Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1959)

NAIL DOWN THE BEST OF ALL THE REST OF MICHIGAN WKNX SAGINAW The number one Pulse rated station in the Saginaw Bay City Area the 5th year in a row. Outstate Michigan's most powerful station serving a giant market of more than 1,000,000 radio listeners. .5 M/V WKNX 10,000 WATTS Lee gets ahead of the pack FCC Comr. Robert E. Lee, in an interview with the Chicago Daily American last week, proposed some sweeping reforms of his own for radio-tv and the FCC. Some of the proposals, which the commissioner said were reported accurately, had not been stated publicly before. In es Mr. Lee sence, Comr. Lee recommends: • A requirement that programs be labeled as to content. • Issuance of credentials to radiotv personalities, disc jockeys and entertainers and, if they do not live up to certain standards, their license to perform revoked. • Sanctions short of license revo cation to punish licensees for minor offenses. • Conditional or probationary licenses for stations which have not lived up to promises, with revocation to follow if improvements are not made within a specified time. • Licenses beyond the three year maximum for stations with spotless records. • Adopt the Tv Code as part of the Commission rules with sanctions for violations. • Direct regulation of networks. "I think I am getting pretty close to favoring doing directly what we now do indirectly," he said. • Close inspection of sale applications, possibly with automatic hearings on all sales before the expiration of a station's original three-year license. FCC review of the overall performance of a station at license renewal time. Very Rev. Celestin J. Steiner, S. J., National Catholic Welfare Conference • Expressing confidence in the future of radio and tv, Rev. Steiner said that "the good already done is far greater than the shortcomings of the few." He said it would be unfair and misleading to ignore or underestimate the great good that has been accomplished by broadcasting. "Moreover," the president of Detroit U. continued, "we would be as naive and/ or insincere as those guilty of practices that are the concern of these hearings, if we were to take the position that the broadcasting industry alone is guilty of immoral practices, dishonesty [and] bad taste. . . ." He said the reprehensible practices disclosed are a revelation and an indictment of the state of this nation's morality and this should be our greatest concern. Father Steiner stressed that direct supervision of program content by the licensee is imperative. Self-regulation is highly preferable to control by the government, he said, with an ideal situation one in which all stations subscribe to the industry's code. And, loss of the code approval should indicate to the FCC that some official sanction is needed against the offending station, even loss of license, Father Steiner said. Rabbi Bernard Mandelbaum, Jewish Theological Seminary of America • "It would be most unfortunate if the result of all this turmoil was a series of new rules and watchdog committees for policing the airways," Rabbi Mandelbaum told the commissioners. He said existing rules of the FCC and self-imposed 72 (GOVERNMENT) regulations of the industry are adequate. The public, the industry, Congress, the FCC and just about everyone must share the responsibility for the current situation, the rabbi stated. "The misleading aspect of all these inquiries is that some people act as if the chicanerv which appeared on tv was created by tv," he said. "The mass media are 20th Century technological advances. Lying and cheating for money and fame are far older. . . . "Everyone pretends to know exactly what the industry should have done to avoid the recent difficulties and how it should behave now to prevent a recurrence." Rabbi Mandelbaum recommended the establishment of an Institute on Values in the Mass Media, composed of leaders in education, philosophy and religion. Without legislative or investigative powers, its functions should be to study the ethical and moral implications of communications problems. James Wine, National Council of Churches of Christ • "We do not share the belief that the law is not clear as to the responsibilities of the FCC and the licensee broadcasters," Mr. Wine said. "We believe that lack of will to enforce and weakness of will to obey the regulations are the primary sources of the difficulties in which the industry now finds itself." He cited these practices of broadcasters as being "inimical to the public interest": programs featuring crime and violence during children viewing hours: using program star of children's programs for high-pressure, hucksterish commercials; use of half-truths and exaggerations; mediocrity in program BROADCASTING, December 14, 1959