Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1959)

FIRST ON YOUR DIAL wmca THE VOICE OF NEW YORK Call us collect at MUrray Hill 8-1500 Or contact AM Radio Sales. view Board, he said. "On the whole, it can be said that there has been an improvement in recent years in local radio and tv advertising," he pointed out. Angus McDonald, National Farmers Union • On the subject of remote communities receiving tv: "The consumers in the far distant towns and cities have no control whatsoever in the content and variety of the program," Mr. McDonald said. He observed that tv show producers-distributors have no interest in the remote communities, "they are only interested in the ring of the cash register. . . ." "It is not clear to us who should bear the blame but probably the networks are more responsible than any other group," the Farmers Union man stated. "Just as community antenna tv has strangled locally-owned tv stations, so the networks have strangled good programs:" He added that the networks, by requiring option time clauses, have forced affiliates to accept programs they didn't want. "Similarly," Mr. McDonald said, "local advertisers have been shut out by must-buy practices." John White, National Educational Television & Radio Center • ". . . Who is to say what is in the public interest? In fact what is the 'public's interest'?" Mr. White asked. "Perhaps dilemma lies in our effort to define, measure and even legislate something that is an attitude or spirit of programming and operation rather than a commodity," he suggested. "If I'm correct how does one guarantee the public's rights?" The answer to this, the NETRC spokesman thought, lies in the license renewal process. He said: "It can be assumed that the original license grant was made only after an opportunity for competitive hearings and only after the petitioner convinced this Commission and promised that he would serve the public's interests in specified ways. Mr. White's suggestion: "Let us then at the license renewal period re-read those promises and shift the burden of proof from the FCC to those stations themselves." He said the Commission should substitute for the "almost automatic" license renewal the question: "Why should we renew your license and what have you done about the promises made by you at the time of the original license grant?" Mr. White reminded that "we must not overlook the fact that the individual stations have a great deal of power in the selection ... of programs." Richard M. Saul, Educational Television Council, Philadelphia • "We believe that the answers to tv problems are to be found in greater public and community participation on an effective regional basis rather than greater federal regulation," the etv representative said in proposing the establish B0 (GOVERNMENT) ment of noncommercial vhf stations in every U.S. city. The council submitted that such stations will bring about the public-community participation which will gradually develop changed public attitudes toward the medium. These community stations "will provide the diversity of programming that, by making possible repeated exposure of the public to programs with a rising standard of meaningful content, offers the only effective means of sharpening the critical faculties of viewers and encouraging their demand for better programs on all channels," the etv council proposed. The statement continued: "We therefore propose that the Commission abandon the allocations principles embodied in Sec. 309 of the Sixth Report & Order and embrace instead the regional concept of television service; and it place the prime — though by no means the only — responsibility for local service upon the noncommercial community stations. We do wish to express the hope . . . that the Commission will study the British system of commercial tv, and in particular, the divorcing under that system, of the advertiser from the program producer." To a question from a commissioner about where the channels would come from for the suggested noncommercial community stations, Mr. Saul opined that maximum-station licensees who wished to buy a station in another area should be induced to surrender to the FCC the other license involved in the deal. This facility then could be turned over to the community. Comr. Robert E. Lee asked Mr. Saul if he thought Philadelphians would "stand for" one of their vhf stations being turned into etv. Mr. Saul didn't profess to know the answer but added that this system — surrendering a license to the FCC — could also be used to discourage trafficking in station licenses. Miss Chloe Gifford, General Federation of Women's Clubs • Miss Gifford warned that the "moral fiber" of the nation is being degraded by many tv programs. She suggested that the Commission, rather than expand its activities, name advisory committees (drawn from groups such as hers) to meet with the FCC and licensees to study programming problems. Ralph Steetle, Joint Council on Educational Tv • JCET used the hearings as a forum to appeal for more educational tv assignments in the vhf band. "The Commission has within its present capacities the responsibility and authority to bring about a better overall programming balance by reserving channels for noncommercial program broadcasting in those areas which are not now so served," Mr. Steele said. The failure of the FCC to make the BROADCASTING, December 14, 1959