Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1961)

An FCC limit on network o & o's? PLAN WOULD RESTRICT EACH TO OWNERSHIP OF THREE TV STATIONS The FCC is considering once again limiting network ownership of tv stations to a total of three per network, FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow said yesterday in a scheduled interview with Rep. Emanuel Celler (D-N. Y.). The telecast was taped on Thursday and broadcast over WOR-TV New York. (WGMS Washington carried the audio portion Friday night). Mr. Minow was responding to a question from Mr. Celler about this recommendation in the 1957 Barrow Report, and answered: "This is one that we have not adopted. Presently they [the networks] are allowed to own five vhf and two uhf, although the Barrow recommendation is receiving consideration now in the Commission." This is all that was said of the matter. Dean Roscoe L. Barrow, U. of Cincinnati Law School, has been rehired as a consultant to the FCC on network study activities (Week's Headliners, July 10). Mr. Minow's session with Mr. Celler was one of three in which he was engaged during the last two days of the work week. Immediately after the Celler taping, Mr. Minow taped a radio interview with Rep. Wayne L. Aspinall (D-Colo.). This will be run on Colorado stations this week, it was reported. The next day, on Friday, Mr. Minow was taped for Mutual's Reporters' Roundup (scheduled for broadcast yesterday, 5:05-5:30 p.m., EDT). The FCC chairman was interviewed by David Kraslow, Knight Newspapers' Washington bureau, and Susan Wagner, United Press International. Ken French was moderator. Celler Advises ■ Mr. Celler made no bones about his views on various matters involving broadcasting — including his direct recommendation that the FCC hurry up and grant the pending transfer of WNTA-TV New York to the educational group seeking to buy it. A New York group has offered $6.5 million for the ch. 13 facility. New Jersey Gov. Robert Meyner has objected to this transaction (Broadcasting, July 10). This is Mr. Celler on the New Jersey opposition: "I have read the opposition of Gov. Meyner to this station. I think his opposition is inane and unreasonable. There's no reason why if a station is set up in New York that New Jersey couldn't participate. ... I don't mean to influence you necessarily. But that is my views." Chairman Minow murmured that he thought it would be inappropriate for him to say anything about that. Other Minow highlights: ■ That he has had a number of talks with broadcasters and they are going to de-emphasize violence and they are going to do more about children's programs. ■ Wants to know how many hours of public-affairs programming are offered by the networks and how many hours used by affiliates. Hopes that the public will encourage local stations to carry these programs. Urges the Minow's big show is all set to go NORTHWESTERN SEMINAR TO FEATURE FCC HEAD Chairman Newton N. Minow's next big blast is timed for his return to his alma mater — Northwestern U. — next month. Mr. Minow will participate in a symposium he inspired. It will be held under the auspices of the university's School of Law (Broadcasting, June 12). The formal title of the two-day conference, Aug. 3-4, is the National Symposium on Freedom and Responsibility in Broadcasting. Mr. Minow will be spotlighted at the only open session on the afternoon of the first day. It is expected he will devote his as yet unannounced paper to a defense of his philosophy of program surveillance by the FCC which, he will argue, is not censorship. And he is prepared to contend that broadcasting, as a licensed medium, is not entitled to the same freedom as the "unlicensed" press. Although the 35-year old FCC chairman has been interviewed on the air and in print a dozen times since his "vast wasteland" speech at the NAB convention last May 9, he has not deviated from the theme of that address. In Chicago, he will seek to buttress his "no censorship" argument with documentation from congressional debates and court opinions. On the same platform with Mr. Minow on the same day will be NAB President LeRoy Collins. Gov. Collins in a recent address in Chicago at the dedication of the new plant of WGN Inc., warned against "government thought control" — a bolder position than he previously had taken. The first and only major address Gov. Collins has delivered since he. assumed the NAB presidency last January was at the NAB convention, just before Mr. Minow's now celebrated speech that brought nationwide repercussions. 22 Participants ■ Arrangements for the Chicago symposium were firmed up last week with 22 participants, including Messrs. Minow and Collins. Chairman of the sessions will be J. Leonard Reinsch, executive director of the Cox stations, also a Northwestern alumnus. Mr. Reinsch, who served as executive director of both the 1956 and 1960 Democratic national conventions, recently was appointed by President Kennedy to membership on the United States Advisory Commission on Information which sits over the USIA. This assignment is without pay. Sessions will be held on Thursday morning (closed except for closed circuit relay to the press and others in an adjacent auditorium); Thursday afternoon (open) and Friday morning (closed). Professor Louis L. Jaffe, of Harvard Law School, will open the Thursday morning session, followed by Charles H. King, former member of the FCC and dean of the Detroit College of Law, an advocate of a hands-off policy by government in programming. Panel members will question the speakers following their presentations. At the Friday morning closed session, Dean Roscoe Barrow, of the U. of Cincinnati Law School, who, as a consultant to the FCC was responsible for the "Barrow Report" on network operations (October 1957), will present the lead-off paper. He will be followed by W. Theodore Pierson, senior partner of the Washington law firm of Pierson, Ball & Dowd. Other participants: Warren K. Agee, executive officer, Sigma Delta Chi; national professional journalistic society; Edward L. Bernays, public relations consultant; Fairfax M. Cone, chairman, Foote, Cone & Belding; Prof. John E. Coons, of Northwestern, the conference director; Peter Goelet, president of the National Audience Board; John W. Guilder, president and general manager, WMTW (TV) Poland Spring, Me. and practicing attorney; Clair R. Mc 58 (GOVERNMENT) BROADCASTING, July 17, 1961