Court Takes License From WHDH; Group Plans to Change Local TV

Twenty-eight promoters of Boston Broadcasters, Inc.-including nine members of the Harvard faculty and administration-are dusting off seven-year-old plans to revolutionize Boston television programming.

The U. S. Court of Appeals decided last week to uphold a 1969 Federal Communications Commission ruling taking the license for broadcasting on Channel 5 from WHDH, and giving it to BBI, ending a sixteen-year-old legal battle.

WHDH president Harold Clancy has indicated that the station-which is owned by the Boston Herald-Traveler-will continue the appeal to higher courts. But spokesmen for BBI remain optimistic. "I would be disappointed if we weren't broadcasting within a year," said William J. Poorvu, treasurer of BBI and assistant professor of City Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The new channel 5 would be very different from the old one if BBI members get their way. "What we want to do," explained Poorvu, "is to create a local station to do local programming and pay attention to the community instead of the network."

BBI plans to broadcast on a 24-hour-a-day basis, introducing major innovations in the type and quality of programs produced.

"Programs come from three sources," Poorvu explained, "including network, syndication, and local. We plan to greatly increase the importance of the third source. At the same time, we hope to attract some of the most exciting people in the industry."

One of the innovations BBI suggested several years ago was to force the networks to turn over half an hour of evening prime time to the local affiliates. "When we came up with that idea, everyone at the time thought it was ridiculous. But starting next fall, FCC regulations will require it. The challenge, of course, is for the local stations to come up with something creative, instead of making it just another syndicated program," Poorvu said.

As part of the campaign to improve the broadcasting, BBI plans to change the commercial format. "We want to cut down on the amount of clutter that's presented. When you string six or eight commercials together, the people don't benefit, and the advertiser isn't getting his money's worth," said Poorvu.

Face the Affiliation

BBI would continue the affiliation of Channel 5 with the CBS network, but place more accent upon community programming. In doing so it would compete with WGBH, acknowledged to be one of the finest educational stations in the country. "We feel," Poorvu explained, "that a commercial station has more resources than educational television to do interesting stuff."

BBI emphasizes the need for locally relevant programming. "Fly into any city," suggests the BBI promotional pamphlet. "Check into any hotel. Turn on the television. Chances are, at any given hour of the day or night, what-ever channel comes in view, in whatever city, the program will be very much the same as that on any other channel in any other city."

Father Knowles Best

Prominent stockholders of BBI include Dr. John Knowles, Director of Massachusetts General Hospital and Gerald Holton, Harvard physics professor. Oscar Handlin, Harvard professor of American History, is chairman of the program advisory committee. Leo Beranek, a member of the Advisory Committee for Advanced Management at the Harvard Business School, is president of BBI.

Jordan J. Baruch, a lecturer at the B-School, and Robert G. Gardner, coordinator of Light and Communications at the Carpenter Center, are other directors of BBI. F. Stanton Deland, a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, and Edward C. Bursk, editor and publishing director of the Harvard Business Review, are other stockholders.

Clancy Lowers the Boom

The transfer of license from WHDH to BBI may also have serious financial repercussions. WHDH president Clancy maintained that the loss of broadcasting revenue would not force the parent company, Herald-Traveler Corp, to cease publication of the newspaper. But the issue is in doubt. Most of the company's $2.8 million net profit last year came from WHDH while the faltering Herald-Traveler operated at a loss.

Boston is the fifth largest television market in the country and the second most expensive, so a lengthy legal wrangle has been fought to gain control of broadcast rights.

A license was first offered in 1954, and granted to WHDH in 1957. Shortly thereafter, charges of political dealings between the president of WHDH and the chairman of the FCC threw the matter into the courts. After that, the license was continued on a temporary basis.

You Are Cordially Invited

In 1963, the FCC invited other applications. BBI was formed in response.

After delaying for six years, the FCC ruled in favor of BBI in May, 1969, and WHDH appealed. The case then stagnated for another 18 months until last week.

The Center, which has operated since its founding in 1959 on grants from he Ford Foundation, is currently undergoing "a period of reassessment," Rosenblith said. The Foundation declined to renew its last grant, which expired in June.

The Globe story directly contradicted a Yale Daily News parody of the CRIMSON issued Thursday night, which stated that Moynihan would become President of Harvard.

The report was false.