Then there was WHDH....RKO...these were financial shenanigans, if I remember
correctly. So not a one lost a license based on "fitness".

The WHDH case stemmed from an improper contact between a representative of an
applicant for a TV license in Boston and an FCC commissioner (chronicled in
Sterling Quinlan's book "The Hundred Million Dollar Lunch"). In that case, the
licensee (the Boston Herald-Traveler newspaper) had been granted the license,
but at renewal time, by which time the ex-parte luncheon had come to light,
lost their "expectation" of renewal and was treated equally with other
applicants for the license. RKO-General lost their licenses (was permitted to
sell them instead of having them yanked by the FCC) for the felony bribery
conviction of their corporate parent, General Tire and Rubber Company (which
certainly qualifies as a "fitness" issue).

"Sid Schweiger" wrote in message
...
Then there was WHDH....RKO...these were financial shenanigans, if I
remember
correctly. So not a one lost a license based on "fitness".

The WHDH case stemmed from an improper contact between a representative of
an
applicant for a TV license in Boston and an FCC commissioner (chronicled
in
Sterling Quinlan's book "The Hundred Million Dollar Lunch").

And that was in the general area that rendered RKO lacking the character
qualifications to hold a license. In other words, "fitness." Add the General
Tire dealings in Libya and Argentina, and you got the required divestiture
of the remaining RKO properties.

"David Eduardo" wrote in message
...

"Sid Schweiger" wrote in message
...

Then there was WHDH....RKO...these were financial shenanigans, if I
remember correctly. So not a one lost a license based on "fitness".

The WHDH case stemmed from an improper contact between a representative of
an applicant for a TV license in Boston and an FCC commissioner (chronicled
in Sterling Quinlan's book "The Hundred Million Dollar Lunch").

And that was in the general area that rendered RKO lacking the character
qualifications to hold a license. In other words, "fitness." Add the General
Tire dealings in Libya and Argentina, and you got the required divestiture
of the remaining RKO properties.

Okay, okay, so "fitness" relates to a number of qualities. I get you there. What I
was differentiating, though, was how a licensee could be "unfit" simply by airing
content not considered conventional or even valid....the other misfeasances, criminal
and otherwise, can certainly make a licensee unfit, but there are bigger issues with
those failures than simply giving a soapbox for goofs. Long ago (late 60s?
Certainly early 70s) the FCC made it abundantly clear (in the course of a station
sale and license transfer) that they would have no opinion on an expected format
change with the news owners (I think the station was classical, and its loss was
considered by its audience to be unacceptable).

Frankly, I still don't see what's so wrong with requiring a licensee to accomodate a
community's needs (after all, aside from that little condition, the station is free
to make as much money with the license as it can) but this clearly will never happen
here so long as the First Amendment is considered to encompass in toto the operation
of a broadcast outlet. It's free speech we're guaranteed, and until broadcasters
give out airtime for free, that's not free speech.
---------------------------------------
Nothin' ain't worth nothin' if it ain't free.
---------------------------------------
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-

"Bob Haberkost" wrote in message ...
Okay, okay, so "fitness" relates to a number of qualities. I get you there. What I
was differentiating, though, was how a licensee could be "unfit" simply by airing
content not considered conventional or even valid....the other misfeasances, criminal
and otherwise, can certainly make a licensee unfit, but there are bigger issues with
those failures than simply giving a soapbox for goofs. Long ago (late 60s?
Certainly early 70s) the FCC made it abundantly clear (in the course of a station
sale and license transfer) that they would have no opinion on an expected format
change with the news owners (I think the station was classical, and its loss was
considered by its audience to be unacceptable).

That was WEFM in Chicago, generally considered the world's first
commercial FM station and a longtime home for classical music. Zenith
Radio decided that they didn't need to run the station as a loss
leader to promote sales of FM radios and sold it to General Cinema,
who then announced that they were going to flip it to Top 40. Even
though there were two other FM signals programming full-time classical
music in Chicago at the time, because a "Citizen's Committee to Save
WFMT" had forced the Tribune Co. to sell that classical station to
WTTW, the public TV station in town, after 'FMT's founder had sold it
to the Tribune, the same people decided to fight WEFM's format switch
with a "Citizen's Committee to Save WEFM." They got a court
injunction in spring 1972 that stopped the format change the night
before it was going to happen--with an air staff hired, billboards out
on the street, ads in the weekend papers and the record library all
packed to be shipped to WNIB, the *other* classical music station in
town.

Soon afterwards, the FCC then washed its hands of judgments on radio
format changes. It still took General Cinema five years to flip the
station, after making agreements to donate programming and materials
to both WNIB and NPR station WBEZ. The flip to Top 40 finally
occurred in early 1978. Like WDHF/WMET a few years earlier, the
station got some teen audiences, but they were unable to take the mass
audience away from WLS and the station flipped to the Schulke II MOR
format at the end of 1980. In 1982, General Cinema sold WEFM to
Greater Media, who flipped the format to country and the call letters
to WUSN-"US99." It's still country and still US99 today, although
Infinity has owned the station for the last decade.

WBEZ dropped its few hours of classical music programming after the
death in the early 80s of Dick Noble, the former WEFM morning drive
man who switched to 'BEZ as part of the format change agreement (and
was moved out of morning drive to 9 a.m.-to-noon when NPR's "Morning
Edition" premiered in 1979). Noble's show was the main classical
programming on the station, which was (and is) primarily talk and
jazz. WNIB, the last ma-and-pa FM in Chicago, was sold to Bonneville
in 2001 for a lot of money and is now the successful classic hits
WDRV--"The Drive." WFMT, still owned by WTTW, is now Chicago's only
commercial classical music station.

On 5 Jul 2004 15:37:35 GMT, pamthis (Sid Schweiger)
wrote:

RKO-General lost their licenses (was permitted to
sell them instead of having them yanked by the FCC) for the felony bribery
conviction of their corporate parent, General Tire and Rubber Company (which
certainly qualifies as a "fitness" issue).

However IIRC there was never allegation that the management of RKO
General had any participation in, or even knowledge of, the wrongdoing
of the corporate parent, nor was that wrongdoing in any way related to
broadcasting.

Mark Howell

However IIRC there was never allegation that the management of RKO General had
any participation in, or even knowledge of, the wrongdoing of the corporate
parent, nor was that wrongdoing in any way related to broadcasting.

That is correct, but back then, character qualifications extended throughout
other branches of the same company, and IIRC that was why RKO-General was
allowed to sell the licenses rather than have them yanked.