73D CONGRESS HO I USE OF REPRESENTATIVES REPORT
d Session No. 1037
REGULATION OF AMERICAN BROADCASTING COM-
PANIES OPERATING ACROSS THE INTERNATIONAL
BORDER
MARCH 22, 1934.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
state of the Union and ordered to be printed
Mr. BLAND, from the Committee on Merchant Marine, Radio, and
Fisheries, submitted the following
REPORT
[To accompany S. 2660]
The Committee on Merchant Marine, Radio, and Fisheries, to
whom was referred the bill (S. 2660) to amend the Radio Act of 1927,
approved February 23, 1927, as amended (44 Stat. 1162), having con-
sidered the same report thereon with the recommendation that the
bill do pass with the following amendments:
On page 1, line 5, strike out the words "a new section to follow",
and insert the words "two new paragraphs to". On page 1, line 6
strike out the words "new section", and insert the word "paragraphs".
On page 2, line 7, strike out the colon, insert a period, and strike out
the remainder of the paragraph, being all of lines 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12
on the second page of the bill.
As stated in the Senate Report on this bill, its purpose is to give the
Federal Radio Commission power to prevent any person from having
a studio or apparatus in the United States where radio programs are
produced and. sent to a foreign country and broadcast by a station
in that country so that the program is heard consistently in the United
States. Certain persons who have been forbidden to operate broad-
casting stations in the United States have set up stations in Mexico
and are operating studios on the American side of the boundary.
This bill will give the Federal Radio Commission power to stop such
outlaw broadcasting.
Testimony at the hearings disclosed that five stations of very high
power located in Mexico along the border, financed by United States
capital, operated for the purpose of supplying programs to audiences
in the United States, broadcasting principally in English, are supplied
with programs from studios located in the United States transmitted
by wire to the radio stations in Mexico and put on the air there.
2 BROADCASTING COMPANIES OPERATING ACROSS BORDER
These stations have, respectively, authorized power of 500 kilowatts,
220 kilowatts, 150 kilowatts, 10 kilowatts, and one of which the
authorized power is not known.
In addition there is one other station under construction, another
with concession to construct, and two more with construction requests
pending.
Two of the stations are operated by persons who have been denied
licenses by the Federal Radio Commission, and are sending out pro-
grams which the Federal Radio Commission has found not to be in
the public interest.
These stations are operated on frequencies and with power which
cause interference within the regular service areas of stations through-
out the United States, many American stations being subjected to
cross-talk and heterodyning.
This bill will not interfere with exchange of programs between the
United States and foreign countries because the Commission is author-
ized to grant permits to those who operate in the public interest.
The following language is stricken from the Senate bill:
Provided, That nothing in this section shall apply to the use of any studio,
place, or apparatus in connection with any program which is broadcast simul-
taneously by a foreign radio station and by any radio broadcasting station
licensed by the Federal Radio Commission.
The Chairman of the Federal Radio Commission feared that this
provision would cause embarrassment, as the offenders might buy
time over some small stations located nearby in the United States
and broadcast simultaneously from these stations and the foreign
station, with the result that the Federal Radio Commission would
possibly have to hold hearings on all renewal applications of the domes-
tic stations broadcasting these programs to determine whether they
were in the public interest. This procedure would involve delay
and postpone relief from the evils sought to be remedied.
There follow letters from the Chairman of the Federal Radio Com-
mission to the chairman of this committee and of the Committee on
Commerce of the Senate recommending the enactment of this legis-
lation in the form in which it is reported by this committee:
FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION,
Washington, February 3, 193t.
Hon. S. O. BLAND,
Chairman Committee on Merchant Marine, Radio, and Fisheries,
House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
DEAR JUDGE: Attached please find suggested copy of amendment to cover espe-
cially the Mexican situation, with which you are familiar.
If you agree with me that the situation is such as to warrant legislation at this
time, I wish you would talk with Senator Dill about the matter and see what he
thinks should be done.
I am enclosing copy of my letter to Senator Dill and am also sending a copy
of the correspondence to Congressman Ramspeck, chairman of your subcom-
mittee on radio.
With kindest personal regards.
Sincerely yours,
E. O. SYKES, Chairman.
BROADCASTING COMPANIES OPERATING ACROSS BORDER 3
FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION,
Washington, February 3, 1934.
Hon. C. C. DILL,
Chairman Interstate Commerce Committee,
United States Senate, Washington, D.C.
MY DEAR SENATOR DILL: Attached please find proposed amendment to the
Radio Act, prepared for the purpose of stopping broadcasts by remote control by
people in the United States over transmitters located in foreign countries.
The object and purpose of this proposal is especially directed at the broadcasts
from Mexican stations, such as Dr. Brinkley, who has now moved his hospital to
Texas and broadcasts from Texas to his station in Mexico.
It is our belief that if such an amendment were enacted it would make it very
much harder for these people, because then they would be compelled to do their
broadcasting from foreign soil and would greatly tend to discourage not only the
present broadcasting of this character but would also tend to stop the erection
of new stations along the Mexican border. We have submitted the proposed
amendment to Dr. Irvin Stewart, of the State Department, and he thinks it is
all right.
With reference to the chain broadcasting through Canadian stations, under
this proposal they could obtain the consent of the Commission for a continuance
of it, and I, therefore, do not believe they would now have any objection to this
proposal.
As you will note, the proposed amendment also covers electrical transcription
prepared for this purpose.
You are familiar with the Mexican situation, and we, therefore, ask that you
consider whether or not legislation of this character should not be passed in this
session of Congress.
I am sending copies of this letter to Senator White, Chairman Bland, of the
House committee, and Congressman Ramspeck, chairman of the subcommittee
of the House on radio.
We shall be pleased to furnish any other information you may desire on the
subject.
Sincerely yours,
E. O. SYKES, Chairman.
In compliance with paragraph 2a of rule XIII of the Rules of the
House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by the bill
are shown as follows (new matter proposed to be added to existing
law by the bill is printed in italics; existing law in which no change
is proposed is shown in roman):
SEC. 28. No person, firm, company, or corporation within the jurisdiction of
the United States shall knowingly utter or transmit, or cause to be uttered or
transmitted, any false or fraudulent signal of distress, or communication relating
thereto, nor shall any broadcasting station rebroadcast the program or any part
thereof of another broadcasting station without the express authority of the
originating station.
No person, firm, company, or corporation shall be permitted to locate, use, or
maintain a radio broadcast studio or other place or apparatus from which or whereby
sound waves are converted into electrical energy, or mechanical or physical reproduc-
tion of sound waves produced, and caused to be transmitted or delivered to a radio
station in a foreign country for the purpose of being broadcast from any radio station
there having a power output of sufficient intensity and/or being so located geograph-
ically that its emissions may be received consistently in the United States, without
first obtaining a permit from the Federal Radio Commission upon proper application
therefor.
Such application shall contain such information as the Commission may by regu-
lation prescribe, and the granting or refusal thereof shall be subject to the require-
ments of section 11 of the Radio Act of 1927 with respect to applications for station
licenses or renewal or modification thereof, and the license or permission so granted
shall be revocable for false statements in the application so required or when the
Commission, after hearings, shall find its continuation no longer in the public
interest.
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