Broadcasting Oct 31 - American Radio History

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garded as violative of the cross -ownership rule because the policy at that time was not clear. The panel, in the opinion written by Judge Robert Bork, said the appeal to equity "is misplaced." The panel said, "Given the strong policy against crossownership, there was ample reason for [KSN] to anticipate at least the possibility that the commission might not approve the acquisition of interests additional to the grandfathered interests in Lyons and McPherson." Nor did the panel accept KSN's argument it was entitled to the tax certificate on the ground it met the "practical economic neces- sity" test the commission has applied on previous occasions. KSN had claimed that the sale of the systems in Herington, Lyons and McPherson had a nominal market value of $2,275,000 but that their proportional share Hands off AM stereo When the FCC was wavering on the question of whether to adopt a standard for AM stereo broadcasting two years ago, Leonard Kahn, the inventor of one of the systems vying to become the standard, urged the FCC not to. He felt then as he does now that the government should stay out of making decisions that are better left to marketplace forces. Ostensibly because of his belief in the marketplace, Kahn has asked FCC Chairman Mark Fowler to let Harris, one of Kahn's three AM stereo competitors, off the hook. Claiming that Harris's AM stereo exciter was not properly type- accepted and caused excessive interference with monophonic re- ception, the FCC in August ordered Harris to withdraw the system from the market and to tell 65 stations to stop broadcasting with it (BROADCASTING, Aug. 29). Although the FCC subsequently gave the 65 stations per- mission to resume stereo broadcasting with their Harris exciters, the prohibition against marketing the units is still in effect. "While this might appear to be advanta- geous to our selfish interests, we truly be- lieve in the free enterprise system and it would be improper and inconsistent for us to remain silent at this time," Kahn wrote Fowler. "Furthermore, it would also indicate a lack of faith in the ultimate wisdom of the free competitive system." Broadcasters are "fully capable" of evaluating the Harris system and Will reject the Harris system if the problems are truly seri- ous," Kahn told Fowler. "Therefore, assum- ing that there is no interference problem, there is no need for the commission to reject the Harris system.... We now urge the commission to authorize the Harris Corp. to resume sales of their AM stereo exciter at the earliest possible time." Fairchild in for half Fairchild Industries Inc., Germantown, Md., has acquired a 50% interest in Services by Satellite (SatServ), the for -profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Public Service Satellite Con- of the total price was $2,529,444. But the panel said that KSN had not offered "evidence of any substantial attempt to test the market." KSN had also contended that the integra- tion of the cable television systems required that they be sold as a package if the best price were to be obtained. But the commission found there was neither physical prox- imity nor technical connection between the Kansas and Oklahoma systems -that there was no more connection than there is between any two systems under common man- agement. And the panel said the facts in the record were not sufficient to cause it to re- verse the commission. The panel's decision contained something of a bonus for commission lawyers -a nil- ing that a transcript of a public commission C I:i ra Syiic sortium, for $470,000. SatServ, founded two years ago, provides videoconferencing and other telecommunications services to busi- ness industry, government and public service organizations. It also offers marketing and technical assistance. PSSC does much the same thing for its membership, which includes educational and other public service institutions. The influx of cash, said SatSery President Elizabeth Young in a prepared statement, will enable SatSery to move quickly toward implementation of the Campus Conference Network, which will be used for distribution of educational programing and videoconferencing. "We have already identified 50 institutions of higher education that will be affili- ated with the network, and we are evaluating the applications of more than 70 others," she said. According to Young, Fair- child Communications & Electronics Co., a division of Fairchild Industries, will be the supplier of the C -band, steerable earth stations for the network. A factor of four FM translators may be able to boost coverage (and perhaps listenership) with TTC/ Wilkinson Corp.'s new translator amplifiers. The one -watt (XL1AF4) and 10 -watt (XL10AF4) amplifiers each have four out- puts. As a result, TTC/Wilkinson said, a broadcaster now using a one -output amplifier and a 90- degree directional antenna can reach four times the area without increasing radiated power by substituting a four -output amplifier linked to four 90- degree directional antennas. Turning Japanese Wold -Visnews Broadcast Services, the two - year-old joint venture of The Robert Wold Co. and Viscom International USA, has signed a multi year satellite television distribution agreement with the Japanese Inter- national Joint Users Organization, consist- ing of six Japanese television companies. The agreement will give the Japanese broadcasters use of full -time transmission Broadcasting Oct 31 1983 Rfl meeting may not be cited as evidence in court. KSN's attorneys had sought to include a transcript of a commission meeting on Feb.11, 1982, to help make its case that KSN was the victim of an unfair commission policy. The question of whether such transcripts could be used as evidence in court had never been litigated. The commission had urged the panel to strike the transcript on the ground it is not part of the record, and the panel agreed. "Where an agency has issued a formal opinion or a written statement of its reasons for acting," Bork wrote, "transcripts of agency deliberations at Sunshine Act meet- ings should not routinely be used to impeach that opinion." Joining Bork in the opinion were Judges Patricia Wald and Abner Mikva. relays from New York to California for interconnection with satellite relays to Tokyo. Services provided under the agreement, be- ginning April 1, 1984, include a videotape editing and playback center at New York's Rockefeller Center; microwave and uplink facilities in New York; full-time use of a Westar IV transponder; downlink facilities at Santa Paula, Calif., and interconnection assistance with Comsat and Intelsat services to Japan. Wold -Visnews also expects to provide the Japanese broadcasters with news and sports coverage using special transmissions via satellite from Los Angeles and Washington. Members of the Japanese group are: NHK -Japan Broadcasting, Nip- pon Television Network, Tokyo Broadcast- ing System, Fuji Telecasting, Asahi Nation- al Broadcasting and Television Tokyo Channel 12. A dish for ENG Does the broadcast industry need a versatile lightweight ENG dish antenna? HDS of Res- ton, Va., is betting the answer is yes. It has introduced a six- pound, 17 -inch antenna that will handle any 7 ghz signal, regardless of polarization. The polarization is adjusted by rotating front and back waveguides. Ac- cording to HDS, a 13 ghz version of the antenna will be available shortly. Test and measurement RE Instrument Corp., Westlake, Ohio, has introduced two new products -a time -do- main reflectometer (RE601) and a dual - channel digital audio analyzer (RE201). Op- erated through a front -panel keyboard, the reflectometer, which sells for $24,000, mea- sures attenuation in optical fibers, including overall loss as well as splice and connector loss. A built -in video display puts the mea- surements in graphic terms. The audio analyzer, which lists for nearly $15,000, mea- sures total harmonic distortion, intermodu- lation distortion, difference frequency distortion, AC levels, DC levels, phase, frequency, separation and wow and flutter.
Fox price increase for `M *A *S *H' draws protests, lawsuits Stations carrying sitcom argue they are entitled to remaining episodes at previous prices Syndication prices that 20th Century-Fox is asking for the last three years of M *A *S *H are bringing howls of protest from stations and, in at least a few instances, lawsuits against the film company. Fox has been taken to court in New Ha- ven, Conn.; Omaha; Rockford, Ill., and At- lanta, although the Atlanta case was subsequently settled before trial. In all these cases, the stations had been carrying the off - network blockbuster and claim they were entitled, by contract, to license the remaining episodes at the old price. Instead, they say, Fox demanded prices that station lawyers describe in words like "prohibitive" and "unbelieveable." There may be other cases. At least two other stations were reported unofficially to be in court, or thinking of going to court, with similar complaints, but key officials could not be reached last week and lesser ones declined to discuss the question. An example of the price escalation is offered in a U.S. district judge's decision, handed down earlier this month in a suit filed by Capital Cities Communications on behalf of its WTNH -TV New Haven, Conn. Capcities claimed WTNH -TV has an exclusive license to M *A *S *H in the Hartford -New Haven market until Sept. I , 1985, and it asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction barring Fox from offering M *A *S *H episodes to any other station in the market before that date, and also to bar wTxxtTV) Waterbury, Conn. - which acquired rights to the last three M *A *S *H years after Fox's negotiations with WTNH -TV broke down -from showing the 58 episodes in that package. After four days of trial, U.S. District Judge T.F. Gilroy Daly issued a decision on Oct. 17 denying the motion for injunctions, holding that Capcities and WTNH -TV had not shown they would suffer "irreparable harm" if the injunctions were not issued. In the decision, he tracked the pricing. In August 1977, he said, Fox and WTNH- TV entered an agreement giving the station exclusive rights in that market to all 119 M *A *S *H episodes that had then been produced. WTNH -TV's broadcast rights were to start Sept. I, 1979, and end Sept. I, 1985, and it was to pay Fox $1,738.09 per episode, for a total license fee of $205,832.71. The contract also provided that WTNH -TV "shall purchase all additional episodes produced by Fox." In July 1979, the judge wrote, there was a superceding agreement: By then, 173 episodes had been produced for the same six- year term, 1979 to 1985, at the same per - episode price of $1,738.09, for a new total fee of $342,403.73. This agreement also provided that "licensee hereby licenses all M *A *S *H series pictures produced and to be produced by Fox." For CBS's 1980 -81, 1981 -82 and 1982 -83 Fox produced a total of 58 episodes -and according to the judge's decision Fox offered these to WTNH -TV at $15,000 each, contend- ing that the final 58 episodes were not cov- ered by the earlier license agreement. WTNH -Tv said it would seek legal advice on the question. Two months later, in January 1983, according to Judge Daly, WTNH-TV got in touch with Fox and offered to terminate the old agreement and enter a new one giving it rights to all 255 M *A *S *H episodes at $5,000 each. Fox rejected the offer, and a week later WTNH -TV came back with a new offer: $8,000 per episode for all 255. Fox rejected that one, too, and subsequently ad- vised the station it would commence negotiations with other stations in the market. WTNH -TV told Fox: "Please be aware of your contractual obligations to this station." After all that, Judge Daly wrote, Fox and WTXX made a deal whereby wTxx could start airing the final 58 episodes on Sept. 1 this year. The judge's decision does not say what wTXX agreed to pay. Other sources sug- gested it was about $10,000 per episode, and that Fox's asking price to WTNH -TV had been $12,000. In denying WTNH -TV's motion for preliminary injunction, Judge Daly said the station must prove that it would suffer irreparable harm in the absence of the injunctions, and that it had failed to do so. WTNH -TV's own testimony about the use of ratings and their relationship to revenues, he wrote, "clearly indicates that WTNH will be able to ascertain and measure any decrease in its revenues brought about by [wTxx] showing the last 58 episodes of M *A *S *H." In addition, he said, "the court must note that, although [WTNH -TV] contends it will be irreparably harmed if the defendants' activi- ties are not enjoined, it waited six months, until the eve of [wTxx`s] scheduled broadcasting of M *A *S *H, before seeking any [court] relief." Norman L. Faber of the New York law firm of Hall, Dickler, Lawler, Kent & How- ley, counsel to Capital Cities, said last week no decision had been reached on whether to appeal the judge's denial of preliminary injunction. Appeal or not, however, Faber said Capcities would proceed for trial on the case on its merits. Arnold Stream, a New York attorney for Fox, questioned whether this would happen. Broadcasting Oct 31 1983 61 He said he had filed last Thesday a motion asking Judge Daly to dismiss the Capcities- WTNH case; in its entirety." He contended their only choice was to convert the suit into a breach -of- contract case. The WTNH -TV suit is the only known M *A *S *H case to have reached the courtroom. WsB- TVAtlanta had filed one that was getting into the deposition stage, but it was settled out of court. WsB -Tv officials said last week that one of the terms of the settlement was that none of the other terms would be divulged, but that WSB -TV gained the right to continue to carry M *A *S *H, all 255 episodes, for another six years. In Omaha, KMTV(TV) has filed suit in U.S. district court claiming its contract with Fox gives it the right to acquire the last 58 episodes at the same price paid for the earlier ones. Tom Opatka, attorney for iu rry said the station had been paying $870.71 per episode but that Fox was asking "over $7,000." He said Fox tried to get the case transferred to a court in California but that KMTV successfully defeated that effort. He did not know when the case might come to trial. In the Rockford, Ill., market, watt -TV Freeport went to court when, according to its attorney, Fox demanded a 500% increase in M *A *S *H fees. Brad Koch, the attorney, said Fox wanted to raise its per -episode fee for the first eight years of M *A *S *H production from $818 to $4,000 and to charge $4,500 per episode of production in years nine and 10 and to $5,000 per episode for the final year. There, Fox agreed not to market M *A *S *H to other stations until the court rules on the case ( "Telecastings," Aug. 22). 0 Revamping `Break Away' Syndicated show changes host, format, in attempt to bolster weak ratings Major changes have begun to take place in the format and on -air talent of Break Away, a first -run information/entertainment maga- zine that has been plagued by low ratings since it premiered in 70 markets in mid -Sep- tember. Norman Mark, who had been appearing in Break Away two or three times each week as entertainment critic, took over last Monday (Oct. 24) as co -host of the program , replac- ing actor Monte Markham, whose delivery has been criticized as "stiff." Mark, whose background includes 13 years as Tv critic for the Chicago Daily News, had substituted for Markham several times and tested well with viewers, according to executive pro- ducer Alan Bennett. In another change, announcer Gary
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