An eccentric inventor in backwoods Kentucky is thought by some to have been the fist to transmit the human voice from one point to another without wires. Nathan Stubblefield claimed to have made a transmission in 1892. He gave no public demonstration, however, until Jan. 1, 1902, in his home town of Murray, Ky. Witnesses said voices and music were sent through the air. On March 30, 1928, Nathan Stubblefield was found dead in the shack where he had lived alone, apparently the victim of starvation.
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, a Canadian-born electrical wizard, sent a human voice by wireless telephony for hundreds of miles on Christmas night 1906. The broadcast was transmitted from a station at Brant Rock, 11 miles from Plymouth, Mass., and was said to be heard by ships at sea. The remarkable Mr. Fessenden, variously professor of physics at Purdue University, professor of electrical engineering and post-graduate mathematics at Pittsburgh University, head chemist at the Edison laboratory at Orange, N. J., chief electrician of the eastern works of Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co., died of heart disease in Hamilton, Bermuda, on July 22, 1932, at the age of 65. He is credited with originating the continuous-wave principle of wireless transmission and the heterodyne system of reception and with inventing the radio compass along with numerous submarine-safety devices.
A Yale-educated minister's son, Lee de Forest, is credited with making several early broadcasts: a program of phonograph records from the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1908; the voice of Enrico Caruso in a performance of 'Cavalleria Rusticana' on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House on Jan. 13, 1910; self-styled 'radio concerts' three nights a week in 1916 from an experimental broadcasting station at High Bridge, N. Y.; news bulletins of the Woodrow Wilson-Charles Evans Hughes presidential election in November 1916. The inventor of the three-element vacuum tube in 1906 (among other things it helped develop radio, long-distance telephony, sound movies and television), Lee de Forest died in Hollywood in 1961 at 87, leaving behind four fortunes gained and lost and patents for some 300 inventions.
Charles David Herrold, in San Jose, Calif., in 1909, established a radio-telephone station for experimental work and as a promotional device for a school of engineering and radio, which he also operated. 'This is San Jose Calling,' the station of the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless, would identify itself and then, using a 15-watt spark transmitter and water-cooled microphones, broadcast music and news. Mr. Herrold's station grew into KQW in 1921 and KCBS in 1949. It's now a 50-kw CBS-owned station in San Francisco. Charles David Herrold, also a microscopist and astronomer, built his own telescopic and driving clock, an observatory, a high-speed focal-plane shutter to take photographs of the sun; produced more than 50 different electrical devices in dentistry and surgery; perfected an electrical deep-sea illuminator used by salvage companies and pearl fishers; developed electrical machinery for pipe organs and designed a high-speed turbine.
Earle Melvin Terry helped found 9XM Madison, Wis., now WHA, still calling itself 'the nation's oldest broadcast station.' Earle Terry, a professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin, inspired C. J. Jansky Jr., a student, to design and construct three-element power vacuum tubes to be used in an already established experimental radio-telegraph station (started in 1914 with 2000 watts of power on 475 meters), in operation in Wisconsin's old Science Hall and licensed under the call letters 9XM. The station achieved its first transmissions of voice and music in 1917 under the direction of Professor Terry and with the devoted efforts of such university students as Mr. Jansky, Malcolm Hanson and Grover Greenslade. On Jan. 3, 1919, daily radio-telephone broadcasts of weather reports were started. C. M. Jansky Jr., the son of a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, went on to become an international authority on radio engineering and still is associated with Jansky and Bailey Inc., Washington, consulting engineers. Malcolm Hanson, another of Professor Terry's precocious students, was later chief radio operator on Admiral Richard E. Byrd's first expedition of Antarctica. Professor Terry died May 1, 1929, less than four months beyond his 50th birthday.
Name originally spelled Cripps, newspaper publishers and bookbinders emigrated form England, the Scripps family--James Edmund Scripps, William John Scripps--founded the Detroit station 8MK, later WBL, later WWJ, which claims that on Aug. 20, 1920, it 'became the first radio station in the world to broadcast regularly scheduled programs.' According to this claim the first broadcast began at 8:15 p.m. from the second floor of The Detroit News Building with the words 'This is 8MK calling,' followed by the playing of two phonograph records, 'Annie Laurie' and 'Roses of Picardy,' a query by an announcer to unseen listeners, 'How do you get it?,' and the playing of taps. The broadcast is thought to have been received in some 30 Detroit homes. The station, then and now licensed to the Detroit Evening News, says it has been on the air continuously ever since. The newspaper was established in 1873 by James Edmund Scripps, who apparently first became interested in radio in 1902 after listening to a Detroit experimental wireless operator, Thomas E. Clark. James E. Scripps and his only son, William Edmund Scripps, attended a private demonstration of Clark's system of wireless transmission of Morse code and then helped finance Mr. Clark's work. Meanwhile, William John Scripps, known then as 'Little Bill,' son of William E. Scripps, was by 1918, at the age of 13, a devoted ham radio hobbyist. Out of that hobby grew WWJ. It was largely in the Detroit News plant that young Bill did his radio experimenting and it may have been in deference to the boss's son (J. E. Scripps died in 1906), that the newspaper started a radio page which later led to the formation of the newspaper's station.
An ex-Marconi man, formerly a shipboard wireless operator, Fred Christian, put together a five-watt transmitter in his Hollywood, Calif., home a half century ago. Granted the call letters 6ADZ, Mr. Christian, on Sept. 10, 1920, began broadcasting records he borrowed from music stores. This was the forerunner of KNX Los Angeles (new call letters assigned in March 1922), now 50 kw of power, owned by CBS. Mr. Christian was then manager of the Electrical Lighting and Power Co. and went into broadcasting because he wanted to encourage people to build their own radio sets so that he could sell them parts. In 1924 he sold KNX to Guy Earle, owner of the Los Angeles Evening Express, who resold it to CBS in 1936. Today, 68 years old, Fred Christian operates American Electrodynamics Co., West Los Angeles.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1874; attended public schools only through the seventh grade; started as shop assistant with the then Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.; almost immediately designed an improvement in the mechanism of an arc lamp; experimented with everything, obtaining an understanding of the fundamentals of physics and electricity; general engineer of the Westinghouse company, acting as assistant to the vice president in charge of engineering--this was Frank Conrad's resume when he took a major part in organizing KDKA Pittsburgh. Frank Conrad's visionary ally was Harry Phillips Davis, from 1911 until his death on Sept. 10, 1931, vice president in charge of engineering and manufacturing for Westinghouse.
If Conrad, as some have claimed, is the father of today's radio broadcasting, H. P. Davis is the godfather. It was Mr. Davis who saw the possibilities of radio broadcasting as a medium of mass communications and it was he who approved the creation of KDKA. The station started as a byproduct of the Westinghouse Co., during the 1916-18 period of wartime activity, receiving contacts from the Navy Department for various types of radio equipment. One of these contracts called for the development of a vacuum-tube-type radio-telephone transmitter. As part of his development work, Mr. Conrad installed a low-power tube transmitter in a shed at the rear of his home at Wilkinsburg, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh, which communicated with the Westinghouse plant in East Pittsburgh. His experimental station, 8XK, thanks to its developmental work, was allowed to operate throughout World War I. Afterward, Mr. Conrad, encouraged by the interest of radio amateurs in the Pittsburgh area, continued to operate his radio-telephone station, apparently broadcasting speech and music--Oct. 17, 1919 being the date credited for his first broadcasting using phonograph records.
By 1920 his broadcasts, heard by amateurs several hundred miles distant, sparked Joseph Horne Co., an important local department store, to advertise the availability of radio sets to receive the Conrad broadcasts. Westinghouse management, in the person of H. P. Davis, impressed by the increasing local interest aroused by the experimental broadcasts, erected a more powerful transmitter and a studio atop the Westinghouse K Building in East Pittsburgh. KDKA went into service on Nov. 2, 1920, when it broadcast the Harding-Cox national presidential election returns. H. P. Davis, who was 63 when he died, never lost his interest in radio and was the chairman of the board of NBC from the time it was formed in 1926 until his death in 1931. Frank Conrad suffered a heart attack in 1941 while driving from Pittsburgh to his winter home in Miami. A month later he died at 67, leaving behind important work done on short-wave and frequency modulation broadcasting, as well as more than 200 electrical inventions including an electric meter, electric clocks and devices for automobile ignition.
These are just some examples of the many pioneer broadcasts heard in the U. S., prior to the mushroom growth of broadcasting in the U. S. The experimental broadcasts generated engineering and public interest. Some broadcasts were of phonograph records. Some had singers and instrumentalists before the microphones. And also then, as now, in the descriptive term of RCA executive, the late E. E. Bucher, 'much plain voice jabber.'
After the WWJ and KDKA broadcasts of 1920, the Department of Commerce, the government agency then charged with this responsibility, licensed 32 broadcasting stations in 1921 and 254 additional stations in 1922. Radio broadcasting was born and on its way to maturity.
1895. Guglielmo Marconi sends and receives his first wireless signals across his father's estate at Bologna, Italy.
March 27, 1899. Marconi flashes the first wireless signals across the English Channel.
Dec. 12, 1901. Marconi at Newfoundland intercepts the first transatlantic signal, the letter "S", transmitted from Poldhu, England.
1906. Dr. Lee de Forest invents the audion, a three-element vacuum tube, having a filament, plate and grid.
Jan. 13, 1910. Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn, singing backstage at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, broadcast through De Forest radiophone and were heard by operator on S. S. Avon at sea and by wireless amateurs in Connecticut.
June 24, 1910. United States approves an act requiring certain passenger ships to carry wireless equipment and operators.
April 14, 1912. S. S. Titanic disaster proves the value of wireless at sea; 705 lives saved. Jack Phillips and Harold Bride are the wireless men. David Sarnoff, at Marconi wireless station on Wanamaker building in New York, receives signals.
Aug. 20, 1920. WWJ(AM) Detroit, owned by Detroit News, starts what is later claimed to be regular broadcasting.
Nov. 2, 1920. KDKA(AM) Pittsburgh (Westinghouse Co.) sends out the Harding-Cox election returns, starting what is claimed to be first regularly scheduled broadcasting.
July 2, 1921. Dempsey-Carpentier fight was broadcast from Boyle's Thirty Acres in Jersey City through a temporarily installed transmitter at Hoboken, N. J. Major J. Andrew White was the announcer. This event gave radio a tremendous boost.
1922. The superheterodyne as a broadcast receiver is demonstrated by its inventor, Edwin H. Armstrong.
Sept. 7, 1922. WEAF(AM) New York broadcasts the first commercially sponsored program of the Queensborough Corp., a real estate organization,
Jan. 4, 1923. A "chain" broadcast features a telephone tieup between WEAF New York and WNAC Boston.
1924. Republican convention at Cleveland and Democratic convention at New York are broadcast over networks.
1925. Coolidge inaugural broadcast by 24 stations in transcontinental network.
Feb. 23, 1926. President Coolidge signs the Dill-White Radio Bill creating the Federal Radio Commission and ending chaos caused by wild growth of broadcasting. [Note. This date is incorrect--J. M.]
Nov. 1, 1926. National Broadcasting Co. organized, with WEAF and WJZ as key stations and Merlin Hall Aylesworth as president. Headquarters established at 711 Fifth Avenue, New York.
Sept 18, 1927. Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air with a basic network of 16 stations. Major J. Andrew White is president.
Jan. 3, 1929. William S. Paley elected president of Columbia Broadcasting System.
Nov. 18, 1929. Dr. V. K. Zworykin demonstrates his kinescope or cathode-ray television receiver before a meeting of the Institute of Radio Engineers.
July 30, 1930. Experimental television transmitter W2XBS opened by National Broadcasting Co. in New York.
July 21, 1931. Experimental television station W2XAB opened by Columbia Broadcasting System in New York.
Oct. 15. First issue of BROADCASTING magazine appears.
Oct. 15. "Broadcasting in the United States today stands in grave jeopardy. Politically powerful and efficiently organized groups, actuated by a selfishness and with a mania for power, are now busily at work plotting the complete destruction of the industry we have pioneered and developed." --Walter J. Damm, president, National Association of Broadcasters, in his message to the 1931 annual NAB convention.
Oct. 15. Federal Radio Commission grants full power (50 kw) to nine stations, making a total of 23 outlets now authorized for full-power operation out of 40 clear-channel stations.
Nov. 1. Harry Shaw, WMT(AM) Waterloo, Iowa, is elected NAB president for ensuing year.
Nov. 1. U. S. and Canadian stations complain of interference from high-power Mexican border stations, Mexico not being a party to the "gentlemen's agreement" between Canada and the U. S. for non- conflicting frequency assignments.
Nov. 1. NBC forms two Pacific Coast networks--Orange, comprising KGO(AM) Oakland, KFI(AM) Los Angeles, KGW(AM) Portland, KOMO(AM) Seattle, KHQ(AM) Spokane, and Gold, with KPO(AM) San Francisco, KECA(AM) Los Angeles, KEX(AM) Portland, KJR(AM) Seattle and KGA(AM) Spokane.
Nov. 1. Pursuant to zone and state quota system of station allocations ordered by the Davis amendment to the Federal Radio Act of 1927, the Radio Commission orders WIBO(AM) and WPCC(AM) Chicago off the air and assigns 560 kc, on which they share time, to WJKS(AM) Gary, Ind. (This became benchmark law in later court appeal. See report for May 15, 1933, below.)
Dec. 1. Two of every five U. S. households owned radios on April 1, 1930, U. S. Census Bureau reports. 12,078,345 radio families out of total of 29,980,146 U. S. families.
Dec. 15. FRC revises rules to require station-break announcements only every 30 minutes and to permit identification of reproduced music in any "clear" language. Also provides for granting applications without hearings.
Dec. 15. Chicago stations, meeting with Better Business Bureau, agree to drop exaggerated and misleading advertising, to abide by NAB standards of practice.
Dec. 15. More than half of nation's stations are operating without profit, NAB President Harry Shaw tells FRC.
Jan. 1. Educational stations devote only 8% of their air time to educational programs, compared to 10% average for commercial stations, FRC records show.
Jan. 15. Senate adopts resolution ordering FRC to investigate radio advertising, study feasibility of government operation of broadcasting along European lines.
Jan. 15. Refusing to bow to Petrillo's demands, Chicago broadcasters stand firm, avert strike, win new contract on own terms.
Feb. 1. FRC adopts order requiring all applications for station licenses to include sworn statements of transfer terms, designed to stop "trafficking in wave lengths and licenses."
Feb. 15. Senate launches study to find why State Department has not negotiated with Mexico and Cuba to protect radio channels used by U. S. broadcasters.
Feb. 15. BBDO survey finds over 75 regular weekly transcribed programs on air for national advertisers, a 175% increase in two years.
Feb. 15. Gross incomes of CBS and NBC in 1931 totaled $35,791,000, a gain of 33.6% over 1930.
March 1. House Committee on Patents begins investigation of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and what committee Chairman William I. Sirovitch (D-N. Y.) termed its "racketeering" activities. New copyright legislation designed to protect broadcasters and other users of music is planned.
March 1. KSTP(AM) Minneapolis-St. Paul reports on building a model home and at the same time selling 26 half-hour broadcasts to individuals and firms participating in the construction.
March 15. CBS, NBC and New York area stations, notably WOR(AM), go into round-the-clock operations to cover the Lindbergh kidnapping, radio's biggest spot-news reporting job to date.
March 15. Samuel Clyde, director of advertising, General Mills, urges that broadcasting stations operate on standard time the year round as railroads do, eliminating the semiannual time change which he called "the one big drawback" in radio advertising.
March 15. William S. Paley, CBS president, and associates buy the half interest in the network held by Paramount-Publix Corp, giving them complete ownership of the network.
March 15. Lehn & Fink, in daring experiment, puts complete 1932 advertising budget of Pebeco toothpaste into radio.
March 15. KNX(AM) Hollywood signs three-year contract with United Press for wire service for four broadcasts a day plus "extras."
April 1. WFLA(AM)-WSUN(AM) Clearwater, Fla., installs country's first directional antenna, designed by Raymond Wilmotte, "British authority on transmitting aerials."
April 15. ASCAP boosts copyright fees to broadcasters by 300%, to 5% of gross income, totaling some $3.5 million annually, compared with $960,000 for 1931.
May 1. NBC lifts ban on recorded programs for its owned and operated stations, leaving it up to judgment of the station managers, but still barring them from network use.
May 1. Rejecting ASCAP's demands, NAB sets up committee to negotiate better deal with the copyright owners, secures moratorium until Sept. 1.
June 15. Federal Radio Commission, after a six-month investigation of broadcasting, particularly its advertising activities, reports to Congress that "any plan . . . to eliminate the use of radio facilities for commercial advertising purposes, will if adopted destroy the present system of broadcasting." Advertising agencies, also queried, say that any law limiting advertising on the air to announcement of sponsorship would cause most advertisers to cease their use of radio.
July 1. State Supreme Court of Nebraska, in suit of Attorney General C. A. Sorensen against KFAB(AM) Lincoln and Richard A. Wood for allegedly libelous remarks made by Mr. Wood over KFAB during an election campaign, rules that a broadcasting station is equally liable with the speaker for libelous statements disseminated through its facilities.
July 15. To broadcast 58 hours of sessions of the two national political conventions from the Chicago Stadium, NBC canceled 56 commercials, CBS canceled more than a dozen.
July 15. NBC withdraws prohibition against price mentions on air during daytime hours; A&P is first advertiser to take advantage.
Aug. 1. ASCAP breaks off negotiations with NAB; prepares to start negotiations with individual stations; offers three-year contracts at 3% of net income for first year, 4% for second and 5% for third, plus annual sustaining program fees.
Aug. 1. A BROADCASTiNG survey of free-advertising propositions currently flooding radio-station mail reveals national magazines as most persistent in demands for free time on the air.
Aug. 15. Republicans allot $300,000 for radio time for the presidential campaign, two-thirds for network time, one-third for spot.
Sept. 1. NAB resumes negotiations with ASCAP, submits to demands for progressive percentage-of-income fees for music used on commercial shows, plus flat sustaining payment.
Sept 15. CBS and NBC permit price mentions, night as well as day; again, A&P is first advertiser to broadcast prices at night.
Oct. 15. Mexican government authorizes XER(AM), across border from Del Rio, Tex., to broadcast with 50 kw; NAB files protest with State Department asking protection from interference for U. S. broadcasters.
Oct 15. ASCAP offers special reduced fees to newspaper-owned stations in recognition of "substantial contributions to the promotion . . . of music made by newspapers."
Oct 15. To protect broadcasters from the dangers inherent in the Nebraska Supreme Court ruling on radio libel, John W. Guilder, acting chairman of the committee on communications, American Bar Association, advocates a rule freeing a station from liability "whenever it appears that the management of the station exercised due and reasonable care to avoid the utterance of defamation."
Nov. 1. Chrysler Corp. introduces the 1933 Plymouth Six to 75,000 salesmen via 25-city CBS hookup; insures this radio business conference for $500,000 against line break or equipment failure.
Nov. 1. Interstate Commerce Commission, dismissing complaint of Sta-Shine Co. against NBC and WGBB (AM) Freeport, New York, rules that broadcasting stations are not public utilities and that ICC therefore has no power to regulate their advertising rates.
Dec. 1. NAB St. Louis convention elects as president Alfred J. McCosker, director, WOR(AM) Newark, N. J., plans program of aggressive opposition to exorbitant copyright fees and line charges, spearheaded by prominent public figure and supported by war chest three or four times as big as present annual income of $50,000; agrees on self regulation as best preventive of governmental interference in broadcasting.
Dec. 1. Accepting government consent decree, General Electric and Westinghouse agree to divest themselves of their stock control of RCA, which becomes a completely independent company; patent pool becomes nonexclusive, but RCA retains licensing rights to patents of GE and Westinghouse as well as its own.
Jan. 15. Phonograph companies start labeling records "not licensed for radio broadcast" as move to protect their alleged property rights; Oswald F. Schuette, director of NAB copyright activities, calls move "a bluff" with no legal basis.
Feb. 1. NAB retains Newton D. Baker, Cleveland attorney who was secretary of war during the Wilson administration, as special counsel.
Feb. 1. Foods, drugs and toiletries, and tobaccos were most- advertised products on radio networks (CBS and NBC) in 1932, when combined gross time sales totaled $39,106,776.
March 1. NAB commercial committee and AAAA radio committee agree on standard form for agency orders of radio time.
March 1. Attempted assassination of President-elect Roosevelt gets prompt radio coverage; CBS puts eye-witnesses on air within 90 minutes via special line instead of taking time to have link with Miami reversed.
March 1. KOIL(AM) Omaha creates business at depth of Depression by selling time to associations of barbers, beauticians, florists, grocers, druggists and other trade groups whose members buy collectively what they can't afford individually.
March 15. Radio places full facilities at disposal of Roosevelt administration during banking crisis; largest audience in history reported for President Roosevelt's CBS-NBC broadcast on plans to reopen the nation's banks.
March 15. Canadian Radio Commission acquires its first three stations, CNRA(AM) Moncton, N. B.; CNRO(AM) Ottawa, Ont., and CNRV(AM) Vancouver, B. C., formerly owned by Canadian National Railways.
April 1. Post office modifies rules so stations can forward fan mail to sponsors in bulk without paying additional first class fees.
April 1. NBC discontinues its Pacific Coast Gold network to save line costs; Orange network continues, absorbing some Gold programs.
April 1. Southern California broadcasters carry on amid wreckage to keep nation informed of effects of earthquake.
April 15. NAB organizes Radio Program Foundation to make available for broadcasting the copyrighted works of non-ASCAP composers and publishers.
April 15. Federal District Court in Sioux Falls, S. D., grants Associated Press permanent injunction against unauthorized broadcasting of AP news by KSOO(AM) Sioux Falls.
May 1. AP membership votes to ban network broadcasts of AP news and to curtail local broadcasts to bulletins at stipulated times with air credit to member newspaper, which is to pay an extra broadcast assessment.
May 1. American Newspaper Publishers Association annual meeting resolves that radio logs are advertising and should be published only if paid for.
May 15. Federal Radio Commission is granted absolute power in distributing radio facilities by Supreme Court ruling upholding commission's decision to delete WIBO(AM) and WPCC(AM) Chicago (over quota by the current allocation plan) and give the 560 kc regional channel to WJKS(AM) Gary, Ind.
May 15. News on air is undiminished as United Press and International News Service fail to follow AP's example; networks establish own correspondents in key cities; President again uses combined CBS-NBC networks for second "fireside chat," phrase coined by Harry Butcher, CBS Washington.
July 1. NAB-sponsored Radio Program Foundation acquires broadcast rights to Ricordi catalogue of 123,000 compositions; offers package to member stations at rates of $2.50 to $25 a month.
July 1. George B. Storer, president, CKLW(AM) Detroit-Windsor, heads Point-O-Purchase Broadcasting System, which plans to install radio receivers in grocery and drug stores to receive programs broadcast by Point-O-Purchase during peak shopping hours and so provide "the missing link between manufacturer and consumer."
Aug. 1. National Recovery Administration program involves broadcasters two ways. as employers and as operators of a medium which can publicize the program. NAB sends questionnaire to all broadcasters on employment practices, appoints advisory committee to work with William B. Dolph, former RCA Photophone salesman, now in charge of radio publicity for NRA.
Aug. 15. First North American Radio Conference breaks up when Mexico refuses to budge from demands for 12 clear channels; interference problems foreseen as Latin American countries, not bound by any international agreements, are free to use whatever frequencies they desire.
Sept. 1. Rate cutting, per-inquiry business, song plugging, excessive coverage claims, excessive commission payments, lotteries and similar practices are barred by broadcasting code drafted by NAB committee and submitted to NRA; Sol A. Rosenblatt is named code administrator.
Sept 1. New York business group headed by Alfred E. Smith acquires commercial and program rights of WMCA(AM) New York in $155,000-a-year deal whose legality is questioned by Radio Commission.
Sept. 15. NAB special counsel Newton D. Baker files suit in federal court asking dissolution of ASCAP as illegal trade combination.
Sept. 15. CBS assigns publicity director, Paul White, to task of organizing a nationwide staff to collect news for network broadcast.
Oct. 1. General Mills sponsors twice-daily broadcasts on CBS of news collected by Columbia News Service; Washington Star drops program log of WJSV(AM) (CBS outlet serving Washington) in line with policy of "not advertising our competitors."
Oct. 1. After many delays, Ed Wynn's Amalgamated Broadcast System gets under way as third national network with 100 outlets, connected by Western Union lines. (See Nov. 15 item below.)
Oct. 1. Stations file for 50 kw power as FRC lifts limit from four to eight per zone, or from 20 to 40 for U. S.
Oct. 1. NBC moves into Radio City headquarters, world's largest broadcasting plant.
Oct. 15. NAB convention reelects Alfred J. McCosker, WOR(AM) Newark, N. J., for second year as president; urges abolition of requirement that recorded programs be so identified; urges three-year licenses in place of current six-month ones; agrees to intensify fight against ASCAP; denounces concealed commercials in sustaining programs and contingency accounts as unfair practices; urges retention of 48-hour week for operators and control men.
Oct 15. Yankee Network adds rider to political contracts absolving network from liability for libel or defamation by speakers.
Nov. 15. Repeal of Prohibition Act raises question of advertising of hard liquor on radio; CBS and some stations announce they will not accept it at all.
Nov. 15. Other groups ponder "third network" organizations as Ed Wynn's Amalgamated Broadcasting System goes bankrupt.
Nov. 15. WGN(AM) Chicago, WBZ(AM) Boston and WHAM(AM) Rochester are first to get 50 kw under revised regulation.
Dec. 1. President signs broadcasting code, calling for minimum wages of $40 a week for technicians, $20 a week for announcers and program-production employes ($15 if fewer than 10 such employed at station).
Dec. 1. Washington newspapers agree to publish radio logs only as paid advertising.
Jan. 1. KNX(AM) Hollywood announces plan to pay salesmen commissions on talent as well as time sales, as incentive to stimulate use of station-built programs by local advertisers.
Jan. 15. WLW Cincinnati starts tests of new 500 kw transmitter, world's most powerful.
Jan. 15. Group programming, a station-built half-hour show sold to six sponsors instead of one, developed at WTMJ Milwaukee to stimulate sales during the Depression, proves successful for both station and sponsors.
Feb. 1. NRA Code Authority for broadcasting outlaws per-inquiry and contingent business, launches study of status of performers to determine whether they should be covered by code's wage-and-hour provisions.
Feb. 1. Students remember advertising they hear better than that they read in test conducted by Professor Frank Stanton of Ohio State University's psychology department.
Feb. 15. CBS and NBC withdraw from news-gathering field as AP, UP and INS agree to provide material for morning and evening network newscasts.
Feb. 15. Milwaukee Journal's WTMJ(AM) prepares for experimental facsimile broadcasting.
March 1. Press Radio Bureau begins operations; Yankee Network and KFI(AM) Los Angeles set up own news organizations with exchange of news contemplated.
March 15. George B. Storer, chief owner of CKLW(AM) Detroit-Windsor, WSPD(AM) Toledo, Ohio, and WWVA(AM) Wheeling W. Va., becomes president and majority stockholder of Federal Broadcasting Corp., lessee-operator of WMCA(AM) New York designated as key station for projected nationwide network.
April 1. Three independent news services organize to provide news to radio stations.
May 1. Federal Trade Commission announces that after June 1 it will periodically ask stations, networks, transcription companies for copies of all commercial copy as part of over-all survey of advertising.
June 1. Federal Radio Commission rules that when unconnected numbers recorded on two or more disks are combined into a program, each number must be individually identified as an electrical transcription.
June 15. Communications Act now law; Federal Communications Commission to replace Federal Radio Commission July 1.
July 1. E. 0. Sykes, charter member of Federal Radio Commission, is named chairman of new FCC. Other members are. Thad H. Brown, also a holdover from the FRC, Paul A. Walker, Norman S. Case, Irvin Stewart, George Henry Payne, and Hampson Gary.
July 1. George B. Storer announces new network, American Broadcasting System, will begin operations in mid-August; hires Frederick H. Weber, former Chicago manager of NBC station relations, as operations vice president.
July 15. Clear-channel stations attack "break down" policy of old radio commission, urge FCC to conduct an engineering study of subject preliminary to restatement of regulations.
Aug. 1. FCC forms three-man broadcasting division, with Hampson Gary as chairman, Thad Brown and Judge Sykes as members.
Sept. 1. Department of Justice files anti-trust suit asking dissolution of ASCAP as illegal monopoly.
Sept. 15. Don Lee, owner of KHJ(AM) Los Angeles, KFRC(AM) San Francisco, KDB(AM) Santa Barbara, Calif., and KGB(AM) San Diego and operator of the Don Lee Network, dies at 53.
Sept. 15. To solve troublesome problem of how much merchandising aid should be given station clients, Free & Sleininger's station representative, sets up unit plan for its stations with one unit of merchandising to be given for each dollar spent for time.
Oct. 1. J. Truman Ward, WLAC(AM) Nashville, is elected president of NAB.
Oct. 1. Quality Group organizes as network for commercial programs only, linking WOR(AM) New York, WGN(AM) Chicago and WLW(AM) Cincinnati, with WXYZ(AM) Detroit as an optional outlet.
Oct. 15. FCC revises quota system to permit more stations and higher power.
Oct 1. Ford Motor Co. pays 100,000 for broadcast rights to World Series; links three networks plus independent stations into 180-outlet special hookup for event.
Oct 15. FCC begins hearing on proposal that 25% of broadcasting facilities be allotted to so-called nonprofit groups.
Oct 15. Quality Group changes name to Mutual Broadcasting System.
Oct 15. American Broadcasting System starts 16-hour daily program service over 18-station network reaching from New York to St. Louis.
Nov. 1. After years of legal battles to protect its place in Chicago, Westinghouse moves KYW(AM), the city's first radio station, to Philadelphia to comply with governmental quota technicalities.
Nov. 1. Complying with request made jointly by 13 clear-channel stations, FCC orders an inquiry into the clear-channel structure.
Nov. 1. Mutual network adds sustaining program exchange among its four outlets to former commercial-only service.
Nov. 1. Federal court upholds property right in broadcast material, enjoins Uproar Co., Boston publisher, from publishing Ed Wynn's Texaco fire chief broadcast scripts in pamphlet form.
Jan. 1. NAB starts study of audience-survey methods with eye to establishing an independent audit bureau for radio.
Jan. 15. Federal Judge Merrill E. Otis in Kansas City, Mo., rules station is jointly liable with speaker for libelous broadcasts, finds KMBC(AM) guilty for statement on CBS program originating in New York.
Feb. 1. Fred Weber joins MBS as coordinator of network operations, following reorganization of American Broadcasting System.
Feb. 15. First BROADCASTING YEARBOOK is issued.
Feb. 15. In face of many requests for free time from commercial firms, broadcast code authority rules against any station accepting "propaganda" except on commercial basis.
April 1. With a new chairman, Anning S. Prall, FCC starts to clean house. cites stations for accepting medical advertising, warns industry to live up to rules, holds conference with network heads on good taste in broadcasting, calls national meeting to work out ways for better cooperation between broadcasters and educators.
April 1. Experimental "wired radio" service is installed in Cleveland by Wired Radio Inc., using transcriptions made by its sister company, Associated Music Publishers, transmitted to homes via electric lines.
April 15. American Society of Recording Artists, new group, asks royalty fees for broadcasts of phonograph records.
May 15. Philip G. Loucks resigns as managing director of NAB after five years to return to private law practice.
May 15. United Press and International News Service offer news to radio; Associated Press permits member papers to provide news for local newscasts but still forbids sponsorship.
May 15. RCA announces it is taking television out of laboratory for $1-million field-test program.
June 1. Code authority for broadcasting industry shuts down as Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Recovery Act unconstitutional.
June 1. Transradio Press Service files $1-million damage suit against CBS, NBC, AP, UP, INS and American Newspaper Publishing Association, alleging that the press-radio program agreed to in 1934 was illegal and unfair competition.
June 15. Plan for a bureau of agency recognition and credit information to be operated for and by the broadcasting industry is adopted by the NAB commercial section.
June 15. NBC launches Thesaurus recorded library service.
July 1. Warner Brothers announces withdrawal of its five music-publishing firms, said to account for 40% of all ASCAP music performances, from ASCAP on Jan. 1, 1936.
July 15. NAB elects Charles W. Myers, KOIN(AM) Portland, Ore., president, names James Baldwin as managing director; re-elects as treasurer Isaac D. Levy of WCAU(AM) Philadelphia, a controversial figure in the acceptance of new five-year license from ASCAP; endorses agency-recognition plan; adopts revised code of ethics which outlaws per-inquiry and contingent business.
July 15. Washington state gets restraining order preventing ASCAP from collecting royalties for broadcast performances of its music within the state on grounds that ASCAP is a monopoly in violation of the state constitution.
Sept 15. Scripps-Howard decides to enter radio and applies for permission to buy WFBE(AM) Cincinnati; seeks stations in other cities where it has newspapers.
Sept 15. Committee of 15, with equal representation from NAB, Association of National Advertisers and American Association of Advertising Agencies, starts work on creation of a radio counterpart of the Audit Bureau of Circulations for newspapers and magazines.
Oct. 1. FCC demonstrates it is still scrutinizing programs by giving score of stations temporary renewals pending further investigation of "questionable" programing.
Oct 15. Esso's sponsorship of United Press news on group of NBC O&O stations leads Associated Press board of directors to reaffirm its ban on the use of AP news on sponsored broadcasts.
Nov. 15. Tax law of the state of Washington imposing tax of 0.5% on gross income of radio stations, is declared unconstitutional by federal court in suit brought by KVL(AM) Seattle; state supreme court had upheld law's validity in earlier suit of KOMO(AM)-KJR(AM).
Dec. 1. Yankee Network underwrites Boston survey of listening made by mechanical meter devices attached to sets in 1,000 homes to measure tuning; developed by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors, Robert F. Elder of the marketing department and L. F. Woodruff of the electrical engineering department.
Jan. 1. NBC adds second Pacific Coast network; both NBC Red and NBC Blue now national.
Jan. 1. Lenox R. Lohr, general manager of Chicago's successful Century of Progress, succeeds M. H. Aylesworth as NBC president.
Jan. 1. U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals holds broadcasting news taken from newspaper as unfair competition, reversing earlier decision in case of AP versus KVOS(AM) Bellingham, Wash.
Jan. 1. WCOA(AM) Pensacola, Fla., asks FCC to compel AT&T to reduce its rates in first formal complaint ever filed concerning charges for broadcast lines.
Jan. 15. ASCAP cancels temporary licenses, threatens infringement suits against stations not signing new five-year contracts at same price for less music.
Jan. 15. Following industry survey, 120 members of Distilled Spirits Institute agree not to advertise hard liquor on the air.
Feb. 1. FCC liberalizes recording-transcription announcement rules; now requires only one announcement per quarter-hour.
Feb. 15. Warner Brothers files infringement suits totaling more than $3 million against networks and stations; NAB revives plan to establish its own music-rights organization.
March 15. CBS broadcasts speech by Communist Party Secretary Earl Browder; some affiliates refuse to broadcast it; editorials and congressmen attack and defend CBS action.
April 1. CBS buys KNX(AM) Los Angeles for $1.3 million, biggest station deal to date.
April 1. Hearst Radio acquires KTAT(AM) Fort Worth, WACO(AM) Waco, Tex., and KOMA(AM) Oklahoma City.
April 1. AT&T works out agreement with WCOA(AM) Pensacola to reduce rate on backhauls by 50% (saving of about $2,000 a year for station).
April 15. U. S. Supreme Court rules broadcasting is instrumentality of interstate commerce, not subject to state taxation, in reversing Supreme Court of Washington State, which had upheld a state tax on gross receipts of radio stations.
May 1. NAB board approves plan to create a "bureau of copyrights" with a "measured service" method of compensation.
June 15. President Roosevelt signs bill repealing Davis Amendment to original radio law, which required equal division of broadcasting facilities among five zones and among states in each zone, opens way for more stations, increased power.
June 15. Don Lee Broadcasting System starts first public demonstration of cathode-ray television in U. S. with daily broadcasts of 300-line pictures using system developed by Harry Lubcke, Don Lee director of TV.
July 1. FM broadcasting, a new system invented by Major E. H. Armstrong, is described at FCC hearing as static-free, noise free, free from fading and cross talk, uniform day and night throughout all seasons and with greater fidelity of reproduction.
July 15. Charles W. Myers, KOIN(AM)-KALE(AM) Portland, Ore., elected NAB president; Isaac D. Levy, WCAU(AM) Philadelphia, retiring NAB treasurer, attacks the NAB board and managing director for copyright mismanagement, then resigns from NAB promising to form a new association; convention backs managing director and board and maintains a solid front. Sales managers organize as an NAB division.
July 15. RCA shows radio manufacturers its system of TV, being field tested with transmissions from New York's Empire State Building.
Aug. 1. Warner Brothers returns to ASCAP, drops infringement suits of more than $4 million.
Aug. 1. National Association of Regional Broadcasting Stations organizes to protect interests at upcoming FCC allocations hearings, elects John Shepard III, Yankee Network president, as chairman.
Aug. 1. Members of National Association of Recording Artists follow up granting of an injunction restraining WDAS(AM) Philadelphia from broadcasting phonograph records made by NARA President Fred Waring, institute suits against WHN(AM), WNEW(AM) and WEVD(AM), all New York, for unauthorized record broadcasts.
Aug. 15. Philco Corp. demonstrates its system of television with seven-mile transmission of live and film subjects in 345-line images 9 1/2 by 7 1/2 inches.
Sept. 1. Mutual Broadcasting System starts drive to become nationwide network by signing five midwestern affiliates--KWK(AM) St. Louis; KSO(AM) Des Moines, Iowa, WMT(AM) Cedar Rapids, Iowa; KOIL(AM) Omaha; KFOR(AM) Lincoln, Neb. WLW(AM) Cincinnati turns in its MBS stock but remains as outlet.
Sept 15. Television starts in England, with twice-daily telecasts using alternately the Baird and EMI-Marconi systems.
Oct. 1. After KFI(AM) and KECA(AM) Los Angeles refuse to carry President Roosevelt's "fireside chat" as a sustaining program, Democratic National Committee cuts them from network outlets getting paid campaign broadcasts.
Oct 15. A. C. Nielsen proposes metered tuning method of measuring size of program audiences at ANA meeting, reveals his firm's acquisition of "audimeter" developed at MIT; Edgar Felix urges coverage measurements to determine audience.
Nov. 1. CBS cancels "debate" of Senator Arthur Vandenberg (R-Mich.) with recording of President Roosevelt's statements as violating its no-transcription rule, then reinstates the broadcast; mob at Terre Haute, Ind., prevents Communist candidate Earl Browder from reaching WBOW(AM) studio; parties step up time purchases as campaign closes.
Nov. 15. Complete election return coverage by networks and stations winds up campaign in which the political parties spent an estimated $2 million for radio time.
Nov. 15. Demonstrations of RCA's 343-line TV system are highlight of NBC's 10th anniversary celebration.
Dec. 15. Don Lee Broadcasting System affiliates with Mutual, making latter a coast-to-coast network.
Jan. 1. U. S. Supreme Court throws out suit of Associated Press against KVOS(AM) Bellingham, Wash., for AP's failure to show damages of over $3,000, minimum needed for federal jurisdiction, but looks with disfavor on KVOS practice of buying newspapers and reading news from them on air.
Feb. 1. Radio goes on round-the-clock duty to provide communication for flood-stricken Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and aids relief work; job wins nation's praise.
Feb. 1. Station sales managers, in first national meeting, reject requests of recording companies for third 15% (in addition to commissions paid agencies and station representatives), ask networks to discontinue chain-break announcements from their O&O stations before asking affiliates to do so.
Feb. 1. Representative Otha D. Wearin (I). Iowa) introduces bill to outlaw newspaper ownership of radio stations.
Feb. 15. Charging the networks with monopoly in broadcasting, legislators demand a congressional investigation of radio. Representative Wigglesworth (R-Mass.) blasts FCC for permitting trafficking in licenses and reads into record full report of station sales and leases approved by commission.
April 1. North American Radio Conference at Havana agrees on technical principles of broadcast allocations, paving way for treaty conference in November.
April 1. CBS applies for experimental video station in New York, plans to install RCA TV transmitter in Chrysler building tower and to construct special studios at total cost of $500,000.
April 15. CBS recognizes American Guild of Radio Announcers and Producers, independent union headed by Roy S. Langham, CBS producer; bargaining begins for network's announcing-production employes.
April 15. George H. Payne, FCC telegraph commissioner, urges Congress to levy a tax on broadcasting stations of $1 to $3 a watt.
May 1. CBS breaks ground for $2-million Hollywood studios.
May 1. American Radio Telegraphists Association (CIO), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (AFL) and Newspaper Guild (claimed by both AFL and CIO) start drives to organize station employes; NBC institutes five-day week for production staff.
May 15. WLS(AM) Chicago recording team of Herb Morrison, announcer, and Charles Nehlsen, engineer, on routine assignment at Lakehurst, N. J., record on-the-spot, at-the-time account of explosion of the German dirigible Hindenburg; NBC breaks rigid rule against recordings to put it on network.
May 15. RCA demonstrates projection television, with images enlarged to 8 by 10 feet, at Institute of Radio Engineers convention.
June 15. Transradio Press's $1,700,000 suit against networks and press associations is settled out of court.
July 1. NAB elects John Elmer, WCBM(AM) Baltimore, as 1937-38 president; James W. Baldwin is reappointed managing director; NAB Bureau of Copyrights gets 58 subscriptions to its tax-free library.
July 1. WWJ(AM) Detroit announces plan of "balanced programing" with program kept in scheduled time periods whether sponsored or not.
Aug. 1. American Federation of Musicians demands that broadcast stations increase their employment of musicians to a number satisfactory to the union or lose their musical programs.
Aug. 1. Actors' Equity withdraws from radio with organization of a new AFL union, American Federation of Radio Artists.
Aug. 1. Guglielmo Marconi, 63, dies of heart attack in Rome.
Aug. 1. WWJ (AM) Detroit announces that in addition to its balanced program plant, it will abolish all between-program announcements between noon and 3 p. m., concurrently increasing its rates for the three-hour period.
Sept 1. Independent Radio Network Affiliates organize to deal with AFM; ponder suggestion of AFM President Joseph N. Weber that a weekly sum of three and a half times station's one-time evening quarter-hour rate be used to employ live musicians, amounting to some $5.5 million a year over-all.
Sept 1. Frank R. McNinch, from Federal Power Commission, goes to FCC as chairman; Commander T. A. M. Craven becomes an FCC commissioner.
Sept 1. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (AFL) starts drive to organize radio technicians after National Labor Relations Board certifies American Radio Telegraphists Association (CIO) as bargaining agent for WHN(AM) New York technicians, overruling petition of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes (AFL).
Sept 15. AFM strike averted as network affiliates agree to spend an additional $1.5 million a year to employ staff musicians; NAB calls special convention.
Sept 15. Chicago stations broadcast lessons as infantile-paralysis epidemic closes schools.
Oct 1. American Bar Association recommends that broadcasting of court trials be "definitely forbidden."
Oct 1. FCC gives two stations--WGH(AM) Newport News, Va., and WHO(AM) Des Moines, Iowa--permission to experiment with facsimile broadcasts on their regular frequencies in midnight-6 a. m. period; both plan to use system developed by W. G. H. Finch, former assistant chief engineer of the FCC.
Oct. 15. NAB special convention votes for complete reorganization, approves 50% hike in dues.
Nov. 1. FCC allocates 75 channels with 40 kc separation (41,020 kc to 43,980 kc) for "apex" stations and 19.6-mc bands for television (44-108 mc), with 16 channels in the 30-40 mc band for relay stations.
Nov. 15. NBC refuses to let General Hugh S. Johnson broadcast talk on venereal disease.
Nov. 15. Bell Labs demonstrates intercity TV program transmission over 90-mile coaxial cable connecting New York and Philadelphia.
Dec. 15. Inter-American Radio Conference reaches agreement on broadcast allocations that protect U. S. broadcasters by eliminating Mexican border stations, but require many shifts in U. S. station frequencies.
Jan. 15. FCC announces policy of not licensing second station in same community to existing licensee unless it is "clearly shown" that the public interest would be best served by such a license; denies application of WSMB(AM) New Orleans for second station there.
Jan. 15. John Shepard III, president of Yankee Network, starts construction of 50 kw FM station atop Mt. Wachusett at cost of $250,000; Major Edwin H. Armstrong, FM's inventor, builds own 50 kw FM station at Alpine. N. J.; others are planned to test this new medium.
Feb. 1. RCA puts stations on notice it may institute "reasonable fees" for broadcasting of Victor and Bluebird records; move said to be self-protective in view of attempts of National Association of Performing Artists to establish its performing rights in recordings through court action.
Feb. 1. FCC sets 25 channels, 40 kc wide, in the 41-42 mc band, for exclusive use of noncommercial educational stations.
Feb. 15. Under leadership of Mark Ethridge, general manager of the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal and Times, operator of WHAS(AM) Louisville, and Edwin W. Craig, WSM(AM) Nashville, two-day NAB convention sweeps through reorganization plan, elects new board of 23 directors--one from each of 17 geographic districts and six at large, names Philip G. Loucks, author of reorganization plan, special counsel to guide NAB affairs pending selection of first paid president. BROADCASTING publishes first facsimile newspaper in demonstration for convention delegates.
Feb. 15. With most network affiliates signing local musicians-union contracts on basis of AFM-IRNA agreement, AFM submits new contract terms to recording companies.
March 15. Nonnetwork stations are drawn into AFM employment picture with union requirement that recording companies do not serve stations without AFM licenses.
March 15. Southern California stations turn over all facilities to emergency public service as other means of communication fail in flood crisis.
April 1. Mark Ethridge is drafted as first president of revamped NAB to guide industry for interim period while paid president is sought; to serve without pay but with plenary powers.
April 1. FCC sends stations detailed questionnaire seeking full information on fiscal operations during 1937.
April 1. Wheeler-Lea Act, giving Federal Trade Commission new powers to curb false and misleading advertising, becomes law.
April 1. Hitler's quick conquest of Austria gets full coverage from U. S. networks.
April 15. Plea to FCC to keep its regulation of radio to the minimum necessary to provide interference-free service to the public and to give broadcasters licenses for longer than six months is made by William S. Paley, CBS president, in tradition-breaking broadcast of the network's annual report to public as well as stockholders.
May 1. CBS dedicates $1.75-million Pacific Coast headquarters building on Columbia Square, Hollywood.
May 1. National Committee of Independent Broadcasters negotiates agreement with AFM for employment of musicians based on that of IRNA.
May 15. U. S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia cites FCC for lack of a consistent policy as it reverses FCC's denial of a new daytime station at Pottsville, Pa., to Pottsville Broadcasting Co., and remands it, making reconsideration mandatory.
June 15. Senate resolution that broadcast power in excess of 50 kw would be against public interest removes superpower from FCC consideration as hearings on new rules get under way.
June 15. Neville Miller, former mayor of Louisville, Ky., to assume presidency of NAB July 1 as first paid president, at salary of $25,000 a year. plus $5,000 for expenses.
June 15. House votes down resolution for an investigation of monopoly in radio by overwhelming vote of 234 to 101.
July 1. Radio broadcasting's average week paycheck of $45.12 is highest of all U. S. industries, Bureau of Labor Statistics it reveals in answer to BROADCASTING's query.
July 1. Senate ratifies Havana Treaty calling for many shifts in frequencies of U. S. stations to be made a year after treaty has been ratified by three of the four participating countries. U. S., Canada, Mexico and Cuba.
Aug. 1. Census Bureau survey finds 62% of farm homes equipped with radios.
Aug. 1. W. Lee O'Daniel uses radio exclusively to win Democratic nomination for governor of Texas, boosts sales of Hillbilly Flour at same time.
Aug. 15. Paramount Pictures acquires interest in Allen B. DuMont Labs.
Sept. 1. Atlantic Refining books record football schedule of 168 East Coast games.
Sept. 15. World Broadcasting System launches "wax network" with 25 major market affiliates.
Oct. 1. New York stations pool equipment to keep public informed as hurricane hits city; New England stations also rise to meet emergency of crippling storm.
Nov. 1. NBC moves Western headquarters into Hollywood Radio City, new $2-million building.
Nov. 1. FCC superpower committee recommends ending WLW(AM) Cincinnati's license for 500 kw operation and returning station to 50 kw.
Nov. 15. Mexican Senate refuses to ratify the broadcast agreement section of the Havana Treaty.
Dec. 1. David Sarnoff. RCA president, urges industry self-regulation of programing at opening of chain-monopoly hearings.
Dec. 15. Suits of Paul Whiteman against WNEW(AM) New York and Elin Inc., sponsor of a record program on WNEW, and of RCA against Mr. Whiteman, WNEW and Elin, become a suit of RCA against Whiteman when Mr. Whiteman drops his suits and WNEW and Elin make no defense against RCA; at stake is determination of whether a recording company or a recording artist, or either, has control of broadcast performances of phonograph records.
Jan. 1. Patent for iconoscope-kinescope tubes, basis of electronic television, is granted to Dr. Vladimir Zworykin after 15 years of litigation.
Jan. 15. FCC Commissioner George Henry Payne drops $100,000 libel suit against BROADCASTING.
Jan. 15. Federal statutory court issues permanent injunction restraining New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners from interfering with NBC's erection or operation of an experimental station, holds broadcasting to be interstate and therefore outside authority of a state commission.
Feb. 1. FCC is legally bound to reconsider economic factors if issue is raised, U. S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia rules in remanding commission's grant of new station in Dubuque, Iowa, to the Telegraph Herald.
Feb. 15. American Federation of Radio Artists strike is averted as networks sign commercial program contracts. Agencies which could not sign, as technically they are not employers of talent, agree to abide by terms.
Feb. 15. Associated Press begins supplying news to NBC, without charge and for sustaining use only, after NBC and CBS discontinue service of Press Radio Bureau; CBS uses news from International News Service and United Press.
Feb. 15. Common Pleas Court of Tioga county, Pa., holds NBC liable for an allegedly slanderous remark ad libbed by Al Jolson during a Shell Chateau broadcast, sustains jury award of $15,000 to Summit hotel of Allentown.
March 1. Thirty-page questionnaire from FCC, delving into all phases of broadcast operation, evokes chorus of protests from station operators.
March 1. Langlois & Wentworth takes over NAB public-domain transcribed library project; agrees to provide 300 hours of tax-free music.
March 1. U. S. and Canada complete an agreement on frequencies based on Havana Treaty.
March 15. CBS attacks summer slump by offering extra discounts to nighttime sponsors that stay on the air year round and by threatening advertisers taking more than eight weeks off with loss of present time periods.
March 15. W2XBF New York, experimental facsimile station, starts regular program service three hours a day; WOR(AM), WGN(AM) and WLW(AM) inaugurate New York-Chicago-Cincinnati facsimile network series.
April 15. Eugene O. Sykes retires after 12 years on Federal Radio Commission and FCC to enter private law practice; is succeeded on FCC by Frederick I. Thompson, publisher, Montgomery (Ala.) Journal.
May 1. Both houses of Congress establish radio galleries, largely due to efforts of Fulton Lewis Jr., MBS commentator.
May 1. Telecast of opening ceremonies of New York World's Fair marks start of regular daily television schedule by RCA-NBC in New York; first appearance of a President on TV.
June 1. In accordance with mandate from membership, Associated Press board authorizes sale of AP News on sponsored broadcasts.
June 1. FCC lifts ban on sponsorship of international broadcasts, but sets limits on type of programing; fears of censorship immediately aroused.
July 15. NAB adopts code of self regulation which bars liquor advertising and sale of time for controversial issues, limits commercial time to 10% of program in evening.
July 15. Federal district court in New York grants RCA a permanent injunction against WNEW's broadcasting Victor and Bluebird records without permission, in decision holding recording company, not artist, holds performance rights except where contract places them with artist; RCA plans to offer license to stations.
Aug. 1. New FCC rules governing broadcasting become effective, with station licenses extended from six months to one year and horizontal power increases for qualified local and regional stations.
Aug. 15. Angered by refusal of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers to offer terms for new music-performing licenses, NAB Copyright Committee retains Sidney Kaye, New York copyright attorney, as special counsel to aid broadcasters in building their own source of music.
Aug. 15. James L. Fly, general counsel of Tennessee Valley Authority, named by President and confirmed by Senate to succeed Frank R. McNinch, retiring as FCC chairman Sept. 1.
Sept. 1. Appellate court rules that economic interest must be considered in issuing station licenses, scuttling FCC theory that competition does not constitute an appealable interest; commission calls ruling a body blow at American system of broadcasting.
Sept. 15. Special copyright convention of NAB unanimously approves a $1.5-million fund to set up its own supply of music.
Sept. 15. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, overruling lower court, finds NBC not liable for ad libbed remarks of Al Jolson; ruling sets precedent that a broadcaster is not liable for remarks spoken without warning by an artist employed by a sponsor using the broadcasters facilities.
Sept. 15. Networks draft code for war coverage; goal is full, factual reporting with minimum of horror, suspense and undue excitement.
Oct. 15. NAB code committee, in first action, bars sponsored broadcasts of Father Coughlin and Elliott Roosevelt under the "no sale of time for controversial issues" rule; some broadcasters say they'll resign from NAB.
Nov. 15. Elliott Roosevelt organizes Transcontinental Broadcasting System, to start operating Jan. 1 as fifth national network.
Nov. 15. NAB board backs up code committee; John Shepard goes along by forfeiting payment for Father Coughlin broadcasts; four Texas State Network stations resign.
Nov. 15. United Fruit Co. buys time on NBC's international stations for daily newscasts to Latin America; first advertiser to sponsor such broadcasts.
Dec. 15. Triple FM relay, with program broadcast by one station, picked up and rebroadcast by a second, whose signal was again picked up and rebroadcast, without loss of quality.
Jan. 1: NBC gets biggest news beat of 1939 with eyewitness description of sinking of Admiral Graf Spee, broadcast as it happened in Montevideo, Uruguay, harbor.
Jan. 15: FM Broadcasters Inc. is organized at New York meeting.
Feb. 1: U. S. Supreme Court decision in so-called Pottsville case gives FCC a free hand in dealing with applications for new stations, eliminating all questions of priority of filing.
Feb. 15: New "crackdown" era foreseen as FCC refers complaints on Pot 0' Gold and other give-away programs to Department of Justice for possible action under the antilottery laws.
Feb. 15: AFM sets scale of $18 a man for recording a 15-minute transcription.
March 1: FCC approves "limited commercialization" of television effective Sept. 1.
March 15: Sun Oil Co. becomes first sponsor to have programs regularly telecast; company's Monday-Friday Lowell Thomas newscasts on NBC-Blue are also carried or W2XBS, NBC experimental TV station in New York.
March 15: RCA cuts price of television sets, starts sales drive intended to put a minimum of 25,000 in homes in service area of NBC's New York video station.
April 1: Supreme Court of U. S. upholds "free competition" stand of FCC General Attorney William J. Dempsey, emphasizes that Communications Act gives the FCC no supervisory control of the programs, of business management or of policy; contains no order to consider the effect of the competition of a new grant on existing stations.
April 1: FCC suspends order for "limited commercial" operation of TV, censures RCA for sales efforts which are seen as an attempt to freeze TV standards at present level, calls new hearing; critics call move "usurpation of power."
April 15: Justice Department declines to prosecute Pot 0' Gold.
April 15: FCC's new 42-page license application forms require so much information that many radio attorneys fear they will be virtually impossible to fill out.
May 1: Westinghouse terminates contract for NBC management of sales and programs of KDKA(AM) Pittsburgh, KYW(AM) Philadelphia, WBZ(AM) Boston and WBZA(AM) Springfield, Mass., after nine years; will assume management of owned stations itself.
May 1: Broadcast Music Inc. acquires catalogue of M. M. Cole Music Publishing Co. as first major step toward building reservoir of music for broadcasters.
May 15: Justice Department subpoenas ASCAP files.
June 1: FCC authorizes commercial operation for FM, assigns it 35 channels 200 kc wide between 43 and 50 mc; puts television back into laboratory until industry reaches agreement on standards.
June 1: Henry W. Grady School of Journalism of U. of Georgia institutes George Foster Peabody awards for radio; first awards to be given in 1941 for achievements of 1940.
June 15: James C. Petrillo is elected president of American Federation of Musicians, succeeding Joseph N. Weber, retiring after 40 years as AFM head.
June 15: FCC Chain Monopoly Committee recommends drastic changes in network operations, such as limiting network ownership of stations and length of affiliation contracts, taking networks out of transcription and talent-booking business, forcing them to serve remote areas whether this is profitable or not.
July 1: Republican convention adopts first radio plank ever put into a political-party platform, upholding the application of constitutional principles of free press and free speech to radio; is also the first party convention to be telecast.
July 15: Niles Trammell becomes NBC president, succeeding Lenox R. Lohr, resigned to head Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.
Aug. 1: U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals up holds right of broadcaster to put phonograph records on air without need to get permission from either recording company or recording artists; reverses decision of federal district court in RCA-Whiteman WNEW case.
Aug. 1: Democrats also adopt a "free radio" plank for party platform, urging radio be given same protection from censorship as press.
Aug. 1: BMI ships transcriptions with more than 50 non-ASCAP numbers to member stations; first product of plan to make stations musically independent.
Aug. 15: National Television Systems Committee, representing TV manufacturers and broadcasters, organizes to seek determination of proper standards for TV.
Sept. 1: CBS demonstrates system of color television developed by its chief TV engineer, Dr. Peter Goldmark.
Sept. 15: Assignment shifts affecting 777 standard broadcasting stations in the U. S. are ordered by FCC for March 29, 1941, in accordance with North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement reached in Havana in December 1937.
Oct. 15: Independent Radio Network Affiliates committees confer with NBC and CBS executives to block the "alarming encroachment of network advertisers on spot announcement periods."
Nov. 1: President Roosevelt withdraws nomination of Thad H. Brown for new seven-year term as FCC commissioner at Mr. Brown's request, after Senate recesses without acting on the appointment, which met rigorous opposition.
Dec. 1: BMI acquires performing rights to the more than 15,000 compositions in the catalogue of Edward B. Marks Music Corp. in last month of preparations for the broadcasters' break with ASCAP.
Dec. 15: Edward J. Noble, chairman of the board, Life Savers Corp., buys WMCA(AM) New York from Donald Flamm for $850,000.
Jan. 1: Department of Justice prepares criminal suits against ASCAP, BMI and broadcasting networks and groups for music monopoly; U. S. Supreme Court will review state anti-ASCAP laws; broadcasters are confident they'll win their battle against music monopoly.
Jan. 1: Formation of a Latin American CBS network of 39 longwave and 25 short-wave stations in 18 countries is announced by CBS President William S. Paley on return from seven-week tour.
Jan. 13: After more than 10 years of semi-monthly publication, BROADCASTING becomes a weekly.
Jan. 20: In what was to become famous as "Mayflower Case" (primarily decided on other grounds), FCC held that broadcasters could not editorialize.
Jan. 27: BMI and Department of Justice agree on terms of consent decree.
Jan. 27: Press Association Inc. is formed as new subsidiary of Associated Press to handle news for radio.
Feb. 10: Clear-channel stations form Clear Channel Broadcasting Service, name Victor A. Sholis, former public relations chief of Department of Commerce, as director, with Washington headquarters.
Feb. 10: U. S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia, in series of decisions, holds itself powerless to issue stay orders enjoining FCC from putting its rulings into effect unless public interest would be adversely affected, and then solely on questions of law.
Feb. 24: ASCAP accepts government consent decree; will offer broadcasters both blanket and per-piece licenses.
Feb. 24: AFM President James C. Petrillo, in ruling aimed at American Guild of Musical Artists, orders AFM members not to perform with any instrumentalist who is not an AFM member.
March 3: Shortage of recording blanks foreseen as Office of Production Management places aluminum in "much needed" category, giving defense program first call.
March 10: Ray C. Wakefield is nominated for FCC to fill place vacant since June.
March 17: General Foods signs unprecedented contract with Jack Benny giving comedian control of his Sunday-night period on NBC Red network at its termination, whether or not he continues under GF sponsorship.
March 24: FCC orders public hearings on newspaper ownership of radio stations.
March 31: Group of nearly 100 newspaper publishers with radio interests names Mark Ethridge, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal (WHAS), chairman of steering committee to oppose governmental action outlawing newspaper ownership of stations; 292 of country's 893 broadcasting stations are newspaper-affiliated.
March 31: Wholesale switch of frequencies in compliance with Havana treaty goes through without a hitch.
April 28: President Roosevelt drafts Mark Ethridge to undertake a survey of the entire broadcasting situation.
April 28: Newspaper stations elect Harold Hough, Fort Worth Star-Telegram (WBAP-KGKO), chairman of steering committee; appoint Thomas D. Thatcher, former solicitor general, as chief counsel; vote $200,000 for hearing expenses.
May 5: FCC authorizes full commercial operation for TV as of July 1, fixes standards at 525 lines, 30 frames, FM sound.
May 5: Major reorganization of radio network operations is called for by FCC network monopoly report, which would ban option time, exclusive affiliations, ownership of more than one station in a market or operation of more than one network by the same interests.
May 12: MBS signs ASCAP blanket license at 3% of gross for four years, 3 1/2 % until 1950, on eve of NAB convention; NBC, CBS continue negotiations for better terms.
May 19: Industry's stormiest convention votes fight to finish against FCC monopoly rules, backs plan for Senate investigation of FCC, asks legislation to aid broadcasters, and angers FCC Chairman James L. Fly into a rebuttal in which he describes NAB as akin to "a mackerel in the moonlight--it both shines and stinks."
May 19: NAB President Neville Miller urges broadcasters to stand by BMI, condemns MBS-ASCAP pact; several MBS stockholder stations resign from NAB; 39 MBS affiliates organize to investigate the ASCAP deal, tell MBS they won't accept ASCAP music.
May 26: BMI growth continues; has 190 affiliated publishers, 690 station members.
June 2: CBS withdraws from talent management field, sells Columbia Artists Bureau to Music Corp.. of America for $250,000, Columbia Concerts Corp. to its present management.
June 2: FCC amends rules so "any person" can petition for a change in rules of practice or procedure; formerly only "an applicant" had that right.
June 2: Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. becomes first FM network sponsor by signing for newscasts on American Network, FM network serving New England.
June 2: Recording companies turn to glass for recording bases as government priorities curtail supply of aluminum.
June 30: Bulova Watch Co., Sun Oil Co., Lever Bros. Co. and Procter & Gamble sign as sponsors of first commercial telecasts on July 1 over NBC's WNBT(TV) New York (until then W2XBS); first TV rate card puts WNBT base rate at $120 per evening hour.
Aug. 4: NBC reaches agreement with ASCAP calling for blanket licenses with network to pay 2 3/4 % of net time sales, stations 2 1/4 %; stations' approval needed.
Aug. 11: FCC adopts order banning multiple ownership of stations in same area.
Sept. 1: After arguments by broadcasters, broadcast unions and others, Senate Finance Committee deletes tax on time sales from the 1941 Revenue Act.
Sept. 8: Completion of arrangement for a 92-station Pan American Network to rebroadcast NBC programs shortwaved from the U. S. is announced by John F. Royal, NBC vice president, on his return from a six-week, 20,000-mile tour of Latin America.
Oct. 13: FCC extends license term for standard broadcasting stations from one to two years.
Nov. 24: BMI offers new eight-year blanket licenses at 25% reduction from original one-year contracts, covering both commercial and sustaining programs, with clearance at source on network shows.
Dec. 8: NBC separates Red and Blue networks by setting up Blue Network Co. with Mark Woods as president, Edgar Kobak as executive vice president.
Dec. 15: Defense Communications Board becomes supreme communications arbiter with the U. S. at war; plan is to keep broadcasting on as normal operation as possible.
Dec. 15: Dr. Frank Conrad, assistant chief engineer of Westinghouse known as father of broadcasting for his pioneering achievements, dies of a heart attack at 67.
Dec. 15: President Roosevelt's broadcast to the nation on Dec. 9, day after war was declared, has largest audience in radio history (about 90 million) and highest ratings (CAB, 83; Hooper, 79).
Dec. 22: Byron Price, executive news editor of Associated Press, is appointed director of new censorship bureau.
Dec. 22: Thomas A. McClelland, chief engineer of KLZ(AM) Denver, on duty as an ensign with the USNR at Pearl Harbor, was killed in action during Japanese attack Dec. 7, radio's first casualty of the war.
Dec. 29: J. Harold Ryan, vice president, Fort Industry Co., is named assistant director of censorship, in charge of broadcasting.
Jan. 5: Manila radio stations are "dismantled and destroyed" to keep them from falling into hands of Japanese.
Jan. 19: Censorship code outlaws man-on-the-street and other ad-lib interviews and quiz programs.
Jan. 19: Office of Facts and Figures is designated as clearing house for governmental broadcasts, with William B. Lewis, former CBS program vice president, as coordinator.
Feb. 2: Broadcasters' Victory Council is formed as liaison with all government agencies having wartime radio functions; chairman is John Shepard III, preside Yankee Network.
Feb. 2: FCC shuts off construction of new stations in all areas now getting primary service, pending formal orders from War Production Board freezing broadcast assignments for duration.
Feb. 2: ASCAP approves clearance source on transcribed programs.
Feb. 23: The Advertising Council is organized by advertisers, agencies and media to put the talents and techniques of advertising at the disposal of government inspire and instruct the public concerning various phases of the war effort.
Feb. 23: CBS cuts time allowed for commercials on newscasts by 20%, bans jingles or other "undue gaiety," puts restrictions on middle commercials.
March 23: Office of Censorship forbids any mention of weather on baseball broadcasts.
March 23: Committee on War Information issues war policies, pledges that public will get bad news as well as good, so long as no aid is given enemy.
March 30: Edward Klauber, CBS executive vice president, is elected to new post of chairman of the executive committee; Paul W. Kesten becomes vice president and general manager, with all departments reporting to him except programing, which reports to President William S. Paley.
April 13: Minimum program time required of TV stations is cut from 15 hours to four hours a week for war period.
April 13: U. S. Supreme Court upholds power of U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to issue orders staying FCC decision during the pendency of appeals; decision, called major legal victory for broadcasters, comes after three years of litigation by Scripps-Howard Radio on behalf of WCPO(AM) Cincinnati.
April 20: War Production Board cuts supply of shellac for phonograph records to 30% of preceding year's figure; transcriptions, made of vinylite, are not affected.
May 4: FCC issues freeze order on station construction.
May 18: NAB convention by-passes reorganization proposals, votes to set up industry-operated equipment pool, admits networks to active membership.
May 18: Keystone Broadcasting System, transcription network, holds first meeting of some 50 affiliated stations.
May 18: Blue Network grants 2% cash discount long sought by AAAA.
June 1: FCC eases operator requirements to meet shortage.
June 15: CBS revises its discount structure to include a new 15% discount for advertisers using the full CBS network of 115 stations.
June 22: President Roosevelt creates Office of War Information, appoints Elmer Davis, CBS commentator, as its director.
June 29: American Federation of Musicians notifies recording companies that after July 31 no AFM member will play for recordings of any kind.
July 13: Gardner Cowles Jr., publisher-broadcaster, is named assistant director of OWI in charge of all domestic operations; William B. Lewis, former CBS program vice president and radio chief of Office of Facts and Figures, heads radio bureau of Mr. Cowles's branch of OWI.
July 20: Petrillo ruling forces NBC to cancel broadcasts from National Music Camp at Interlochen, Mich.
July 20: Broadcasting is declared an essential industry by Selective Service System.
Aug. 3: Justice Department asks injunction as AFM President Petrillo refuses to cancel the strike against recordings.
Aug. 24: Ratings battle begins when OWI asks why C. E. Hooper Inc. shows audiences up in 1942 over 1941, while Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting reports a decline.
Sept. 7: AFM makes record ban complete by canceling permission previously given to members to make commercial transcriptions for one-time air use.
Oct. 12: Radio time contributed to government would cost $64 million a year regular commercial rates, Elmer Davis, OWI director, states in testimony before House Appropriations Subcommittee.
Nov. 2: Government leases shortwave stations from private owners; Office of War Information and Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to handle programing.
Nov. 16: Dr. Miller McClintock, executive director of the Advertising Council, named first paid president of MBS.
Nov. 23: FCC adopts wartime equipment pool plan for all licensees.
Dec. 21: General Tire & Rubber Co. contracts to buy Yankee Network, its four AM and two FM stations, for $1.2 million.
Jan. 18: Under pressure of Senate committee, James C. Petrillo agrees to convene the AFM board to draft terms for resumption of work on recordings.
Jan. 25: House approves Cox resolution to investigate the FCC; Rep. Eugene Cox (D-Ga.) attacks FCC as "nastiest nest of rats in this entire country."
Feb. 15: AFM proposes recording companies pay fixed fee for each recording into union unemployment fund, amount to be negotiated, as price of ending strike; transcriptions for one-time use exempted.
March 1: Recording companies reject Petrillo "fixed fee" plan as involving unacceptable philosophy that recording industry "special obligation to persons not employed by it."
March 1: FCC adopts policy to protect applications for TV and FM facilities until end of war.
March 8: First Alfred I. du Pont awards of $1,000 each for public service broadcasting go to KGEI, General Electric short-wave station, and Fulton Lewis Jr., MBS commentator.
May 17: Supreme Court upholds right of FCC to regulate broadcasting practices, specifically to compel compliance with its network monopoly rules; networks rush to work out new contracts with affiliates by June 14 deadline; exclusivity is forbidden, option time curtailed.
May 17: Transcription companies and AFM reach impasse in negotiations as companies refuse to meet union demand that they withhold recording from any station deemed unfair by AFM.
May 24: Supreme Court rules FCC erred in breaking down 850 kc channel and as signing WHDH(AM) Boston full time on that frequency without hearing testimony from its occupant, KOA(AM) Denver; decision seen as guaranteeing right of stations for full hearing before their service is modified by commission order, with burden of proof on applicant.
June 21: CBS affiliates open drive to bar hitch-hike, cow-catcher announcements.
June 21: Assn. of Radio News Analysts adopts code opposing censorship; Paul White, CBS news director, insists on right to "edit."
July 5: House Select Committee open hearings on FCC with charges of gross inefficiency and interference with war effort.
July 5: Transcription companies ask War Labor Board to help after AFM President Petrillo tells committee the union will "make no more transcriptions for anyone at any time."
July 12: Decca Records buys World Broadcasting System; P. L. Deutsch to continue as president with five-year contract.
July 19: CBS tests program analyzer to find out what makes people listen; device is invention of Paul Lazarsfeld, director of Office of Radio Research at Columbia University, and Frank Stanton, CBS vice president.
July 26: War Labor Board accepts jurisdiction in AFM recording ban, but fails to order union to return to work for transcription companies.
Aug. 2: Edward J. Noble buys Blue Network from RCA for $8 million cash; will dispose of WMCA(AM) New York.
Aug. 9: Plan to end AFM recording strike by getting broadcasters to agree to pay performance fees to union for all musical record broadcasts and to work for legislation giving copyright in records to both recording artist and recording company finds little favor among broadcasters.
Aug. 9: Edward Klauber resigns as CBS director and chairman of executive committee because of ill health.
Aug. 30: MBS plans to use 3-5 p. m. time for recorded repeats of top evening network programs; offers free time to advertisers during test period of 13 weeks.
Sept. 13: General Dwight D. Eisenhower himself broadcasts the news of Italy's surrender, the first such event to be announced by radio.
Sept. 20: CBS acts to eliminate "cow-catcher" and "hitch-hike" announcements.
Sept 20: NAB news and public-relations committee adopts resolution on editorializing on air, that management must have final say as it is responsible to public as licensee.
Sept. 27: Decca Records and World Broadcasting System sign with AFM, agree to pay royalties direct to union.
Oct. 11: CBS President William S. Paley accepts overseas psychological warfare assignment with Office of War Information; board elects Paul W. Kesten executive vice president.
Oct 18: Mark Woods remains as president of Blue Network and Edgar Kobak as executive vice president as Edward J. Noble assumes ownership.
Oct. 18: Government drops antitrust suits against networks; MBS dismisses its action against RCA-NBC.
Oct. 25: Four transcription firms--Associated Music Publishers, Lang-Worth, C. P. MacGregor and Standard Radio--sign with AFM; NAB denounces principle of direct payment to union as "vicious."
Oct. 25: Treasury Department and OWI permit sponsorship of war-bond announcements for first time; OWI rejects idea of government itself buying time.
Nov. 8: R. Morrie Pierce, chief engineer of WGAR(AM) Cleveland, on leave with OWI, is revealed as having had major role in surrender of Italian fleet, broadcasting surrender terms from "baling wire" transmitter he built at Algiers.
Nov. 29: FCC bans multiple ownership of standard-broadcast stations in same area, effective immediately for new grants, effective June 1, 1944, for existing overlapping situations.
Nov. 29: Edward Klauber, former chairman of CBS executive committee, becomes associate director of OWI, succeeding Milton S. Eisenhower.
Dec. 20: FCC extends broadcast licenses to a total of three years.
Jan. 17: NBC makes its programs available to FM outlets of its AM affiliates without charge to sponsors until increased audience warrants it.
Jan. 17: Some 6,000 radio-station and network employes, nearly a quarter of the industry total, are in armed forces, a BROADCASTING survey reveals.
Jan. 31: FCC and War Production Board ease construction ban, permitting new stations where such grants would serve an "outstanding public need or national interest."
Jan. 31: CBS makes its programs available for FM stations of AM affiliates at no charge to sponsors.
Feb. 7: J. Harold Ryan, assistant director of censorship, is elected president of NAB for an interim period.
Feb. 7: Television Broadcasters Association, organized in January, elects Allen B. Du Mont as first president.
Feb. 14: Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio urges legislation to restrict the FCC and keep radio as free as the press.
March 6: MBS restricts commercial religious programs to Sundays before 1 p.m., limits to half-hour, bans fund appeals.
April 3: Joske's of Texas, San Antonio, Tex., department store, launches year's campaign, developed in cooperation with NAB, to test value of radio advertising for retailers.
May 1: CBS proposes starting off postwar TV with high-definition, full-color pictures, broadcast on 16 mc bands.
May 8: Military authorities and radio networks discard traditional taboos to cooperate in providing the American public full and immediate reporting of the invasion of Europe by Allied forces.
May 22: Single ownership of five TV stations is permitted by FCC, up from former limit of three.
June 5: Purchase by Sol Taishoff and wife of the 50% interest in BROADCASTING owned by Mr. and Mrs. Martin Codel gives the Taishoffs full ownership of the magazine founded by Mr. Taishoff and Mr. Codel in October 1931. Mr. Taishoff becomes publisher of BROADCASTING, post held by Mr. Codel, and continues as editor.
June 5: Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co. notifies stations to suspend all spot and station break announcements for 24 hours or longer after news of invasion breaks.
June 12: Ready for its greatest on-the-spot reporting job, radio gives nation news of the invasion of Europe by Allied forces.
June 12: Allied Expeditionary Forces inaugurate a broadcasting service for troops invading Europe, under direction of Colonel Edward M. Kirby, former NAB public-relations director.
June 19: National War Labor Board orders prompt settlement of recording dispute between RCA, CBS, NBC and AFM with union to let members resume work for those companies; calls for negotiation of settlement agreement within 15 days; AFM refuses to let members work for those companies until they accept the same terms as other recording firms.
July 17: WJR(AM) Detroit bans middle commercials on newscasts.
July 31: MBS plans to outlaw hitch-hikes, cow-catchers next year.
Aug. 14: NBC announces it has completely eliminated hitch-hikes and cow-catchers from all programs it broadcasts.
Aug. 21: Unable to secure voluntary compliance of AFM with its order to cease strikes against recording companies and KSTP(AM) St. Paul, War Labor Board refers matter to Office of Economic Stabilization.
Sept. 25: Chester J. LaRoche, former chairman of Young & Rubicam, is elected vice chairman of the Blue Network board, making him operating head of the network.
Oct 2: FCC opens hearings on postwar allocations with testimony of Radio Technical Planning Board that agreement had been reached to recommend the 41-56 mc band for FM, TV allocations to extend upwards from there.
Oct. 2: Democrats begin five-minute broadcasts, using last part of popular half-hour network shows where advertiser will clear them.
Oct. 9: CBS, in testimony presented by Paul Kesten, executive vice president, asks for more space for FM, with TV being moved to UHF part of spectrum above 300 mc.
Oct. 16: Muzak Corp., now owned by William B. Benton, asks FCC for a "suitable number" of FM channels for a non-commercial subscription- broadcasting service, nonsubscribers to get a "pig squeal."
Oct. 16: AFM President Petrillo rejects direct appeal of President Roosevelt to call off recording strike against RCA, CBS, NBC.
Oct. 23: Invasion of the Philippines is first announced by radio from a floating broadcasting station off Leyte; Major A. A. Schechter, former NBC news chief, directs radio coverage.
Oct. 23: Morris Pierce enlists the cooperation of an armored division to capture Radio Luxembourg intact, giving OWI a 150 kw transmitter to use in support of advancing Allied armies.
Nov. 6: Edgar Kobak resigns as executive vice president of Blue Network to become president of Mutual.
Nov. 6: Chairman James Lawrence Fly resigns from FCC to open own law office in New York.
Nov. 20: Paul Porter, former CBS attorney, wartime government official, publicity director of the Democratic National Committee, is nominated for FCC.
Nov. 20: RCA, CBS and NBC give up fight against AFM; submit to royalty payments to union unemployment fund.
Nov. 20: Broadcast Measurement Bureau plan is approved by ANA and AAAA; NAB appropriates $75,000 for first year's operation
Nov. 27: WWJ(AM) Detroit bans all transcribed announcements as of Feb. 1, 1945.
Nov. 27: Blocking AFM plans to take over transcription handling, National Labor Relations Board certifies National Association of Broadcast Employes and Technicians, technicians union, as bargaining unit for all NBC and Blue-owned stations outside Chicago (where AFM local already has the contract).
Dec. 4: Robert D. Swezey, general counsel of Blue Network, moves to Mutual as vice president and assistant general manager.
Dec. 18: First convention of Television Broadcasters Association has attendance of 750; calls for united effort to get TV started properly; elects J. R. Poppele, WOR(AM) New York chief engineer, as president.
Dec. 18: FCC adopts rule calling for disclosure of identity of person or organization sponsoring or supplying program; NAB convinces commission words "paid for" are not necessary.
Dec. 25: Paul Porter is sworn in as FCC chairman on recess appointment of President when Congress adjourns without confirming him.
Dec. 25: FCC transfers owned-station licenses, ratifying change of Blue Network to American Broadcasting Co.
Jan. 8: Hugh M. Feltis resigns as general manager, KFAB(AM) Omaha, to head Broadcast Measurement Bureau.
Jan. 16: FCC announces allocations proposals; TV band is divided; FM moved to 84-102 mc to the disappointment of its advocates who had hoped to keep it in the 50 mc area.
Jan. 29: WJZ(AM) New York bans transcribed programs from 8:30 a.m. to midnight.
Jan. 29: Cecil B. De Mille, refusing to pay special American Federation of Radio Artists $1 assessment to oppose a so-called "right to work" proposition on previous November's ballot and failing in his court fight to prevent his suspension by union, can no longer appear on Lux Radio Theatre broadcasts.
Feb. 12: Liberation of Manila completely covered by radio; highlight is broadcast by Bert Silen, released from Santo Tomas internment camp, who told NBC audience: "As I was saying when I was so rudely interrupted over three years and a month ago. . ." (He had been broadcasting on NBC when Japanese bombs destroyed the Philippine transmitter).
Feb. 12: AFM tells members not to appear on television until further notice; stations not notified.
April 16: Radio covers death of President Roosevelt; commercial programing discarded for tributes; commercial announcements eliminated; only news and music retained.
April 23: Philco Corp. dedicates world's first multirelay network between Philadelphia and Washington, seen as forerunner of nationwide television networks.
May 14: Pooled coverage of Nazi surrender brings American people full details of end of war in Europe; for broadcasters V-E Day means end of ban on man-in-the-street programs, request numbers and other wartime program restrictions, but continued demands for men and material mean that freeze on new construction won't be lifted until V-J Day.
May 21: FCC allocates spectrum space above 25 mc with exception of 44-108 mc; delays decision as to placement of FM for propagation studies to be made by FCC and industry engineers.
June 4: In joint request, FM Broadcasters Inc. and Television Broadcasters Association ask FCC to allocate 44-108 mc immediately: FM to get 50-54 mc for educational use, 54-68 mc for commercial operation; TV to receive 68-74 mc and 78-108 mc.
June 4: Stations object to FCC questions on commercial-versus- sustaining time; point out that sponsorship does not prevent a program from being public service and that commercial-sustaining ratio is not a true measure of operation in public interest.
June 4: Radio's top client, Procter & Gamble Co., spends $11 million a year for time, probably the same for talent, BROADCASTING study reveals.
June 11: Frank Stanton, vice president of CBS, is elected a director and appointed general manager; Vice Presidents Joseph H. Ream and Frank K. White also elected directors of CBS.
July 2: FCC allocates FM to 88-106 mc band; TV: ch. 1, 44-50 mc; ch. 2-4, 54-72 mc; ch. 3-6, 76-88 mc.
July 9: FCC eases rules on transcripton identifications, dropping requirement for identifying each record played and leaving language up to broadcaster.
July 23: Associate Justice Justin Miller is picked as new NAB president, to assume office Oct. 1 for five-year term.
Aug. 6: FCC adopts new provisions requiring licensees to file annual ownership reports, plus interim reports on changes in "policy making personnel"; ownership data to become public record but network and transcription contracts and financial data not to be open.
Aug. 6: FCC, by 4 to 3 vote, approves sale of Crosley Corp., including WLW Cincinnati, to Aviation Corp. for $21 million.
Aug. 6: Westinghouse discloses "stratovision" plan for airborne television transmitters to serve as relay stations for TV and FM programs as networks without wire connections.
Aug. 6: U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds NLRB ruling in awarding platter-turning jurisdiction at NBC and ABC to NABET, turning down AFM.
Aug. 13: FCC decides financial data it collects will be kept confidential or disclosed at commission's discretion; to broadcasters' protests that disclosing their financial affairs would put them at disadvantage with competitive media, Commissioner Clifford Durr replies that newspapers and magazines are private; radio is public.
Aug. 13: FCC announces that on Oct. 7 it will start acting on applications in its pending files, presaging radio's greatest construction boom.
Aug. 13: NAB chooses A. D. Willard, manager of WBT(AM) Charlotte, N.C., as executive vice president at $25,000 a year; replaces code with standards of practice that leave vital question of selling time for controversial topics up to individual station operator.
Aug. 13: Representative Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.) demands that FCC "crack down" on broadcasters, pay more attention to renewals of station licenses, order designated hours set aside for sustaining educational and cultural programs, pass on station sales prices; he criticizes programs for having too much "corn," commercial content and boogie-woogie.
Aug. 20: Radio tells world of Japanese acceptance of Potsdam terms and end of World War II.
Sept. 10: Approving sale of Crosley radio properties to Avco by 4-3 vote, FCC announces "open bid" proposal for future station sales, permitting number of applicants to compete for acquisition of any station put on market with FCC determining the successful buyer on same basis as awarding a new facility.
Sept. 17: FCC issues rules and regulations for FM broadcasting.
Sept. 17: Associated Broadcasting Corp. puts fifth national network on air.
Sept. 24: FCC issues plan for distribution of 13 VHF channels among 140 markets.
Sept. 24: Mark Woods, ABC president, resumes active direction of network as Chester J. LaRoche drops executive duties.
Oct. 1: Networks sign NABET contract, including recognition of platter-turning jurisdiction.
Oct. 22: James C. Petrillo, AFM president, tells networks that dual broadcasting of musical program on FM as well as AM outlets violates their AFM contracts.
Oct 22: FMBI board votes to merge with NAB, which will establish an autonomous FM division.
Nov. 5: President Truman opens radio news gallery broadcast room in Senate wing of Capitol.
Nov. 26: BROADCASTING becomes BROADCASTING TELECASTING with first appearance of TELECASTING on cover and masthead.
Nov. 26: New FCC television allocations plan follows proposals of Television Broadcasters Association, assigns seven channels each to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, gives additional channels for 33 other cities, sets 28 hours a week as minimum operating schedule.
Dec. 10: U. S. Supreme Court rules that FCC must hear all mutually exclusive applications before making grants; reverses grant to WJEF(AM) Grand Rapids, Mich., sustains appeal of WKBZ(AM) Muskegon, Mich.
Dec. 17: Licensees must retain control of programs, U. S. District Court for New Mexico rules, outlawing contract whereby KOB(AM) Albuquerque, N. M., was to turn over an hour a day of broadcast time to New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts.
Dec. 24: FCC announces tentative allocations plan for FM, providing for over 1,500 FM stations; makes 32 more conditional grants, bringing total to 229.
Jan. 28: After two days of hearings, FCC denies petitions of Zenith and General Electric, rules that FM will stay at 88-108 mc.
Jan. 28: Achievement ot John H. DeWitt in "shooting the moon is sensation of Institute of Radio Engineers convention; report details how the chief engineer of WSM(AM) Nashville, as an Army Signal Corps officer, bounced a radar signal off the earth's satellite some 240,000 miles away and got the echo back.
Jan. 28: U. S. Court of Appeals reverses FCC denial of license renewal to WOKO(AM) Albany, N. Y., because of concealed minority stockholdings, holds the commission acted arbitrarily; FCC plans appeal to U. S. Supreme Court.
Feb. 4: General Mills allocates $5 million, half its advertising budget, for radio in 1946.
Feb. 4: CBS demonstrates color-television film program broadcast from its new UHF transmitter; says with industry cooperation color for the home can be available within a year.
Feb. 18: Charles R. Denny Jr. becomes acting chairman of FCC as Paul Porter is drafted to head Office of Price Administration.
Feb. 18: First Washington-New York telecast through AT&T coaxial cable is termed success by engineers and viewers.
Feb. 25: House approves Lea Bill to outlaw union excesses, chiefly those of AFM against radio, by a 222-43 vote.
Feb. 25: Westinghouse report on Stratovision reveals that usable signals transmitted with 250 w from altitude of 25,000 feet have been picked up 250 airline miles away.
March 4: NARBA signatory nations negotiate three-year interim agreement; clear-channel stations protest compromise that gives Cuba right to use five U. S. clear channels, foreseeing damaging interference.
March 4: Donald Flamm, former owner of WMCA(AM) New York, wins $350,000 verdict against Edward J. Nobel, ABC board chairman, in New York Supreme Court; jury upholds Mr. Flamm's charge he was forced to sell station to Mr. Noble in 1940.
March 11: FCC issues 139-page report on "Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees," soon nicknamed "The Blue Book," which lists carrying of sustaining programs, local live programs and programs devoted to discussion or public issues, along with elimination of advertising excesses, as factor to which FCC will give "particular consideration" when asked to renew station licenses; NAB declares basic freedoms of radio are at stake.
March 18: FCC makes first postwar full grants of construction permits for commercial FM stations.
April 1: ABC adopts elaborate system for recording and rebroadcasting network programs developed by Charles E. Rynd, network vice president, to keep them on air at same hour locally despite variations in time from city to city as some adopt daylight time, others remain on standard time.
April 15: Clear-channel broadcasters ask for more power to improve service to rural areas as hearings resume.
April 22: President Truman signs Lea Act, drafted to stop feather-bedding practices of unions; AFM plans court test of law's constitutionality.
April 22: If FCC adopts Avco "auction" plan it will also seek control of station sales prices, Charles R. Denny, acting chairman, tells hearing on open-bidding proposal.
April 22: CBS color-television program is successfully transmitted over 450-mile coaxial cable link from New York to Washington and back.
April 29: Associated Press votes to admit stations as associate members, in recognition of "radio as a great medium for the dissemination of news"; stations to have no vote in AP affairs.
April 29: World Wide Broadcasting Corp. wins fight for return of shortwave stations when Board of War Communications rescinds order of Nov. 4, 1942, seizing WRUL and other World Wide transmitters.
May 6: ABC buys King-Trendle Broadcasting Corp. (WXYZ[AM] Detroit, WOOD-[AM] Grand Rapids, Mich., and Michigan Radio Network) for $3.65 million, subject to FCC approval; sale of network stock to raise $15 million for this and other expansion planned
May 6: Defying Lea Act, AFM President Petrillo notifies members not to play for combined AM-FM programs.
April 29: CBS presents plan for FM network of 200 stations, with five superpower AM stations providing night-time coverage for remote areas; cost put at $10.8 million to install, with $4.8 million annual operating expenses.
May 20: Census Bureau reports 90.4% of U. S. homes had radios in 1945, up 17.9% from 1940.
June 3: AFM strikes WAAF(AM) Chicago over station's refusal to hire three additional "musicians" to work as librarians in move seen as precipitating a court test of the Lea Act.
June 3: Proposed amendments to Standards of Good Engineering Practice for FM include designation of community stations as Class A, with maximum power raised from 250 w to 1 kw; metropolitan and rural stations to comprise Class B (adopted June 24).
June 3: FCC proposes to deny sale of KQW(AM) San Francisco to CBS, as CBS already owns seven AM stations, of which six are 50 kw clear-channel stations, and "the commission is of the opinion it 15 against the public interest to permit a concentration of control of broadcasting facilities in, any single person or organization.
June 10: AFM President James C. Petrillo tells union's convention that if Supreme Court upholds Lea Act as constitutional he will forbid musicians to play on network programs at expiration of present contracts on Jan. 31, 1947.
June 17: FCC denies FM license to WWDC(AM) Washington because of plan to duplicate a give-away program which commission holds of questionable legality.
June 17: Major Edward Bowes, originator of the radio amateur show, dies after long illness on eve of 72d birthday.
June 24: Telecast of Louis-Conn heavyweight title bout, sponsored by Gillette Safety Razor Co. on four-city hook-up, reaches estimated 100,000 viewers, convinces skeptics that television is here.
June 24: E. F. McDonald Jr., president of Zenith Radio Corp., in Collier's magazine article, declares advertising alone cannot support television, public must pay for TV programs as it does for movies, magazines, newspapers.
June 24: Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting announces "temporary suspension" of service on July 31 after 17 years; Hooperatings made available to exclusive CAB subscribers.
July 8: FCC hearing procedure is radically altered under Administrative Procedures Act, effective June 1947, when hearing examiners responsible to Civil Service Commission instead of FCC will issue initial decisions that, in absence of objections, shall be adopted as final.
July 22: Denying petition of Robert Harold Scott for revocation of licenses of three San Francisco stations for refusing him time for talks on atheism, FCC nevertheless warns that "if freedom of speech is to have meaning . . it must be extended as readily to ideas which we disapprove or abhor as to ideas which we approve."
July 22: FCC adopts plan to set aside for one year every fifth Class "B" FM channel.
July 29: Religious leaders of all faiths denounce FCC opinion in atheism case.
Aug. 5: Census Bureau finds that 76.2% of U. S. farms have radios.
Aug. 5: NAB membership passes 1,000 mark.
Aug. 5: Commission adopts watered-down version of Avco plan lacking features that broadcasters most strenuously opposed.
Aug. 12: FCC adopts interim clear-channel policy providing for consideration of some clear-channel applications with mutually exclusive nonclear-channel requests; industry puzzled whether this means breakdown of clears or not.
Aug. 12: Paul W. Kesten resigns as vice chairman of the board and a director of CBS because of ill health; to continue to serve as a consultant.
Aug. 19: Bing Crosby signs $30,000-a-week contract to do series for Philco, broadcast on ABC but transcribed in advance; deal is said to stipulate return to live broadcasts if program's rating falls below an agreed-on level.
Sept 23: Drew Pearson, columnist-commentator, and his former partner, Robert Allen, apply for facilities of Hearst Radio's clear-channel station, WBAL(AM) Baltimore, under "comparative consideration" clause of FCC rules.
Sept. 30: CBS petitions FCC to adopt standards and authorize commercial operation of color-television stations in UHF frequencies immediately.
Sept. 30: Licenses of AM stations pass 1,000 mark.
Oct 21: AFM, after demanding increases ranging from 233% to 566%, accepts record manufacturers' offer of flat 37 1/2% increase in musicians' pay; asks transcription firms for $50 a man to make commercial disks of one minute or less.
Oct. 28: Clear Channel Broadcasting Service proposes realignment of clear channels whereby 20 stations (five to each network) would get 750 kw power.
Oct. 28: Promotional organization (subsequently named FM Association) is organized to foster growth of FM and succeed FMBI, now a division of NAB.
Nov. 4: RCA demonstrates all-electronic system of color TV.
Nov. 4: National Temperance and Prohibition Council sues CBS for $33 million for refusing to sell time to the organization, whose spokesmen have rejected free time on CBS.
Nov. 4: Transcription firms accede to AFM demands, agree to pay 50% more for musicians or $27 per man for a 15-minute program rehearsed and recorded in more than one hour (up from $18).
Nov. 11: Bristol-Myers is first advertiser to sponsor a television- network program: Geographically Speaking, which started Oct. 27 on NBC-TV's two-station network.
Nov. 18: Robert Harold Scott gets time on KQW(AM) San Francisco to argue cause of atheism; more than 5,000 listeners write station to praise or condemn its grant of time for the broadcast.
Nov. 18: Robert E. Kintner, ABC vice president in charge of news, special events and publicity, is elected executive vice president.
Dec. 9: Charles R. Denny is promoted from acting chairman to regular chairman of FCC.
Dec. 9: Federal District Court Judge Walter La Buy rules Lea Act unconstitutional, sustains motion of AFM President James C. Petrillo to dismiss charges of violating Lea Act in calling strike at WAAF(AM) Chicago; appeal to Supreme Court planned.
Dec. 16: Supreme Court upholds FCC in denying license renewal to WOKO(AM) Albany, N. Y., for failure to disclose 24% interest held by Sam Pickard, former FCC commissioner and CBS vice president, for 12 years.
Dec. 23: FCC orders networks to report on sustaining programs for week of Nov. 17-23, making good on "Blue Book" promise to request this information every quarter.
Jan. 27: Receiver production hit high of 15-million sets in 1946, Radio Manufacturers Association reports.
Feb. 3: Competing color systems are viewed by FCC as prelude to direct testimony at hearing on CBS petition for approval of commercial licenses for color-TV stations now.
Feb. 10: Climaxing two-year drive, MBS signs 400th affiliate.
Feb. 17: Money paid AFM by recording companies will be spent for free public concerts, James C. Petrillo announces; nearly $2-million already collected.
Feb. 24: Tests prove Stratovision feasible, Westinghouse tells FCC.
March 24: FCC denies CBS petition for commercial color-TV operation, sends color back to labs for continued search for "satisfactory" system.
April 7: Carl Haverlin, MBS station-relations vice president, is appointed first paid president of BMI at salary of $35,000 a year.
April 7: U. S. now has 35.9-million radio families (93% of all homes) who listen a total of 150.8 million hours a day, according to surveys made by Market Research Co. of America and A. C. Nielsen Co. for CBS.
April 21: Justin Miller, NAB president, urges stations to editorialize despite Mayflower edict.
April 28: Fred Allen uses gag about network vice presidents which NBC had ruled out and is cut off air while he tells it; story is front-paged across nation as advertising agency demands rebate for the 35 seconds of dead air.
May 12: Senate votes to ban union-controlled "slush funds" in amendment to Labor Bill; would permit payments such as those made to AFM by record manufacturers only if funds are jointly administered by union and management.
May 26: WGAR(AM) Cleveland wins grant for 1220 kc and 50 kw after long fight with WADC(AM) Akron, Ohio, whose application was denied solely on program grounds, FCC states.
June 9: AT&T files proposed rates for coaxial-cable intercity television program service; base rate of $40 per mile per month for eight-hour daily service is called exorbitant.
June 30: Within an hour, Taft-Hartley Act becomes law and Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of Lea Act ban on featherbedding.
July 7: Abolition of federal ban on new construction lets broadcasters go ahead with building plans.
July 7: FCC proposes to approve sale of KMED(AM) Medford, Ore., to Medford Radio Corp. which matched prior offer of Gibson Broadcasting Corp.; decision is first under Avco Rule "auction" provision in which approval went to competing bidder rather than to original "purchaser."
July 14: Brigadier General David Sarnoff becomes board chairman as well as president of RCA on retirement of former board chairman, General James G. Harbord.
July 28: FCC gets largest peacetime budget as both houses of Congress approve 1948 appropriations of $6,240,000.
July 28: A 15-point plan for permanent continuous operation of Broadcast Measurement Bureau is approved, with ANA, AAAA and NAB support.
Aug. 4: Finch Telecommunications demonstrates Colorfax, full-color facsimile process.
Aug. 18: Survey of NAB member stations shows average of commercial time is 66%, sustaining 34%, well within "Blue Book" 80-20 ratio.
Sept. 1: RCA offers to help other manufacturers get started in production of TV receivers by disclosing complete technical data of RCA's own new model.
Sept. 22: FM Association convention plans aggressive promotion of FM in year ahead; Everett L. Dillard. founder and president of Continental (FM) Network, is elected FMA president.
Sept. 22: Self-regulation is theme of NAB convention; NBC and CBS affiliated meetings plump for code in preconvention sessions; convention votes for self-improvement code "to be promulgated as expeditiously as possible"; new NAB board, on day following convention, adopts new standards of practice, to become effective Feb. 1, 1948; move made despite warning by Procter & Gamble Vice President Neil McElroy that radio's biggest customer would not favor any move to limit radio's commercial flexibility.
Sept 29: National Association of Station Representatives is formed at five-hour meeting in New York called by Paul H. Raymer and Edward Petry; goal is promotion of spot radio.
Oct. 6: National Association of Station Representatives files complaint with U. S. attorney general and FCC against CBS for assuming representation for nonnetwork sales of affiliates formerly represented by NASR members.
Oct. 13: Charles R. Denny Jr. resigns as FCC chairman to join NBC as vice president and general counsel.
Oct. 13: First telecast from White House is made when President Truman addresses nation on food conservation.
Oct. 20: Government renews prosecution of AFM President James C. Petrillo; files amended bill of criminal information in U. S. District Court in Chicago.
Oct. 27: AFM orders members to stop making recordings and transcriptions as of Dec. 31 "and never again to make them."
Nov. 10: MBS subscribes to BMB, bringing all networks into industry research organization as earlier subscriptions of ABC, NBC, CBS had been conditional on network unanimity.
Nov. 17: Television network service extends to Boston with opening of AT&T radio relay system between that city and New York.
Nov. 24: Networks and AFM begin discussions for renewal of contracts after existing pacts conclude Jan. 31, 1948.
Dec. 1: AFM President Petrillo calls off ban on performing for network co-op programs.
Dec. 29: President Truman appoints Wayne Coy, director of Washington Post stations, as FCC chairman.
Jan. 5: Year begins with AFM President James C. Petrillo pulling all AFM members out of recording studios; companies have two-year backlog of records on hand.
Jan. 5: WFIL-FM, Philadelphia Inquirer station, starts regular transmission of two facsimile editions a day, an eight-pager at 2:15 p.m., a four-pager at 5 p.m.
Jan. 12: NBC plans East Coast microwave relay system for networking TV programs as alternative to AT&T coaxial cable.
Jan. 12: Westinghouse breaks with Clear Channel Broadcasting Service, tells FCC that 20 superpower (750 kw) stations will not "adequately or economically solve the issues" of clear-channel proceeding.
Jan. 12: Mrs. W. J. Virgin, owner of KMED(AM) Medford, Ore., refuses to sell station to competing bidder selected by FCC in preference to original "purchaser"; asks reconsideration and permission to complete that transfer.
Jan. 19: Federal Judge Walter La Buy again finds James C. Petrillo, AFM president, not guilty of violating Lea Act by causing strike of librarians at WAAF(AM) Chicago; Representative Clarence F. Lea (D-Calif.), author of act, calls verdict "unwarranted."
Jan. 26: AT&T files FM tariffs; base monthly airline-mile cost for 16 consecutive hours a day is $10, compared to $6 for AM.
Feb. 2: FCC says programs of horse-race information are all right if they're part of balanced over-all program service.
Feb. 2: James C. Petrillo agrees to drop AFM ban against musicians performing for AM programs duplicated on FM; extends network contracts 60 days.
Feb. 2: FCC, by 4-to-2 vote in WHLS(AM) Port Huron, Mich., case, holds Section 313 of Communication Act to comprise "absolute" prohibition against a station's censoring political broadcasts; states this federal prohibition will relieve station of responsibility for libelous material in political broadcasts.
Feb. 2: RCA announces development of a 16-inch TV picture tube, first metal kinescope, with picture area of 125 square inches.
Feb. 9: Western Union reveals plans to enter TV network service, starting with microwave relay between New York and Philadelphia.
Feb. 23: FCC assigns band for intercity TV relays operated by broadcasters for interim period until permanent common-carrier facilities are available.
Feb. 23: Following successful test in Cincinnati, Transit Radio plans installation of FM receivers in bus and trolley lines of other cities, to receive special program service, largely music.
March 1: Senate interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee orders FCC to hold up its clear-channel decision as Senator Edwin C. Johnson (D-Colo.), ranking minority member, introduces bill to break down clear channels and limit power to 50 kw.
March 1: NAB board approves $200,000 promotion campaign for radio.
March 1: Rural Radio Network, FM project in New York State, financed by 10 farm cooperative organizations and calling for investment of $400,000 in six outlets, to begin operation with three stations in May.
March 8: FCC starts hearings on right of stations to editorialize.
March 15: American Jewish Congress petitions FCC for revocation hearing for KMPC(AM) Los Angeles, charging station with "slanting" news comments.
March 22: FCC holds three-day hearing on proposed standards for facsimile broadcasting.
March 29: AT&T files new tariffs for inter-city TV transmission, substantially lower than those proposed year ago.
March 29: FCC orders investigation of news policies of KMPC(AM) Los Angeles, WJR(AM) Detroit and WGAR(AM) Cleveland, stations owned by G. A. (Dick) Richards.
April 19: Court of Appeals for District of Columbia reverses FCC's nonhearing grant to Joseph P. Stanton of 10 kw daytime station at Philadelphia on WCKY(AM) Cincinnati's I-B clear channel (1530 kc), rules that when licensee claims a grant would adversely affect him he must be given an opportunity to argue his cause and if the argument indicates that his rights would be adversely affected, a full-dress hearing on the application must be held.
April 26: As Senate Commerce Committee closes hearing on Johnson Bill to break down clear channels, Acting Chairman Charles W. Tobey (R-N. H.) issues surprise order for new hearing to investigate broadcast allocations, regulation and patent ownership.
May 3: Affirming lower court's denial of an injunction to WSAY(AM) Rochester, N. Y., to keep ABC and MBS from switching affiliations to other stations, U. S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, New York, holds that network is not a common carrier and can make whatever contracts it wishes for the distribution of its programs.
May 10: Texas attorney general notifies FCC that despite its WHLS Port Huron decision, Texas libel laws are still in effect and "stations carrying libelous material will be subject to state laws."
May 10: FCC orders into effect earlier proposal assigning TV ch. 1 (44-50 mc) to nongovernment fixed and mobile services, denying FM spokesmen's pleas for that channel for use in FM network relaying; gives FM stations in 44-50 mc band until end of year to move to 88-108 mc; issues proposed new expanded TV allocation table; calls hearing on feasibility of TV use of frequencies above 475 mc: proposes required minimum hours of TV station operation be scaled from 12 hours a week for first 18 months to 28 hours a week after 36 months.
May 10:: House Un-American Activities Committee to investigate station grants to Edward Lamb, Representative F. Edward Hebert (D-La.) states after speech accusing Mr. Lamb of having "Communist associations and affiliations.
May 24: NAB convention approves new code, considerably revamped from original version, as ideal toward which operation should be aimed.
May 24: ABC makes public offering of 300,000 shares of voting stock; it is all sold in less than two hours at $9 a share.
May 31: President Truman nominates Miss Frieda Hennock to FCC as first woman appointee.
May 31: FCC's denial of an application made by WADC(AM) Akron, Ohio, because it contemplated full-time use of network programs is upheld by U. S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia, which divides 2-to-1 over whether decision involved censorship.
May 31: D. C. appellate court refuses to rehear the WCKY case, in which it rules FCC should have heard WCKY Cincinnati before putting a daytimer on its channel; appeal to Supreme Court foreseen.
June 7: Gulf Oil Corp. starts sponsorship of We the People on both CBS Radio and CBS-TV; first regularly sponsored simulcast series.
June 14: FCC authorizes commercial use of facsimile broadcasting on FM channels as of July 13; adopts rules and standards for printed broadcast medium.
June 14: Texas Co. puts old-style vaudeville show on TV; launches hour series on NBC-TV starring Milton Berle and with commercial delivered by Sid Stone, vaudeville pitchman.
June 28: TV coverage of GOP convention makes history, reaches 10-12 million persons, costs an estimated $200,000, is transmitted to Midwest viewers by Stratovision.
July 5: FCC officially adopts its "Port Huron" interpretation of political-broadcast law at outset of presidential campaign.
July 5: After severe congressional criticism of some Voice of America programs, NBC and CBS withdraw from programing activities for VOA.
July 19: KPRC(AM) Houston asks court to set aside commission's views on political broadcasting and itself interpret the law.
July 19: Inter-American Broadcasting Association, meeting at Buenos Aires, rebukes Argentina for having virtually abolished "liberty of dissemination as conceived by our association."
July 26: FCC orders investigation of station representation by networks to see whether it violates commission's network regulations.
July 26: Major E. H. Armstrong sues RCA and NBC for alleged infringement of five of his basic FM patents.
July 26: Give-away programs on radio networks alone total $163,000 a week, a BROADCAsTING survey reveals.
July 26: U. S. District Court of New York orders ASCAP to stop collecting performance fees from motion-picture theaters.
July 26: Five Baltimore stations are charged with contempt of court for broadcasting wire-service dispatches of arrest and confession of a man charged with two murders; press associations join NAB in fight against "Baltimore gag" rule.
Aug. 9: FCC proposes rules for give-aways which would bar practically all such programs from air.
Aug. 9: Frederic W. Ziv buys World Broadcasting System from Decca Records for $1.3 million.
Aug. 9: House Select Committee starts investigation of FCC by questioning commission officials on their stand on political broadcasts.
Aug. 16: Westinghouse applies for commercial use of Stratovision.
Aug. 23: FCC proposes to limit ownership of AM stations to seven by any entity in line with existing limit of six FM and five TV stations.
Sept 13: Complaints received from stations by NAB indicate that time chisels and per-inquiry business are at all-time high.
Sept 20: AFM President James C. Petrillo offers to end eight-and-a-half-month old ban on recordings; proposes royalty payments to be made to a disinterested trustee, who would collect funds from recordings and use them to hire unemployed musicians, avoiding Taft-Hartley ban on direct payments to union.
Sept. 27: NBC proposes new TV-affiliation contracts calling for station to give NBC 30 hours of free time a month, while network assumes all connection costs; NBC sets objective of 28 hours a week of network service.
Sept. 27: Philco asks court to force AT&T to transmit from New York to Boston TV programs sent via Philco's own relay system from Philadelphia to New York; charges AT&T with insisting its intercity facilities be used all the way.
Oct. 4: FCC puts freeze on TV licensing and hearing functions, pending decision of changes in present TV standards.
Oct. 11: CBS purchases Amos 'n' Andy outright for $2 million; makes strong effort to get Bergen and McCarthy away from NBC.
Oct 11: Court of Appeals for District of Columbia rules that FCC must grant hearing to any station that claims it will be harmed by a grant of another application, even if interference would occur outside the normally protected contour, in decision reversing a nonhearing grant to put a 1 kw daytime station at Tarboro, N. C., on the 760 kw I-A clear channel of WJR(AM) Detroit.
Oct. 11: Transit Radio opens national sales offices in New York and Chicago to represent four licensees: WCTS(FM) Cincinnati, KPRC-FM Houston, WIZZ(FM) Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, Pa., WPLH-FM Huntington, W. Va.
Oct. 25: FCC rules that equal-time provision of Communications Act applies only to candidates competing against one another in the same contest.
Oct 25: Ultrafax, high-speed communications system claimed to be capable of transmitting and receiving a million words a minute, developed by RCA in cooperation with Eastman Kodak Co. and NBC is demonstrated.
Nov. 1: Record companies and AFM reach agreement; companies to pay royalties to "public music fund" administered by impartial trustee.
Nov. 22: FCC orders hearing on news policies of G. A. Richards, owner of KMPC(AM) Los Angeles, WJR(AM) Detroit and WGAR(AM) Cleveland.
Nov. 22: Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers is organized by 26 consultants.
Nov. 29: CBS gets Jack Benny program; will start Jan. 2 in same Sunday evening period (7-7:30 p. m.) and with same sponsor (American Tobacco Co.) it had on NBC; Edgar Bergen deal awaiting Internal Revenue ruling; Phil Harris-Alice Faye show to remain on NBC for time being.
Nov. 29: Bulova Watch Co. introduces plan for combining time signals with TV station-identification announcement; 1949 advertising budget includes $300,000 for TV, $3 million for radio.
Nov. 29: Negotiations are in progress for sale of ABC to 20th Century-Fox.
Nov. 29: U. S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia reverses FCC on denial of license renewal to WORL(AM) Boston; calls action arbitrary, capricious and without "substantial" evidence.
Dec. 6: Frank M. Folsom, executive vice president in charge of Victor Div., becomes president of RCA, succeeding Brigadier General David Sarnoff, who retains board chairmanship.
Dec. 6: Verdi's "Otello" is telecast in full from stage of Metropolitan Opera House in New York on ABC-TV with Texas Co. as sponsor.
Dec. 20: Recording peace near as Labor Secretary Maurice Tobin and Attorney General Tom Clark approve "trust fund" plan as within Taft-Hartley Act; Samuel R. Rosenbaum, one-time president of WFIL-(AM) Philadelphia, is chosen as impartial trustee and administrator of the fund.
Dec. 27: Transcription companies sign five-year agreements with AFM.
Jan. 3: Affirming FCC's denial of application of Bay State Beacon Inc. for Brockton, Mass., station which would offer 93% of its time for sale, Court of Appeals of District of Columbia rules commission has right to examine percentages of commercial and sustaining time proposed by applicant.
Jan. 10: Daytime Stratovision tests deliver good pictures to some areas but in others local-station interference mars reception.
Jan. 10: With Jack Benny and Amos 'n' Andy in its Sunday night line-up, CBS Radio now tops NBC in ratings in the critical 7-8 p. m. period.
Jan. 10: Resisting FCC order to move all FM to 88-108 mc, FM inventor, E. H. Armstrong, wins stay order from U. S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia permitting his experimental station, W2XMN Alpine, N. J., to continue operating on 44.1 mc pending a hearing.
Jan. 10: Admiral Corp. will sponsor hour-long musical-revue series, Friday Night Frolic, on combined NBC and DuMont television networks, starring Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca and the Gower and Marge Champion dance team.
Jan. 17: John Churchill resigns as BMB research director; NAB lends its director of research, Dr. Kenneth H. Baker, to supervise BMB's second nationwide study of station and network audiences.
Jan. 17: Liggett & Myers's contracts for baseball telecasts also include exclusive right to in-park advertising, so that camera in covering games will have only Chesterfield ads in background.
Jan. 17: AT&T coaxial cable links East Coast and Midwest television stations.
Jan. 24: CBS gets services of Bing Crosby for both radio and television.
Jan. 31: Baltimore court finds three stations guilty of contempt for violating court's rule prohibiting publication of crime news, fines wiTh $300 and costs, James p. Connolly, wim commentator, $100 and costs, WFBR $300 and costs, WCBM $300 and costs; WISD, in suburban Essex, found not guilty in absence of proof its broadcasts were heard in city.
Jan. 31: CBS signs Edgar Bergen and Red Skelton; other deals reported near.
Jan. 31: Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presents first Emmy awards; KTSL(TV) Los Angeles telecasts ceremonies.
Jan. 31: KMED(AM) Medford, Ore., tells FCC its sale to Gibson Broadcasting is off and all because of commission's competitive bidding rule.
Feb. 7: Appellate division of New York Supreme Court sets aside award of $490,419 to Donald Flamm, former owner of WMCA(AM) New York, in suit against Edward J. Noble, ABC board chairman, to whom Mr. Flamm sold WMCA in 1941.
Feb. 7: Pennsylvania state board of censors of motion pictures orders censorship of TV films before they are telecast by any Pennsylvania station.
Feb. 14: NBC rescinds rule against use of transcriptions on network.
Feb. 28: Crosley Broadcasting Corp. is left as only bidder for WHAS(AM) Louisville as Bob Hope and Fort Industry Co. drop out.
March 7: NBC affiliates give network a vote of confidence at Chicago meeting.
March 7: Hugh Feltis resigns as president of BMB to become general manager of KING(AM) Seattle.
March 21: Fred Allen signs contract giving NBC exclusive rights to his services for radio and television.
April 4: NAB protests limitations on use of 540 kc channel proposed by FCC: to limit power to 1 kw and no use at all within 23 miles of some 224 military installations; points out that 1947 Atlantic City allocations made 540 kc a broadcast channel.
April 11: Frank K. White, president of Columbia Records and previously treasurer and vice president of CBS, becomes president of Mutual, succeeding Edgar Kobak, retiring to open office as business consultant.
April 18: After stormy debate on convention floor, with expansion of Broadcast Advertising Department of NAB demanded, board creates Broadcast Advertising Bureau, names Maurice B. Mitchell as its director, operating under a board policy committee, and earmarks $100,000 to get it going.
April 18: BMB wins a vote of confidence from convention and a loan of $75,000 from NAB.
April 18: International high-frequency conference at Mexico City comes to stormy end as U. S. delegation refuses to approve a pilot plan giving Russia and other countries a greater share of channel hours; Russia also refuses to sign.
May 2: Two New York-Chicago channels added to AT&T coaxial cable service now provide three west-bound, and one east- bound channel for television programs.
May 9: FCC authorizes NBC to operate a UHF station at Bridgeport, Conn., for experimental rebroadcasts of programs of UHF WNBT(TV) New York.
May 9: Arthur Godfrey was top CBS wage-earner in 1948 with pay of $258,450, not including the $123,624 paid by CBS to Arthur Godfrey Productions for "program services" or the $38,441 AGP got from Columbia Records. Lowell Thomas was top "independent contractor" on the network, getting $402,300 for program services.
May 16: CBS signs Frank Stanton to 10-year contract to continue as president at base salary of $100,000 a year, followed by 10-year consultant's contract at $25,000 a year.
May 16: Don McNeill, conductor of ABC's Breakfast Club, was paid $180,229 by ABC in 1948, top payment by network for services.
May 23: Mark Woods signs five-year contract with ABC to remain as president at $75,000 a year; Robert E. Kintner as executive vice president at $50,000 and C. Nicholas Priaulx as vice president and treasurer at $27,500; all provide for increases if earnings improve.
May 23: Associated Actors and Artistes of America, parent AFL talent union, sets plans for new branch, Television Authority, to end conflicting claims of Actors' Equity, AFRA, Screen Actors Guild and others.
May 30: FCC consolidates all major television problems, including UHF-VHF allocations and color; plans hearings to start in August.
May 30: Arkansas Supreme Court upholds Little Rock's city tax on radio stations.
May 30: Representative John Rankin (D-Miss.) introduces bill to make networks, stations and broadcasters-commentators liable to suit by a person slandered in district where he resides "at the county seat" by law of Congress; FCC is "too slow," Mr. Rankin states.
May 30: Disputing suggestion of FCC Chairman Wayne Coy that FM stations be forced to duplicate AM programs when facilities are jointly operated, FM Association President William E. Ware declares that "such regulations would sound the death knell of FM."
May 30: WORL(AM) Boston goes off air after fighting for license renewal since 1945.
May 30: Longest direct TV pickup, 129 miles, made by KFMB-TV San Diego during dedication when it got and rebroadcast salute from KTLA(TV) Los Angeles without special equipment of any kind.
June 6: FCC sanctions editorializing by broadcast stations within undefined limits of "fairness" and "balance" by 4-101 vote, overriding eight-year-old Mayflower decision; Commissioner Frieda B. Hennock, dissenting, contends majority's standard of fairness is "virtually impossible of enforcement"; CBS announces it will editorialize "from time to time."
June 13: FCC repeals Avco rule which for four years had required stations up for sale to be advertised for competing bids; admits rule had failed its purpose and often inflicted "severe economic and other hardships" on buyers and sellers.
June 13: Maryland court of appeals reverses lower court ruling that upheld "Baltimore gag" rule, reverses contempt citations against WCBM(AM), WITH(AM) and WFBR(AM) Baltimore and James P. Connolly, former WITH news editor.
June 13: NAB TV Music Committee and ASCAP reach tentative agreement on AM formula plus 10% as basis for TV music licenses; stations and ASCAP members asked to approve before July 1 deadline.
June 27: Broadcast Advertising Bureau transfers headquarters to New York; plans expanded operations with $200,000 budget.
July 4: CBS, having announced that it would broadcast editorials over its own name, now says it will sell time for "expression of opinion on public issues."
July 11: Sylvester L. (Pat) Weaver, vice president and radio-TV director of Young & Rubicam, joins NBC as vice president in charge of television.
July 18: NAB board streamlines association organization, establishes an audio division comprising both AM and FM and a video division; A. D. Willard, executive vice president, declines appointment as head of video division and resigns to return to private industry.
July 18: FCC announces TV allocations plan: to add 42 UHF channels to the present 12 VHF channels, with another 23 to 28 UHF channels reserved for experimental television, providing for 2,245 TV stations in 1,400 communities.
Aug. 29: FCC bans give-aways as violation of criminal lottery laws.
Sept. 5: ABC, CBS, NBC seek injunctions to prevent FCC from putting its antigiveaway ruling into effect.
Sept. 12: AT&T's policy of not connecting its television-network facilities with those of private broadcasters is called "unlawful" in proposed FCC report.
Sept. 12: Attempts of TV networks to obtain exclusive rights to World Series end in offer of telecasts to all on "no pay, no charge" terms; Gillette Safety Razor Co. buys rights, gets TV time free.
Sept. 26: FCC denies sale of WHAS(AM) Louisville, Ky., to Crosley Corp. because of overlap between WHAS and Crosley's WLW(AM) Cincinnati.
Sept. 26: Justice Department files antitrust suit against Lorain (Ohio) Journal, charging conspiracy to damage WEOL-AM-FM Elyria-Lorain through restraint and monopoly of the dissemination of news and advertising. Sept 26: FCC suspends ban on give-away programs until court tests decided.
Sept. 26: Schenley Distillers, after stirring up broadcasters by proposing to buy time for its hard-liquor products, decides to maintain its "no-radio" policy; reports more than 200 stations were ready to accept hard-liquor commercials.
Oct. 10: Niles Trammell becomes NBC board chairman; Joseph McConnell, RCA executive vice president, succeeds him as NBC president.
Oct. 1: CBS demonstrates studio, film and outside pickups in color to FCC; observers find quality generally good.
Oct. 10: Efforts of Associated Actors and Artistes of America to vest television jurisdiction in new 4-A Television Authority hits snag when Screen Actors Guild refuses to yield any jurisdiction over films.
Oct. 17: RCA official demonstration of its color system to FCC, presented in rush, is admittedly disappointing; later informal showings much better.
Oct. 24: TV networks sign five-year contracts with ASCAP retroactive to Jan. 1, 1949; work commences on per-program license terms.
Oct. 31: U. S. District Court for Eastern District of Pennsylvania rules that attempt of state board of censorship to require censorship of television films is invalid because it infringes on field of interstate commerce.
Oct. 31: AFM issues film rates: $27 a man for 15 minutes or less. compared to live-television network rate of $16.20 a man for 30 minutes or less; union also proposes that musicians be employed as librarians and film cutters.
Nov. 7: Mutual and Gillette Safety Razor Co. sign seven-year, $1-million contract for radio rights to World Series and All-Star baseball games.
Nov. 14: U. S. Supreme Court upholds Little Rock, Ark., city taxes of $250 a year on generation of radio waves and $50 on solicitors of local advertisers.
Nov. 14: NBC reorganizes into three self-contained operating divisions: television network, radio network, owned-and-operated stations, plus small, high-level management staff.
Nov. 21: NAB approves plan to reorganize BMB as independent stock company along line of BMI; extends deadline for dissolution of present BMB to July 1, 1950.
Nov. 21: Television Authority is launched as AFL talent union for television, despite opposition of Screen Actors Guild and Screen Extras Guild.
Dec. 12: Stalemated when U. S. rejects Cuba's channel demands, NARBA conference at Montreal recesses for four months to give U. S. and Cuba time to work out an agreement.
Dec. 12: FM Association votes to disband, merge with NAB.
Jan. 2: Robert E. Kintner becomes president of ABC as Mark Woods is elected vice chairman.
Jan. 2: NBC-TV asks affiliates to clear two and a half hours on Saturday night for network variety series.
Jan. 9: DuMont scores NBC Saturday night request as clear attempt to freeze out competition; asks FCC to stop the attempt.
Jan. 9: NBC opens UHF TV satellite station in Bridgeport, Conn., for experimental rebroadcasts of WNBT(TV) New York programs on 529-535 mc band.
Jan. 16: U. S. Supreme Court refuses to review decision of Maryland Court of Appeals invalidating Baltimore court principle that broadcasting or publishing news of an indicted criminal constitutes contempt of court; effect is to extend to Maryland generally accepted rules of free press in crime reporting.
Jan. 16: CBS reports 90% of those seeing its demonstration colorcasts in Washington say they find color more enjoyable than black and white; puts on half-hour show twice daily to 300 spectators.
Feb. 13: U. S. Supreme Court rules that FCC disapproval of a contract negotiated by a licensee is not enough to invalidate the contract in a decision upholding an award to Southern Broadcasting Stations in its suit against Georgia School of Technology (WGST[AM] Atlanta).
Feb. 13: FCC approves request of Zenith Radio Corp. for public test of Phonevision in Chicago.
Feb. 20: Finding that NBC's plan for a two-and-a-half-hour Saturday-night TV program violates the FCC's network rules, commission starts issuing temporary licenses to stations that have agreed to take all or part of the program.
March 6: New Mexico appellate court rules all KOB(AM) Albuquerque broadcasts are interstate commerce and therefore not taxable by state; Virginia general assembly passes bill forbidding cities, towns or counties in state from levying license or privilege taxes on broadcasting stations.
March 6: A. C. Nielsen Co. buys national network Hooperatings from C. E. Hooper Inc.
March 20: Broadcast Audience Measurement is formed as successor to BMB; to be financed through sale of stock to broadcasters on BMI pattern.
March 20: Hearing on news policies of G. A. Richards stations opens in Los Angeles.
March 20: Gov. John S. Battle of Virginia signs law prohibiting city, town or county tax on radio or TV stations.
March 20: Forbidden by the FCC from censoring political broadcasts, broadcasters are not liable for defamatory remarks in such broadcasts, Federal District Court Judge Kirkpatrick rules in suit of David H. H. Felix against five Philadelphia stations.
March 27: WFIL(AM) Philadelphia cuts night rates, increases daytime rates, as move to adjust radio price scale to growing audience for television.
April 3: RCA shows its new tri-color picture tube; calls for adoption of compatible color standards.
April 3: WTMJ-FM Milwaukee, first FM station west of the Alleghenies, turns back its license and goes off air after 10 years.
April 17: FCC, interpreting its decision on editorializing, says stations have "an affirmative duty to seek out aid and encourage the broadcast of opposing views on controversial questions of public importance."
April 17: Procter & Gamble Co. asks for two-year contracts with no rate increases and a third-year option at not more than a 33 1/3% boost from TV stations to carry its Beulah Show on ABC-TV; National Association of Radio Station Representatives protests the proposed rate freeze.
April 24: William B. Ryan, general manager of KFI(AM) Los Angeles, is elected general manager of NAB to direct departmental operations.
May 15: Television does not hurt attendance at sports events after first year of set ownership, when novelty has worn off, according to study conducted by Jerry Jordan.
May 22: CBS and its owned stations withdraw from NAB.
May 22: Color Television Inc. demonstrates its color system to FCC.
May 22: DuMont shows its new three-color direct-view TV receiver tube.
May 29: Chromatic Television Labs and Don Lee Broadcasting System both announce development of new tri-color TV
June 5: ABC and its five owned stations pull out of NAB.
June 5: NBC starts counter raid for CBS talent; signs Groucho Marx to eight-year, $3-million capital-gains contract; goes after other name stars.
June 12: NBC signs Bob Hope to five-year contract.
June 12: KFI-AM-FM-TV Los Angeles asks all employes to sign loyalty oaths disclaiming membership in the Communist Patty or other subversive groups.
June 12: Radio Manufacturers Association becomes Radio-Television Manufacturers Association.
June 19: ABC signs Don McNeill, conductor of Breakfast Club, to 20-year contract; also purchases Screen Guild Players; NBC signs Kate Smith to five-year TV contract.
June 19: John Shepard III, founder of Yankee Network, dies of heart attack at 64.
June 19: Skiatron Corp. announces "Subscriber Vision" as its entry in pay-television field.
July 24: Following outbreak of hostilities in Korea, White House calls for formation of all-inclusive Broadcasters Defense Council to organize radio-TV for instant availability for government.
July 24: John J. Gillin Jr., WOW(AM) chief, dies of heart seizure at 43.
July 24: FCC upholds right of networks to act as advertising representatives for their affiliates after two-year investigation of complaint of NARSR.
July 31: Association of National Advertisers starts drive for lower radio rates, citing inroads of TV on radio audience.
Aug. 21: Hugh M. P. Higgins, vice president and general manager of WMOA(AM) Marietta, Ohio, is named interim director of Broadcast Advertising Bureau.
Aug. 28: FCC dismisses complaint against KOB(AM) Albuquerque filed in March 1946 by then New Mexico Governor John J. Dempsey accusing the station of broadcasting libelous attacks against him; admonishes station to "reread" the commission's new decision on editorializing.
Sept. 4: FCC states it will adopt the CBS color-television system unless set makers agree to "bracket standards" to enable sets to receive both present 525-line pictures and the 405-line images proposed by CBS; if they agree, commission will adopt "bracket standards" for black-and-white TV, postpone color decision.
Sept. 4: General Foods drops Jean Muir from Aldrich Family after protests against her appearance from "a number of groups"; Joint Committee Against Communism claims credit for her removal, announcing a drive "to cleanse" radio and television of pro-Communist actors, directors, writers; Miss Muir denies any Communist affiliations or sympathies.
Sept. 4: U. S. District Court in Cleveland holds that a newspaper which refuses to carry advertisement of local radio sponsors violates the antitrust laws, in deciding government antitrust suit against the Lorain (Ohio) Journal for unfair competition with WEOL(AM) Elyria, Ohio.
Sept. 4: Color Television Inc. announces new compatible "dash sequential" system of color TV; petitions FCC to reopen color hearings.
Sept. 4: National Opinion Research Corp. will survey attendance at college football games to determine effect of telecasts; project is jointly sponsored by the TV networks and National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Sept. 11: Three TV networks - ABC, CBS, NBC - agree to pay $30,000 apiece to Gillette Safety Razor Co. for pooled telecast of World Series, Gillette having paid $800,000 for TV rights; stations to be paid for one hour's time for each first four games; DuMont refuses to take part, denounces deal as "economically detrimental" to TV.
Sept. 28: Schenley International Corp. buys time on Hawaiian and Alaskan radio station to advertise whiskies.
Sept. 28: Multiplex Development Corp. demonstrates method for simultaneous broadcast of three signals on single FM channel.
Oct. 2: Liberty Broadcasting System starts operating as fifth national network, feeding more than 10 hours of programs a day to 240 outlets.
Oct. 2: Lewis Allen Weiss resigns as board chairman of Don Lee Broadcasting System, ending 20 years with the regional network.
Oct. 2: Set makers tell FCC they can't begin turning out TV sets with bracket standards by proposed November deadline.
Oct. 9: FCC initiates rulemaking proposal to equalize competition among the TV networks and eliminate the alleged domination of NBC-TV and, secondarily, of CBS-TV.
Oct. 16: FCC approves CBS color, effective Nov. 20; CBS promises 20 hours of color programs a week within two months; RCA continues work on its compatible system; manufacturers divided as to whether to make sets and converters to receive CBS colorcasts.
Oct. 16: FCC denies renewal of license to WTUX(AM) Wilmington, Del., on grounds that station, despite due notices, continued horse racing programing that was of a "high degree of aid" to local bookmakers.
Oct. 23: NBC presents four-part radio plan to affiliates: Operation Tandem, rotating participation by six sponsors in five separate hour-long programs on different nights; Night and Day, three-advertiser participation in two daytime and one night-time period on rotating three-week schedule; Sight and Sound, three-advertiser rotating participation on a half-hour radio and half-hour TV program; This Is Television, radio show made up of excerpts from six TV shows to be sold to the TV sponsors.
Oct. 23: Mexico withdraws from NARBA conference, already in difficulty over failure of U. S. and Cuban delegations to agree.
Oct. 23: RCA files suit in federal district court in Chicago asking temporary injunction against FCC's color order being made effective pending determination of suit for a permanent injunction; Pilot Radio Corp. files similar suit in Brooklyn but withdraws it when FCC moves to transfer RCA suit to New York.
Oct. 23: President Frank Stanton of CBS goes on network to "clear up" confusion over FCC color decision created by "the reaction of some of the television set manufacturers"; Robert C. Sprague, president, Radio Television Manufacturers Association, asks for and gets time to reply.
Oct. 30: Reporting on its experience with UHF operation in Bridgeport, Conn., RCA states: "It will be most unfortunate if television expansion has to go into the UHF band."
Nov. 20: Cuba gets right to use six U. S. 1-A clear channels and Jamaica two under new five-year North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement signed by United States, Canada, Cuba, Bahamas, Jamaica and Dominican Republic; Mexico, which withdrew from the conference, and Haiti, which did not participate, will be given chance to subscribe.
Nov. 20: Chicago federal court issues temporary restraining order halting FCC from putting its color rule into effect before a final decision is made.
Dec. 11: FCC, by 4-to-2 vote, proposes to renew license of WBAL(AM) Baltimore and deny application of Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen for the 50-kw, 1-B clear-channel facility.
Dec. 25: Chicago federal court dismisses RCA complaint against FCC adoption of CBS color system but bans commercial operation pending decision by U. S. Supreme Court.
Dec. 25: CBS asks all employes to sign loyalty oaths; NBC has inquired as to its employes' Communist Party membership since 1944.
Jan. 1: FCC approves General Tire & Rubber Co. purchase of Don Lee Broadcasting System for $12,320.000; company also owns Yankee Network; sells KTSL(TV) Los Angeles to CBS for $333,765.
Jan. 1: New antenna rules call for special study of all towers over 500 feet for air-safety purposes; those under 500 feet need special studies only if located near airports or airway systems.
Jan. 1: Gillette Safety Razor Co. buys TV rights to World Series and All-Star baseball games for six years at $1 million a year; also holds radio rights through 1956 with Mutual.
Jan. 1: Zenith Radio Corp. starts Phonevision tests in Chicago; 300 families to get "top-flight" motion pictures which they can see by calling an operator, agreeing to pay $1; otherwise they, and other viewers, get only a scrambled signal.
Jan. 8: William B. Ryan, NAB general manager, is elected president of Broadcast Advertising Bureau.
Jan. 8: NBC shelves proposed nighttime rate cut for its radio network after majority of affiliates register opposition.
Jan. 15: National Collegiate Athletic Association adopts plan for close control of telecasts of football games.
Jan. 22: AFM sets 50% increase in base pay plus employment quotas; seen as tripling music costs as price for signing new contracts at radio-TV network key stations in New York, Chicago and Hollywood.
Feb. 5: NAB board revises by-laws to provide a board chairmanship (and elects Justin Miller to the post, relieving him of operating duties), and TV participation; changes name of organization to National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters; grants active-membership privileges to radio and TV stations and networks; creates autonomous 25-member radio and 13-member TV boards of directors.
Feb. 5: Progressive Broadcasting System suspends operation two months and five days after its opening, Nov. 26, 1950.
Feb. 5: Clear Channel Broadcasting Service vigorously opposes ratification of new NARBA treaty sent to Senate by President Truman with request for favorable consideration.
Feb. 12: Average family sees movies at home slightly better than twice a week in Phonevision test, Zenith Radio Corp. says in report on first four weeks of pay-TV.
March 5: Television Broadcasters Association dissolves; Thad H. Brown Jr., TBA counsel, becomes counsel for TV branch of NARTB.
March 12: After negotiations of more than a year between ASCAP and the All-Industry TV Per Program Committee fail to produce agreement on per-program license terms, ASCAP mails out license forms calling for payments of 8.5% to 9.5% of card rate for use of its tunes on commercial TV programs; terms had been rejected by industry committee.
March 19: Renewing drive for lower radio rates, ANA asserts that inroad of TV on full networks now amounts to 19.2% for NBC, 19.4% for CBS, compared to 14.9% for both networks in summer of 1950.
March 19: ABC offers sponsors of afternoon programs on NBC 45% discounts of one-fourth of full-hour rate, plus $1,000 a week toward programs costs, to switch those shows to ABC.
March 19: National Association of Radio Station Representatives becomes National Association of Radio and Television Station Representatives, changing from NARSR to NARTSR.
March 19: Former Federal Judge Simon H. Rifkind is retained as special counsel by All-Industry Television Per Program Committee; Dwight W. Martin, WLW-TV Cincinnati, committee chairman, asks TV stations to contribute four times highest quarter-hour rate to finance whatever action may be called for.
March 19: Frank Costello's hands provide television's picture of the week as he refuses to expose his face to the cameras covering the New York hearings of the Senate Crime Investigating Committee whose chairman is Senator Estes Kefauver (D-Tenn.).
March 26: FCC reveals proposed allocations plan making full use of UHF band in addition to 12 VHF channels to provide for some 2,000 TV stations in more than 1,200 communities; about 10% of channels are to be reserved for "indefinite" period for non-commercial educational stations.
March 26: First multiplex facsimile network is operated as joint venture of Columbia University, Hogan Labs, Rural Radio Foundation, WOR-FM New York, WHVA(FM) Poughkeepsie, N. Y., WQAN(FM) Scranton, Pa., and WHCU-FM Ithaca, N. Y.; newspaper prepared by Columbia Graduate School Of Journalism is sent by land-line to the WOR-FM transmitter and relayed in turn by the Poughkeepsie and Scranton stations to Ithaca, using equipment designed by Hogan Labs.
March 26: Skiatron Electronics & Television Inc. shows its Subscriber-Vision system of pay-TV to FCC in test broadcast from WOR-TV New York.
April 9: Harold E. Fellows, general manager, WEEI(AM) Boston, is chosen as NARTB president.
April 16: CBS cuts radio rates 10%-15% as of July 1; ABC says it will match this reduction.
April 16: CBS enters manufacturing field with purchase of Hytron Radio & Electronics Corp., tube manufacturer, and its set-making subsidiary, Air King Products Co.
April 16: ABC signs its president, Robert E. Kintner, to seven-year contract at $75,000 a year, with option on three additional years at $100,000 a year, plus bonuses.
April 23: Network affiliates, at special meeting at NARTB convention, elect Paul W. Morency, WTIC(AM) Hartford, Conn., chairman of special committee charged with persuading CBS to rescind its proposed rate cuts and the other radio networks from cutting their rates.
April 23: U. S. Supreme Court refuses to review ruling of lower court that Communications Act does not prohibit stations from censoring political talks by persons who are not candidates.
April 30: Thomas F. O'Neil, vice president and director of Don Lee and Yankee regional networks, is elected board chairman of Mutual, succeeding Theodore C. Streibert, president of WOR(AM) New York.
May 7: NBC announces 10%-15% cut in radio rates, comparable to that of CBS; ABC and MBS plan similar reductions.
May 14: Tilting the antenna of a UHF transmitter can double its signal strength, RCA engineers report after Bridgeport experiments.
May 28: United Paramount Theaters and American Broadcasting Co. agree on $25-million merger; Leonard Goldenson, UPT president, would he president of new company, with ABC President Robert Kintner continuing as president of its broadcasting division and Edward J. Noble, ABC board chairman and chief owner, becoming chairman of the finance committee.
May 28: Justice Department starts probe into restrictions placed on broadcasts and telecasts of all professional and amateur sports, with special emphasis on baseball play-by-play policies.
June 4: Supreme Court affirms lower-court ruling upholding FCC adoption of color standards; CBS plans to start colorcasting by end of June; RCA says it will continue public demonstrations of its "improved, compatible, all-electronic system."
June 4: G. A. (Dick) Richards dies at 62 after suffering for many years from a serious heart ailment; long-standing FCC proceedings for renewal of licenses of his three stations--KMPC Los Angeles, WJR Detroit, WGAR Cleveland--are still not ended.
June 4: U. S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia orders WWDC-FM Washington and Capital Transit Co. to cease commercial announcements in street cars and buses as depriving "objecting passengers of liberty without due process of law"; appeal planned.
June 11: General Tire & Rubber Co. buys KFI-TV Los Angeles for $2.3 million.
June 18: Chris Witting, general manager of the DuMont TV Network, becomes director of the network and the three DuMont TV stations--WABD(TV) New York, WTTG(TV) Washington, WDTV(TV) Pittsburgh--succeeding Mortimer W. Loewi.
June 25: ABC reorganizes into four divisions with a vice president in charge of each: Ernest Lee Jahncke for Radio Network Division, Alexander Stronach Jr. for Television Network Division, Slocum Chapin for Owned Television Stations and Television Spot Sales, James Connolly for Owned Radio Stations and Radio Spot Sales.
June 25: Louis-Savold heavyweight fight, telecast to nine theaters in six cities but not to homes, draws capacity crowds.
June 25: After years of hearings, FCC grants renewal of license to WBAL Baltimore, dismissing the application of Drew Pearson and Robert Allen for the facilities.
July 2: Mark Woods resigns as vice chairman of ABC.
July 2: Sixteen advertisers co-sponsor first commercial colorcast, hour-long program on five-station East Coast CBS-TV hookup.
July 16: CBS separates its operations into six divisions, each with its own president: CBS Radio Division, headed by Howard S. Meighan; CBS Television Division, headed by J. L. Van Volkenburg; CBS Laboratories Division, headed by Adrian Murphy; CBS-Columbia Inc. (set manufacturing), headed by David H. Cogan; Columbia Records Inc., headed by James B. Conkling; Hytron Radio & Electronics Corp., headed by Bruce A. Coffin.
July 16: Failing in its attempt to raid NBC, ABC introduces its own set of daytime serials.
July 23: U. S. Court of Appeals orders FCC to resolve the 10-year-old 770 kc dispute of WJZ(AM) New York and KOB(AM) Albuquerque, N. M.
July 23: Failing to agree with ASCAP on proper terms of TV per-program licenses after two years of negotiations, the All-Industry TV Per Program Committee files a petition on behalf of over 30 TV stations asking U. S. District Court in New York to set reasonable fees, as provided in the 1941 ASCAP consent decree.
Aug. 20: Robert Saudek, ABC vice president, resigns to become director of Ford Foundation's Television-Radio Workshop.
Aug. 20: Screen Actor's Guild, opening contract negotiations with motion-picture producers, asks for ban on TV use of pictures made after Aug. 1 until an agreement is reached on conditions of TV exhibition.
Sept. 10: President Truman's address at Japanese peace-treaty conference in San Francisco is pooled telecast to open $40-million coast-to-coast television-network facilities of AT&T.
Sept. 10: NCAA announces TV schedule of 19 games featuring 29 teams on nine Saturdays; each city to get seven games with two "blacked out"; Westinghouse Electric Corp. sponsoring on NBC-TV; colleges to get about $700,000 of $1.25 million paid for rights plus time.
Sept. 10: Gillette Safety Razor Co., holder of World Series TV rights for six years, signs four-year contract with NBC-TV as network to carry the games.
Sept. 17: Senator William Benton (D-Conn.) proposes that a limited amount of radio and TV time be given free to responsible candidates for federal office as a means of reducing campaign costs.
Oct. 1: Brigadier General David Sarnoff, RCA board chairman, on completion of 45 years in radio, asks RCA scientists for three "gifts" for his 50th anniversary: an electronic amplifier for light for television, a television picture recorder and an electronic air-conditioner for home use.
Oct. 8: Completely revamping its policies, NBC Radio eliminates "must buys" to let advertiser pick the stations he wants; changes network rates of affiliates, some up, some down; adds more stations, possibly as many as 200, to the network; will broadcast Minute Man programs with top stars as network sustainers for local sale by affiliates on a "pay as you sell" plan; offers certain network programs to advertisers on a one-time-or-more basis; revises network option time to conform to changed sales requirements.
Oct. 8: Major-league baseball teams drop "territorial" rules cramping radio-TV rights; Department of Justice starts court effort to break down professional football's bans on broadcasting.
Oct. 8: Merger of radio-television properties of General Tire & Rubber Co. and R. H. Macy & Co. combines WOR-AM-FM-TV New York with Don Lee and Yankee Network, giving new firm majority (58%) control of MBS.
Oct. 15: RCA publicly shows its improved color system in New York and Washington; viewers agree quality is excellent.
Oct. 22: Complying with request of Defense Mobilization Chief Charles E. Wilson, CBS agrees to stop color-TV manufacturing and broadcasting for "duration of the emergency"; halts plans of James Lees & Sons Co., carpet firm, to be first regular network color sponsor.
Oct. 22: NARTB TV board approves new and strict TV code with seal which subscribing stations may show; review board to enforce advertising and program provisions and to check unfair competition within the industry; seal may be withdrawn for code violations.
Nov. 5: Judge Ira E. Robinson, one-time Chairman of Federal Radio Commission, dies at 82.
Nov. 12: Federal District Court orders KSFO(AM) San Francisco to make time available for campaign broadcast for Communist candidate as refusal would constitute censorship beyond authority of licensee.
Nov. 19: NBC Radio offers to guarantee to deliver 5.3-million messages a week at cost of $2.75 per thousand for three-program deal: rebate will be made to advertiser if Nielsen audit at end of 13 weeks shows total listener-impressions are below guarantee.
Nov. 19: Bing Crosby Enterprises announces development of a system for recording sight-and-sound programs on magnetic tape; pictures shown at demonstration described as "hazy" but "viewable."
Nov. 26: Transradio Press Service shuts down its news service after 17 years. xDec. 3: NBC affiliates reject its "guaranteed advertising attention plan"; ask network to delay its new rate formula until new research determines present radio values; approves establishment of an NBC merchandising department but turns down its "market-basket plan" of merchandised advertising.
Dec. 3: Three-year-old hearing on renewal of licensee of the Richards stations, WJR Detroit, WGAR Cleveland and KMPC Los Angeles, ends with FCC accepting assurances of Mrs. G. A. Richards that the stations would not broadcast biased or slanted news and granting the license renewals.
Dec. 3: National Television Systems Committee starts field tests of tentative standards for compatible TV.
Dec. 17: Louis G. Caldwell, "dean of radio law," dies at 60.
Dec. 17: Upholding lower court, U. S. Supreme Court holds that Lorain (Ohio) Journal violated antitrust laws when it refused to sell advertising to local advertisers who bought time on WEOL Elyria, Ohio.
Dec. 31: Westinghouse Electric Corp. buys $3-million campaign package on CBS Radio and CBS Television, including conventions, 13-week get-out-the-vote campaign and election-night coverage.
Jan. 7: Philco Corp. buys NBC radio-TV coverage of political conventions and election night for $3.8 million.
Jan. 28: Admiral Corp. buys convention and election coverage on ABC radio and TV networks for reported $2 million; DuMont announces its coverage, in cooperation with Life magazine, will be available for local sales by affiliates on co-op basis; (offer later withdrawn and Westinghouse buys DuMont as well as CBS coverage).
Feb. 25: Wayne Coy resigns as FCC chairman to become consultant to Time Inc.
Feb. 25: Liberty Broadcasting System sues 13 of the 16 major-league ball teams for $12 million, triple the damage allegedly suffered through loss of Game of the Day broadcasts; MBS announces that nine teams have contracted for participation in its Game of the Day broadcasts.
March 3: Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-Tex.) bars radio-television coverage of House committees.
March 3: President appoints Commissioner Paul A. Walker FCC chairman.
March 10: CBS acquires 45% interest in KQV(AM) Pittsburgh; arranges merger of WCCO(AM) and WTCN-TV Minneapolis-St. Paul, with CBS holding 47%, subject to FCC approval.
March 10: CBS demonstrates all-electronic color-TV receiver operating with CBS color system.
March 17: Adrian Murphy, president, CBS Labs, becomes president, CBS Radio Division, succeeding Howard S. Meighan, who joins the general executive group of CBS Inc.
March 17: Naylor Rogers, executive vice president of Keystone Broadcasting System, who entered radio in 1925 as general manager of KNX(AM) Los Angeles, dies at 66.
April 7: Wallace A. White Jr., former Republican senator, from Maine, co-author of the Radio Act of 1927 and active in communications during his 32 years in House and Senate, dies at 74.
April 14: FCC issues "Sixth Report and Order," lifting freeze on television as of July 1; provides for 2,053 stations in 1,291 cities, 617 VHF and 1,436 UHF, including 242 non-commercial educational stations (80 of them VHF); three zones are established, with different mileage separations and antenna-height regulations; Commissioner Robert F. Jones dissents vehemently to whole report; Commissioner Frieda Hennock objects to "inadequate" educational reservations.
April 28: MBS Board Chairman Thomas F. O'Neil assumes presidency as well, following resignation of Frank White.
May 19: Liberty Broadcasting System, unable to break broadcasting restrictions of major baseball leagues, suspends operations.
June 2: Overruling Court of Appeals finding that transit broadcasts deprived riders of their liberty without due process of law, U. S. Supreme Court holds that D. C. Public Utilities Commission was within its rights in permitting radio programing for street cars and buses in the nation's capital.
June 2: Walter Evans, president, Westinghouse Radio Stations, dies at 53.
June 2: FCC approves sale of KOB-AM-TV Albuquerque, N. M., to Time Inc. and Wayne Coy for $600,000.
June 16: U. S. Supreme Court, remanding to FCC its grant of a new station to Texas Star Broadcasting Co., states that in considering an application for a new station the commission must weigh the gain of the new proposed service against the loss to be suffered by an existing licensee.
June 23: NBC reorganizes with Vice President Sylvester L. Weaver put in charge of both radio and TV networks; Frank White joins NBC as vice president and general manager for radio and TV; Vice President Robert W. Sarnoff heads newly created film division; NBC launches promotion drive for combined use of radio and TV as most effective advertising buy.
July 7: CBS Radio affiliates, at crisis conference, adopt resolution asking network to rescind 10% cut of year before and boost daytime radio rates by 20%.
July 7: Radio Writers Guild calls strike against ABC, NBC, CBS over issue of extra pay for writers on commercial programs.
July 28: President Truman signs McFarland Bill, first major overhaul of Communications Act of 1934, permitting FCC to issue cease-and-desist orders in addition to revoking licenses; prohibiting broadcasters from charging more for political advertising than for normal business ads; requiring FCC to act on a case within three months of filing or six months after a hearing is concluded, or to explain reason to Congress; forbidding staff personnel to recommend actions to commissioners; putting on FCC burden of proof that licensee is not qualified for renewal; permitting protests against grants to be made up to 30 days after grant but requiring FCC to answer protests or petitions for rehearing within 15 days; forbidding commissioners who resign to practice before FCC for one year after resignation; deleting permission to FCC to revoke licenses of those found guilty in federal court of antitrust violations.
July 28: Department of Justice files suit against 12 motion-picture producing and exhibiting firms charging conspiracy to restrain interstate commerce in 16 mm films in violation of Sherman Act in move to free films for use in television.
Aug. 18: CBS Radio affiliates approve discounts tantamount to a 25% reduction in nighttime rates and accept a 15% cut in network compensation, but win a restoration of the 1951 10% cut for daytime serials and an increase of 5.5% in their pay for carrying these shows; network also gives assurance that its card rates won't be cut for at least a year and that "deals" are out for good.
Sept. 1: Empire Coil Co. buys RCA's experimental UHF transmitter for commercial operation in Portland, Ore.
Sept. 8: NBC cuts rates through new discounts, an average of 25% at night, with affiliates taking a straight 14% cut in compensation; raises daytime rate 11.1%, to restore 10% cut of 1951, but revises discounts so increase to advertisers will be only 4% in morning and none in afternoon.
Sept. 15: Standard Radio Transcription Services announces plan to discontinue monthly library releases and offer library in whole or part, to stations on outright sale basis.
Sept. 22: By rushing equipment across country from Bridgeport, Conn., to Portland, Ore., KPTV(TV) Portland goes on air as first commercial UHF TV station.
Sept. 22: ABC Radio revises discounts to lower evening rates an average of 25%, raises morning rates by 5%.
Sept. 22: American Federation of Radio Artists and Television Authority merge into American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).
Sept. 29: Max Ule of Kenyon & Eckhardt is named head of committee to set up ideal standards for broadcast rating measurements, subcommittee of Advertising Research Foundation's committee on radio and TV ratings methods whose chairman is Dr. E. L. Deckinger of Biow Co.
Oct. 6: Merlin H. (Deac) Aylesworth, first president of NBC, dies at 66.
Oct. 20: MBS reduces nighttime time costs 30% in TV areas, 10% in areas not yet served by TV.
Oct. 20: NARTB and AAAA adopt standard contract form for spot-TV time purchases, make it available to agencies and stations.
Oct. 27: Harold A. Lafount, radio consultant to Bulova Watch Co., member of the former Federal Radio Commission, dies at 72.
Nov. 17: CBS opens its Television City in Hollywood.
Dec. 1: Don Lee Broadcasting System announces single rate, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Dec. 15: Niles Trammell resigns as NBC board chairman to become president of Biscayne Television Corp., applicant for channel 7 Miami; Brigadier General David Sarnoff assumes post in addition to remaining RCA board chairman.
Jan. 5: BBDO has broadcast billings of $40 million in 1952, making it top agency customer of radio-TV for that year, BROADCASTING survey discloses.
Jan. 5: Frank White becomes NBC president, succeeding Joseph H. McConnell; Sylvester L. Weaver is elected to new post, vice chairman of NBC board; John K. Herbert becomes vice president in charge of the radio and TV networks; Mr. McConnell is to be president of Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co.
Jan. 5: Bing Crosby Enterprises demonstrates its magnetic-tape TV recordings, judged "more than 20 fold" improved over demonstration a year before.
Feb. 2: FCC revises rules for operating personnel; opens way for remote operation of transmitters.
Feb. 9: Both Senate Commerce Commit-
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