Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1959)

pany. The person making these scandalous statements on the air is sometimes not identified and is sometimes identified by a false name and address. Sometimes the person thus "spontaneously" interviewed in making the scandalous statements will use five or six aliases in order to give the impression that these comments are coming from different persons. At election time this device is sometimes used effectively. When the person maligned requests the script or tape of such programs, he is informed that the same has been destroyed immediately after the program. (This raises the question: Does a licensee have a greater right to immunity than does a newspaper respecting publication of anonymous slander?) 20. Key licensee personnel in some instances have had long serious criminal records. 21. Programs are broadcast which glorify crime and falsely depict the activities of law enforcement officials. 22. Network officials have interests in programs, record companies, publishing companies and other commercial ventures, such as backing of Broadway shows, etc., which receive favored use of the broadcasting facilities owned or controlled by the network. P.S. Another abuse repeatedly complained of to the Subcommittee, which was inadvertently left out of the above, is that record manufacturers sometimes require a recording artist (musician, composer, vocalist, arranger, etc.) to sign away all his royalty rights before the record will be manufactured and then made available to the public through disc jockeys, etc. Another complaint now made in increasing numbers is that A&R men (artists and repertoire) of the recording companies who book the songs that are to be re 25th anniversary Speaker Sam Rayburn, coauthor of the Communications Act of 1934, will be the honor guest at the 25th anniversary banquet of the Federal Communications Bar Assn., to be held at Washington's Statler-Hilton Hotel, Jan. 8, 1960. President Leonard H. Marks has also announced, as special guests, former members of the FCC now located within convenient distance of Washington will be special guests. A silver scroll will be presented to FCC Chairman John C. Doerfer in recognition of the progress made during the past quarter century in communications administration and jurisprudence. Quiz story fifth The tv quiz investigations of October were the fifth biggest story of the year in the opinion of UPI newspaper clients. Preceding the Van Doren story in the annual editors' poll were (1) Khrushchev's U.S. tour in September, (2) Soviet rockets to the moon, September-October, (3) steel strike, July-November, and (4) Castro regime in Cuba, January-December. ceived and decide what the public is to hear, are receiving payola in sums ;far exceeding those paid to disc jockeys. A subcommittee spokesman said last week the half-dozen staff investigators now traveling will not go to all 27 cities, but to those "most representative of the abuses." One source said cities to be visited would almost certainly include New York, Chicago, Boston and probably Los Angeles, but would not be limited to these. Asked for the nature of criminal records alleged among broadcast personnel, one staffer mentioned "morals" offenses. Oversight group gets NBC's quiz papers NBC last week informed the House Legislative Oversight Subcommittee by letter that it has been unable to turn up any kind of inter-office communications involving any action it took upon first learning of onetime tv quiz contestant Herbert Stempel's charges that Twenty-One was rigged (Closed Circuit, Dec. 14). The subcommittee had asked that the information be supplied during NBC President Robert E. Kintner's testimony. The House group accepted other documents comprising the network's contract for the services of Charles Van Doren following the latter's appearances on network quiz shows, but said some of the documents spoke of a "formal contract," which it was "unable to find" among the papers furnished by NBC. The subcommittee said attorneys for Hess Bros, department store, Allentown, Pa., have twice conferred with staffers regarding its request for information on all programs for which owner Max Hess paid for tv plugs, but that the information offered hasn't been satisfactory so far. BAR INC. RECORDS SUBPOENAED Oversight probers link action with inquiry House Legislative Oversight Subcommittee probers last week subpoenaed the records of Broadcast Advertisers Reports Inc.— biggest organization in the industry in the business of monitoring programs of the tv and radio networks, 240 tv stations and radio outlets in larger markets. They want data on tv and radio programs broadcast since last Aug. 1. A subcommittee spokesman declined to explain the purpose of the subpoena except to say it was in connection with the investigation into payola activities, but BAR Publisher Phil Edwards and President Robert Morris in a joint statement Thursday, following serving of the subpoena, said: "It is clear from the subpoena that the [subcommittee] wishes to review our reports as an off-the-air record of commercial practices in the television industry." BAR annually monitors the full program schedules of the tv and radio networks (about 30,000 hours), some 100,000 hours of programming by 240 tv stations across the country and radio stations largely on an assignment basis, except in New York and Philadelphia, where radio outlets are monitored regularly. Subcommittee staffers subpoenaed all documents, reports, analyses and other records based on its monitoring of tv and radio stations and networks. The Edwards-Morris statement said the subcommittee is "requesting the same monitored information already in wide circulation among stations, the networks, agencies and the NAB Tv Code Review Board, and we feel confident that broadcasters across the country will appreciate BAR's immediate compliance." Watchful • BAR monitors, by offthe-air tape recording, both television and radio broadcasts and provides reports showing what commercials appear at what times, etc. thus triplespotting, for example, may be noted. The basic information taken from the monitor tapes is compiled and analyzed in a number of ways according to the needs of subscribers. BAR monitors 240 tv stations for a full week four or six times a year, depending on market size. In 1959 this represents about 100,000 hours of tv station monitoring and the total in 1960 is slated to go to 127,000 hours. BAR also monitors the television and radio networks continuously, providing weekly reports. This comes to about 30,000 hours of network monitoring. 49 BROADCASTING, December 21, 1959