NAB reports (Mar-Dec 1933)

Sundays, the licensee of each broadcast station shall maintain a minimum regular operating schedule of two-thirds of the hours that it is authorized to operate during each broadcast day.” COMMISSION MEETS MAY 31 Because of the holiday May 30, the day for the regular Tuesday Commission meeting, the meeting will be held Wednesday, May 31, at 2:30 p. m. PETITION FILED IN WIBO CASE Station WIBO has filed a petition with the Federal Radio Com¬ mission alleging that the conduct of Johnson-Kennedy Radio Cor¬ poration (WJKS) and of its principal stockholders has been such as to constitute a fraud on the Federal Radio Commission, on the reviewing courts, and on the listening public, both of Indiana and Illinois. WIBO expressed in the petition a willingness to meet to the fullest extent the standards of service to the Calumet district which were approved in the Commission’s decision of October 16, 1931. Station WIBO also filed with the Commission an application for construction permit to move its transmitter and studio to a suitable site in Lake County, Indiana. The Federal Radio Commission has allowed Station WJKS (Gary, Ind.) until June 7 to make reply to the WIBO petition. WIBO AND WPCC ORDERED CLOSED The Federal Radio Commission on Friday, May 26, announced receipt of the Mandate of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia affirming its decision of October 16, 1931, granting the application of WJKS, which sought the facilities of WIBO and WPCC, and directed the secretary to issue instructions to WIBO and WPCC to cease operation at 3 a. m., CST, June 11, 1933. DILL COMMENT ON WIBO CASE Commenting on the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the WIBO case, Senator Dill said: “It is a wonderful decision. It establishes the right of the Commission to change station assign¬ ments at will and puts upon all stations the necessity of serving the public or getting off the air. Likewise the decision clearly estab¬ lishes the fact that Congress is supreme in its power to regulate interstate commerce as it relates to radio and can delegate such powers to the licensing authority it has created. A most important part of the decision,” Senator Dill said, “was that it establishes the fact that stations possess no property rights in their channels and exist only by sufferance of Congress from license-renewal to licenserenewal so long as they serve the public interest.” DENY CALIFORNIA APPLICATION The Radio Commission on Friday upheld Report No. 482 of Examiner Elmer W. Pratt by denying a construction permit for the erection of a new broadcasting station at Monterey, Calif., to W. L. Gleeson. Gleeson asked the Commission for a permit to use unlimited time on 1210 kliocycles, 100 watts power, or 5,000 watts on 1490 kilocycles. The application had been denied as in case of default because the applicant failed to appear at a hearing on the date set. PENNSYLVANIA INSURANCE ADVERTISING It is up to Governor Pinchot whether broadcasting stations (and other advertising media) will have to be shown a certificate of authority from the Insurance Department before broadcasting in¬ surance advertising. S. 538, which prohibits broadcasting of adver¬ tisements of unauthorized insurance companies, passed both houses before adjournment on May 5, 1933. The Governor has thirty days after adjournment to act on bills. STATION WRUF FLORIDA PROBLEM The Florida Legislature has a problem on its hands with respect to the State-owned broadcasting station (WRUF) at Gainesville. The Senate Resolution to appoint a committee of five to study the cost of continuing the University Radio Station received a favorable committee report in the House on May 23, 1933. WISCONSIN RADIOS NEAR EXEMPTION At least one legislature is close to passing a law putting radio receiving sets in that class of personal nroperty (usually considered necessities) exempt from seizure under attachment proceedings. A. 252, which has passed the Wisconsin Assembly, was favorably reported out of committee to the Senate on May 19, 1933. PROPOSES NATIONAL RADIO INSTITUTE In his report to the third annual assembly of the National Ad¬ visory Council on Radio in Education, held in New York last week, Levering Tyson, director of the Council, proposed the formation of a national radio institute which would be formed “entirely apart from any organization now in the educational broadcasting field but anticipated cooperation of all.” The institute would have as its sole purpose the “raising of funds for devising and producing under its auspices programs of generally accepted excellence.” Advertising regulation, news broadcasting and educational pro¬ grams were discussed by Mr. Hector Charlesworth, chairman of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, before the assembly. “While in general in our regulations the limitation of advertising to five per cent of the period stands, we have defined this as ‘direct advertising’ or the straight selling talk,” he said. “We have availed ourselves of the discretionary powers left to us in interpreting the statute to permit under certain circumstances ‘indirect advertising’ — that is to say, a casual allusion to a product or a joke about it. The question of news broadcasts is always a difficult one. We are now in negotiation with Canadian Press, Limited, to which all daily newspapers in Canada belong, to arrange regional news broadcasts for us, and are giving them exclusive privileges in this respect as the surest guarantee of accuracy and service. So far as educational broadcasting is concerned we have arranged for the cooperation of all the chief universities of Canada in a series of broadcasts next autumn and winter embracing not only lectures but intercollegiate debates by picked men. There is one point I have insisted on: that the university lecturers must be good broadcasters as well as scholars.” Expressing the belief that the time for action is here, Commis¬ sioner Harold A. Lafount of the Federal Radio Commission sug¬ gested a new plan for cooperation between broadcasters and edu¬ cators. “Educational programs could, and I believe in the near future will, be broadcast by the Government itself over a few powerful short wave stations and rebroadcast by existing stations,” the Com¬ missioner said. “This would not interfere with local occupational programs, and would provide all broadcasters with the finest pos¬ sible sustaining programs. The whole nation would be taught by one teacher instead of hundreds, and would be thinking together on one subject of national importance. Personally, I believe such a plan would be more effective than a standing army. I do not consider this a step toward government ownership or operation of broadcasting stations.” The Davis Amendment came in for an analytical discussion in the speech by C. M. Jansky, Jr., Washington consulting radio engineer. The amendment, he said “ienores the fundamental fact that the technical requirements for equality of transmission bear no tangible relationship to the requirements for equality of reception. The Act then proceeds to direct the regulatory authority to make as nearly as possible an equal allocation of licenses, frequencies, power and periods of time, first to each zone and then among the States within each zone on the basis of population,” he said. “Now, even if such a mathematical distribution were practical from an engineering and economic standpoint, it would not provide anything approaching either the equality of reception or the equality of transmission to both of which the Act says the people are entitled. In short, when examined in the light of fundamental laws of nature which went into effect a good many years ago and have never been repealed, the Davis Amendment is ambiguous and meaningless.” There is an audience for every program, Dr. Herman S. Het¬ tinger, of the University of Pennsylvania, told the group. This is true, he said, “providing the program is technically well constructed and is presented to the segment of the audience for which it is suited. It is the task of the advertiser and educator alike to deter¬ mine the group which they are most interested in reaching, to study its psychology, and to present a program fitted as closely as possible to the tastes of that eroup. If they reach additional listeners out¬ side of its circles all well and good. If not, they have still accom¬ plished their purpose.” There seems to be a little variation in the listener load over a period of years, or as between different seasons, he said studies revealed. PROPOSES 10 PER CENT RADIO TAX A proposal to raise $16,000,000 by taxing the broadcast business was laid before the House Ways and Means Committee on May 10 • Page 54 •