FCC Says No

When a radio station is about to be sold, FCC has the authority to say yes or no to the whole deal. It usually says yes. Last week it uttered a firm, cold no. FCC did not approve of the prospective buyers of Manhattan's station WOV.

The station's present owners, who also own WNEW, have to sell because of an FCC ban on anyone's owning two stations serving the same area. But, said FCC, the would-be buyers, Brothers Murray and Meyer Mester, Brooklyn dealers in edible oils, have had brushes with the Federal Trade Commission--and other Government agencies. They had sold cottonseed oil, in containers decorated with "olive branches . . . and wording in Italian . . . for the apparent purpose of misleading buyers into thinking that the contents consisted of imported olive oil." Besides, FCC added, the Mesters had not been entirely frank with Washington, and seemed not to know very much about either broadcasting or FCC rules and regulations. Conclusion: they "do not possess the qualifications essential to operate station WOV. . . ."

Thunderstruck, the Mester brothers promptly damned the FCC dictum as "very vicious," protested that their little trouble with Washington had been "all cleared up 100%." Then the brothers sat down to answer the charges in detail. They had 20 days to reply to FCC's no.

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