Education by radio (1931-)

tions are owned or operated by, or as- sociated with, the largest chain broad- casting companies, and that the amount of power that these stations are seeking would give them ten times as much as all the independent stations in the United States. [9] A member of the Federal Radio Commission has stated, in a public ad- dress : ... it cannot be denied that a monopoly of radio is now insistently claimed by a group, and that its power and influence are so subtle and effective as to portend the greatest danger to the fundamentals of our government. No greater issue presents itself to the citizenry. A monopoly of mere property may not be so bad, but a monopoly of the voice and expression of the people is quite a different thing. The doc- trine of free speech must be preserved. The use of the air for all, not for the few, must be pro- tected. Shall the big business interests have the air, and the average man be denied it? It does not in reason suffice that he may hear what others say to him; he also has the natural right to speak. . . . Shall one group or any individual say what shall be said at such long range to millions of listeners? If so, there is a clear violation of the guaranty of free speech. [10] In May, 1930, our federal gov- ernment brought charges against the dominant commercial radio group for: . . . an unlawful combination and con- spiracy in restraint of trade and commerce among the several States, and with foreign na- tions in radio communication and apparatus, and the defendants are parties to contracts, agreements and understandings in restraint of said commerce . . . The United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in an opinion on a case in which the same group was a defendant (No. 4354, Oc- tober term, 1930) stated: The exclusive making of tube sales, obviously the purpose of the contract, was to effect a monopoly . . . The radio law says: Sec. 13. The licensing authority is hereby di- rected to refuse a station license and/or the permit hereinafter required for the construction of a station to any person, firm, company, or corporation, or any subsidiary thereof, which has been finally adjudged guilty by a Federal court of unlawfully monopolizing or attempt- ing unlawfully to monopolize, after this Act takes effect, radio communication, directly or indirectly, through the control of the manufac- ture or sale of radio apparatus, through exclu- sive traffic arrangements, or by any other means or to have been using unfair methods of competition. The situation, therefore, which places the National Committee on Education by Radio under obligation to protest against the granting of the applications of these stations for maximum power is as fol- lows: A commercial monopoly of broad- casting channels is almost an accomplish- ed fact, and it threatens freedom of speech, intellectual liberty, and the right of the individual states to exercise their educational functions. Stations under the control of the offi- cials of public education and operated in the public welfare are attacked so often by commercial stations, whose main ob- jective is, and must be, to produce profits for their owners, that they are rapidly being driven from the air. Rules of this Commission place at a disadvantage stations, operating on bud- gets fixed for periods of one or two years, which cannot so quickly comply with regulations requiring increased expense. Commercial broadcasters have classi- fied broadcasting as show business. The educational needs of their radio audi- ences are subordinated to this idea, and to the demands of commercial advertisers and advertising agencies. Commercial broadcasters attempt to usurp the radio facilities of states, and educational insti- tutions chartered by states. They seek to become the exclusive radio outlets for public officials and, when they broadcast addresses by such officials, sometimes make those addresses serve the purpose of commercial advertisers, as when a to- bacco company was thanked by radio an- nouncers for granting the President of the United States the opportunity for ad- dressing the citizens of our country on Lincoln's birthday. The National Association of Broad- casters and the Radio Manufacturers As- sociation, two leading organizations in the radio industry, have plainly revealed its desire for commercial monopoly ut the air by going on record as opposed to the reservation of any broadcasting chan- nel or channels for the use of public schools, colleges, universities, states or government officials or agencies. The National Committee on Educa- tion by Radio respectfully submits for the consideration of the Federal Radio Commission that it would not be in the public interest, convenience or necessity to grant increased power to stations owned or operated by, or associated with, a corporation or corporations now being proceeded against by the federal govern- ment for violations of law, and in fact already adjudged guilty of violations of the laws concerning monopoly, as the majority of the applicants before the Commission in this hearing are. The Committee respectfully submits that this Commission already has recog- nized the right of the individual states to the reservation of radio channels for po- lice broadcasting stations, and that the states have an equal right, under the Constitution, to radio facilities for use in exercising their educational functions. The Committee respectfully submits that the Commission will serve the pub- lic interest better if it will protect the educational stations, and defer the grant- ing of these applications for maximum power at least until Congress considers, and acts upon, proposed radio legisla- tion intended to preserve the rights of the public in radio, and if it will refuse to encourage monopolistic commercial corporations to become so firmly en- trenched in the public domain of the air that it will require a constitutional amendment to recapture the rights of the public. Our Committee respectfully reminds this Commission that Hon. Herbert Hoover, now President of the United States, declared, while he was Secretary of the Department of Commerce: The question of monopoly in radio communi- cation must be squarely met. It is inconceivable that the American people will allow this new- born system of communication to fall exclusive- ly into the power of any individual, group, or combination. Radio communication is not to be considered as merely a business carried on for private gain, for private advertisement, or for entertainment of the curious. It is a public concern impressed with the public trust and to be considered pri- marily from the standpoint of public interest to the same extent and upon the basis of the same general principles as our other public utilities. The National Committee on Educa- tion by Radio respectfully declares that it is in entire accord with these state- ments of the President, and therefore must protest against the interpretations of the radio law, and the practices, which have resulted in the present trend toward commercial monopoly of the broadcast- ing channels, and must protest against the granting of these applications for maximum power, which are so clearly and unmistakably a step toward the com- plete commercial monopoly of radio broadcasting channels. Thus the National Committee on Education by Radio, for the first time, stepped into a public hearing of the Fed- eral Radio Commission, fearlessly assert- ing a position founded on truth no bet- ter expressed than in the words of Abra- ham Lincoln that "You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time,"