Imperial Valley press., 1942-07-08
by
Peter
Edison


the pants.
Hearings on this question, you1l
recall. got going just a year ago
with much ballyhoo and uproar. 1t
had the newspaper and radio in
dustries both scared half stiff. FEC
had just completed a study OF the
control and newspaper participa-
ton in news and other broadcast
ing of the 900-odd licensed radio
stations. FCC's survey disclosed
that a third of the radio stations
had newspaper Ae-ups, ;Snd fol.
some mysterious reason which no
one has ever satisfactorily explain
ed, this was thought by a majority
of the commission to be dangerous
and against the public interest
What the newspaper and ra-
diO industries both feared was
that the FEC was simply paw
ing the way and justifying it.
self to issue an order which
would ban newspapers from
having anything to do with ra-
dio, SaOt only N established
short wave and standard COM
mercial brOadcasting, but also
in the new FM frequency
mOdulatiOn system. Such an
order would obviously have i'm
plicatiOns of government con-
troll over radio and a power Of
censorship which would have
killed ank hope of a iter-
speech radio.
The device by which the FEC has
just performed the neat trick of
kicking its pet investigation in
the britcheS is memorandum
opinion granting the Buffalo Eve
ming News permission to sell con-
troll and capital stock Of one of its
two radio stations, WEBR, rs per
cent to the Buffalo Courier -EX-
press and Is per cent to Paul E.
Fitzpatrick. The News retains con-
troll of it's second station, WHEN.
Now this looks like a perfectly
routine approval on transfer of
ownership over radio station. You
have to dig into it deeper to see
what it does to the FEC ground
work for any new fancy restrictions
on newspaper ownership and con-
troll of radio.
The WEBR application really put
the FEC on the spot, because Of
two previous FEC orders. The first
order, No. 79, promulaged before the
FEC newspaper-radi investigation
got going year ago, in effect froze
all newspaper applications to ac-
quire new radio stations, until pol
icy on this question could be de-
termined. The second order, No. "a,
provided that no individual or
group could own or operate more
than on standard broadcast sta
ton, if the two stations would
serve substantially the same area.
Order No. "a was suspended
by the FEC on appeal and pro-
test of the brOadcasting chains,
but the Commission reserved
the right to put it back into
effect on six months notice,
With these two orders there
fore hanging over the heads of
radio and newspaper industries,
up comes the application from the
Buffalo Evening News to sell
WEIR, one of its two stations
The option to reinstate Order No
"a was obviously an indication that
the FEC policy was against any
single interest controlling or ope-
rating more than one radio sta
ton serving any given area. That
was why the Buffalo Evening News
was willing to sell one of its sta
tlonS. And in line with it's policy,
FEC could do nothing but grant
the application.
Rtst in authorizing sale of
station WEBR to the Buffalo
Courier Express, the FEC was
in effect approving the pur-
chase of radio outlet by a
newspaper, in violation of ECC
order No. 79. Having establish
ed a precedent by this action,
the question is how the FEC
can justifiably refuse the ap-
plicatiOns of other newspapers
to acquire radio stations.
At the Federal Communications
Commission, it is explained that
while hearings on newspaper own
ership of radio were suspended in
February, the case has not been
completed. There are gaps in the
testimony, and one or two days of
additional hearings would be re-
quired to do the job. One member
of the FEC staff has been making
a digest of the testimony, but with
war on, he has other things to do.
The report on the hearings may
not be printed because of the pa
per shortage, and the Budget Bu-
reau wanting every unessential
item of expense eliminated. In fact,
there seems to be total lack of
interest at FEC in doing anything
more about the newspaper-radio
investigation.
Maybe it has fizzled. Approval
of the sale of WEBR to the Buffa-
10 Codrier Express would seem to
| indicate that 1t had. But it might
be revived as postwar reform
movement.
1t has been repeatedly stated at
FEC that order 10 was never in
tended to have any application to
stations now owned b. newspapers
that the order would apply only
to future applications from news
papers wanting radio outlets. A
lot of newspapers now owning ra-
dio stations fell for this bait. ,