Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

Record Details:

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ii— TELEVISION DIGEST FEBRUABY 18, 1963 Few ever expected the dynamic young (37) Minow to remain until term expires in 1968. First, because of his flair for public life, it's natural to speculate that he may seek elective office in native Illinois. Second, as on able attorney & administrator, now known nationally, he can earn for more than the $20,500 he gets as FCC chairman. VHF DROP-INS RUN INTO TROUBLE: Addition of new vhf channel to 8 cities — via short-spaced dropins (Vol. 3:5 p5) — isn't the shoo-in it was once thought to be. FCC split approximately 4-3 on subject last week, will take it up agcdn next week. Minow seeks to avoid tight 4-3 final vote on subject as important as this. It's understood that Comrs. Ford, Hyde & Craven argued for drop-ins, while Minow, Bartley, Lee & Henry were against. At one point of discussion, Minow offered compromise concept of allowing drop-ins temporarily — requiring operators to shift to uhf at some future dote. Bartley is said to oppose drop-ins but favor "move-ins" — shifting stations to major cities, from smaUer nearby cities, even if spacing would be substandard. Projxjsed Enid-to-Oklohoma City shift is one of these. (Pending drop-ins are for Knoxville, Johnstown-Altoona, Birmingham, Dayton, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Baton Rouge.) Original reason behind drop-ins was to give each city a 3rd vhf, increasing service to cities, giving ABC-TV new outlets which would make it more competitive with CBS-TV & NBC-TV and thus able to improve its service nationally. However, drop-ins were to be very limited in number, regarded only as a stop-gap action until uhf became competitive nationwide through growth of uhf sets following passage of all-channel-set low. Opponents of drop-ins assert that addition of vhfs to the 8 cities would shut uhf out of them for many years — eliminating hundreds of thousands of homes as uhf prospects. As if to punctuate the onti-dropin position, Taft Bcstg. informed FCC it would file for uhf in Dayton if no vhf is added. Taft operates vhfs in Cincinnati <S Columbus. Also seeking uhf in Dayton, William Putnam, of WWLP Springfield, Mass., asked (Commission to put Ch. 38 there. New Assn, for Competitive TV (ACT) urged FCC to forget drop-ins, said they'd be inconsistent with Congressional mandate behind oll-chonnel-set low. There's considerable sentiment for "move-ins" at Commission. Last week, it voted to permit WTEN & WAST to move closer to Albany area, with 21-mile & 28-mile co-chcmnel shortages, respectively. Commission put many conditions on grants — telling WTEN & WAST they must protect co-channel stations, use precisionoffset, and must make certain they build vhf translators to supply service to any areas which would lose service through moves. FCC REGULATION OF CATV FORESHADOWED: Vital new era for commimity antenna industry is about to begin. Last week. Notional Community TV Assn, board voted imonimously & publicly to seek federal regulation by FCC, as forecast in these pages (Vol. 3:2 p2). Hitherto violently opposed to new legislation giving Commission such power, NCTA has been quietly discussing proposed legislation with FCC staff, finally concluded that meeting of minds is possible. If FCC & NCTA come to Congress with joint proposal. Congress is expected to buy it promptly. NCTA said nothing about what kind of legislation it will seek. Reason is that discussions with FCC are still going on. NCTA concluded it must hove federal regulation, because local <S state regulation is becoming constrictive & chaotic. CATV operators want FCC to pre-empt the field, giving industry imiform and (hopefully) mild regulation. Move toward FCC-CATV agreement began last month. FCC Chmn. Minow, seeking to end controversy, asked Frank (Scoop) Russell to explore possibilities. Russell is retired NBC Washington vp, now a CATV owner and consultant to Jerrold Electronics, major CATV equipment maker. Russell soys he undertook exploration — at FCC, industry & Congress — as on individual, not as representative of Jerrold, NCTA or anyone else. In staff discussions, NCTA has been represented by its counsel Robert L'Heureux and sp>ecial counsel E. Stratford Smith. For FCC, boll has been carried by Minow's assistants James Sheridan & John Cushman and deputy gen. covmsel Henry Geller. There ore still important points separating negotiators. Most significant is question of "duplication." FCC has shown that it wonts to prohibit CATV, using out-of-town signals, from duplicating programs carried