Variety radio directory (1937)

FEDERAL RADIO REGULATION— Continued which will be employed to operate the station, particularly with respect to program service and technical operation, accompanied by charts showing the organization, the names and qualfications of the principal employees where known (these are often tentatively engaged in advance), the salaries that will be paid, and the like. Not infrequently an applicant will employ a man who has had experience in operating a station to superintend the preparation of his case before the Commission, for a period of several months before the hearing. There remain two matters which relate to the subject of eligibility and which have taken on substantial importance in recent months. One has to do with the acquisition of stations by persons already having one or more existing stations; the other has to do with the acquisition of stations by newspaper publishers. There have been no definite decisions or other pronouncements by the Commission on either matter ; no statement of principles which will serve as a guide to a prospective applicant is available. There is, nevertheless, an undercurrent of discussion, debate and criticism, partly in the halls of Congress, partly within the Commission and its staff, and partly elsewhere, which must be taken into account. Unconsciously, perhaps, and without direct expression, this undercurrent is now having an effect upon the issues raised at hearings and on the Commission's decisions, and seems likely to have an increasing effect, at least in the immediate future. Neither matter can be discussed at length in this article. The question as to the propriety of ownership of two or more stations is heard most frequently with reference to the acquisition of stations by the principal national networks. A closely related question has to do with the relation between these networks and their affiliated stations, under contracts which, it is claimed, unduly restrict the independent operation of the affiliate stations and bring about an unnecessary duplication of network programs over the country, and a disregard of local needs in the community. The question has also been raised with respect to others than networks, for example, in cases where there is an attempt to acquire ownership of an unduly large share of the stations in a particular region or in a particular city, or too many stations in different cities. The Communications Act, it is argued, is based on the theory of preserving competition between radio stations and this theory is nullified if one individual or group acquires an excessive number of stations either nationally or locally. Incidentally, the Act specifically gives the Commission "authority to make special regulations applicable to radio stations engaged in chain broadcasting," but so far no such regulations have been made. Not unrelated to the matter of multiple ownership is the tendency manifested at times by the Commission to require the applicant to be a resident of the locality in which a proposed station is to be established, in other words, to frown on absentee ownership. The decisions in which this requirement has been given effect (mostly the smaller stations) are not easy to reconcile with decisions in which the acquisition of large holdings of broadcast stations in different cities has been permitted. Of the 704 broadcast stations in operation or authorized in the United States, somewhat over 200 are owned or controlled by newspaper interests. Some of them were acquired in the infancy of broadcasting, but many of them were acquired during the past two years during which there has been a virtual stampede on the part of the press to secure stations. As might be expected, these stations present a variety of situations. One situation is the case where the only newspaper (or newspapers) and the only station (or stations) in a given community are owned by the same person or corporation. Another is 286