Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1960)

one relating to Gilbert and Sullivan songs in the 1880's. ASCAP 111 Grace • "Unjust and absurd though it is for anyone to attempt to tar BMI with payola, the accusation comes with peculiar ill grace from ASCAP," Mr. Kaye told the commissioners. "While BMFs method of compensating its affiliated publishers and writers cannot encourage payola, the contrary is true of ASCAP. The stories which have recently appeared . . . about payola concern themselves very largely with the payola stimulated by ASCAP's method of payment." ASCAP payment policies "enable a favored group of its members to profit directly from the planting of performances, whether or not the performances result in public response," Mr. Kaye charged. "For this reason, I assert that ASCAP's unbased charge against BMI is an attempt to divert the attention of its members and the general public from the consequences of ASCAP's own practices." On the charge that broadcasters favor BMI music over ASCAP, Mr. Kaye quoted from sworn court testimony of ASCAP President Stanley Adams that he (Adams) could not name a single station or network which discriminated against ASCAP. Mr. Adams was the principal ASCAP witness before the FCC three weeks ago (Broadcasting, Jan. 18). "Neither ASCAP nor AGAC seems to be embarassed by the inconsistency of claiming simultaneously that broadcasters have conspired with BMI to give an automatic preference to BMI music over ASCAP music and that BMI is driven to encouraging the payment of payola in order to get its music heard over allegedly conspiring stations," Mr. Kaye pointed out. Small Investments • The BMI chairman said that some 600 stations own stock in BMI with an average investment of $500. "To assert that the broadcasting industry could be diverted from the course on which its economic life depends because of the miniscule investment ... is a dream so fantastic that it deserves the analyst's couch," Mr. Kaye said. BMI music has shown a bigger percentage popularity in surveys considering public purchase of sheet music and records than in those based on disc jockey performances only, Mr. Kaye pointed out. "This, in itself, negates conspiracy," he maintained. He said that BMI music accounts for only one-third of that played on local radio stations, while ASCAP music accounts for practically all of the remaining two-thirds. He stated that one of the principal reasons BMI has a greater share of current hits than broadcast performances is because ASCAP policies discourage young songwriters, who thus affiliate with BMI. He said that one of the government's charges in connection with a recent ASCAP consent decree was that " 'ASCAP's system of distribution . . . puts such stress on seniority and is so influenced by the controlling group that production of songs by young writers and publishers is discouraged'." On the ASCAP recommendation that broadcasters be required to sell their BMI stock, Mr. Kaye quoted an AGAC survey that 25% of that group's members (most of whom also belong to ASCAP) have occupational ties with radio and tv. The persuasiveness of ASCAP's and AGAC's own members in the selection of music for broadcast I Audience of veeps Those interested in seeing network brass in numbers had their wish fulfilled at last week's FCC hearing. CBS vice presidents, in particular, filled out the rows of seats in the hearing room from Monday morning through Tuesday evening, and again on Thursday and Friday. The CBS contingent, in addition to CBS President Frank Stanton who testified, included Merle Jones, president, CBS-TV stations division; Sig Mickelson, president, CBS News; Richard Salant, vice president, CBS Inc.; Guy Delia Chioppa, vice president, CBS-TV stations division (Pacific Network); Jim Aubrey, president, CBS-TV; Bill Lodge, vice president, affiliate relations & engineering, CBSTV; Tom Fisher, vice president and general attorney, CBS-TV; Joe Ream, vice president, CBSTV; Herbert Carlborg, director, editing, CBS-TV; Mike Dann, vice president, network programming, New York, CBS-TV; Oscar Katz, vice president, network programs, CBS-TV; Charles Steinberg, vice president, CBS-TV press information; John Cowden, vice president, CBS-TV information services; Spencer Harrison, vice president, talent & contract properties, CBS-TV; Bill Hylan, vice president, sales administration, CBS-TV; Edwin Bunker, vice president, Washington, CBS Inc.; Kidder Meade, vice president, information services, CBSTV. Personnel accompanying NBC Board Chairman Robert W. Sarnoff were David C. Adams, senior executive vice president; Thomas E. Ervin, vice president and general attorney, and Lester Bernstein, vice president, corporate affairs. ing casts doubt upon the sincereity of their contention that broadcasters should be forbidden to have any interest in BMI or ... in any enterprise that concerns music," he said. ASCAP and Antitrust • Mr. Kaye cited several antitrust cases in which ASCAP has been involved, with the latest consent decree signed just last month (Broadcasting, Jan. 11). "It is difficult to see why ASCAP can emerge from these encounters with such an unblemished picture of its own purity that it feels entitled to raise the cry of unfair competition and to attempt to dictate the type of competition that it should have," he stated. "The present diffusion of BMI stock in small amounts among some hundreds of broadcasters who are motivated, not by a desire for profit, but only by the desire to maintain vigorous and honest competition constitutes an excellent state of balance in the public interest. The changes which ASCAP and AGAC seek to bring about are designed to eliminate that competition and to restore them to their previous positions of monopoly. . . . "There is no discrimination in BMI's favor anywhere. ... I suspect that when ASCAP surveys its relationships with its licensees ... it may find that BMI seems to be held in greater esteem than ASCAP. I suggest to ASCAP that this is not due to conspiracy. I respectively suggest that it may be because BMI tries to serve its licensees. I respectively suggest it may be because BMI does not systematically insult, vilify and attack its customers," Mr. Kaye concluded. W.D. Rogers, President of KDUBTV Lubbock, Tex. • "We are letting the people in our viewing area participate in policies that we pursue in the area of programming," the Texas broadcaster told the FCC in a statement filed for the record. He said KDUB-TV and its three affiliated stations maintain endless contacts with viewers "and listen with great interest to their discussion of the quality, suitability and satisfaction of our programming." In instances where KDUB-TV finds viewers object to, or do not enjoy, certain programming, Mr. Rogers said the station promptly drops the show in question. "We believe that this is the best way to accomplish the intent of the Communications Act with respect to . . . public interest, convenience and necessity," he said. Mr. Rogers hit proposals of many witnesses that the FCC require stations to spell out programming plans in renewal applications. He urged the FCC to eliminate the required listing of specific programming plans from such applications. "This idea . . . comes very close to programming control at a central source," he stated. "Rather, he 54 (FCC HEARING) BROADCASTING, February 1, 1960