Variety radio directory (1937)

FEDERAL RADIO REGULATION— Continued the growing pains of a young industry, accentuated by the depression. The real danger in the economics of broadcasting is that the interest of the advertiser in reaching large masses of listeners, and the profit that is to be made in accommodating him, will result in laying down too many tracks of good reception to thickly inhabited centres and too few, or none at all, to sparsely settled areas, which are not such attractive markets . . ." _ To demonstrate that there is sufficient economic support for a proposed station, resort has been had to a variety of devices by applicants and their attorneys. One device very much in vogue at present is to secure written assurances from business houses in the community that, if the application is granted, they will expend stated sums for advertising over the new station,. on the basis of a rate card which the applicant has prepared and proposes to adhere to Sometimes these assurances take the form of binding contracts ; sometimes they are merely expressions of intention without binding legal force. The endeavor is usually to get such assurances to a total sum equal to, or greater than, the estimated cosi oi operating the station during the first year. In addition, a heterogeneous mass of other data and information is customarily introduced into the record in the form of elaborate exhibits, or through the mouths of witnesses, usually taken from Government publications, State or Federal, or compiled by civic organizations such as chambers of commerce. These include statistics on wholesale establishments, retail establishments, service establishments, manufacturing industries, agricultural production, amusements, hotels, radio receiving sets, revenue paid for taxes, and what not, all designed to show the wealth and economic importance of the community. So far no one has found a way to prove how much money is spent for advertising through all media in a given locality (at least in the larger centres), let alone how much money is available or open to enticement for that purpose. That these statistics have some effect is obvious from a reading of examiners' reports and Commission's decisions. Yet the query naturally suggests itself whether all the expense of time and money which this involves for the applicant, his opponents and the Government, could not be obviated by the formulation of principles based directly on population served, and a calculation of the number of competing broadcasting services of various sorts which can be supported by a given population. The converse proposition, the economic effect of granting an application on existing stations in the same locality, need not be analyzed, since the nature of the usual proof may be readily deduced from what has already been stated. The Commission has not been consistent in its rulings as to whether the licensees of such other stations are entitled to notice or to intervene in the hearing; neither has the Court of Appeals in reviewing the Commission's decisions. So far, a newspaper publisher, not having a station, has not been recognized as having the right to intervene and oppose an application to establish a station in his community. The issue of adverse economic interest on the part of existing stations threatens to take a new and more vigorous turn in the near future, as applications for substantial increases of power on the part of a number of clear channel and regional stations come on for hearing and decision. The indications are that some of these applications will be strenuously opposed by the licensees of certain smaller stations which, if the power increases are granted, might find their restricted service areas within the orbits of good service rendered by the higher-powered stations, and the Commission will have to balance the possible economic injury to these smaller stations against the large rural and sparsely settled areas which will receive new or improved service from the increased power. 289