Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

COLLINS ISN'T RUNNING NOW Doesn't paint himself out of political arena; says he'll give personal views on public issues LeRoy Collins, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, said last week that he did not expect to run for the U. S. Senate from Florida and that "I am not making any plans to do so." The NAB president, during an interview on wttg(tv) Washington's Opinion in the Capital telecast Sunday (Dec. 29), did not close the door on a possible race against incumbent Senator Spessard Holland (D-Fla.), however. Governor Collins said that he had told Senator Holland, a close personal friend, that "if I start making plans to run against him he will be the first to know." He said that "I don't expect to run" but that he has always refused "to paint myself into a corner" and say that he would not again seek a political office "under any circumstances." Governor Collins was interviewed last Thursday (Dec. 26) for the program telecast on Metromedia Inc.'s wttg by Mark Evans, Metromedia vice president, and Lawrence Laurent, radio-TV columnist for the Washington Post. The Collins interview also was telecast by Metromedia stations in New York (wnewtv) and Los Angeles (kttv[tv]) and by ktvu(tv) San Francisco. (With Governor Collins refusing to disavow a possible race against Senator Holland, several Florida papers last week printed speculative articles on the possibility of a contest between the two. On Thursday, the Miami Herald published the results of a 16-county survey of voters on a Collins vs. Holland race. Senator Holland came out the winner but the paper said if the NAB president enters the Democratic primary, a hotly contested race would develop.) Asked by Mr. Laurent what he considered his role to be as NAB president, Governor Collins replied that he felt he should express his personal views on matters of public importance and that "I do not hesitate to do this." Broad casters, he said, must not be motivated alone by the "immediate commercial impact" their actions cause. On the cigarette and smoking controversy, Governor Collins said "I stand exactly where I stood before" in urging the industry to discourage through its codes cigarette advertising appealing to minors. Broadcasters, he said, have a special responsibility to move against commercials urging "children to start the habit" of smoking. This responsibility, he said, "is not a great deal unlike the one we exercise, for example, in the area of advertising whiskey" — banned by the NAB codes. This self-imposed ban on liquor advertising has given broadcasters "added stature and a position of integrity," Governor Collins said. Following the TV session, Governor Collins said he was not suggesting that radio and television should ban all cigarette advertising. Proud Of Columbia ■ Governor Collins said that he is proud of the speech he made in Columbia, S. C, attacking the position of Southern leaders on civil rights (Broadcasting, Dec. 9). Several influential broadcasters, including members of the NAB board, have attacked the NAB president for making what Collins replaces LeRoy Collins, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, was the subject of continued correspondence — both pro and con — among broadcasters last week (Broadcasting, Dec. 23, 16). The dispute centers around public statements by the NAB president, some critical of broadcasting and others termed "political." On the critical side, Willard Schroeder, general manager of woodam-tv Grand Rapids, Mich., and member and former chairman of the NAB radio board, renewed an exchange of letters with the NAB president questioning the governor's statements. Among those backing the NAB president was Joseph L. B. Brechner, president, wftv(tv) Orlando, Fla., who in a letter to William B. Quarton, chairman of the NAB executive committee, said: "I regard Governor Collins as a man of the highest calibre. I feel the country is better for his expressed views, whether popular or otherwise. I feel that he has brought to the NAB a new depth which suggests that the president of our association is not merely a professional executive and paid lobbyist without strong convictions. . . . Xmas cards in "To a degree, Governor Collins has created a new image and respect for broadcasting. . . . His willingness to be realistic in facing broadcast issues in the public interest when we ourselves may be queasy in our reactions, has, perhaps, made his effectiveness on behalf of broadcasters greater — not less." Also backing the governor: ■ Richard J. Scholem, general manager, wtig Massillon, Ohio, to Broadcasting: "Mr. Collins is a national figure with a good mind of his own ... a man with the courage to tell his fellow Southerners that integration is inevitable and right . . . a man with the integrity to admit that everything broadcasters and broadcasting does is not divine or even correct, and by so doing win respect for broadcasting as a truthful, mature medium. "Let it be known here and now that in the near future wtig Massillon, Ohio, and wisr Butler, Pa., will be joining the NAB for the first time. One of the major reasons is that NAB now has not a follower but a leader. . . ." ■ Edward Lamb, industrialist and owner of wicu-tv Erie, Pa., former member to NAB, to Mr. Collins: the post office "The whole attitude of America toward the broadcasting industry was changed with your election as president and spokesman for the organized broadcasters. As you brought to the broadcasters association a sense of dignity and public service responsibilities, you earned for this industry a great degree of respect. ". . . Frankly, you must be recognized as the best thing that has ever happened to the private broadcasting industry in the United States. If you remain with the NAB, I am sure I speak for many who will consider it an honor to be associated with the association. . . ." ■ William J. Hall, president and general manager, wchn-am-fm Norwich, N. Y., to Mr. Quarton: "... I am proud that the NAB has a man as president who is not afraid to speak his mind, whether it be before a segregationist audience in South Carolina or other special interest groups whose toes might be stepped on. ... [I] would hope that the NAB board and membership would as a matter of principle affirm their support of him. . . ." ■ Pierre A. La Vigne, Woodbine, Md., identifying himself as in his 36 (THE MEDIA) BROADCASTING, December 30, 1963