Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

SHEA AND TOWER SWAP POSITIONS TV music license committee changes leaders Hamilton Shea, chairman of the AllIndustry Television Station Music License Committee, and Charles Tower, vice chairman, traded places last week. Mr. Tower, who is executive vice president of Corinthian Broadcasting, was elected chairman of the all-industry group and Mr. Shea, who is president and general manager of wsva-tv Harrisonburg, Va., was elected vice chairman. The new chairman was named at Mr. Shea's request at a committee meeting Wednesday (Nov. 6) in New York. Mr. Shea noted that he already had served almost three years as chairman and said his station is in an expansion program that will require more of his attention in the immediate future. He pointed out that as vice chairman Mr. Tower has been closely associated with him in leadership of the committee's affairs and that Mr. Tower's office is in New York, "where most of the [committee's] legal, court and research activity" takes place. The change came as the committee awaited a hearing, ordered by the U. S. Supreme Court, of the committee's appeal from an adverse lower-court ruling in its rate litigation with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Broadcasting, Oct. 28). The committee is seeking a new form of ASCAP music license that will not require TV stations to pay ASCAP directly for its music when used in future syndicated programs and feature films. The U. S. southern district court in New York ruled that ASCAP could not be required to issue this type of license, and the second circuit court of appeals refused to hear the appeal — until overruled by the Supreme Court last month. A Strain ■ In explaining his decision to step down, Mr. Shea said that "although I have a fine staff at wsvatv" there were times during the past three years when committee business put "a strain on my responsibilities" at the station. Now, he said, wsva-tv "has embarked on some expansion plans which will make it wise for me to stick closer to home for some time to come." He said he had "not begrudged a minute of this [committee] service because I am so firmly convinced that this is the negotiation where we must exert every legal means, no matter how long they take, to bring our payments for the use of music on local television stations to a fair and reasonable amount." Mr. Shea said the new chairman is "completely up to date on our activities" and "starts his chairmanship right on top of our latest positions on objectives and strategy for the future." He also stressed Mr. Tower's "wide industry experience and acquantance, and his present responsible operating position," as adding to "his fine qualifications as the spearhead of the industry efforts in the future." "Personally," Mr. Shea continued, Thurmond swings again at fairness doctrine Senator Strom Thurmond (DS.C.) last week raised the spectre of network regulation in his continued attacks on the FCC and "left wing broadcasters" over the commission's public notice on fairness (Broadcasting, July 29, et seq.). In an insertion in the Congressional Record Tuesday (Nov. 5) Senator Thurmond said, "The public is already subjected to a constant barrage of left wing broadcasts by the three major radio and television networks. If this so-called fairness doctrine is to be applied by the FCC with fairness, it would be well to begin applying the doctrine with the broadcasts of the networks because of the monopoly which the networks have on national broadcasting." Senator Thurmond, a member of the Senate Communications Subcommittee, has been one of the sternest congressional critics of the fairness statement. Even before it was issued, he confronted CBS President Dr. Frank Stanton at a hearing on equal time with charges that his network, among others, was slanting racial news (Broadcasting, July 1). The senator came to the defense of The Manion Forum, which broadcast a vigorous criticism of the fairness statement Oct. 27, and said the program "is one . . . which has already felt adverse effects from FCC intimidation of local radio stations. . . ." The broadcast said the FCC notice requires "every broadcaster who wishes to be fair, either to expose himself to unbearable sanctions by the commission or to cease expressing or broadcasting views on controversial subjects." What this adds up to, the Forum continued, is "that a cease and desist order has been made against all local programs which criticize the policies of the federal government." BROADCASTING, November 11, 1963