Wentronics, Inc. v. FCC

• Decision Date: 26 March 1964
• Docket Number: No. 18189.,18189.
• Citation: 118 US App. DC 36,331 F.2d 782
• Parties: WENTRONICS, INC., Appellant, v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

118 US App. DC 36, 331 F.2d 782 (1964)

WENTRONICS, INC., Appellant, v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, Appellee.

No. 18189.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia.

Argued March 5, 1964.

Decided March 26, 1964.

Mr. John Pope Cole, Jr., Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Mr. Joel H. Levy, Counsel, F. C. C., with whom Messrs. Max D. Paglin, Gen. Counsel, Daniel R. Ohlbaum, Associate Gen. Counsel, and Mrs. Ruth V. Reel, Counsel, F. C. C., were on the brief, for appellee.

Before WILBUR K. MILLER, DANAHER and McGOWAN, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

For some years the Federal Communications Commission has been concerned over the probability that community antenna television reception services,¹ commonly referred to in the industry as CATV, might have an adverse economic impact upon regular television stations in the communities served by them. The CATVs can relay to their subscribers, through microwave radio facilities, programs from distant television stations which duplicate the programs broadcast by local stations. While a CATV operation is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission, its use of microwave facilities must be licensed by it.

On December 14, 1962, the Federal Communications Commission gave notice of proposed making of rules to govern the grant of licenses for microwave radio stations serving CATV systems, and to permit authorizations in this service only (a) if the CATV system carries the signal of any existing or subsequently constructed local television station, and (b) if the CATV system does not duplicate any program carried by the local station, either simultaneously or 30 days before or after. It was announced that applications for such microwave authorizations would not be acted upon during the pendency of the rule making proceeding unless the applicants agreed to accept authorizations containing conditions (a) and (b) above described.

On January 22, 1963, Wentronics, the operator of a CATV system in Casper, Wyoming, filed with the Commission applications for modification of its three microwave radio authorizations to permit a second channel of service on which it proposed to carry the signals of a Denver television station. In an accompanying letter, Wentronics stated:

"* * * Wentronics, Inc., hereby gives notice in response to paragraph 7 of the Commission\'s `Notice of Proposed Rule Making\' in Docket No. 14895 that, in order to obtain a grant of these applications, it accepts the conditions described in paragraph 5 of that notice and that in operating this requested channel, when approved, such operation shall be pursuant to those conditions or with any other rules eventually adopted in this microwave service.

"The foregoing is without prejudice to Wentronic\'s sic rights to participate in the rulemaking procedure and to raise every legal objection to the adoption of the proposed rules."

On May 27, 1963, the Commission granted the applications subject to the following conditions:

"If the CATV system operates in an area within the predicted Grade A contour of any television broadcast station in operation, or which subsequently comes into operation, the CATV system must not duplicate simultaneously or

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