Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

FCC gets data processing computer The scene above indicates a giant step by the FCC into the world of whirring tapes and blinking lights known as data processing. Installation of the Univac III, manufactured by the Sperry Rand Corp., marks the first time a regulatory agency has purchased such equipment. Until now data processing equipment has been leased from the manufacturer. Purchase price was $956,000, exclusive of another $100,000 for renovating the office space and 50 tons of climate control machinery. The equipment will be employed about 50% of time in evaluating engineering proposals in broadcast applications. It will also process safety and special radio applications and give rapid reference to ownership data. Seen above are Katherine Marano (seated at control console), Gordon Hammond (r), William Misenheimer, chief of the section (c) and Louis Thomas (1). The data processing department will employ about 60 persons in all. A commission spokesman said this will eventually lead to a cut in the number of clerical employes at the agency and will vastly diminish the amount of time now being spent by staff members in researching certain data. ported in chart form, would be identified by title, source, time slot and frequency, and would be broken down according to the 14 categories the 1960 statement on program policy says are "'usually necessary" to satisfy community interests and needs. The applicant would also list, by types, the special programs he intends to broadcast. The composite week and the proposed typical week, along with requirement that percentages of various types of programing be reported, would be dropped. But the composite and typical weeks would be retained for commercials with the licensee asked to compare, in minutes, proposed advertising continuity and programing. Problems Remain ■ One major difference to be resolved is whether the report would be filed every three years, as at present or annually. Another is the amount of detail to require of the applicant in describing his survey and evaluation of community needs and interests. A third is whether, in addition to a chart on proposed programing, the applicant should be required to fill one out for programing carried in the preceding renewal period. There was no firm opinion last week on whether the commission — once it finally agrees on the final shape the reporting form should take — will issue it as a notice of proposed rulemaking on which the industry could comment. Previous versions of the form have been put out for comments twice. The commission will ask general counsel's office for a ruling on whether a rulemaking proceeding is necessary. But some commissioners feel that if this procedure is not used, the agency will, at a minimum, request comments "informally," from broadcasters. Under the proposal advanced by Commissioner Ford for revising the radio reporting form, program categories and commercial vs. sustaining time questions would be eliminated. Instead, applicants would be required to inform the commission of what they had done in the interest of their communities and what they planned to do in the ensuing license period. They would also be asked to break down the amount of time devoted to commercials and programing during a typical week. Can't Wait ■ Some commissioners feel that, although new forms are needed, the commission should not wait for their adoption before revising the guidelines observed by the staff in determining programing questions that are currently delaying decisions on renewal applications. None of the commissioners was ready last week to discuss proposals for revising the guidelines. But Commissioner BROADCASTING, November 4, 1963 Loevinger, one of those most insistent on change, gave a clue to his thinking before the Oregon Association of Broadcasters Friday (story page 45). In discussing proposals for improving FCC procedures, he said that although the commission has delegated substantial formal authority to the bureau chiefs, it has so "circumscribed" this authority with detailed instructions "that an inordinate number of trivial matters are presented to the full commission" for resolution. He said this makes for inefficiency and results in backlogs. He said the commission should make clear delegations of authority accompanied by guidelines "which express the intent of the commission and the spirit in which it intends to accomplish its job." He added that these should "declare that the commission . . . disregards trivial and purely technical defects, and emphasizes substantial and significant complicance with such standards as have been promulgated and published." Essex 'frightened' of happenings in D.C. "Watch out for Washington," Harold Essex, president of wsjs-am-fm-tv Winston-Salem, N. C, warned the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters last week. Mr. Essex said that he is a "frightened broadcaster" and that all broadcasters should feel the same because of what lies ahead for the industry. "If you're not frightened, then you don't understand what's going on in Washington," he said. A member of the radio board of the National Association of Broadcasters, Mr. Essex concentrated his fire on the FCC's rulemaking to adopt commercial time standards. "Such a rule would destroy free enterprise in broadcasting," he said. The industry now is in trouble, he charged, because it has allowed the government, without protest, to gradually expand regulatory activities into 77