Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)
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6
NOVEMBER 28, 1960
FCC MEMBERSHIP SPECULATION: Nothing definite can be detected yet on the identity of FCC’s new chairman under President Kennedy or who will replace Republican Comr. King.
The safest bet remains Comr. Bartley for chief of the agency — but it isn’t certain. As for the new member, nominate your own favorite — everyone else is doing it. A lot of people like Kenneth Cox, the Seattle lawyer who often helps Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Magnuson (D-Wash.) with tough TV chores (Vol. 16:47 p4). Last week, the name of Washington attorney Harry M. Plotkin came into the picture — with considerable buzzing about it at the FCC. Plotkin wasn’t available for comment but his friends believe he’d be reluctant to leave his practice. He’s a former FCC associate general counsel.
Though some people were trying to work up a boom for ABC Washington vp Edgar Shelton (Vol. 16:47 p4), he said he wasn’t interested.
FCC Cancels Unbuilt Uhfs: FCC cleaned out its files, as
expected, and canceled 24 uhf CPs because of failure to construct (Vol. 16:8 p2 et seq.). One grantee, WELI-TV (Ch. 59) New Haven, was granted an extension because it has started construction and intends to complete it, the Commission said. Also reprieved were WMCN (Ch. 23) Grand Rapids and WBMG (Ch. 42) Birmingham because of the pending rule-making which proposes vhf drop-ins for those cities.
Originally, the Commission had placed 54 grantees on notice. Most of these simply canceled out voluntarily. The balance were granted an oral argument which failed to convince the Commission that they should be kept on the books until the basic vhf-uhf allocations policy is finally settled. Comrs. Hyde & Lee dissented to the cancellations, while Comrs. Bartley & Cross dissented to the grant to WELI-TV. Here are the canceled grantees:
WNLC-TV (Ch. 26) New London, Conn.; WCBF-TV (Ch. 15) Rochester, N.Y.; WPHD (Ch. 23) & WSES (Ch. 29) Philadelphia; WOCN (Ch. 52) Atlantic City; WAZL-TV (Ch. 63) Hazleton, Pa.; WCIN-TV (Ch. 54) Cincinnati; WEHS-TV (Ch. 26) Chicago; WTVX (Ch. 48) Gastonia, N.C.; WFOX-TV (Ch. 30) Milwaukee; WJDW (Ch. 44) & WXEL (Ch. 38) Boston; WQCY (Ch. 39) Allentown, Pa.; WHCU-TV (Ch. 20) Ithaca, N.Y.; WBID-TV (Ch. 50) Detroit; WTOH-TV (Ch. 79) Toledo; WTLC (Ch. 29) Canton, 0.; WHLS-TV (Ch. 34) Port Huron, Mich.; WLANTV (Ch. 21) Lancaster, Pa.; WRAK-TV (Ch. 36) Williamsport, Pa.; WAMT (Ch. 48) Memphis; WTMV (Ch. 54) Utica; KMPT-TV (Ch. 19) Oklahoma City; KMYR (Ch. 34) Los Angeles.
The Commission also denied applications for the replacement of expired CPs filed by KTRB-TV (Ch. 14) Modesto, Cal. & KFMX-TV (Ch. 27) San Diego.
FCC suffered a reverse on a technicality last week, when the Court of Appeals ordered the Commission to consider the protest filed by KTAG-TV (Ch. ,25) Lake Charles, La. against a site move of KPAC-TV (Ch. 4) Port Arthur, Tex. The Commission had dismissed KTAG-TV’s protest because it wasn’t properly sworn in time. The Court noted that the FCC, in an earlier case, had allowed a late filing of a properly executed affidavit, and it concluded: W'e think the Commission may, in its discretion, permit the proposed correction in the present case.”
More time for comments on FCC’s proposed revision of the station financial-data foi'm (Vol. 16:45 p3) was requested by NAB last week on the grounds that its members need time to study the extensive changes. It seeks a change in deadline from Dec. 9 to Feb. 1.
KVOS-TV (Ch. 12) Bellingham, Wash., which serves Vancouver, B.C., has been bought for $3 million by Wometco Enterprises (WTVJ Miami, WLOS-TV Asheville, N.C. & 47.5% of WFGA-TV Jacksonville). Prudential Insurance Co. loaned Wometco $2 million for the acquisition. The sale is subject to an Internal Revenue Service ruling sought by KVOS-TV principal owner Rogan Jones. Broker was Blackburn & Co.
Foreign
More about
USIA TV SURVEY: The list of foreign TV stations &
sets-in-use compiled by USIA (see p. 4) jibes quite well with our own independently compiled directory in the new Fall-Winter Television Factbook. Our comparable list, printed in these pages Sept. 12 (Vol. 16 :37 p20), showed 40,360,224 sets-in-use and 1,383 foreign stations as of Aug. 1. Deducting the Canadian sets & stations from these figures (which the USIA list does not include), our survey indicated 37,520,224 sets & 1,313 stations Aug. 1, while USIA’s list shows 38,650,000 sets, 1,353 stations as of Oct. 1 — demonstrating remarkable consistency and helping to confirm both sets of figures.
The USIA list of stations & sets-in-use as of Oct. 1:
COUNTRY STATIONS SETS
COUNTRY STATIONS
SETS
Western Europe
Near EasL South
Austria
17
167,600
Asia & Africa
Belg:ium
5
422,400
Algeria
4
43,600
Denmark
10
438,000
Bahrein*
—
1,000
Finland
14
67,200
Cyprus
1
3,000
France
83
1,800,000
Ethiopia'
—
1,000
West Germany ..
215
4,204,800
India
1
300
Iceland'
—
700
Iran
2
35,000
Ireland
—
70,000
Iraq
1
20,000
Italy
386
2,200,000
Kuwait®
—
600
Luxembourg:
1
5,500
Lebanon
2
15,000
Malta®
—
7,000
Libya'
—
1,600
Monaco
1
11,000
Nigeria
2
2,500
Netherlands
7
688,800
Qatar*
—
300
Norway
5
20,000
Saudi Arabia ....
1
4,000
Portugal
a
38,600
Turkey
1
1,000
Spain
6
270,000
United Arab
Sweden
Switzerland
35
14
1,000,000
110,900
Republic
2
40,000
United Kingdom
34
10,568,700
Total
17
168,800
Yugoslavia
8
16,000
Far East
846
22,107,200
Australia
16
1,067,400
Hong Kong
(1)«
5,500
Latin America
Japan
107
5,884,900
Argentina
Brazil
3
19
500,000
959,200
Korea (South) .. New Zealand ....
17
1
8,000
Chile
2
500
Okinawa
2
37.000
9
150,000
2,000
Philippines
4
Costa Rica
1
Thailand
2
60,000
24
500,000
7,052,800
Dominican Rep.
4
13.000
Total
133
El Salvador
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Mexico i...
Netherlands
Antilles
(Curacao)
Nicaragua
Panama
Peru
2
2
1
1
21
1
1
1
5
20,000
20,000
1,500
1,000
800,000
3,000
4,300
25.000
60.000
Communist Bloc Bulgaria
1
3,000
Czechoslovakia .. East Germany ..
Hungary
Poland
Rumania
USSR
Communist China
14
39
7
20
2
169
6
750.000 809,700
80,000
311.000 22,000
4,000,000
20,000
Uruguay
Venezuela
1
11
15,000
250,000
Total
248
5.995,700
Total
109
3.324,.'>00
^Tmie to Aramco
slatioii. Uharan,
aruMo Armed Forcea station.
^Tune to Armed Forces stations. ’’Tune to Iran TV, Abadan. -Tune to U.K. stations. •’^Closed circuit station.
'^Tune' to Italian stations. "Off air due to fire.