Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1962)

proviso is applicable because the primary employer radio station, by adding its labor in the form of capital, enterprise and service to the products which it advertises for secondary employers becomes one of the producers of the product which it advertises. And, of course, the secondary employers who are retail distributors of the products clearly distribute such products within the meaning of the proviso." Also cited, in reference to the labor council request, was a provision of the law specifically stating "that the request not to use a product is protected where the purpose is to truthfully advise the public, including consumers and members of a labor organization, that a product or products are produced by an employer." Early in the Sacramento strike the station had obtained an injunction restraining the unions' leaflet tactics and threats. This was dismissed after the WOGA decision by NLRB. Later the court awarded an injunction to the station enjoining mass distribution of leaflets and specifying how they could be distributed. Ruling in ABC Case ■ In another decision last week NLRB dismissed an unfair labor practice complaint against American Broadcasting Co., reversing a previous decision in which American Musicians Guild had been certified to seek election to represent musicians preparing tv sound tracks in Los Angeles. ABC and American Federation of Musicians had lost a plea based on the claim that union security provisions of the ABC-AFM 1959 contract precluded any election for bargaining rights by another union. NLRB held the union security provisions were illegal and refused to consider a second claim that only a nationwide, multi-employer union local was appropriate. The Guild wanted either single or multi-employer units in the Los Angeles area. While the Guild won its ABC election, the network refused to enter bargaining negotiations and the Guild charged it with unfair labor practices. An NLRB examiner recommended that ABC be directed to bargain with the Guild. But NLRB last week dismissed the unfair labor practice complaint, reversing its own earlier decision. The reversal was based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision. It also issued a ruling that finds a nationwide multi-employer unit appropriate in the case of CBS, ABC and NBC. WABC-TV survey reports on high N.Y. viewing Tv viewing in the New York area is at an all-time high, according to a special study conducted by Lawrence Pollock, director of research and sales development for WABC-TV New York, and released last week. Mr. Pollock, who used Nielsen rating data for his study, reported New York families watch tv an average of 5 hours, 20 minutes daily during the current season compared with an average of 5 hours daily last year. He claimed an important factor behind the viewing increase is the substantial number of New York families owning two or more tv sets, placing this figure at 1.1 million, or 25% of the total. Less violence on tv, more sex— Swezey Excessive violence on television is declining but there is a "slight upsurge" in improper portrayals of sex, according to Robert D. Swezey, director of the NAB's centralized code authority. The code office has moved into the sex field, he said, "with the same persistent vigor that helped curb the amount of needless violence. These problems come around in cycles and we just have to keep working to solve them." Mr. Swezey reminded broadcasters that they must depend on full cooperation and understanding from sponsors, advertisers, program suppliers and the general public. He cited "mature" programming, post-'48 motion picture films and movie trailers as examples. Trailers sometimes are more daring than the pictures they promote, he added. Mr. Swezey and E. K. Hartenbower, KCMO-TV Kansas City, chairman of the Television Code Review Board, listed these tv code trends during the past year: ■ An increase in program time during prime hours through lower ceilings on commercials and other non-program material. ■ New guidelines for toy commercials to prevent misleading or unethical advertising appeals to children. ■ Low volume of complaints received by the code offices, with most aimed at program content rather than commercials. The number of tv code subscribers increased from 383 to 389 stations during the year plus the three networks and 22 film producing companies that are affiliate subscribers. The drive against excessive violence will be continued, both Mr. Swezey and Mr. Hartenbower explained. They said the lessening of tv violence is due in part to cooperation of the code's Hollywood office and producers of tv film shows. As to sex, they said the code approaches the problem from the viewpoint of taste and discretion and will not attempt to prevent or impede appropriate treatment of sex. The basic policy of the code is described as "selfrespect through self-regulation." Collins on self-regulation The solution for better tv programming "lies not in increased governmental controls but in a greater degree of industry responsibility for self-regulation and self-improvement," NAB President LeRoy Collins writes in tha Jan. 6 issue of Tv Guide. The industry A freedom fighter for radio-tv's cause NBC Board Chairman Robert Sarnoff took sharp issue last week with a newspaper publisher's recent remark that "freedom of the press" is not applicable to radio and television. Mr. Sarnoff, in fact, cited several court rulings to bolster his contention that radio-tv are considered part of the "press" whose freedom is guaranteed by the First Amendment. Mr. Sarnoff, in a letter to the nation's radio-tv editors mailed last Friday (Dec. 29, 1961), referred to a recent speech by Bernard Kilgore, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. He quoted Mr. Kilgore as saying: "We are going to get the issue of freedom of the press obscured dangerously if we try to stretch it to fit the radio and television industries that operate and apparently must operate for some time in the future under government licenses." Mr. Sarnoff replied to this criticism by stating: "Even if Mr. Kilgore may choose to read the Constitution differently than I do, it is a fact that Congress and the courts have expressly forbidden the licensing authority to interfere with the right of free expression on the air. This is the way the Communications Act is written, and this right has found repeated support in judicial interpretation." Mr. Sarnoff 34 (THE MEDIA) BROADCASTING, January 1, 1962