Radio: Goodbye, Easy Money

Speaking unofficially, one FCC official complained: "It's got so you can't turn on the radio without hearing a giveaway scheme. It's really quite a nerve-racking business . . ." The major networks were cluttered with 40 giveaway programs, flinging away $150,000 worth of prizes every month. Last week, acting officially, the FCC cracked down with a new set of rules, which reinterpret a 1934 anti-lottery statute.

There will be a month's grace period for complaints; on Sept. 10, FCC will either conduct hearings (if the squawks are loud enough) or else just put the rules into effect. Loopholes may develop later, but at first glance the FCC proposal looks tough for the easy-money shows.

Quiz programs will be outlawed if a prize is awarded to any person "whose selection is dependent in any manner upon lot or chance," and if, as a condition of winning, the contestant 1) must furnish "any money or thing of value," or have in his possession a sponsor's product; 2) must be listening to or seeing over television the show in question; 3) must answer correctly a question to which either the answer or a clue (including the question itself) has been given on a previous broadcast, or 4) must write a letter or answer the telephone when the contents of the letter or the conversation is to be broadcast.

Surprisingly, there was no loud howl from radiomen. Everybody seemed to have been expecting it. The new code of the National Association of Broadcasters, radio's own trade organization, is flatly on record, as of July 1, that "any broadcasting designed to 'buy' the radio audience, by requiring it to listen in hope of reward, rather than for quality of entertainment, should be avoided."

Some studios smiled through their tears and hastily applauded the FCC proposal. NBC, which runs the big Truth or Consequences (its Miss Hush prizes amounted to more than $21,000) and nine lesser quiz-bangs, primly pointed to its own "longstanding policy of stressing the entertainment, educational and news values of its programs . . ." WOR, key station for Mutual, another leader in the giveaway field (Queen for a Day, Three for the Money), solemnly assented: "The giveaway craze and large prizes have begun to overshadow the entertainment value of programs. Such overemphasis is not healthy for radio . . ."

Some radiomen hated to let loose the goose before the golden eggs completely ran out. ABC was preparing to defend its shows, including the sensational Stop the Music (TIME, July 19). Others had still not decided whether to fight 'em or join 'em. But it seemed certain that no sponsor would want to take on a new giveaway program while FCC was in its disapproving mood.