.S. stations are permitted to operate nighttime on Canadian clears when they are located more than 650 miles from the border. The same stipulation applies to Canadian operation of the 25 U.S. clear channels, while under the Mexican agreement no such nighttime operation on the two countries clear channel reservations would be permitted. Comr. Hyde maintained the two different situations could not be compared and that both are extremely fair to the U.S. Mr. Beale said that the effect of continued delay in Senate approval of the two international broadcast treaties "will be the same as outright refusal to permit ratification. . . . Those concerned are convinced that they have negotiated the best possible agreements under the circumstances." He said that major issues which held up prior approval of the treaties now have been resolved and that a favorable decision can now be made. All parties to NARBA have endeavored to follow its terms during the nine years it has been pending, he said, but in certain instances borderline deviations have been permitted for which there is no legal remedy in the absence of a treaty. "The longer these deviations remain uncorrected, the more others are encouraged to attempt further deviations," Mr. Beale said. Effect on Daytimers • Mr. Livesay, president of WLBH Mattoon, 111., and board chairman of DBA, was the principal spokesman against ratification of the Mexican treaty. DBA's objection, he said, centers around that portion of the treaty which prevents the U.S. from authorizing nighttime operation on the seven Mexican clears. "The effect of ratification of this agreement, with this provision in it, will be to declare as the supreme law of the land that the existing 250 U. S. daytime broadcasting stations now operating on these channels [Mexican clears] . . . must operate with severely restricted hours without regard to urgent public need for longer hours of operation in the communities in which these stations operate," Mr. Livesay said. "It is our belief that the situation which is created by these restrictions 72 BROADCASTING, July 13, 1959