Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

COMMISSION MOVES TO CUT RED TAPE Staff given wider discretion in station transfers The FCC last week launched its longawaited campaign to reduce its backlog of pending cases. Its primary target: 150 pending station transfers. And the method of attack is to give the staff wider authority, at least temporarily, to operate under its delegations of authority. FCC Chairman E. William Henry is expected to discuss this development in letters to key members of Senate and House who have often complained about the commission's mounting backlogs. Details of the procedural change were not immediately available last week. Commission officials, however, said basic delegations of authority were not changed. A major complaint by some commissioners has been that the staff has too often brought cases to the commission for decision that the staff had the authority, under delegations of authority, to handle. Petty Problems ■ However, in many instances, the formal delegations have been limited by detailed instructions, with the result that the staff has brought comparatively minor problems to the commission's attention. It's understood that the commission in effect told the staff to ignore the limiting instructions and not let "minor" details hold up action on pending transfers. One commissioner said the action, in a sense, amounts to a vote of confidence. "We told the staff to exercise their authority with the assurance that we would back them up." He added that there will undoubtedly be cases that are "so close" the staff will want to get a decision from the commission. But in the vast majority of cases, he said, the staff should be able to act on its own. The staff is expected to operate under its basic delegations, unfettered by special instructions, for up to 90 days. In the meantime the commission hopes to devise new instructions which will express the agency's aims without leading to new delays and backlogs. One kind of case on which the staff will be able to act with greater dispatch involves the three-year rule. This rule, which prohibits the sale of stations held less than three years, provides for some exceptions. However, the staff normally brings all three-year cases to the commission for a decision on waiving the rule. The staff was instructed last week to act on all cases clearly coming under the exceptions. Move On Radio ■ In another development in the FCC's effort to reduce its backlog, the commissioners were re ported planning to discuss this week a revised program reporting form for radio stations. There were even some indications the commission might be prepared to take definite action on a new form, on which some work has been done (Broadcasting, Nov. 4). Officials say this project is a much simpler one than that involving television. It was not certain, however, whether the commission would simply adopt a new form for radio, as a conclusion to the outstanding rulemaking proceeding on program reporting forms, or put the proposed document out for further comments. The commissioners feel that a new reporting form for radio which would provide more meaningful information than that which applicants now can provide would help speed the renewal application processing. There were no developments last week on other aspects of the commission's antibacklog campaign. ■ Work on revising the TV program reporting form was at a standstill. ■ No action was taken on proposals to liberalize guidelines followed by the staff in considering renewal applications. ■ And the proposed procedural change that would require licensees to apply for renewal six months ahead of their renewal date instead of three (Broadcasting, Nov. 4), was not even on last week's agenda. GIVE 'EM WHAT FOR Swafford charges industry created its fearful plight If broadcasters had more vigor, confidence and maturity "we wouldn't right at this moment be standing around, wringing our hands, while the FCC proceeds to kick hell out of us," Thomas Swafford, president of kdef-am-fm Albuquerque, N. M., told the Oregon Broadcasters Association Nov. 1. The industry, he said, is gripped in "fear — galloping, growing, withering fear. Fear of competitors, fear of creditors, fear of cancellations, fear of failure. . . . And most of all, fear of government." A former CBS vice president and general manager of the network's wcau Philadelphia for 1 1 years, Mr. Swafford said broadcasting is being governed by the "very whims of a very small group of very willful men." But. he said, the industry is responsible for permitting this condition to exist. "As a group, we are forever forced into the unhappy role of defending the weakest, shabbi BROADCASTING, November 11, 1963