Broadcasting (Apr - June 1960)

as he received income from the trust. When no satisfactory solution could be found, Mr. Mills asked the White House to withdraw his name. There was active speculation in Washington last week, although few names were mentioned, as to who would be named to fill the unexpired term of former Commissioner John C. Doerfer, who resigned in March. A White House spokesman last Thursday (May 19) refused to predict when a replacement would be sent to the Senate but said it probably would not be “imminent.” Also awaiting Senate confirmation is the reappointment to a seven-year term of a second Republican FCC member. Commissioner Robert E. Lee. This has raised the question as to whether a heavily-Democratic Senate will confirm two Republican appointments to the commission in this presidential election year. In fact, one leading Republican member of the Senate privately expressed doubts that the second man could be confirmed, although he expected Commissioner Lee’s appointment to go through. It also is felt in many quarters, since the Doerfer-Mills vacancy is only for 13 months, that a present FCC staffer would stand the best chance for confirmation. Such a man, it was pointed out, would not be nearly as controversial as an outside Republican active in party circles and still would leave the new President, if he is a Democrat, free to appoint a fourth member of the commission from his own party next spring. If the Senate does fail to confirm the President’s choice, he could then make a recess appointment after Congress adjourns. Such a commissioner could serve until action is taken next year by the new Congress. FCC tells KLEM it may lose license George M. DeRuyter, owner of KLEM Le Mars, Iowa, was notified by the FCC last week that he stands to be disqualified as a licensee because of unauthorized operation, failure to file required financial reports, failure to reply to the commission’s payola questionnaire and other violations. In a letter to Mr. DeRuyter, the FCC said that his application for renewal of license (which the commission is treating as a new application because it was filed nine months after the KLEM license expired in February 1959) indicates the necessity of a hearing. KLEM, the commission charged, ignored repeated requests for required financial information for 1956, 1957 and 1958. The data was not filed until Mr. DeRuyter applied for renewal last Jamming increases Russian jamming of Voice of America broadcasts has been stepped up since the U-2 spy plane incident, a VO A spokesman said last week. A combination of jamming and poor atmospheric conditions almost blotted out Voice broadcasts Tuesday, the spokesman said. There previously had been a big reduction in Soviet jamming with Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to the U.S. last September. November. Also ignored, the commission said, were repeated notices that KLEM was operating without authorization from February-November 1959 and that Mr. DeRuyter was operating the station’s transmitter although his first class license expired June 24, 1959. Other FCC indictments: Despite four notices, the station failed to reply to the commission’s payola questionnaire; Mr. DeRuyter owes his father and fatherin-law $25,000, which was not declared in the station’s application, and numerous technical violations. Mr. DeRuyter has 30 days in which to answer the charges. Texas owner charged with trafficking Charges of trafficking in broadcast properties have been made to the FCC against veteran broadcaster Grady Franklin Maples, equal partner in KUKO Post and KUCO Littlefield, both Texas. KOWB Laramie, Wyo., charged in a petition that Mr. Maples had “peddled” KGMC Englewood, Colo., for $290,000 after constructing it for a mere $24,500. The station also cited a $21,000 investment in KTNM Tucamari, N.M., which Mr. Maples is said to have “parlayed” into a $53,000 return in less than five years. Three other examples of alleged “trafficking” offences were also cited. In answer to earlier allegations of trafficking made by KOWB, Mr. Maples stated that the “charges . . . merely constitute a substitution of the petitioners distorted judgment for the sound and consistently applied judgment of the commission as reflected in approvals of transfers and assignments over the years.” Mr. Maples’ application, for a new am station on 1490 kc with 100 watts power in Laramie, is in consolidated hearing with three other applicants, none of whom seek facilities in that city. TIGHTENING REINS FCC favors bill to control transfers FCC legislative comments on a House Commerce Committee bill which seeks government regulation of radiotv networks (At Deadline, May 2; Closed Circuit, May 2, April 25) and a tightening of station sale regulations, were made public last week. The bill was received with mixed emotions by the commission, which endorsed the station sales control proposal, but recommended that networks be placed under direct control of the government without license requirements. The commission applauded the bill’s intent that broadcast licenses held for less than three years may not be transferred unless an FCC public hearing establishes that the transfer would serve the public interest. This would “have a salutary effect,” the FCC said, “not only in checking the practice of quick transfers by licensees tempted to traffic in licenses, but also in discouraging the entry of persons with such propensities into the broadcast field.” The “only concern” expressed by the commission was that requiring “hearings in all such cases without exception may not be consonant with the public interest.” Physical disabilities incurred by licensees shortly after taking control, and in other cases “in which there is evidence of probative value in corroboration of the licensee’s assertion of changed circumstances,” should be exempt from hearing status, the FCC maintained. The three year term for transfers should also include construction permits as well as licenses, the commission suggested. “ . . . Our experience has demonstrated that transfers of construction permits give rise to the same problems as transfers of licenses . . .” Sec. 310 (c) of the proposed bill which would reinstate the commission’s right to consider whether the public interest was being served in a transfer of a license or permit, was enthusiastically endorsed by the commission. “ . . . The commission’s flexibility in its consideration of transfer applications and its discretion in developing new procedures in furtherance of the public interest will be enhanced,” the FCC asserted. No AVCO Procedure ■ The FCC made clear that it does not construe such approval as a “congressional direction to reinstitute the ‘AVCO procedure,’ ” which provided for publicizing transfer applications and inviting new applications for consideration on a competitive basis. Rather, 32 (GOVERNMENT) BROADCASTING, May 23, 1960