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Here is a radio story 99 percent of you have never heard.
The dates may be off by a few years, but this is how and
when I recall the NAB/FCC/Radio war.
In the 60’s the annual NAB TV AND RADIO convention was held
in Las Vegas or Chicago each spring. There was no solo NAB
fall Radio Show Convention in those days….at there is now.
When attending the ONLY convention TV had 90 percent of the
exhibit hall, and radio had a very small looking ten
percent. In my opinion, and other broadcasters as well, the
NAB was pretty much under the political control of the TV
people and radio networks. We independent broadcasters kept
talking to each other about the fact that independent radio
was not getting a fair deal at the NAB. Independent radio
was treated as a minor player. Hey, I suppose the TV guys
were so wrapped up in their own world they did not recognize
that radio had a huge audience, and growing rapidly.
San Francisco radio broadcaster Jim Gabbert had enough,
thank you. He was president of an FM group of independents
called the National Association of FM Broadcasters. During
the 60’s the NAFMB had another problem in that the rating
companies before Arbitron refused to rate FM stations due to
political pressure from radio groups and networks. That all
changed when Arbitron came along as the dominant rating
service. Jim Sieler (sp?) who worked as an Arbitron key
executive included FM in their reports. So the FM rating
absence battle was won by radio thanks to Arbitron.
But another battle was looming. In 1963 the NAFMB had its
first major fight with the NAB. ABC filed a petition with
the FCC to restructure the national FM landscape…to reduce
the power/strength of the coverage area. The FCC must have
thought that was a great idea (it just couldn’t have
political pressure, could it??? Hmmm.) And proposed to
rezone part of the West Coast south of the 40th parallel and
severely reduce FM radiated power . The NAB supported the
FCC move…can you believe that?????!!!!
Jim and his partner got to work and fought the FCC proposal.
They did a chain/network broadcast appealing to the public,
and actually reduced the power of their owned station (which
was very popular) from 125 thousand to the newly proposed 5
thousand watts to prove a point. When the listeners tuned
in…no signal….which got their attention a and call to
action!! Jim and his partner delivered 22,000 letters of
listener’s protests to the FCC the first week!!! Also, Jim
organized the Southern California Broadcasters to help in
the fight. It didn’t take long for the FCC to figure that
they had a problem; thus, the FCC had an emergency meeting
and grand fathered existing station’s power….and that is why
FM ended up with all those different powers on the West
Coast. Jim, and other FM broadcasters, were understandably
angry at the NAB guys for endorsing the FCC’s action, and
wanted to do something about the NAB structure so that
FM…and radio…had an equal position with the television guys.
(It was very clear that the networks that controlled the NAB
at that time saw FM as a major threat to their big clear
channel AM’s. Radio was a step child of the NAB.)
And so…the fight was on. It was in 1970 that the NAFMB broke
off all conversations with the NAB and decided to do their
own convention. The first one I recall was in New Orleans at
the Roosevelt Hotel. It wasn’t pretty to look at, but we
were all together. Soon the name changed from the NAFMB to
the National Radio Broadcasters Association. All of the
major independents…FM and AM….were elected to the NRBA board
in the 70’s. The radio networks did not show up since they
did not want to harm the relationship with their sister TV
networks. Frankly, the radio networks had been losing
political power in those days so their absence was not a big
deal. Generally, the indies were winning the rating battles
across the US.
When I walked into the first board meeting sitting at super
long table were the best indie broadcasters in the US. We
went to work and planned an annual convention that the NAB
could only wish to have presented. I was on the convention
committee to secure great panelists…the guys and gals of the
moment. The NAB at their Las Vegas TV/Radio combined
convention weren’t in the panel ballpark…they couldn’t
attract the kind of players as did the NRBA. And the
broadcasters moved from the NAB convention to the one
produced by the NRBA. I know because I WAS THERE and watched
the NRBA take a prominent place in broadcasting.
It was maybe eight years later of convention dominance and
new NRBA influence with the FCC that Bill Clark, a director
of the NRBA and President of Shamrock, worked out a
“re-unification” with the NAB. I believe that the NAB
realized they had clearly lost the battle of the
associations. The NAB was forced to concede “x” number of
NAB directorships…and as I recall it we went on a campaign
to have a “radio person” elected President. And that
happened not too many years later when Eddie Fritts, a radio
person, became President of the NAB where he has served for
the last 23 years.
Now, after great years of work Eddie is retiring from the
NAB. I have heard some rumblings that a TV person will be
the next President of the NAB. Hmmmmmm. I have heard
rumblings that in a few years there may be only ONE
convention again…TV and Radio combined like decades ago.
Hmmmmmm. I am hopeful that today’s radio leaders are ready
to use their muscle to prevent TV domination of the
NAB…again! I am certainly going to ask them to keep their
eyes and ears open…through this column and with in person
visits. Let us hope we do not have to do what we did
then…again!!!
But, we can and will if necessary.
e-mail Kent
kent@kentburkhart.com
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