Test by Performance

"The airwaves that the broadcasters use for immense profit are the public's, and the time is long overdue for the broadcasting industry to respond to the value of the human experience rather than to the values of the marketplace."

So declared the National Citizens Com mittee for Broadcasting, a TV watchdog group, in a recent statement calling for the overhaul of commercial television-licensing procedures. Over the two decades since major television channels were first assigned by the Federal Govern ment, renewals of three-year broadcast licenses have been almost automatic.

Lately the status quo has been increasingly challenged by the courts, by citizens' groups such as the N.C.C.B. and at times even by the vacillating Fed eral Communications Commission. In one of his final decisions as an appeals court judge, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger set forth a new doctrine that makes the continued existence of TV stations contingent on performance.

Burger's decision, reached before he was sworn in as Chief Justice, revoked the license of WLBT-TV of Jackson, Miss., an NBC affiliate. The reason: racial discrimination in programming. The station, owned by the Lamar Life In surance Co., had been accused of permitting racial slurs on the air, excluding news of Jackson's 40% Negro population and cutting off network news reports of civil rights activities.

About Face. Burger not only specifically ordered WLBT's license "vacated forthwith" but generally scolded the FCC for showing a prejudice in favor of established broadcasters and "profound hostility" to public-interest groups contesting license renewals. "Broadcasters," ruled Burger, "are temporary permittees -- fiduciaries -- of a great public resource, and they must meet the highest standards which are embraced in the public-interest concept."

Even before the Burger decision, the FCC early this year denied a license renewal for Boston's Channel 5 on the ground that the station's ownership by the Boston Herald Traveler created a news monopoly. In San Francisco, KRON-TV has run into license-renewal delays because the FCC is investigating whether its ownership by the San Fran cisco Chronicle constitutes undue concentration of media control. Because of interlocking ownership of professional sports teams by its parent company, and in turn, its owners, WCCO-TV in Minneapolis is charged by its rival station with having a monopoly on sports news. The FCC is currently conducting hearings on these charges.

The issue of media control is much fogged over and highly debatable. In a different category are the cases, like the one Burger ruled on, where licenses are questioned for bias or inadequate ser vices to the community. Last month the commission canceled its recent li cense renewal for Manhattan's WPIXTV. The station, owned by the New York Daily News, was accused by disgruntled former employees of distorting news shows with doctored film--a charge that WPIX denies and the FCC has yet to investigate. In Los Angeles, KHN-TV has been under FCC investigation since 1966, after businessmen accused it of neglecting local needs. These actions indicate a change in the FCC's hitherto inflexible attitude; it now seems possible that program content and quality will figure in licensing decisions.

Lap Dogs. Many of the attacks, including that against Mississippi's WLBT, have risen from a common source: the United Church of Christ, a group long active in civil rights work. The Rev. Everett C. Parker, 56, director of the church's office of communications, has not only won a crucial appeals court ruling that citizens' groups have every right to oppose TV-license renewals, but has helped organize local groups to carry on such fights. Rather than risk being dragged before the FCC or into court, KTAL-TV of Texarkana recently agreed in a private contract with one Parker-backed group to end discrimination in its broadcasting.

Parker denounces the FCC as "the lap dog of the broadcasting industry." The commission, however, is caught between the courts and the Congress. There is strong support for Rhode Island Democrat John Pastore's Senate bill to force the commission to grant licenses in near perpetuity. The measure would forbid the FCC from considering TV-license applications by anybody but the existing holder, unless he has already been denied a renewal. With Judge Burger's decision, the lines have been drawn for another collision and the outcome could easily alter the functions of the FCC and, in consequence, the fundamental rules by which television operates.

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