Great Western Broadcasting Ass'n v. Federal Communications Commission

94 F.2d 244, 68 App. D.C. 119, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 4120
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedDecember 6, 1937
DocketNos. 6852-6854
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 94 F.2d 244 (Great Western Broadcasting Ass'n v. Federal Communications Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Great Western Broadcasting Ass'n v. Federal Communications Commission, 94 F.2d 244, 68 App. D.C. 119, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 4120 (D.C. Cir. 1937).

Opinion

GRONER, J.

Great Western Broadcasting Association, Inc., appellant in 6852 and 6853, is a Delaware corporation. On July 6, 1934, it filed two applications with the commission requesting authority to erect (l),a non-quota local station at Logan, Utah, (2) a [246]*246nonquota local station at Provo, Utah. On October 22, 1934, Jack Powers and associates, doing business as Utah Broadcasting Company, interveners here, filed an application for a construction permit to erect a similar station at Salt Lake City, Utah.

When the applications were ready to be heard, the commission had before it four additional applications for stations in Salt Lake City, Logan, and Provo. The commission thereupon designated all the applications for public hearing before an examiner, in accordance with section 309(a) of the Communications Act of 1934, 47 U.S.C.A. § 309(a). Intermountain Broadcasting Corporation, appellant in 6854, is the licensee of an existing station operating in Salt Lake City, Utah. Upon its petition it was allowed to intervene in the hearing on the Powers application. Witnesses were examined, depositions were taken, and in October, 1935, the examiner recommended that the application of Great Western for a station at Logan be denied, but that its application for a station at Provo be granted; that the application of Powers and associates be granted; and that all other competing applications be dismissed. On May 1, 1936, the commission, effective September 11, 1936, granted the Powers application for a station at Salt Lake City, but denied the application of Great Western for stations at both Provo and Logan.

The appeals of Great Western in 6852 (Logan) and 6853 (Provo) are taken under section 402(b) (1) of the Communications Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 1093, 47 U.S.C.A. § 402(b)(1). That section allows an appeal to this court by an applicant for a station permit whose application is refused. The appeal of Intermountain in 6854 (Powers— Salt Lake City) is taken under section 402 (b) (2) of the Act, 47 U.S.C.A. § 402(b) (2), permitting an appeal by one other than an applicant, whose interests are adversely affected by the granting of an application.

The record discloses that the commission denied the applications of Great Western for stations at’ Provo and Logan on the grounds that the applicant corporation failed to show the citizenship of the only stockholder; that it failed to establish financial qualifications necessary to construct and operate the proposed stations; that it failed to furnish all the information called for by the questions contained in the applications; and that the record did not sufficiently disclose the nature and character of the program service intended to be rendered. In its opinion the commission said:

“There was some evidence that the financial ability of. the applicant to construct and operate the two proposed stations was in some way dependent upon the Inter-mountain Broadcasting Corporation. However, the record does not show just in what manner this was to be accomplished. The only money attributable to the Great Western Broadcasting Association, Inc., was $1,-000 advanced for organization purposes. There is no legally enforceable agreement in evidence, by which the Great Western Broadcasting Association, Inc., could command sufficient funds to construct and operate the two proposed stations at Provo and Logan, Utah. The Commission is of the opinion and so finds that the applicant has not made a proper showing as to financial ability to construct and operate the two proposed stations.”

Appellant Great Western contends that these findings are wholly contrary to the evidence.

Logan, Utah, is a city of approximately 10,000 population, and Provo of a little less than 15,000. There is considerable evidence in the record of the need in each of these cities for a radio broadcasting station and there is also evidence that each of these communities is economically and financially capable of supporting a local station; and if the commission had placed its decision on the ground that there was no need for broadcasting stations in these cities, the conclusion would be inescapable that the commission had refused to consider and give legal effect to established facts. But, as it appears, the decision in these cases turned upon other considerations, the commission having found that the qualifications of the applicant did not reach the standard prescribed by the act and by the commission’s rules. It is on this ground that the rejection was placed.

Undoubtedly the act contemplates that the applicant for a license shall establish those qualifications for the license which would make its grant serve the public interest, and this necessarily presupposes a frank, candid, and honest disclosure of the facts as to its qualifications deemed by the commission essential to enable the commission to act within it powers. We must, therefore, have recourse to the evidence to discover, if we can, whether Great Western has indeed failed to meet these require[247]*247ments. Great Western’s applications are signed and sworn to by H. R. Duvall, president. They purport to set forth the facts about the applicant which are preliminary to consideration by the commission. They assert that Great Western is not a subsidiary corporation but is its own ' master; that Duvall owns 80' per cent, of its stock; that the corporation would be the owner and would have absolute control of the stations applied for when licenses were obtained; and that the corporation’s assets consisted of $1,000 in cash and $15,000 in securities. When the evidence before the examiner was taken, all these statements were shown to be incorrect. Duvall did'_.not testify. Neither did any one else who was an officer or employee of the applicant corporation. Instead, the testimony was entirely given by a Mr. Fox, president of Intermountain, the intervener in the Salt Lake City controversy. He testified that the statement in the application that Great Western was not a subsidiary corporation • was incorrect, that it was in fact a subsidiary of Intermountain. His testimony in regard to the stock ownership in Great Western leaves inevitably The impression that H. R. Duvall, who signed the application as the president of Great Western and who claimed ownership of 80 per cent, of the stock, was a mere figurehead—an employee without personal means and wholly without interest in the subject-matter of the application. And the certificate for the stock appears to have been juggled back and forth between Intermountain and Duvall so as to leave the question of even nominal ownership wholly in doubt. Enough is shown, we think, to make it reasonably clear that the correct facts were withheld and that Intermountain, itself an applicant for a large increase of power which, if granted, would bring both Logan and" Provo within its radius, intended and expected contrary to the terms of Great Western’s applications to operate those two stations as wholly subsidiary to its Salt Lake City station. And when pressed by the examiner to state how Intermountain would arrange programs for, and operate, the two small stations, Fox replied that the question was one for time and the future, ali of which is convincing that the statements in the application of Great Western as to its control and plan of operations were wholly unreliable and without binding force. When there is added to this the lack of financial set-up necessary, as the commission thought, for the successful construction and operation of the stations, we should have to go very far to say that the action of the commission in declining permits was either arbitrary or capricious. _

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94 F.2d 244, 68 App. D.C. 119, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 4120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/great-western-broadcasting-assn-v-federal-communications-commission-cadc-1937.