—The Daily Collegian Friday, April 30,1976 Commercial TV for State College By JOANNE McLAUGHLIN Collegian Staff Writer State College is a town without television. There are television sets here and a cable that brings in television shows from New York and Altoona. WPSX, the University’s educational TV station, has its studios in this area. But, in terms of commercial programming that originates locally and is locally oriented, State College i$ and always has been a town without television. But that’s not because no one has wanted to operate a TV station here. It’s because every attempt to start a station here so far has failed. Currently, Nittany Communications, Inc. (NCI) is con tinuing the challenge to bring a com mercial station to State College and is making its case before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). NCl’s public inspection files, kept to fulfill an FCC requiremennt, show that on March 20, 1975, NCI filed with the FCC for a construction permit to build a commercial UHF television station for Channel 29 in State College. The application is extensive, including studies, surveys, graphs and maps required to provide the FCC with technical information. It covers, for example, the proposed antenna height, the range of its signal and evidence that NCI has studied the possible hazards to aviation that its antenna tower may cause and is prepared to provide whatever safety precautions are necessary. Although it is impossible to go into all the particulars of NCl’s application, it is possible to outline some of the FCC’s requirements of all broadcast ap : plicants. The FCC requires broadcast ap plicants for a construction permit to demonstrate that they are legally, technically and financially qualified to operate a station, according to an at torney in the FCC’s Broadcast Bureau whose name is being withheld at his request. The attorney describes the following typical requirements of a broadcast applicant: ' —A survey, personally conducted by the applicants, community leaders and members of the general public from the areas that the new station will serve. From the results of this survey, the applicant should determine what the areas’ needs and problems are and should propose programming to the FCC that is in accordance with serving these needs. did not detail what caused the after the Soviet Union made it the Soviet delegation lies on blast, but said the explosion known to Peking that it was the table of the Soviet-Chinese took place “at the gates of the ready to resume talks which negotiations on a ' frontier USSR Embassy” in the have been deadlocked for settlement." Chinese capital. years on disputed border The border talks have been Tass said Soviet diplomats areas. Since the deadlock at a standstill since October, lodged an immediate protest developed, each side has kept 1969. The dispute started in with. Peking authorities, up a barrage of propaganda. March that year when troops MOSCOW (UPI) An - ' ficial news agency /Tass adding, “It was only by In a Pravda article, which of the two countries clashed explosion shattered the en-' reported. The Kremlin im- chance that there were no Western observers described at Damansky Island on trance to the Soviet Embassy mediately lodged a protest casualties among embassy as “very authoritative,” the Ussuri River. There since in Peking yesterday, killing with Peking. staff." • Soviets said, “A package of have been reports of other two Chinese guards, the of- The two-paragraph item The incident came a day constructive proposals from border clashes. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★/★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ 4C The Brothers and Pledges of Phi Kappa Psi . ‘ y^ 4i would like to, thank all those who helped in the y 4 t BTH ANNUAL “PHI PSI 500” } * - * c Special Thanks to * jr JoePaterno, . J 4c co°teJ RIBUTORS: Mr. Sheldon Clapper of Phi Kappa Theta P Unimited Rent AH n ir“ a North Hampton House * NITTANY BEVERAGE and z p^rrr o,elSoc,e,y * f Dave Robins9n from 74 Center Daily Times Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. ?r u a “n House 74 Prof. Bernard Lafayette Electronics John Palmer McLartahans Davy Flodine All the participating Radio Tau Kappa Epsilon * eBnMaABS Stations,WßSC WQWK,WMAJ, ’ ‘ * SPONSORS: .. _ . , ... Graham's News C, Bostonian ud. WDFM, the D.J. s, especially IESSL*, J I us,e®r eDiner Fred Honsberger and our K,f wekirs - Univ. Electronics Inc C J V “Dil- Qtnr»c” Alpha Tau Omega » Pedals , r It OlUpo . Delta Kappa Phi . H c Brewery Phyrst Tomcat uSSS&Z* , 3 Centre Sports My-O-My Rathskeller Shandygaff Sigma Tau Gamma Murphy's Sigma Pi ’ Big Z Music Outlet ' Tau Phi Delta 'J The Racquet Shop , . _ _ Centre Beverage yL. n The Knothole 31 5 RUnnerS ''Tau Epsilon Phi 5. S^e, u,doorHouse $6OOO raised for the Day Care Program . 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(tie) Larry Fall Tavern 6.43 , , / Delta Phi Mu Delta Rudi Dressendorfer Noll Laboratory 6.43 yL 4C 2. Charles Strauss himself 6.58 yL 4C 3. Tod Jeffers, — WMAJ 7.02 J ¥ SORORITY 74 ¥ Alpha Sigma Alpha ' ¥ Pi Beta Phi ¥ Alpha Phi J ¥ * Explosion rocks Soviet embassy * * a financial statement, listing the applicant’s assets, liabilities and available lines of credit. Each applicant is expected to show sufficient funds to construct and operate the station for at least one year. a statement disclosing all prin cipals and directors of the corporation applying, including all stockholders with an interest of three per cent or more. This statement also must disclose any principals having other media holdings in the same community to. guard against violations of FCC regulations which prohibit multiple ownership of media properties. NCI provided the FCC with in formation to meet these requirements in its March,' 1975 application. On May 15, 1975, S(ate College Communications Corporation' (SCCC), holder of the broadcast licenses for WRSC and WQWK (FM), two State College radio stations, filed with the FCC a petition to deny the application made by NCI. SCCC raises several questions about the merits of the NCI application in its 57-page petition. Among them: • SCCC charges that the survey NCI submitted to the FCC was improperly conducted and was not in accordance with FCC regulations. SCCC says that Reed Allison, a principal of NCI, did not personally conduct the required community leader surveys, but instructed his secretary to conduct the surveys for him, in violation of FCC regulations. SCCC also finds fault with NCl’s disclosure of its principals. It charges that Charles T. Aikens, 11, publisher and majority stockholder of the Centre Daily Times, State College’s largest newspaper, is an undisclosed principal of NCI. —SCCC alleges that the financial interest of Henry Forker, Aikens’ son-in law, in NCI is actually controlled by Aikens and is influenced by him. In addition, SCCC makes a number of charges regarding the financial qualifications of NCI. In order to “correct, clarify or up date information contained in the original application,” NCI has amended its application three times since SCCC’s' petition to deny, according to NCl’s public inspection files. Fred Nicholas, president of NCI, says Allison simply failed to follow FCC instructions when conducting his community leader surveys. , “It was wholly a matter of ignorance when Allison had his secretary do the ENTHUSIASM AWARD Alpha Xi Delta \ \ \ surveys for him,” Nicholas says. “He (Allison) obviously didn’t read the instructions in the FCC primer that said he had to do the surveys himself.” NCI denies SCCC’s charges that Aikens, a former stockholder in NCI, has any control over Forker’s NCI holdings. It says Forker paid for his holdings with cash from a personal trust fund and is not influenced by Aikens in any way with regard to his dealings with NCI. ‘ Nicholas says Aikens’ association with NCI ended when the corporation’s at torneys informed it that the FCC had a rule barring persons with media holdings from being involved with new ‘ media ventures in the same community. “Aikens did not want to impede the FCC’s processing of our application and it was mutually agreed that Aikens would terminate his relationship with ' NCI,” Nicholas says. In answer to the charge that NCI is not financially qualified to operate a television station, Nicholas says that NCI has provided supporting evidence for its projected first-year operating budget in the amendments to its ap plication. These are financial justifications included in NCl’s files and are available for public inspection. NCI soon realized that the FCC would delay action on its application until it Due to circumstances beyond our control .... • • studied both SCCC’s charges and NCl’s amendments. NCI then seems to have decided to show SCCC how it feels to wait. NCI began to make some charges of its own. On June 26, 1975, it filed a petition with the FCC .to deny SCCC’s license renewals for WRSC and WQWK (FM). NCI contends in the petition to deny that the SCCC effort to halt the television station's construction permit was ,not filed in the public interest, but with the intent of delaying or obstructing the processing of NCl’s application. In ef fect, NCI charged that the SCCC petition to deny was a ‘ ‘strike’ ’ petition. Roderick Porter, FCC>Counsel for the Chief ofthe Broadcast Bureau, says the term “strike” petition means that one party may not. have filed charges against another party in good faith, but with the sole intent of blocking the other party’s application. Porter points oilt that the FCC not only could rule that the SCCC petition is a. “strike” petition; but it could also find some merit in SCCC’s charges against NCI. , Nicholas contends that there’s no question that SCCC filed a “strike” petition against NCI. He says SCCC went through the NCI application “with a fine tooth comb to find anything that might seem irregular” so. that it could find / / / Observers said the Pravda, article seemed to suggest that the Soviets were ready for another try at the thorny issue now that the question of a successor to the late Premier Chou En-Lai ap parently had been resolved. Despite acrimonious relations 'between the two countries, the Soviets are reported to have a staff of several hundreds. sought, something on which to base its petition to deny against NCI. Nicholas says SCCC is afraid of losing advertising revenue and filed the petition against NCI in hopes of preventing a television competitor from entering the advertising market in State College. “They have succeeded in delaying the processing of our application,” Nicholas says. “We probably would have had the construction permit by now if not for SCCC’s petition to deny.” , Robert K. Zimmerman, vice president and general manager of WRSC and WQWK (FM), , flatly denies NCl’s “strike” petition charges. “We are n6t trying to restrain com petition from NCI in order to monopolize advertising' in State College. That is not the. purpose of our petition to deny,” Zimmerman says. “How can anybody hope to eliminate competition just by ■stopping the TV station from. going through when there are already so many competitors in the ad market in State College three daily newspapers, seven radio stations and “Town and Gqwn”?” In the wake of NCl’s petition to deny the license renewals of WRSC and WQWK (FM), the FCC has been prompted to action. The Commission has' scheduled a June 1 hearing in State College to determine whether the SCCC petition to deny is indeed a “strike" petition against NCl’s application. Nicholas says NCI plans to present at the hearing testimony from four in dividuals, two of whom are NCI prin cipals, who have filed affidavits with the FCC charging that Zimmerman made statements to them iridicating'he would do all he could to delay NCl’s ap plication. “Zimmerman made statements to these four people that he would see to'it that we never get on the air,” Nicholas says, “The FCC wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of scheduling this hearing if thq charges we made against SCCC weren’t valid.” ‘ Zimmerman would not comment on the June 1 hearing except to say he feels the FCC will “do the fair thing for all' parties involved.” Irwin Friedland, FCC Chief for the Law Review Board, says the Com mission will take some action against SCCC if the hearing yields evidence that the SCCC petition to deny is a “strike” petition. . “The FCC could fine the stations and permit their licenses to be renewed, thus Carl Fairbanks, State College Municipal 1 Manager, says individual , council members may have voiced their approval of NCl’s plans, but, as a whole., the Municipal Council has neither taken a position on the NCI application nor has it been requested to'do so. . David Stetson, executive director of the State. College Area Chamber of - Commerce, says his group has made no policy statements bn the issue of a TV station for State College. He adds that no area businessmen have even ap proached him with their comments about the proposed television station. England bank officials LONDON (UPI) Bank of England senior officials, world-wide symbols of financial probity, are being investigated for suspected currency smuggling and fraud involving- up to $lOO million, financial sources said yesterday. The bank said “en forcement officers” of - the Treasury department were aiding its own security per sonnel in trying to learn “whether any official of the bank has knowingly been involved in any breaches of the Exchange Control Act.” The 1947 law regulates the movement of sterling and foreign currency in and out of Britain and the government run bank has primary responsibility for its en forcement. The bank said criminal prosecution would, follow if there was evidence of illicit jTthe silver ( CELLAR l CHAINS in Silver and Gold 153 S. Allen Open 10-6, See the Complete Unicolor System Fast • Easy • Economical Process and Print in Your Home Color Negatives/Slides Factory Representatives Al Mature • Chuck Collins • Irving Lapidus delayed allowing them to 1 continue broadcast operations,” Friedland says. “Or the Commission could decide to -try to revoke SCCC’s broadcast licenses. This would mean another hearing, like a trial, before an administrative law judge, to determine whether revoking the licenses of WRSC and WQWK (FM) would be in the public interest. ” . Porter says SCCC could appeal any FCC decisions that go against it to the ''Commission and. later to-the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S.Supreme Court. While the FCC has taken initial steps on the SCCC license renewal case, it still is determining what impact, if any, SCCC’s petition to deny will have on the' NCI application, Porter says* . / Nicholas, however,, seems quite confident that NCI will get its con struction permit and that State College will ..welcome a television station with open'arms. “All the contact we’ve had with the University and. local government of ficials and businessmen so far has been favorable,” Nicholas says.- - • But if representative cofrunuhity groups, such, as the University, the Municipal Council and the State College Area Chamber of Commerce are as in favor, of a TV station asi Nicholas says they are, they aren’t making any public statements to that effect. Stanley Ikenberry, the University’s Vice'President for Public Information, says he knows of no- official position taken by the University either hi favor of or in opposition'to NCl’s plans to build a television station in State College. - Nicholas, however, seems sure of the support of these groups. And when asked if he expects to get a construction per mit, he doesn’t hesitate to answer. “We’ll get it eventually,” he replies. suspect dealings but gave no details of the area of the investigation. However, sources' in the. City of London, the financial district where the bank is located, said yesterday the probe followed discovery of an apparent . currency' smuggling and fraud racket involving up to $lOO million. The sources said the illicit millions were gleaned through manipulation of an investment currency premium of up to 50 per cent charged by the Treasury on sterling converted to foreign currency for investment. . abroad. " The premium, minus 25 per cent 1 retained by. the Treasury, is repaid to the British investor when he sells his overseas holding and converts the proceeds back into pounds'. In recent trials of currency smugglers, the Treasury changed that large amounts of sterling were being taken, out of the country often by pretty girls carrying the bills in suitcases without the premium being paid.
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