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C1osedCircit)Dirty workFCC Office of General Counsel isreportedly reexamining commission'sapproach toward indecency andobscenity. Well- placed source saidChairman Mark Fowler directed office tostudy issues and to provide him with"comprehensive report andrecommendations." Attorney general'scommission on pornographyrecommended that FCC crack down onindecent and obscene programing(BROADCASTING, June 2). Antismutcrusaders, alleging Fowler has not doneenough to police obscenity, are opposinghis reconfirmation.Missing mediumRadio news tell through cracks in majorsurvey commissioned by Radio-TelevisionNews Directors Association andTelevision Information Office and expectedto be centerpiece of this week's RINDAconference in Salt Lake City. When formerT1O head Roy Danish approachedRTNDA on survey months ago, newsassociation agreed to participate if itcovered both TV and radio news. Roperwas brought in to carry out study of bothmedia. and as recently as May RINDAofficials understood radio was in. Whenlapse was discovered, association had tojuggle sessions to minimizeembarrassment over radio void in program.New 110 head Robert Mulholland had noexplanation for radio's absence from studyand neither did RTNDA executives.BirdlandGroup W's Newsfeed Network, newsexchange serving 70 stations in U.S. andCanada, is planning to establish Ku -bandsatellite newsgathering cooperative forclient stations with satellitenewsgathering vehicles. To that end, it hasbeen negotiating with satellite vendors,including GTE Spacenet (see story, page44), for satellite time and traffic- controland voice- communications services.Newsfeed hopes to have operation, whichit's calling Ku- Co -op, up and running byOctober.Two weeks ago when BROADCASTINGsurveyed 15 CBS affiliates, D'Angelo saidstation had not yet decided whether topreempt program or carry it(BROADCASTING, Aug. 18). D'Angelosaid last week that he was "comfortablewith what [Sauter] is doing and I'msticking there. I'm there all the way."D'Angelo said Sauter discussed someplans for new CBS morning broadcast forJanuary but that he "was not at liberty" todiscuss them.No sweatSome people suggest that unveiling ofnear-final tax legislation will send peoplescurrying to sell broadcasting and cableproperties before more taxing provisions oflegislation become effective (see page43). One source suggestedcommunications attorneys were beingcalled back from vacation to handle hastysubmissions of transfer applications toFCC. But sources at two leading lawfirms, Cohn & Marks and Wiley & Rein,mentioned only one station sale that wasgiven go -ahead only after seeing whatHouse and Senate conferees had decidedon. Most owners, it was said, already feltthat tax on capital gains would beincreased and sensed how limitedpartnerships and corporate liquidationswould be treated. Acting chief of FCC'sMass Media Bureau, Roderick Porter, saidthat there are no plans yet to add staff inanticipation of possible transferapplications flood.In the loopNew research study conducted byNational Association of Broadcasters forupcoming Radio '86 convention (Sept.10 -13 in New Orleans) reveals increasingtrend toward cellular telephone use withnearly 50% of all large- market (top 25)stations now employing technology innews and traffic reporting as well as forbroadcasting from out -of- studio locations.Study, which will be presented by JohnAbel, executive vice president,operations, for NAB, at opening generalsession of convention, will cover gambitof new technologies for radio (see page100).Fire's outPuntingMeeting in New York last week betweenCBS News President Van Gordon Sauterand WBNS -TV Columbus, Ohio's presidentNational Public Radio has received lettersof resignation from four of its 258 memberstations and has heard from "severalothers" who are not yet sure whether theywill drop membership, according tospokeswoman for NPR. Stations wereand general manager, Gene D'Angelo,resulted in station committing tocontinued carriage of CBS Morning News.Broadcasting Aug 25 19867given until Sept. I to decide whether toretain membership under organization'snew business plan, which goes into effectOct. 1. Three of four resigning stations areKLON(FM) Long Beach, Calif. (loss of 200,000 for NPR); KSKO(AM) McGrath,Alaska ( 55,000), and KSTK(FM)Wrangell, Alaska ( 47,000). (Fourth couldnot be identified.) All Alaskan stationshave been hard hit by drop in price of oil,which forced oil-dependent state to cutfunding to Alaska Public BroadcastingCommission by 13%. One stationmember said he expected up to four moreAlaskan stations to drop membership inanother year.DownsideWall Street appraisal of future of TaftBroadcasting is indicated by analysts'estimates of Taft earnings and by shortinterest in stock. Both are currentlybearish. Earnings are put at about twodollars per share for year ending nextMarch, at least dollar below estimates ofsix months ago. Some estimates havebeen reduced within past few weeks. Shortinterest -sale of borrowed shares inhopes that they can in future be replacedby shares bought at lower price-canhave variety of causes, but Taft numbersreleased last Friday by New York StockExchange are worth noting. Exchange saidTaft shorts in August increased 79% overJuly and 225% over June. Still, comparedto daily trading volume, shorting of stockis on small scale, reflecting, according toone investment banker, uncertainty aboutwhat Robert M. Bass Group (see page 46)might do: "People are afraid that if theyshort, they might wake up the nextmorning and read about a takeover bidfor the company."Wanna buy some pictures?TV networks in U.S. and Europe lastFriday were reviewing high -resolutionsatellite pictures of Soviet space shuttlefacility at Baikonur, never believed shownbefore in such detail. Video, taken byFrance's Spot remote -sensing satellite lastMay, was being offered to networks withMonday, Aug. 25, embargo by SpaceMedia Network, Stockholm-based group.Spokesman for company would not saywhether U.S. networks had agreed to airmaterial.Relatively new remote sensing sateliitetechnology, with resolution down to Ilimeters, has scored media hits i t recentpast with airing of pictures fror Sovietnuclear accident at Chernobyl.1

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(Cob1ecostiriqsreceipt of the letter, but neither was prepared to comment on it. Both said they wereHouse Telecommunications Subcommittee considering their response.As Wirth pointed out in his letter, the reChairman Timothy Wirth (D- Colo.) hasasked Home Box Office and Showtime /The bates have come under sharp attack in conMovie Channel to reevaluate their practice gressional hearings. During Senate Comof sharing subscription revenues from back- merce Committee hearings last month,yard dish owners within cable franchises Senator Al Gore (D- Tenn.) called HBO's rewith their local cable operators through re- bates "kickbacks of dish owners' programfees to cable operators who provide absobate programs."It is my view that the cable industry has lutely no services to dish owners."At the hearing, Fuchs defended the rethe burden of demonstrating that the marketplace can be relied upon to provide dish bate, which amounts to 5 per TVRO subowners with access to cable programing at scriber per month, as being a "marketingreasonable rates," said Wirth in letters to subsidy" intended to compensate the localNeil Austrian, Showtime/TMC chairman operators for promoting the HBO brand inand chief executive officer, and Michael their markets.Stephan Shulte, senior vice president, diFuchs, HBO chairman and chief executiveofficer. "I am not convinced, however, that rect broadcast development, Showtimethis burden has been met. While the rebate /TMC, said the pay programer's rebates areprogram may well be a lawful practice that intended to reward local operators for keepis used in other industries, from a public ing the names of Showtime /TMC servicespolicy perspective I have major reservations before the public. But, unlike HBO, he said,about whether the program is consistent Showtime /TMC does not send out the rewith the goal of developing a marketplace bates to cable operators, regardless ofthat provides programing to dish owners at whether they actually promote its service.To earn a rebate for the sale of a Showtimefully competitive prices."Therefore, I would respectfully request subscription in a given market, he said, thethat you carefully reevaluate . [the rebate[ cable operator has to offer and promoteShowtime.program," he said.Shulte declined to reveal the amount ofHBO and Showtime/TMC acknowledgedWirth dish requestComing September 22TV PROGRAMING:The World ofPrograming is the lifeblood of television, and the search formore and different material to fill all those electronic daysand nights keeps an army of network, syndication andcable programers busy. From Moonlighting to M *A *S *H toMarlowe, BROADCASTING will report in depth on network,syndicated and cable programing in this long, hard look attrends of the present and predictions for the future.Advertising closing date September 12.Broadcasting.,New York630 Third Ave., 10017(212) 599-2830Washington HeadquartersDeSales St., N.W. 20036(202) 638-10221735Hollywood1680 N. Vine St., 90028(213) 463-3148Broadcasting Aug 25 198610the rebates, saying only that they variedfrom one cable operator to another and weretied to what the operator paid for the Show time/TMC services.Nearing 50%The number of homes with cable rose 5% to41.2 million over the past year, boosting thenational cable penetration (cable homes tototal television homes) to 47.8 %, accordingto the July cable figures from A.C. Nielsen.In July 1985, Nielsen reported penetration of45.7 %.According to the latest report, cab

Aug 25, 1986 · Directory 112 o South Star Communications, Inc. 76 0 Transtar 95 0 Tribune Entertainment Company Second 27 0 Services Warner Bros. Television Distribution 12 -13 0 Western Union Cover 0 UPI 16 -17 o Ward