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Welcome to a special broadcast transcribed at the October meeting of the National Conference on citizens' rights in broadcasting this session we are to bring you deals with the communications revolution and deals with cable cartridge and computer television here to open the session is the chairman Paul Klein president of computer incorporated we're going to talk about cable the cable revolution. The chairman whatever that means and my name is Paul Klein and I'm listed as president. Computer incorporated whatever that means because it's not the name of my company. That's. The name is computer television incorporated market Well you heard it here first. And I used to be a vice president at N.B.C. You may have heard of that company. I'm just going to introduce the people and let them do their thing. And I'm going to sweep across the table in a linear fashion. The. There is a there is a communications cable revolution or evolution or revolution I think is will have to turn it up. The whole history of cable is written in your little booklet there how it all started people want to get clear pictures of that stuff that they hate. And they're paying money for. And it's merely an antenna that stretches out over a whole city counting or what have you each paralysed will talk about his particular interest in this area and I'll start bringing them on. Right now. Jeff I think we're going to have standing room here very good. People I mean. If I could be. OK. First panelist is Sidney a dean Jr. Who is. Your the people's representative. Of the public representing the public's interest in television he is listed as a consultant but he only consults for the public he does not have a private enterprise. He has been a marketing and business consultant in the area of media for the world's two largest advertising agencies and there is a questionnaire and you can fill that out you know as to who they are as a member of the communications media committee of the A C L U he was offered as an expert for the public interest witness to the Department of Justice and accepted by the F.C.C. in opposition to the purchase of the A.B.C. network by i T. and he's the author of television in New York hitches in a cable which was printed in nation July twentieth one thousand nine hundred seventy Mr DEAN. I'm going to look like for my eyes myself the role of defining where the public interest law is this is a citizens conference on the public's rights and broadcasting I'm going to define the public its rights. And to use the phrase that has been immortalized by a fellow member of my panel convert the word broadcasting not into electronic communications because that is almost infinite but the word broadband communications that is in any system by wire on the air which has the capacity to transmit sight sound graphics printing the language of computer and data. The systems here in communications communications is a social process. The media of communications are all of the in a media areas that we use face to face in groups or in this mass conception of it call broadcasting to convey information to share our ideas focus our energies on action and try to govern ourselves and live decency decently as private citizens and members of a community what do our communications media systems can access and off they consist of three completely separate economic activities and industries and I urge you in analyzing where the public's rights and interests are to consider them independently to each of these systems of these three Com punnets of our communications media Our first the hardware and equipment. The technology that is made it possible to tell A communicate over distance not just by sound but by sight by image by computer by graphics hardware and equipment has created the table cable television industry hardware and equipment is giving us these tremendously sophisticated pieces of terminal apparatus the tubes that we see the pictures on the keyboards by which we give orders to computers the speakers that give a sound the burglar alarms that may protect our homes the hardware and equipment again divide this basically into two groups the hardware and equipment used in the carrier system these are the cables the wires or the signals that go across the air conveying the intelligence the information the pictures the speech that mean something to us there amplifiers the wires the transmitters. This is the common apparatus that on which an electronic media system depends then we have the terminal equipment the courts the federal courts have only recently said to a T. and T. and the carry is you cannot control the type of input and output terminal equipment that gets attached to the telephone system nor any other. On wire or on air system so terminal equipment is liberated and it's regulated adequately by any trust business laws you must compete and it's from the competition of thousands of resourceful inventors and engineers and manufacturers of terminal equipment we have the miracle of video cassettes and tele disks and the rest of the hardware and stuff you will hear about. So hardware and equipment is carrier and terminal What's the other the second element in it the second element in the system is the carry a system itself the distribution channels that make it possible not only to convey intelligence and information from the transmitter to the reception but has all the capabilities of doing it on a two way basis the permit dialogue and interchange and debate but to supply a certain in the law in the life and the culture in the enjoyment of our times and what is the third part of the communications media system this is the all important stuff of which it's made and which you and I as citizens are concerned with that's the content the programming the information services the printing the pictures the computer language the infinite number of services that business couldn't derive from this system content is the name of the game in content we want an infinite competition we want no legal or business restraints over its nature or how that that content competes for our attention so that is the that is the communications element and let's consider citizens this is the total public it's fragmented into us members of the public as users and reception sput equally important as transmitters as communicators as participants in the process it consists of the carrier systems the cable companies the phone companies the telegraph companies the postal system the mayor the with the roads the highways these are the carriers the business they have got as an equal right to use this system the print media who have products and ideas to market. Government itself as a is a creator and a provider of social and political services so the public is the totality of of the users and of the system and the businesses that have a right to make a profit from making it work how about the rights that this conference is all about the rights were defined in the US Constitution in seventeen eighty nine it stated that the government shall not interfere with freedoms of speech expression petition assembly and the press and when the and when the Founding Fathers wrote that phrase they meant the total process is a social communication because that's what they were and the Congress was mandated by the Constitution to establish a system of post offices and post roads which were the only mask areas of communication system of of that communications Only later did public highways canals turnpikes railroads telephone telegraph come along and is each of them came along they were new technology they were established by private enterprise the private operators controlled access the battles over who had the right to get to get to the public could distribute their goods or services of information infinite and solutions were arrived at and it's in this direction in my opening remarks I want to focus your attention the solutions that were arrived at that the carry a systems the distribution systems. Were must be available to everybody they must as a condition of their franchises and their permits to exist provide enough capacity for any legal content service they fame must avoid censoring restricting confining access. They must make provision not only for the distribution of free your sponsors and services but provide a mechanism by which each of us could sell the product of our writing our are performing as candidates for public office our services on this system we are now confronted by an extraordinary revolution in the broadband system with the with a technical capability right now of providing this country in the world with a system of infinite carriage capacity with capabilities for two way communication with facilities to make possible optional selective audience payment with facilities that make it possible. Tiny neighborhoods in larger communities and congressional districts and marketing areas and states and regions this is they could be the opportunity we have before us we lost that opportunity in radio and television under the radioactive nine hundred twenty seven which is never been amended the Congress has passed no legislation affecting cable T.V. or broadband communications this is our opportunity are we have to go. The goal is to demand that the franchise cable system provide capacity and reasonable excessive demand for all legal services at reasonable rates and terms let them use the rest of the capacity if they wish to but not if they have to deprive any member of the public access for what that person wants to communicate or sell and the right to sell one's art and one services in one's business information is in the air you noble right as a right to sponsor and free distribution of these are at the heart of the public issues which I submit to you we are at a turning point in public policy. The seven movie producers are suing C.B.S. C.B.S. and A.B.C.. To compel them to get out of of the film production business because as carry is they have monopolized communications content in their media the F.C.C. has asked for comments on rule making which provides for open public channels to be provided in cable systems we have the Department of Justice fighting for the right of the microwave systems and of the communications satellite systems to be common carriers by common carrier we mean open to anybody and everybody at reasonable rates and terms and from which the carrier is problematic prohibited for censorship or control these are the solutions I personally believe this conference is all about and I hope my colleagues will help us develop them together thank you thank you. Traffic. First announcement before the next weekend Robert Northrop. I think his girlfriend wants him to marry McGivney or something like that wants him to call. The next big. The next because Moses Shapiro who is chairman of the board of the General Instrument corporation and I know for a fact that they make equipment for CA T.V.. Companies operate as Mr Shapiro has been associated with general insurance since one thousand nine hundred fifty five when he became executive vice president he studied at Fordham University and received a law degree in one nine hundred thirty two at the Brooklyn Law School as one of America's leading arbitrators and mediators during the thirty's and forty's he settle more than three thousand labor disputes which came before the New York State Mediation Board I was a week's work I think. He is the impartial chairman of a number of industries Mr Moses Shapiro. Ladies and gentlemen implicit in Mr probs comments which you will find in your folders and in virtually every report and discussion that takes place that topic of seeing these days is the assumption that cable is about to be broadly opened up so that it can become available to the substantial majority of T.V. set owners in the United States the discussion Center about what significant changes will take place in the mass communications media. What services will thereby become available what regulations should be imposed as appropriate conditions so that the public interest will be served and so forth it is of course not my position that such issues should not be debated and discussed it is right and proper that they be subjected to the most searching scrutiny it is rather my thesis that cable T.V. will never get a chance truly to demonstrate what it can do on a national basis unless informed and concerned citizens address themselves to the issue of how to get this medium going I should like to turn first to the question of where the industry stands today then I would like to discuss the contributions that CA T.V. should and would make if we were truly given an opportunity to compete in the marketplace as that the potman of justice and every other independent body such as the president's task force the Mayor's Task Force and the Rand Corporation of urged Where are we as of now with a few One notable exceptions such as New York City itself and Los Angeles T.V. C A T V is not available in the hundred top markets of the United States its practical exclusion from these one hundred top markets started in June one thousand nine hundred thirty June one thousand nine hundred sixty six under the Second Order and report of the F.C.C. and the quarter growth was delivered two years ago in the so-called proposed rules of the F.C.C. dated December one thousand nine hundred sixty eight and let there be no mistake about this. Despite the general feeling that things have changed or at least are about finally to change we are still operating in a deep freeze in so far as the hundred top markets are concerned stay out said the F.C.C. as it was then constituted this isn't private preserve for the broadcast interests why do I say this after all in his press conference in December one thousand nine hundred sixty eight that then chairman of the F.C.C. said with a perfectly straight face that the proposed rules were designed to quote help quote see a T.V. and tell let's see a T.V. grow so that the multiplicity of services that it could offer the public would be made available those rules sure helped as in them barmy helps of course ladies and gentlemen there can be no C A T V No public interest services no two way communication in the hundred top markets with the few exceptions noted unless and until we are permitted to import an adequate number of distant signals into those markets and that's precisely what the present rules prohibit us from doing of course the then chairman didn't say that he didn't say that at all he said sure bring in all the distance signals you want just one little thing get the right to retransmit the signals from the stations involved. He said that knowing full well that the stations under their contracts with the copyright owners are prohibited from granting such retransmission rights and here this about a month after the issuance of the infamous proposed rules the commission had a sudden concern that maybe there would be stations that would grant General quickly rights and let the Department of Justice wrestle with the possible entire trust questions that might arise if the copyright owners try to enforce their restrictive agreements the commission has then constituted therefore quietly in the same document that was called a notice of a public hearing clarified its real motives none of that it said no such general retransmission consent in those few experimental cases in which we are going to permit this at all this CA T.V. operator will have to get consent from the copyright owner on a program by program basis this is a manifest impossibility is the chairman knew full well it has been calculated that to comply a CA T.V. operating system operator would have to conduct successfully two thousand eight hundred eighty negotiations our month if he carried but for distance signals now what's the basis for this entire I see a T.V. posture a partially a virtually incredible in the face of the fact that even in the hundred top markets sixty five of those hundred top markets are not even served by one non network affiliated station. The position that the proponents of this line take well meaning but misguided on the part of song and just to point clever on the part of others is that war on CA T.V. takes a free ride by paying no copyright fee for the signals it picks up and that it thus competes unfairly with the broadcasters and most particularly with you H.F. to that it results in market fragmentation and three that it is a right and duty therefore of the F.C.C. quote to prevent due adverse impact on the free service the public is now receiving calls the courts because of the limitations of time I can't give these positions the dissection they deserve to expose them for the harm to the public interest that they have really caused in supporting the existing broadcast monopoly I must however at least partially outline some answers to these points as to one the position that CA T.V. takes a free ride by paying no copyright fee for the signals it picks up. It is not the proper all of the F.C.C. to overrule the United States Supreme Court regardless of the personal feelings of any of its members as to the propriety of the court's decision that CA T.V. always no copyright fee for the material it passes on to the V. or B. if the Congress of the United States wants to require payment let it do so as Senator Cleland subcommittee thinks it should and as far as I'm concerned the sooner the better. See the responsible leaders of the CA T.V. industry have never advocated that reasonable fee should not be paid they have said however that until Congress acts to express the wishes of the people the F.C.C. should not substitute its judgment for that of the American public which has demonstrated that given the opportunity it wants the program diversity of localism that CA T.V. can afford I asked the two and three namely fragmentation and adverse impact this use of the bar's Warry fragmentation is designed to mean that a serious adverse effect on the broadcasters particularly the U.H.F. poor kids these may serve to put them or some of them out of business to the detriment of the public ladies and gentlemen I challenge any proponent of this position to point to one one single instance of a fear each station or a U.H.F. station that was viable and profitable before see a T.V. came to its community that gave up its license after C. a T.V. arrived on the scene because of financial reverses I have outed that challenge publicly before. Congressional hearings at the F.C.C. and now again and not one such instance has ever been publicly proclaimed as a matter of fact I can point to case after case in which the advertising rate cards of local stations including U.H.F. went up I have to see a T.V. started to pick up that signaled and made annoyance available that was greater than its own off the air signals could provide. There is absolutely no evidence of probative value that has ever been cited by the F.C.C. that supports its concern for the vulnerability of over the air broadcasting in the presence of C A T V The affirmative evidence is to the contrary and the responsible industry position is not adverse to reasonable exclusivity and non duplications rules to keep it that way the best proof of my belief that the then Commission didn't want to be confused by the facts is that nine hundred sixty seven the F.C.C. rejected a request to determine CA tv's in practice on broadcasters in the suburban cable T.V. case and in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight rejected another request to obtain empirical data on see a T.V. in the valley cable Corp case. Now I agree that it is the duty of the F.C.C. to prevent on do an adverse impact on the free service the public is now receiving although I must say that I question how quotes free it is considering the price that one must pay to receive a few minutes of news or entertainment that one can see and hear before the next commercial and be for the product that has to include the advertising course but at least let us wait and see even a teeny weeny bit of adverse impact before we bought our CA T.V. entirely from the top hundred markets and why not decide on a case by case basis where evidence of adverse impact is found instead of saying as the F.C.C. has done in effect all we can foresee adverse impact alright and therefore rather than deal with it after the facts are established keep the potential harm out even if it never does or couldn't period materialize out no see a T.V.. What is really sad about all this is that there are those who are or have been in positions of authority who buy or even sell this stuff astri in the mistaken belief that thereby you H.F. will fulfill the shining hopes that were held for it not a single recent study that has been made by any non industry body supports this view even if CA T.V. had never been invented or if it didn't exist at all today the plain fact is that you H.F. is viable and profitable where it has network affiliation and that where it does not it can it cannot financially support the kind of public service programming essential a local in character that was in Vision For one thing is surely clear there can never be a fourth national network based on your weight here isn't it time that those who really should be in C A T V's corner fighting to bring program choice to the American people gave up over protecting their original brain children in the vain hope that they would grow up to be starting adults leading the diversity fight and now briefly let us turn into what it is that is being given up by those who are consciously or unconsciously stifling see a T.V. and still think that they are speaking for the public interest in one of this morning's panel meetings the program note stated quote many vital minorities in America are not served or are served badly by television well as a coach the issue of television's neglect and simultaneous impact on racial and other minorities was analyzed and the question was asked how can T.V. sort of the total public in addition to all the other things that ought to be done to improve significantly Broadcasting's performance in this regard that would discuss this morning and. There is surely warren of crucial importance let cable grow and find its place in the major urban areas of this country make a condition proceed and if you will for permitting the importation of just signals so as to make the systems buildable in the first place. Make this a condition proceed and that there be furnished at least one at least one channel that would be available at minimal out of pocket cost to any organization or group which has something to say to which locality without censoring editing or other inhibitory regulation provided only that the laws relating to obscenity pornography incitement that set or are observed what medium other than say a T.V. can do this on a continuous first come first serve basis certainly not the broadcaster who has only one channel to offer and want access can apply to this country or any other minority group have to that single station channel except in the brief period in which only violence demonstrations and conflict at the exit Taishan value to earn a place this quid pro quo namely furnish this channel in return for which will let you import this signals upon the payment of a reasonable fee as fixed by Congress this quid pro quo by itself would do more to redress the feeling of exclusion and frustration of minority groups than any other act I could feasibly be implemented by any other medium panel three this morning dealt with the question of politics and T.V. and more particularly there was to be debated the issue of quotes new policies to provide access to broadcast income I'm for political parties and candidates and for those in office and their opposition holds. Wow much else certainly needs to be done in this area why should not the voice of the concerned public be heard loud in the land to make sure that CA T.V. is on shackled here is the perfect medium by which ad for it surely not all cost every candidate who wanted to be heard could be heard loud and clear not just every once in a while or through spot commercials but often and at length either all alone or in the plain white candidate for local office or for the house or even for the Senate who is not a millionaire or who doesn't have access to copious funds can't afford the enormous present day cost of T.V. campaigning say a T.V. with its multiplicity of channels sits there begging for an opportunity to put the candidate on the air for nothing off and next to nothing and by the way with his mash it message the record exclusively for those who by virtue of their place of residence are able to participate in a specific election involved I find that particularly irritating that the candidates for election in New Jersey have to buy expensive time on New York channels and thus pay for my years at Catch to million New York voter in order to better reach their own constituency this would not happen in CA T.V. and there would be no cost involved at luncheon today the question was asked what can be done on to increase diversity of viewpoints and programming on T.V. What better than to make cable of valuable to the ninety percent of T.V. set owners for whom it is denied today then maybe even the Smothers Brothers will have a chance to present their own kind of program to that segment of the American public which wants it and viewers who wish to could see the Maypole dance of class to be in a George Washington public school. Or the basketball or football game of the local high school or college or the proceedings or the P.T.A. or the Bowery or maybe maybe even God spared our mark a quartet playing chamber music now in the face of what appears to be a brightening on the regulatory and congressional horizons for CA T.V. Why have I laid such stress on where we were and where we are simply because prior experience has shown that proposal to the F.C.C. and of congressional committees are sometimes not adopted at all or are adopted in vastly different form or may even languish for years before any actual action is taken the F.C.C. is public given and plan worked out under the courageousness or civil leadership of the new chairman of the F.C.C.. May or may not be the basis of the CA T.V. breakthrough the bill prepared by son of the the clone may or may not be enacted by Congress they each need support articulate informed vociferous report support if these measures or modifications there are having the same goal of permitting see a T.V. a real chance in the marketplace out of a common reality the recent actions of the F.C.C. can be interpreted as a decisive move to liberate CA T.V. and speed its future growth but they will not succeed without the active support of the concerned public represented by the end C C B In the statement of purpose of this conference we read the majority of the American people depend on T.V. for their view of the nation and their world this national conference will mark the beginning of nationwide activities by the N.C.C. B. to ensure that adequate implementation of the public's voice is achieved. Among its other goals dealing with the quality and content of the programs being presented on the year and C C B must be concerned in bringing more much more selectivity to the American public and increasing the opportunity to serve the many and varied cultural and ethnic and public interest in this land I appeal for your active support thank you very much. Thank you and exactly eight minutes. And the next speaker is the Brooks Robinson of. Tell of cable television Irving B. Conn president of teleprompter incorporated the largest. Multiple System operator in the country. Mr Khan is also chairman of the board of that company and was one of the founders of that company prior to that he was vice president in charge of radio and television activities for twentieth Century Fox maybe they could use him now. The teleprompter company prompted you at the beginning if you remember what it did and then went into cable OK let's hear it for Irving become I. Think Paul's working with softened to an alternate profession just in case the cable doesn't work. Thank you sir. Before I get started. The formal remarks which will add here to the time when we know. I'd like to say that I don't think that my position is quite that of Mr Shapiro expressed here on one side as being that black nor will it certainly be necessarily that we have all that we ought to as I'm sure my good friend can Cox might take on the other side of the ladder but you can't really say that top hundred markets are under way when we are operating in New York we think successfully and Los Angeles that. There's nothing in the book incidentally in the Communications Act in one nine hundred thirty four that guarantees a profit to a broadcaster they just don't know that they haven't read it in the past few years by the same token there's nothing in the book that guarantees an immediate profit the see a T.V. operator and if he's to assume his responsible position I'm not sure that that's going to come from bringing in distant signals from another town with some of the more drivel that he's got in his town I think that a operator has an opportunity as well as a social responsibility and I mean it's bad business by the way if he would just start doing some programming like we're trying to do in New York and we're finding out to our satisfaction and amazement that the people like it and it makes good business sense as well as making good sense so I have to veer to the line that it isn't all ad bad Sure we need copyright regulation no question I couldn't agree with Mr Shapiro more and to really accelerate the medium it would be helpful but it can be and take my word for it it will be done with or without it and the next few years be a lot easier with it but it will happen without it. I like to go to my prepared remarks. Cable television is a monument and Planned Parenthood. Really between its conception two decades ago in the Panther valley of eastern Pennsylvania and its present attainment of something resembling a delayed adolescence remarkable changes have occurred it is if a child believed capable only of playing a musical saw suddenly discovered virtue also skills for every instrument was something the office trip. Begin my remarks today I am going to suggest that we discard the term community antenna television cable T.V. and CA T.V. the acronym CA T.V. may be a handy form of verbal shorthand but it and the other conventional labels have an inhibiting influence upon this discussion indeed upon the entire continuing process of guiding this child prodigy this new medium of communications to useful maturity in our own company and wherever else we have the opportunity and thanks to Mr Dean he's getting the message we encourage the substitution of broadband communications for cable T.V. or community antenna television this is an attempt to describe a system that uses more flexible tools of communication than coaxial cable alone satellites and short haul or local distribution microwave for starters and a wealth of other possibilities to extend communications where cable alone cannot go broadband communication also conveys a much broader more complicated and more significant range of services than the transmission of television pictures alone this is a conference on broadcasting and the emphasis quite properly is on television but it's impossible in our discussion the completely isolate television from other broadband services in terms of technological social political or economic impact many many people have discovered and been fascinated by this vision or specter if you prefer of a vast diversity of communication services in recent months a tart of words has been written and spoken about cable television or broadband communications and its promise for the future we've been the focus of seminars symposiums panels forums workshops studies and reports and seemingly. Endless profusion we've been pinched and poked by experts we've been examined reexamined and cross examined all the way from college term papers to weighty and costly foundation research projects we've been bisected tri sector then dissected by economist stock market plungers sociologist newspaper and magazine pundits government agencies and commissions the Supreme Court and think tank task forces now most of the scrutiny has been to the good fight a bit unsettling sometimes for those of us toiling in the media points of view goals methodology have different greatly and yet a remarkable consensus as a Merz that this is indeed the medium of the future and that its immense almost fathomless opportunity and challenge our company but difficult perhaps dangerous side issues who will control this new medium who will accept the responsibility for its effect of development and lies and just application. I sense that certainly among members of this panel probably among almost all of this audience today we have progressed beyond the question of whether a broadband system can and a lot of the developed although this it still is a genuine issue outside these walls I sense also given the identities of my fellow panelists that I am cast here today as the heavy Perhaps I should say type case. Without a doubt my fellow panelists and I are in general agreement in many areas I know that to be true of Mr Cox and Mr Green Dean and Mr Shapiro has declined have on occasion conducted a running dialogue or debate over the past several months and years where we differ is not so much on where we are going but rather how we are going to get there from here and who is going to navigate and command our odyssey several years ago I suggested that we in the community and then a television industry or in the process of paving a country road and turning it into a superhighway I've seen the superhighway analogy used many times since then and it is a valid one however my fellow panelist represent a viewpoint that apparently believes we should be allowed to build a highway keep it free of chuckles mow the roadside weeds and possibly paint the low in lawn markers but not drive over it. Now that my friend's not much fun nor is it very practical yet it is the crux of the entire question on how fast and how well broadband communications in all its aspects will develop should such a new medium be suppressed into a supplementary to broadcasting as commissioner Cox advocated so many years ago should it become an extension of the telephone industry should it be a new independent medium but subject to public utility regulation should the system operator be denied the right to originate material or uses own channels should as the outline material for this panel suggest Congress make a commitment the wire the nation my answer to each of those questions is an emphatic No it is an increasingly it is increasingly apparent that the broadcast industry is handicapped by one channel minds as well as by a one channel medium that it lacks either the imagination or the motivation to make broadband communications bloom and grow it is equally apparent that the telephone industry already strained beyond the limits of its planning ability physical resources and social concern without attempting to control or even influence a medium that is not an extension of the lessening but an entirely new immensely broader second illogical concept of public utility regulation would be tragic and even fatal that means regulation by the same fusty parochial standards and agencies that have failed so badly in every other regulatory area to lessen any power and transportation it is wildly impractical to believe that a Congress which hasn't been able to pass a new copyright law for sixty one years or materially update the Communications Act of one nine hundred thirty four for thirty six years is going to make a commitment in a little while or in a short time to wire the nation. Finally it is a needless complication and if a trace a failure to recognize the true meaning of broadband diversity to advocate an absolute of course between the carrier and the programming functions for one thing I categorically reject the nonsense that are responsible broadband operator would cripple would cripple or restrict his network to promote protect his own programming services it is clearly in the operator's best interest to develop the maximum use of his facilities he operates and always will operate a service that the customer has the right to accept or reject on the basis of the desirability again versity of services made available for another thing this is most important I do not believe that any responsible operator xpect or even wants to control the inputs of all the channels again the versity is the name of the game the more who share the costs and the responsibility of channel utilization and contribute to his revenues the better off he will be last summer an address at our national cable television Association convention uses a theme and military axiom The higher a man climbs the more his rear is exposed and obviously as a potential of the medium unfolds there is increasing concern increasing skepticism about the people who happen to be involved in it what on one on that it looks like just another establishment's crowd dedicated to the same old principles of mediocrity and the profit motive. I must admit to you that I share that concern but I will tell you honestly that I don't believe either you or we have a choice in the matter right now in the absence of constructive regulation by the F.C.C. or initiative by Congress we have moved ahead we are making it happen not waiting around for the system to emerge beautifully perfected and flawlessly Advena stated it has been and will be a painful inch by inch evolutionary process hopefully what appears to be a more enlightened F.C.C. attitude and not just because my friend Mr Cox has left the commission increasing awareness and understanding on Capitol Hill and most important the insight and involvement of citizen groups like this one should make future progress more significant What are we doing speaking for my own company we have developed and had licensed by the F.C.C. a monthly channel microwave system that already is and use here in New York City and promises a solution to the lemma of how remote rural areas ever could be included in a quote wired unquote nation we have taken the initiative in proposing a satellite system using the some twenty five hundred existing CA T.V. systems as a nucleus a system capable of eventually conceivably by the middle of this decade or sooner enter connecting every American community from Cutbank Montana to New York and from pokey Florida Los Angeles. Our company and many others are working now on to a systems and computer terminals and meter reading techniques security systems facsimile distribution for newspapers mail and books ways of using video cassettes and cartridges there are many more that these are many more the things that may seem so blue sky when you read about them but be assured the wild blue yonder is not so yonder anymore Now as for original television programming I may change my mind in a few years as the entire system develops but for the present I insist that this is one of the options we as operators must have and now and again we are filling a void and local origination as a foundation stone of the present stage of broadband development and I would call your attention to the fact that holding and tentative as our efforts may be we have no reason to be ashamed of what we are accomplishing many of you read I'm sure Jack Gould reviewing a recent drama king heroin that was carried on a channel eight here in upper Manhattan. Perhaps a few of you saw it and I hope of eventually that we can expand the audience greatly with a program that Jack described as marking quote a chapter in the evolution of communications the opening of an important door or I might mention our program from Harlem programs or the coverage of Gaelic football leagues from our inward customers or our neighborhood dialogues the intensive coverage we are planning of next week's election right here in New York not the big picture but the dozens of little pictures that make up the head to Jennie's area that we serve and so that you don't think this is only happening in New York City let me tell you about the little community of Simi California where I systematically are in his office assistant state on the air if you'll pardon the expression rather that cable for twenty seven straight out is providing the only source of information for several thousand people threatened by the recent brush fires that's about ten days ago we are intensely aware of the alternatives that confront us well our communications explosion contribute to future shock or serve as an anecdote we welcome your concern we sincerely invite you to come work with us but be forewarned we invite you to action Niall and right now not to torrents of talk and a press release press blitzkrieg Thank you. Thank you. I see I see some people just stay for Mr Khan. The next big of the will will not. Well not talk about cable he's not in that business he's in a cottage business I think they're renamed this thing cable cartridge computer television. If there are not a call that I wrote. The. He is the real Frank Stanton. The fake one is in his office a big black building there sixty and. Frank Stanton He's the president of Africa caught rich television incorporated I think that's the name and. That's all I know about a man you're about to hear from him Mr Stanton. I think after the. View opening your painting speeches I find I like to tear this up because we'll wait till the panel begins. To client Mr Cox I mean that panel ladies and gentlemen when we talk about the citizen's right and rights in broadcasting what are we really talking about. The right to better programming who is going to decide what's better better for whom we talking about more public service programming who is to decide what programming is in the public service. Who is to decide what programming is in the public service. Or when we talk about the citizens rights in broadcasting aren't we discussing the commercial exploitation of a natural resource the airwaves if you want to think about it that way and this raises the whole problem of industrial pollution. Profit the motive of business and the social cost of profit has never been included in that accounting if the airwaves are a natural resource then they are surely clogged with a by product of industrial profit commercial broadcasting and the channels it utilizes as established in the early days of radio has been labelled as an extension of the advertising industry and a principle sales tool used by business to promote its products as for CA T.V. I imagine the basic question is will it be a continuation of standard broadcasting accept advertising and be in business for the promotion of products or will it be a technology you primarily to service a broad spectrum of the public's social needs while that debate continues about how much of the airwaves belong to the people and how much belongs to the business investments that pay for the free programming we have grown to expect as our citizens the right we think that our cartridge television system namely cartridge vision were off of the alternative that may render this very argument moot because aren't we actually talking about the freedom of choice individual freedom of choice when we talk about citizens rights where there is freedom of choice no matter how relative there is clearly little complaint about citizens' rights now what is cartridge television a car tradition. On a single cartridge we can pre record using a new high speed video printing techniques a full length movie which will play back over the television set black white color no difference with a cartridge a program can also be recorded off the air whether one wishes to and if no one is home the player can be set to record automatically Furthermore the owner of cartridge of a of cartridge vision equipment with a very simple video camera can make his own programs photograph his family what every pleases and play it back instantly through the television set this is been called Movie Polaroid quite simply Karcher vision permits you to playback pre recorded systems pre recorded programs record off the air and to record your own programs the consumer or citizen will finally control his television set I think that present day television can never never achieve the same kind of freedom unless a programs content is the deciding factor in programming for as television be it commercial education or cable exist today it can only offer some minor variation of what already abounds a choice of programming pre-selected by groups forces individuals who are interested in the content of the program only as it's affected by something other than itself as a business man. I suggest to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan programming must become the product that very simply is what Carter vision allows it provides for the dissemination of visual information of any kind nature size or shape with no restrictions none whatsoever Mr Hoving can furnish the visual equivalent of all publications that his museum puts out the stock breeder in Iowa will have the latest information on hog husbandry available in the cartridge parents will finally be able to decide just what their children will see and when they will see it produces with any point of view can create their audiovisual works without having to worry about how to get them shown whoever wants to make programmes can whoever wants to distribute programming can do that too no time limitations or formats no sponsor or advertiser needs unless someone wants them no legislative bureaucratic pressures no national or local restrictions may affect programming visual information entertainment and education can be recorded seen as often as desired whenever wherever however by any individual interested in the content of any program a cartridge audience a cartridge audience will be any single person sufficiently interested. In any program to seek it out in a mail order catalogue store or library that I believe is truly free choice our rights as citizens thank you. OK. I'd like to say a few words now. I've been listening and I'd like to marry the four previous statements into into one thing that can be done it seems to me I believe it's possible to take the advantages of a cartridge and not have it be bought by the home or rented from a store or delivered by a milk truck whichever way they have been thinking of distributing nor have somebody by a machine at home for four hundred dollars everybody says it'll go down to five hundred to six and. I'm still waiting for the Ford My father promised me when I would go down. In price and the it is possible it seems to me through the use of broadband communications and it's the only system it developed right now that you can in your home retrieve from the head end of a cable system cartridges. You don't have to buy them you retrieve them electronically by pressing buttons the same kind of buttons the fewer of them that you use for retrieving your neighbor on the telephone you can press a button in a tuner and retrieve cartridges from the head end because bridges there are they are merely slots in a huge jukebox and every kind of program can go in him any kind of program you produce that you're no longer controlled by it's the means of communication means of distribution do not control the product that goes into these slots the public determines if you want to pro if you want to show your wife's pictures you put them in the slot and they go out over the line if anybody wants to retrieve them people will pay people will pay for for the rental of these cartridges from the head end so they need not carry advertising. There are there are ways of it carrying advertising it is the one I believe to be what I call computer television the marriage of the best actually buttes of broadband and clock which cartridge allows you the flexibility of playing anything you want at the time you want it computer television allows you that to a little not it not as random as you would like but you don't have to take home Gone With The Wind with a forklift either you don't know how heavy those going through. It is it seems to me that it's possible right now it is a solution to the problem of of diversity in programming. And with that. I sound like a man who was just talking to a radio audience and saying that you can have this radio with pictures yeah. I know what I know what station diversity does because I've watched radio through the years you know put the same middle of the bell programming on all stations and the amount of channels available amount of stations available amount of frequencies available has nothing to do with program content if it is all sequence will that is one program after another and depends on. On advertising it can never break out of its. Rut with. The next speaker is. Gone P. Nathans and who is the president of the North advertising in Chicago and is also the vice chairman of cypress communication a CA T.V. company a large company. Mr Nathan son founded North advertising in December nineteenth fifty five was a very good year. He's a member of the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Institute for early childhood education and the Chicago educational T.V. Association W T T W is the educational station in Chicago Mr Nathan so. You're going to learn two things about me today. First of all and I'm not paranoid. Because otherwise how can I in advertising man face all of you here today. I don't see many other advertising people here. As a matter of fact this morning at the political television seminar. The advertising agent was accused of almost every cent in the book when the truth of the matter is that fewer and fewer advertising agents are really engaged in political advertising they can Himes and regardless of the Goodmans and all the other people that are manipulating the political candidates are really not advertising agents at all they're political specialists P.R. man call them what you will the second thing you're going to learn is that I'm very practical they call this session C A T V The communications revolution. Well don't forget that revolutions always begin very very small it was only a handful of men who faced the whites of their eyes that conquered if you recall we've heard talk about twenty and thirty channels of CA T.V. to soon be available and have satellite networks and a facsimile in a survey allowance of meter reading you name it ca T.V. is an octopus with legs running in every every direction and it's a wonder it doesn't stumble and trip all over itself and it well if we don't succeed in one simple practical aspect of this business we must find a way to make the individual see a T.V. station originate programs that pay for themselves either through volunteer time or by advertising or by subscription as you know. April nineteenth seventy one is the date that no CA T.V. station throughout this country can forget for on this day all CA T.V. systems with over thirty five hundred homes for subscribers must begin local origination Now how are they going to do this I was at several conventions of programming and the. The chaos is really something should they run old movies should they rehash network discard should they play industrial free films that's not local origination to my way of thinking is see a T.V. merely duplicate over the air television that would not only disappoint every one of us here in this room today but it would be just bad business because all it would do is fragment ties the existing audiences now some people have suggested and it was suggested in the paper that was given for this particular meeting that we open up the channels to volunteer productions to pray debates to volunteer instructions and free entertainment and I think that's a great idea and I think that all CA T.V. stations would welcome it. But this has been tried and here's what really happens in some cases under astute direction by experienced Shelmon like Mr Khan the groups get together they work hard and they produce exciting meaningful programs like King heroin and other programs but day in day out year after year volunteers get tired. And they get tired very fast especially when the compliments and the comments start fading away and then the channel goes black or unused This is what really happens in many many small towns throughout the country they don't have the talent of groups like you have here in New York there has to be somehow a continuous incentive to keep a station going and the best one I know unfortunately or not is called profits now how do you generate profits there is only one way CA T.V. must focus its local programming a new subjects designed for special interest groups so it will attract new audiences and new advertising dollars and profits now this is been said before here today but it's important that we go after the special interest groups with new subjects and what is focused programming Here's a parallel example from another medium taken right out of grassroots America Various a whole series of. Little local papers neighborhood papers small town papers suburban papers these papers are flourishing all over America because what they're not doing is duplicating what the big city papers do what they are doing is they're focusing in on local events and local faces and local advertising and they not only exist they flourish believe me in many sections of this country. Now see a T.V. program must focus too on the local scene the neighborhood town meetings in the school board meetings in the dances and the high school football games and the precinct caucuses just think for a moment what this country would be like if we could tell of eyes open precinct caucuses in every corner of this land we'd build a far more knowing and a far better working democracy and it's possible a see a T.V. and advertises underwrite this special focus programming not the big national laugh advertisers necessarily but the corner drug store and the hardware in the grocery store that are sending out handbills he might go on the local station and why shouldn't the merchants have an opportunity to sell their wares through a medium that uses sight and sound in motion now am I dreaming all this up can these focus programs be produced for the pennies and the dimes that neighborhood stores can afford I think they can if one thing happens primarily because the programs won't be slick or professional or even in color they'll be just what they're meant to be homey and real and believable and the public will love them just as they do their little four page local neighborhood newspaper but one thing still must happen you cannot build a studio and expect the community to drop everything and come and visit you special specially if you have very little incentive to make them come. Instead you must bring the studio to the people there's a young man who got up at lunch today with a camera just like that and he said we've got a studio we can go right to the people and tell our story through take recording that camera on tape now that to me is one big big answer to how we can go about bringing the studio to the people but I'd like to see something else happen I'd like to see someone produce a small mobile truck with an easy to operate miniature camera just like the one he has right there and a tiny but powerful microwave dish. We need instantaneous portable broadcasting and right now that's too costly this many truck should be able to move around the neighborhood so you can meet the people face to face attend the town meetings talk to the mayor of the office visit a classroom an arts or drama watch a dance or a Little League baseball game or a street corner a debate this mobile unit is the key to local see a T.V. programme originations C A T V must join the people and capture their lifestyle film their comments witness their news firsthand nothing will contribute more to true local grass roots programming all over America than a unit like this inexpensive to purchase easy to operate and very very mobile they say that necessity is the mother of invention that we've got the mother will somebody please deliver the child. You know I've been focusing on just one type of focus programming the local picture but there are many many other ways that CA T.V. can concentrate its various channels and we've talked about I'm here today special interest groups going to have programs of their own doctors and dentists and lawyers and gardeners and sportsmen and artist and there can be programs focused on different language groups and different cultural groups and minority groups really can finally have their say there's a station in Chicago. That is going live for the first time it's called Channel forty four it's a you a chap station instead of doing what most U.H.F. stations and specially the ones here in your town with the exception of the language stations do which is just rehash old network programs this particular station will be doing an all news and information type of program now right now all they're doing is just showing the news like you see on cable in print and it's very interesting the woman who came up this is at noon and talked about the death people the biggest single audience for this station right now since is only prints the news are deaf people and we we have even got to deaf people sponsors the Belltown company for one who goes after the death people with hearing aids so there is a market that's a little special focus group but it works. Now what they're planning to do when they go live in their studio is available is called biased news and they're going to have conservative news in underground news underground news is completely sold out black news. Spanish speaking news and I even think that Mayor Daley will like the idea of having the protesters on the air instead of in the streets. Now see a T.V. can plan similar type of programs in every community give everyone a chance to have their day in the court of public opinion when time is not limited and channels are available the only restraints to better programming will be the limitations of your own imagination. Or your pocketbook now there are ten well known mass magazines in the country here a couple of them. But there are two hundred well known special focus magazines and they're all filled with advertising and they're all paid for and there are about twenty five hundred lesser known magazines publish for small select audiences there's all kinds of magazines American artists National Wildlife girl talk recreational industry baby talk you name it twenty five hundred or more now let the networks and the other over the air television stations fight for the mass audiences see a T.V. can carve a place for itself here and there and everywhere by bringing the studio to the people and catering to their special and diverse interests through what I call focused programming Thank you. Thank you. The next panelist is Mr John Pemberton Jr who's executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Mr Pemberton became the third executive head of A.C.L.U. when he assumed that post in one thousand nine hundred sixty two a native of Rochester Minnesota Mr Penn with them has been engaged in the general practice of law in that city since one thousand nine hundred fifty Mr Pemberton. Thank you for. Mr Klein one amendment as a introduction since it was handed to you by the N C C B I recently retired as executive director of the A.C.L.U. and joined the ranks of the unemployed. I think I'm as capable of being an unarmored by the Buck Rogers imagination stimulation of the prospects of. Technical developments in this field is as anyone has. And I genuinely believe that the capacity of this technological development for adding to the richness of our lives particularly in the area of. Television. Is enormous I don't believe it's going to happen by itself I think the point of the regulatory systems that we use to govern ourselves in this society is to ensure our one that is freed to add to the program diversity and the localism that the previous speakers have been describing as its potential and to that it has provided the economic incentives to do so regulation. In the context of this meeting has normally been talked of in terms of what the F.C.C. does in the case of cable of course an enormous amount of governmental invention is the intervention is occurring at this point in time as several thousand communities across our nation are franchising cable systems and what I chose to. Pick for my particular contribution to this discussion is a capsule of a case history in local franchising as you know the city of New York has just issued twenty year franchises to two cable operators for the borough of Manhattan one for the north half in rough geographic terms and the other for the southern half stating that in doing so it was setting the pattern for the franchising of ten districts within the five boroughs of the city of New York the franchising of these two operators occurred after an excellent study done by the mayor's taskforce on telecommunications to which you heard reference and completed two years ago. Then as we were told particularly by Mr Khan the city corporation counsel's office engaged in long and tough and hard bargaining with the proposed cable operators who were then operating under short term consents rather than twenty year are long term franchises and drove what they felt was as hard a bargain with our cable people as could be driven compared to any other city cable franchise that I've seen it certainly is as hard a bargain as has been driven there were provisions in it let me mention just to to illustrate the kind of hard bargain they've made these people commit themselves to the proposition that if at any time after they put their investment into the cables laid in our streets there are advances in the state of the art and of course there will be advances in the state of the art during the next twenty years as there have been in the past probably much more rapid one the city may compel these operators although they've already made their investment to modernize their investment in order to incorporate those and advances. They have compelled these operators to agree on the one hand that if they franchise C.N.N. the other district later to be franchised in the city of New York agrees to any other provisions that the city views would be more favorable to the Borough of Manhattan and were written in their own contracts that their own contracts may be amended to incorporate those other provisions and finally they made them agree that if nobody will take a tough contract that they propose for somebody else in in another barrel in the ark. These people will go out and pick up those tough contracts and wire that part of the city of New York to. I think I've made the point that the Corporation Council is a tough bargain or and he represented the city well the result in a very early July the public was given the terms of the proposed twenty year contracts which three weeks later. Give or take a few days were adopted by the Board of Estimate as the twenty year contracts. Between the city of New York and these two cable operators. After a after a hearing which together with other matters that were heard by the Board of Estimate that day took one day of the board of estimates business. I suggest to you that in spite of the tough bargaining that the city dead the contracts do not provide the economic incentives that I suggest should be the prerequisite of a system of regulation that ensures us that not merely in the immediate future but that throughout the period of any such contract we will be getting as the users of these services the kind of diversity the kind of attention to localism that we're entitled and in order to keep within some time limits let me use just one example it seems to me that the contracts omitted economic incentives do the cable operators do provide a maximum number of channels available to anyone willing to pay uniform rights to communicate his message or his form of entertainment to state his ideas or to express his talent in convenient time site segments leased to him on a first come first serve basis whether he supports his operation by contributing it is missed and it isn't suggested by advertiser support or by asking the subscribers to pay for it in fact these contracts went out of their way to preclude. Subscription television even in cases of non profit operations such as educational television unless the city is in effect overruled by a contrary ruling of the F.C.C. The F.C.C. requires the operator. To engage in program origination. So that the ideal that Mr Dean expressed and that Mr Kahn suggested to many of us one in which one economic entity builds the highway and somebody else drives down the highway is not possible under existing F.C.C. regulations. But the city did not require the provision of. Other channels capable of being leased for commercial use as distinguished from a limited number of other channels which the city requires to be made available for its own use and a limited number of other channels which the city requires to be made available for so-called public use on which community programs. Political broadcasts and the like may take place in short a very forward looking contract as written in one thousand nine hundred seventy may turn out in hindsight as we now look back on the one nine hundred thirty four Federal Communications Act to be something less than forward when we view it five ten fifteen years from now and I suggest that the reason for this is the reason for the existence of a National Citizens' Committee on broadcast. But we can't expect the city to bargain for us in handling this form of regulation the city also bargains and in this case did bargain for very attractive fees or taxes on the cable operators revenues to meet its pressing financial needs it bargain for free channels available to itself so that the city will become an operator of four television broadcast stations in New York whereas no other broadcaster is capable of operating more than one. You have been listening to part one of a session on the communications revolution which took place at the October meeting of the National Conference on citizens' rights in broadcasting heard in this portion of the session where Sydney a dean junior consultant on cable T.V. Moses Shapiro chairman of the board of General Instrument Corp Irving B. cone president of teleprompter incorporated and Frank Stanton president of Africa cartridge television we will continue with part two of this session at four P.M. EST you.