Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1960)

' throughout the day and night — as early as 7:25 a.m. for one spot and 8 a.m. ! for an hour-long discussion program, j and as late as 12:45 a.m. and later — but the emphasis appeared to center on late afternoon and evening time in most cases. The totals by market, as compiled from BAR records broke down as follows: NEW ORLEANS— 460 spot announcements plus 45 programs (six five-minutes, 29 quarter-hours, three 20-minutes, seven 30-minutes). LITTLE ROCK— 156 spot announcements plus four programs (two half-hours, two quarter-hours). MIAMI — 499 spots plus 61 programs (53 five-minutes, one quarter-hour, four half-hours, one 35-minutes and two 60minutes). NASHVILLE (preliminary count) — 107 spots plus seven quarter-hour programs. Four-city Totals ■ 1,222 spots plus two one-hour programs, one 35-minute program, 13 half-hours, three 20-minute periods, 39 quarter-hours and 59 five-minute periods. For example, Messrs. Kennedy and Nixon will be touring the hinterlands and appearing on television and radio with candidates for governor and Congress. Will the station then have to grant equal time to the state candidate's opponent? Not if the appearance is strictly "bona fide news coverage." However, one FCC official said last week that if the local candidate discussed "issues" the station then could be liable for equal time demands — even if the appearance was news. This interpretation already has been sharply disputed by others. Pandora's Box ■ In the news exemption to Sec. 315 — so eagerly sought by radio-tv — the Congress added a phrase that lawyers predict will lead to an endless stream of litigation. It requires stations ". . . to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views on issues of public importance." Many questions already are being asked as to the meaning of this requirement. For instance: What constitutes a reasonable opportunity? Whose conflicting views? How many views? Who can demand time to answer whose views (i.e., a layman vs a candidate)? Much will hinge on a definition of "reasonable opportunity" and the FCC, as yet, has handed none down. The commission has, however, already slapped the wrists of three tv stations because of their alleged lack of "fairness" in presenting both sides. This came about when the three Little Rock BAR figures indicated that on WWLTV New Orleans — which carried substantially more political business than either of the two other stations there — politics accounted for more than half (54.8%) of all local commercial messages aired during the week. Examination of the BAR report suggests politics may hold several implications for regular national advertisers, none of them necessarily welcome. Triple-spotting was not entirely unheard-of, and even when commercialization didn't go that far, the schedules sometimes appeared to be so awash with politics that product messages seemed lost — at least on the logs, although one observer speculated that actually the reverse might be true: "In all that politics, a regular commercial might come as a welcome relief to the viewers." Pre-emptions ■ In New Orleans a total of 12 hours, 35 minutes of regular programming was pre-empted for politics during the week — 9 hours, 30 minutes of network time, 3 hours, 5 minutes of local programming. Virtually all of the network preemptions were tv stations blacked-out the first night of the Republican convention in favor of state and local vote appeals by Democratic candidates (Broadcasting, Aug. 1). In addition to the President and Vice President, 33 senators, 437 congressmen, 27 governors and thousands of other state and county officials will be elected Nov. 8. Aspirants for these jobs have recognized that radio and television— particularly the latter — are the primary means for exposing their personal attributes to the voter. These many politicians will cause the station manager to face new problems and make important decisions almost daily between now and Nov. 8. Each time an office seeker feels he has been wronged, seeds are sown for a protest to the FCC and Congress. And, as the officeholders on Capitol Hill have warned repeatedly during the past 18 months, broadcasting is on trial. Here are the ground rules under which political broadcasting operates (the 1959 amendment appears in italics) : "Sec. 315 (a) If any licensee shall permit any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunity to all other such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station: Provided, that such licensee shall have no power of censorship over the material broadcast under the provisions of this section. No obligation is hereby in evening hours (ranging between 6:15 and 10 p.m. local time). CBS-TV's Douglas Edwards and the News was pre-empted across the board on WWL-TV. (Sponsors: American Home, Philip Morris, Carter Products. The Texan (Brown & Williamson, AllState). Peck's Bad Girl (sustaining). Reckoning (participating). Invisible Man (sustaining), Video Village (Procter & Gamble) and a quarter-hour of Brighter Day (Lever) also gave way to politics on WWL-TV. WVUE (TV) pre-empted 15 minutes of ABC-TV's Music on Ice (sustaining). Producer's Choice (Bristol-Myers, Reynolds Tobacco), Best of Groucho (J.B. Williams Co., Lever Bros.), Cimarron City (sustaining), Wichita Town (Alberto-Culver), Masquerade Party (Block Drug) and Moment of Fear (participating). The stations sharing the political bonanza in the other cities were KARKTV, KATV (TV) and KTHV (TV) in Little Rock; WCKT (TV), 'WPST-TV and WTVJ (TV) in Miami, and WLAC-TV, WSIX-TV and WSM-TV in Nashville. imposed upon any licensee to allow the use of its station by any such candidate. "Appearance by a legally qualified candidate on any — "(1) bona fide newcast, "(2) bona fide news interview, "(3) bona fide documentary (if the appearance of the candidate is inci CBS beams That wasn't really a television spotlight in the House gallery last Monday when congressmen voiced approval of the Sec. 315 suspension. The beam came from the sometimes boyish face of CBS President Frank Stanton. With good reason. More than five years ago, in May 1955, he first offered CBS network facilities for face-to-face televised debates between major party presidential candidates, conditioned on protection against equal time demands from splinter party candidates. With him were Vice President Richard S. Salant, often the spokesman for CBS in Capitol Hill testimony on Sec. 315, who took time away from his vacation to witness the triumphant moment, and Washington Vice President Ed Bunker and CBS Washington attorney Leon Brooks. BROADCASTING, August 29, 1960 37