Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1962)

KWK praises examiner, damns proceeding BUREAU BLAMES FRAUDULENT CONTEST ON LICENSEE not agree and said "there is no basis to find mitigating circumstances in the programming of WGMA." In offering evidence of its programming achievements WGMA received evidence from such important civic leaders as the Hollywood mayor (Broadcasting, June 11) that the job being done was indeed fine. As for the personal histories of Messrs. Barry and Enright, neither of the two men were ever indicted, much less convicted of any crime flowing from the tv shows, or their actions afterwards. The two men were so "shocked and thusly committed errors of judgment which they have since regretted," when the dishonesty of the two quiz shows was suddenly made public, WGMA said. In defense of its renewal efforts WGMA said that there have been no misrepresentations made to the commission that would warrant non-renewal. As to allegation that at the time of the Twenty-One and Tic Tac Dough scandal fixing was in wide-spread practice, "the commission could not condone such a fraudulent and destructive use of broadcast facilities," the Broadcast Bureau added. Tennessee bank opposes new station in area The FCC should deny Freeman L. Crowder's application for a new am station in Harriman, Tenn., for the security of existing stations in the area and a local bank, the commission was told last week. The First National Bank and Trust Co. of Rockwood (Tenn.) warned the commission that if Mr. Crowder's application is granted the area economy cannot meet the added demand for advertising revenues. The First National told the commission that it had purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Crowder a note (dated in June 1956) given by Folkways Broadcasting Co. as security for the balance of the purchase price of WHBT Harriman, which Mr. and Mrs. Crowder formerly owned. A grant to Mr. Crowder will cause the value of the note "to be adversely affected and the bank's security will similarly be deleteriously affected," the bank said. If the bank had known that Mr. Crowder planned to apply for a new station in Harriman it never would have purchased the note at the time and for the amount it did, the statement said. Serious strains would be placed on local advertisers to maintain their present level of advertising if a third local station were operating, the bank said, and WRHK Rockwood, which has experienced trouble in staying on the air, the bank said, would surely be put off the air. KWK St. Louis last week praised ad initial decision by an FCC hearing examiner as "a most remarkably fine example of the effective and proper operation of the hearing examiner system." However, KWK maintained in exceptions to the decision, the entire commission proceeding looking toward revocation of the station's license "was unlawful from the very beginning" for several reasons. In his decision early this fall, Hearing Examiner Forrest L. McClenning found the KWK licensee not guilty of all charges brought by the commission and recommended that the license revocation proceeding be dismissed. Mr. McClenning found that two KWK treasure hunt contests had been fraudulent but that the fault lay with former Vice President-General Manager William Jones and not the station's owners. He ruled that Andrew Spheeris, KWK president and chief stockholder, acted in good faith as soon as he learned the contests were not as represented to the public. The Broadcast Bureau, on the other hand, took exception to the examiner's findings and maintained that the "established record demonstrates, in a most convincing fashion that KWK is unfit to operate a station in the public interest." Most Satisfied ■ KWK said that it is "most satisfied" with the decision, which resolved all conflicts in testimony in the station's favor. "Unfortunately, however, the respondent believes that a number of most serious procedural errors were made by the commission before and during the hearing, exceptions to which cannot be abandoned," KWK said. The station argued that the revocation order was unlawful from the be ginning in that it violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The FCC ignored the requirement that KWK be given advance warning and failed to afford it an opportunity to achieve compliance, the station said. The commission's actions were unlawful because it failed to furnish KWK with a bill of particulars and d;Iiberately withheld reports of investigations to which it was entitled, the station said. The Broadcast Bureau said the basic question is whether an absentee licensee is to be held responsible for the misconduct of its station manager and vice president. (Mr. Spheeris and associates also own WEMP Milwaukee.) The decision goes against FCC policy established in the refusal to renew KRLA Pasadena, Calif., the bureau charged. It "must be emphatically rejected" and "would have the effect of providing an acceptable excuse for licensee irresponsibility," the bureau said. WDULTv 'unfitness' withdrawn by FCC A petition by WDUL Tv Corp. was granted in part by the FCC last week as it reconsidered a July 30 decision that had refused WDUL Tv's station WHYZ-TV (ch. 10) Duluth, Minn., a modification of its construction permit and had found applicant "unfit to be a licensee" (Broadcasting, July 30). The commission still refused to grant the modified construction permit, but granted the portion of the petition that asked for a deletion of the conclusion that WDUL Tv is unfit to hold a license. The FCC decided that WDUL Tv's fitness was not an issue in the proceeding. FCC's register rings 'no sale' for WXIV Louis E. Latham last week found that the FCC had little sympathy for the difficulties of mixing station management with world-wide evangelism. Mr. Latham, who owns WXIV Windermere, Fla., had asked the commission to allow him to sell the station to Thomas H. Moffit for $60,000, but the FCC did not agree that there should be an exception to the three-year holding rule in his case. WXIV was granted Jan. 25, 1961. Mr. Latham is the founder of the Greater Commission Gospel Assn., owner of WAVO Decatur and WAVQ-FM Atlanta, both Ga., and he planned to put the profit from the sale of WXIV into WAVO. A fervent evangelist, Mr. Latham asked a waiver of the holding rule because he devotes a considerable portion of his time to evangelism overseas, and feels that he has not sufficient time to devote to all three stations. The evangelistic ministry, Mr. Latham claimed, has made more and more profound demands upon his life and time. With a zeal all its own, the FCC told Mr. Latham that he has 20 days to prosecute his application through a hearing process. BROADCASTING, December 17, 1962 83