of the contribution which their use of time would make toward a well-balanced program schedule, which the station will try at all times to maintain in the interest of the people it serves. "(c) Station WHKC will make time available, primarily on a sustaining basis, but also on a commercial basis, for the full and free discussion of issues of public importance, including controversial issues, and dramatizations thereof, in order that broadcasting may achieve its full possibilities as a significant medium for the dissemination of news, ideas, and opinions. And, in doing so, there will be no discrimination between business concerns and nonprofit organizations either in making time available or restricting the use of such time. Nonprofit organizations will have the right to purchase time for solicitation of memberships. "(d) Station WHKC will, if it refuses time for public discussion, do so in writing showing reasons for such denial to the extent that requests for time are made in writing. "(e) The censorship of scripts is an evil repugnant to the American tradition of free speech and a free press, whether enforced by a Government agency or by a private radio station licensee. Broadcasts by candidates for public office may not be censored under the law. But as to all other broadcasts, Station WHKC will not censor scripts, or delete any matter contained in them, except for reasons which it believes to be in its statement of policy and as explained and interpreted in the record testimony. In the light of future experience this policy may be changed through action by the courts, the legislature or by rules of Government bodies having jurisdiction over particular subject matter. It will be the policy of the station to adjust its practices to such changes, reflecting at all times the tolerance which the interest of the public renders essential. "(f) The station will see that its broadcasts on controversial issues, considered on an over-all basis, maintain a fair balance among the various points of view, i. e., over the weeks and months it will maintain such a balance with respect to local and network programs, both sustaining and commercial alike." In line with making these principles and standards effective, your committee might well write into the law a procedure for public hearing on the operation of those stations which repeatedly refuse to grant time to worthy civic organizations or which repeatedly censor and prevent the free expression of views and opinions. Also, your committee should give consideration to a stringent provision prohibiting station censorship of ideas and opinions. It is inconceivable that radio stations can live up to their public trust and still refuse to broadcast programs dealing with public issues and political compaigns. At present, the law specifically states that stations may refuse to broadcast any political programs during political campaigns. Why the station owner should have this authority to shut off political issues from his listeners is certainly not clear. Rather the act should specifically provide that the broadcasting of political programs during a campaign is an important factor bearing on the operation of the station in the public interest. The sale of licenses and channels has been an open scandal for the past 2 decades. Provision should be made to bring this bartering of publicly owned radio channels to an immediate and definite halt. We believe that broadcasting in America must remain a public trust and that licensees must operate their stations in the public interest. We believe this can be achieved only through a strong independent Commission with broad powers acting under an effective law. Our suggestions have been made with this object in mind. We trust that Congress will not permit the radio industry to water down the law and weaken the Commission to the point where the radio industry's power will be paramount to the public interest. STATEMENT OF I. R. LOUNSBERRY, CHAIRMAN OF COLUMBIA AFFILIATES ADVISORY BOARD My name is I. R. Lounsberry. I am the president and a substantial stockholder of WGR Broadcasting Corp., the licensee of Station WGR in Buffalo, N. Y. I have been engaged in radio broadcasting since 1922, and was associated with a station in Buffalo, N. Y., when it became one of the original 16 stations compris ing the Columbia network and have, without interruption, been a Columbia affiliate since its first day of operation. From 1928 to 1946 I was the general manager of stations WKBW and WGR in Buffalo, N. Y. During the many years of my activity in radio broadcasting, I have served at various times as a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Broadcasters, various industry committees, and as a member of and chairman of the Columbia Affiliates Advisory Board. COLUMBIA AFFILIATES ADVISORY BOARD This board was organized in the early part of 1943 and is composed of representatives of the independently owned radio stations affiliated with the Columbia Network. The members of the board are elected by the independently owned affiliated stations in each of nine geographical regions and meet three or four times a year separately and with representatives of the Columbia Network to diŝcuss mutual problems of affiliated stations and the network. I have been a member of the board since its inception, and have been chairman of the board since 1945. Based upon my experience and association with station managers and others throughout the radio industry, I believe that my testimony herein is representative of the views of a substantial proportion of broadcast operators. However, it should be pointed out that this testimony represents my own views only, and I do not purport to speak for any other individual or group. OPERATION UNDER THE NETWORK RULES OF THE FCC In 1943, following the decision of the United States Supreme Court, the network rules were put into effect and since that time have been incorporated in substance in the contracts between the Columbia Network and affiliated stations. At the present time, the relations between networks and affiliated stations, I am advised, conform to the FCC network rules. COMPARISON OF THE FCC NETWORK RULES AND SECTION 19 OF S. 1333 The FCC network rules, insofar as the relation between networks and affiliated stations is concerned, are sections 3.101, 3.102, 3.103, 3.104, 3.105 and 3.108. These correspond roughly with the subparagraphs of the proposed new section 333 (a) of the Communications Act as set forth in section 19 of S. 1333. For the convenience of the committee, the relevant provisions of the FCC rules and of S. 1333 are set out fully in parallel columns. FCC RULES SEC. 3.101. Exclusive affiliation of station. No license shall be granted to a standard broadcast station having any contract, arrangement, or understanding, express or implied, with a network organization' under which the station is prevented or hindered from, or penalized for, broadcasting the programs of any other network organization. SEC. 3.102.. Territorial exclusivity. No license shall be granted to a standard broadcast station having any contract, arrangement, or understanding, express or implied, with a network organization which prevents or hinders another station serving substantially the same area from broadcasting the networks' programs not taken by the former station, or which prevents or hinders another station serving a substantially different area from broadcasting any program of S. 1333 SEC. 333. (a) No radio broadcast station shall enter into any contract, arrangement, or understanding, express or implied, with a network organization— (1) under which the station is prevented or hindered from, or penalized for, broadcasting the program of any other network organization on time otherwise available for that purpose (including time optioned but upon which no notice of exercise has been given); or (2) which prevents or hinders another station serving the same or substantially the same area from broadcasting the network's programs not taken by the former station, or which prevents or hinders another station serving a substantially different area from broadcasting any program of the network organization; or 1 The term "network organization" as used herein includes national and regional network organizations. FCC RULES the network organization. This regulation shall not be construed to prohibit any contract, arrangement, or understanding between a station and a network organization pursuant to which the station is granted the first call in its primary service area upon the programs of the network organization. SEC. 3.103. Term of affiliation.-No license shall be granted to a standard broadcast station having any contract, arrangement, or understanding, express or implied, with a network organization which provides, by original term, provisions for renewal, or otherwise for the affiliation of the station with the network organization for a period longer than two years: Provided, That a contract, arrangement, or understanding for a period up to two years, may be entered into within 6 months prior to the commencement of such period. 3 SEC. 3.104. Option time. No license shall be granted to a standard broadcast station which options 2 for network programs any time subject to call on less than 56 days' notice, or more time than a total of three hours within each of four segments of the broadcast day, as herein described. The broadcast day, is divided into four segments, as follows: 8:00 a. m. to 1:00 p. m.; 1:00 p. m. to 6:00 p. m.; 6:00 p. m. to 11:00 p. m.; 11:00 p. m. to 8:00 a. m.* Such options may not be exclusive as against other network organizations and may not prevent or hinder the station from optioning or selling any or all of the time covered by the option, or other time, to other network organizations. SEC. 3.105. Right to reject programs.— No license shall be granted to a standard broadcast station having any contract, arrangement, or understanding, express or implied, with a network organization which (a), with respect to programs offered pursuant to an affiliation contract, prevents or hinders the station from rejecting or refusing network program which the station reasonably believes to be unsatisfactory or unsuitable; or which (b), with respect to network programs so offered or already contracted for, prevents the station from S. 1333 (3) which provides, by original term, provisions for renewal, or otherwise that the station will broadcast the programs of the network organization for a period longer than three years; or (4) which gives any network organization an option upon periods of time which are unspecified or which gives one or more network organizations options upon specified periods of time totaling more than 50 per centum of the total number of hours for which the station is licensed to operate or upon a total of more than two hours in any consecutive three-hour period or options which can be exer cised upon notice to the station of less than fifty-six days; or (5) which prevents the station from rejecting or refusing network programs which the station reasonably believes to be unsatisfactory, unsuitable, or contrary to the public interest, or from substituting a program of outstanding local or national importance for any offered by the network; or 2 As used in this section, an option is any contract, arrangement, or understanding. express or implied, between a station and a network organization which prevents or hinders the station from scheduling programs before the network agrees to utilize the time during which such programs are scheduled, or which requires the staiton to clear time already scheduled when the network organization seeks to utilize the time. 3 All time options permitted under this section must be for specified clock hours, expressed in terms of any time system set forth in the contract agreed upon by the station and network organization. Shifts from daylight saving to standard time or vice versa may may not shift the specified hours correspondingly as agreed by the station and network organization. These segments are to be determined for each station in terms of local time at the location of the station but may remain constant throughout the year regardless of shifts from standard to daylight saving time or vice versa. rejecting or refusing any program which, in its opinion, is contrary to the public interest, or from substituting a program of outstanding local or national importance. SEC. 3.108. Control by network of station rates.-No license shall be granted to a standard broadcast station having any contract, arrangement, or understanding, express or implied, with a network organization under which the station is prevented or hindered from, or penalized for, fixing or altering its rates for the sale of broadcast time for other than the network's programs. (6) under which the network fixes or attempts to fix or control the rates charged by the station for the sale of broadcast time for other than the network's programs. It will be noted that there are only two significant differences between the provisions of the FCC network rules and the provisions of S. 1333—namely, the provisions relating to the term of affiliation contracts and the provisions relating to option time. TERM OF AFFILIATION CONTRACTS The FCC rules limit the term of affiliation contracts to 2 years. S. 1333 would expand this to 3 years. While I believe that S. 1333 is a step in the right direction, it does not by any manner of means go far enough. I believe that there should be no limitation, either in the statute or in the rules of the Commission or otherwise which places an arbitrary limit on the term of the contracts between networks and stations. It is my belief that the very great majority of station managers agree. At the meeting of the Columbia Affiliates Advisory Board, held January 23-24, 1947, the following resolution was unanimously adopted by the members of the board: "Resolved, That the members of the Columbia Affiliates Advisory Board, representing 151 independently owned radio stations in the United States, having found that section 3.103 of the Rules and Regulations of the Federal Communications Commission limiting the term of affiliation for standard broadcast stations to a period of no longer than 2 years, has created unnecessary uncertainties in station operation, including unnecessary uncertainties in the assumption of capital commitments for improvement of stations, and has impaired the efficient conduct of stations by restricting them to a transient contract basis, with frequent renegotiations of affiliation agreements which drain energies better devoted to broadcasting service, all without demonstrable compensating advantages to the public, hereby request the Federal Communications Commission to rescind this provision of its rules and regulations and permit stations to agree to such periods of affiliation as they may negotiate freely." This resolution was transmitted to the Federal Communications Commission with the request for the rescinding of its rule 3.103, and that request was denied by the Commission on April 7, 1947. I urge that the Congress take appropriate steps to remove any governmental limitation upon the term of contracts between networks and stations, so that stations will be able to bargain freely with networks in this respect. OPTION TIME The network rules allow options to be given for 3 hours in each of four designated time periods of the day as set forth in rule 3.104 above. Actually, the time period between 11 p. m. and 8 a. m. is not practicable for network broadcasting and the contracts between stations and the Columbia Network do not even provide for option time in this segment of the day. At the present time the contract between Station WGR and the Columbia Network provides that the following hours on weekdays shall be subject to network option: 9:45 a. m. to 12: 45 p. m., 1 to 3 p. m., 6 to 6 p. m., 7 to 10 p. m. The most important time, from the standpoint of listeners, is, of course, the evening hours, and during the evening the 3 hours between 7 and 10 are subject to option. While time after 10 p. m. has been sold to network commercial advertisers on the basis of voluntary acceptance by stations, the 3 hours between 7 and 10 p. m. represent the core of the evening. Under the provisions of S. 1333, this 3-hour core would necessarily be reduced to 2 hours. I am not aware of any substantial desire by stations generally for a reduction in the number of option hours. The change proposed by S. 1333 would, in my opinion, make more difficult the sale of network commercial programs, and would be contrary to the interests of the great majority of station affiliates. CONCLUSION In general, it is my belief, and always has been my belief, that the relations between a network and stations should not be controlled by special governmental rules, either rules of the Commission or rules spelled out in a statute. The success of affiliated stations depends in large measure upon the success of the network as a whole the network being composed of independently owned affiliated stations and the central network organization, engaged in a cooperative enterprise. It is my belief that it is not humanly possible to devise rules in advance which represent the best practice under all future conditions. Rather, these conditions can best be met by an unfettered negotiation between stations and network. For example, it is not possible to foretell at this time the problems which will be encountered in connection with full-scale operation in FM and television. Rules which might be workable when applied to standard broadcast stations and networks might well prove insurmountable obstacles in the development of FM and television networks. As a station operator with long experience in the field, I do not desire to have my business operations circumscribed by governmental rules. In my dealings with the network, I prefer to rely upon individual free negotiation, rather than conform to general rules which necessarily hinder the fullest development of a worth-while broadcasting service. It is my belief that most station managers share my views. STATEMENT BY "THE LUTHERAN HOUR" BRINGING CHRIST TO THE NATIONS THE LUTHERAN HOUR ST. LOUIS, Mo., June 28, 1947. Senator WALLACE H. WHITE, Jr., The Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, United States Capitol, Washington, D. C. (Attention Mr. Cooper.) DEAR SENATOR WHITE: I should herewith like to submit the following statement as a part of the hearings testimony on legislation S. 1333, a bill to amend the Federal Communications Act of 1934. I will deeply appreciate your kindness in making this inclusion. Very sincerely yours, EUGENE R. BERTERMANN, Any Federal communications act must, of course, be based on the obvious premise that the air channels of this country are the property of its citizens, not of the broadcasting companies; and that it is the obligation of each broadcasting company to which a wavelength has been assigned to use its channel in the public interest, convenience, and necessity. We firmly believe that an important part of that obligation is to make radio broadcasting facilities available for religious programing. Recalling the declaration of Holy Scripture that "righteousness exalteth a nation," we maintain that our country earnestly needs the moral and spiritual upbuilding which can come through a reemphasis and rededication to religious faith. It cannot be denied that in a country where there are approximately 260 denominations, plus other cults, the equitable distribution of radio time consti |