RKO General

RKO General was the main holding company through 1991 for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganization in the 1980s, GenCorp. The business was based around the consolidation of its parent company's broadcasting interests, dating to 1943, and the RKO Pictures movie studio General Tire purchased in 1955. The holding company acquired the name of RKO General in 1959 after General Tire dissolved the film studio. Headquartered in New York City, the company operated six television stations and more than a dozen major radio stations around North America between 1959 and 1991.

RKO General still exists, at least nominally, registered as a Delaware corporation. [Brilmayer, Lea, and Jack Goldsmith, "Conflict of Laws", 5th ed. (New York: Aspen, 2002), 464; [http://sec.edgar-online.com/1997/02/13/00/0000950152-97-000951/Section32.asp GENCORP INC GY Annual Report; Exhibit G: Listing of GenCorp Inc. Subsidiaries (1)] form 10-K405, filed February 13, 1997; [http://sec.edgar-online.com/2005/02/14/0000950152-05-001227/Section28.asp GENCORP INC GY Annual Report; Exhibit 21.1: Wholly-Owned Subsidiaries] form 10-K, filed February 14, 2005. Retrieved 11/21/06. The many unsourced online claims that RKO General (a) was sold, (b) folded, and/or (c) had its name changed to RKO Pictures are all mistaken. In sum: its primary assets were sold; its broadcast operations folded; and its RKO Pictures subsidiary was spun off. But the company still exists as a GenCorp subsidiary.] In addition to broadcasting, its other former operations included soft-drink bottling and hotel enterprises. The original Frontier Airlines was a subsidiary from 1968 to 1985. [ [http://www.geocities.com/ahchu667/FL_Timeline.html Frontier Airlines Timeline] part of "Old Frontier Airlines/FLamily" web circle. Retrieved 9/24/06. See also Dial, Scott, "Tailspin of Frontier," "Stapleton Innerline", August 29, 1986 (this article and much other information on the relationship between General Tire/RKO General and Frontier available via [http://fal-1.tripod.com/FL_Death.html The Death of Frontier Airlines] ).] In the 1980s, RKO Pictures was revived on a small scale. It is as a broadcaster, however, that RKO General left its mark. Recognized as the owner of some of the most influential radio stations in the world and as a pioneer in subscription TV service, RKO General also became known for the longest licensing dispute in television history.

History

Early days

General Tire entered broadcasting in 1943, when it bought a controlling interest in the Yankee Network, a regional radio network in New England. The Yankee Network owned and operated four stations: flagship WNAC in Boston; WAAB in Worcester, Massachusetts; WEAN in Providence, Rhode Island; and WICC in Bridgeport, Connecticut. ["Rubber Yankee," "Time", January 18, 1943 (available [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802569,00.html?promoid=googlep online] ). For the procedure by which General changed WNAC's frequency from 1260 to 680 AM, see [http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/1902.html The Boston Radio Dial: WRKO (AM)] part of "BostonRadio.org".] With the Yankee Network purchase, General Tire also picked up its contracts with 17 independently-owned affiliates and acquired a stake in the Mutual Broadcasting System, a cooperatively owned national radio network. [See [http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/mutual.html Some History of the Mutual Broadcasting System] for an extensive discussion of the network's history and organization by historian Elizabeth McLeod. Retrieved 11/21/06.]

On June 21, 1948, the Yankee Network launched New England's third television station: Boston's WNAC-TV went on the air just days after WBZ-TV, also in Boston, and WNHC-TV, licensed to New Haven, Connecticut. The TV station's transmitter site also served a new FM outlet, the first to be established under General Tire ownership. While the Yankee Network had been operating experimental FM stations since 1939, WNAC-FM was the first that would survive past the early 1950s. [ [http://www.bostonradio.org/essays/shepard-fm.html "John Shepard's FM Stations—America's First FM Network"] essay by Donna Halper; [http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/1901.html The Boston Radio Dial: WBMX (FM)] both part of "BostonRadio.org". Retrieved 11/29/06.]

In December 1950, General Tire purchased the Don Lee Broadcasting System, a long-standing West Coast regional network, for $12.3 million. This brought three more leading stations into the General Tire stable—KHJ (with its simulcasting sister, KHJ-FM) in Los Angeles, KFRC in San Francisco, and KGB in San Diego. The acquisition also expanded the company's holdings in the Mutual Broadcasting System. ["Don Lee Sale Approval Asked," "Los Angeles Times", November 21, 1950; "Sale of Don Lee System Approved: Cash Payment of $12,320,000 Involved in FCC Decision," "Los Angeles Times", December 28, 1950.] Under the terms of the deal, the Columbia Broadcasting System acquired Don Lee's Los Angeles television station, KTSL. [Grace, Roger M., "Channel 2, Du Mont Split Up," "Metropolitan News-Enterprise", October 10, 2002 (available [http://www.metnews.com/articles/reminiscing101002.htm online] ); Howard, Herbert H., "Multiple Ownership in Television Broadcasting: Historical Development and Selected Case Studies" (New York: Arno Press, 1979), 151. See also "Static," "Time", October 30, 1950 (available [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,805616,00.html online] ). It is not clear from available sources whether General Tire ever briefly owned KTSL or not. Note that Grace gives 1951 as the year of KTSL's purchase by CBS; Howard gives 1950.] In 1951, General Tire acquired its own station in the city when it bought KFI-TV from Earle C. Anthony, changing the call letters to KHJ-TV.

In 1952, General Tire purchased the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, owner of WOR-AM-FM-TV in New York, from R.H. Macy and Company. ["Radio-TV Merger Approved By F.C.C.; Deal Covers Macy's Transfer of WOR Interests to General Tire's Don Lee System," "New York Times," January 18, 1952.] Bamberger itself was a division of General Teleradio Inc., a Macy's subsidiary. In the deal, General Tire acquired the rights to the name General Teleradio, under which the company merged its broadcasting interests as a new division. ["Earnings Fall 5% for Macy System; Television's High Cost for Subsidiary, General Teleradio, Cuts Consolidated Net," "New York Times", October 11, 1950; Howard, "Multiple Ownership", 150–152.] The deal also gave General Tire majority control of the Mutual Broadcasting System. ["General Tire Gets Control of M. B. S.; Shareholders at Meeting Vote 2-for-1 Stock Split—Company Buys More TV Stations," "New York Times", April 2, 1952.] After purchasing WHBQ (AM) in Memphis, Tennessee, the company established WHBQ-TV in 1953; following WNAC-TV, it was the second television station built from the ground up by General Tire. Exiting two mid-sized urban markets in 1954, General sold off WEAN to the "Providence Journal" and KGB to the San Diego station's general manager, Marion Harris. ["Radio Stations 40 or More Years Old in 1962," "Broadcasting", May 14, 1962 (available [http://members.aol.com/jeff99500/62.html online] ); Crane, Marie Brenne, "Radio Station KGB and the Development of Commercial Radio In San Diego," "Journal of San Diego History", vol. 26, no. 1 [winter 1980] (available [http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/80winter/kgb.htm online] ); FCC report, 258. Note that the first two cited sources are not entirely reliable and that the third is based on a Google Book Search snippet view, resulting from a search on the string <"Providence Journal" WEAN 1954>. Thus the dating of the WEAN and KGB sales are each based on two apparently independent sources—"Broadcasting" and the FCC snippet in the former case; "Broadcasting" and the Crane article in the latter. As of the 1950 census, San Diego ranked 31st in population among U.S. cities; Providence ranked 43rd. In comparison, Memphis, where the WHBQ cluster became one of RKO's mainstays, ranked 26th (see [http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab18.txt Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1950—U.S. Bureau of the Census] ). Dates have not been established for RKO's sale of the two other stations in mid-sized markets acquired via the Yankee Network, WAAB and WICC, nor for KDB in Santa Barbara, California, acquired via Don Lee.] On the evening of July 8, 1954, WHBQ disc jockey Dewey Phillips introduced a song called "That's All Right (Mama)," the first ever recording to air on the radio by a local singer named Elvis Presley. [Guralnick, Peter, "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley" (Boston et al.: Back Bay/Little, Brown, 1994), 98–101.]

The RKO purchase

General Teleradio's chairman, Thomas O'Neil (son of General Tire founder William O'Neil) recognized that his television stations needed access to better programming. In 1953, he tried to buy the film library of RKO Radio Pictures—including many of the most famous movies made by Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, and Cary Grant—but was rebuffed by the studio's then owner, Howard Hughes. However, after Hughes failed in a bid to acquire total control of RKO, he sold the studio to General Tire for $25 million in July 1955. ["R. K. O. Studio Sold to General Tire; Hughes Stock Acquired for $25,000,000 in Cash—Use as TV Film Center Hinted," "New York Times", July 19, 1955; "Hollywood Sale; General Tire and Rubber Enters Film Field in Big Way Via R. K. O. Deal," "New York Times", July 24, 1955.] Merging RKO with General Teleradio to form RKO Teleradio Pictures, General Tire quickly recouped most of the purchase price by selling the primary rights to RKO's film library to C&C Television Corp, a subsidiary of beverage maker Cantrell & Cochrane, for $15.2 million. Historian William Boddy describes the sale of the RKO library as "the trigger for the flood of feature films to television in the mid-1950s." [Boddy, William, "Fifties Television: The Industry and Its Critics" (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 138.]

On the broadcasting front, RKO briefly owned WEAT (AM) and WEAT-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida; they were sold off before the company's next reorganization in 1959. ["Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1994" (New Providence, N.J.: R.R. Bowker, 1994), 353; "Investigation of Regulatory Commissions and Agencies: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce," U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (1958).] In 1956, WOR (AM) became the New York market's number one station with the success of its new "Music from Studio X." Hosted by John A. Gambling, the "easy listening" show was broadcast out of an innovative high-fidelity studio where, according to reports, "each clean new record was touched by a needle only one time." ["Radio: Easy Listening; New WOR Program of Recorded 'Music From Studio X' Is Soft and Sweet," "New York Times", July 10, 1956; Jaker, Bill, Frank Sulek, and Peter Kanze, "The Airwaves of New York: Illustrated Histories of 156 AM Stations in the Metropolitan Area" (Jeffferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1998), 155.] Also in 1956, a new General Tire subsidiary, RKO Distributing (which would later become part of RKO General), acquired a controlling interest in the Western Ontario Broadcasting Company, which operated CKLW-AM-FM-TV in Windsor, Ontario. The AM station, in particular, served a large swath of the U.S. Rust Belt, centered on the major market of Detroit. [ [http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/listings_and_histories/radio/histories.php?id=365&historyID=150 CKLW-AM Radio Station History] part of the Canadian Communications Foundation—Fondation Des Communications Candiennes website. Retrieved 11/21/06.] CKLW was also yet another shareholder in the Mutual Broadcasting System.

General Tire retained the broadcast rights to the RKO films in the cities where it owned television stations, but it had little interest in the studio itself. After a brief, half-hearted dip into the movie industry, General Tire shut down both production and distribution early in 1957. That summer, it sold its entire, majority stake in the Mutual network to a syndicate led by famed entrepreneur Armand Hammer. ["Sale of Mutual Expected Today; Radio Network Is Going to Group From West Coast," "New York Times", July 17, 1957.] By the end of the year, the company had sold off the RKO Pictures studio facilities and backlot. Several unreleased films were put out by other studios and distribution exchanges through the spring of 1959. That same year, RKO Teleradio was renamed RKO General. [O'Neill, Dennis J., "A Whale of a Territory: The Story of Bill O'Neil" (New York: McGraw Hill, 1966), 180. Many online information sites give RKO General's year of inception incorrectly as 1958. As further support for the 1959 dating, note that there is no mention of RKO General in either the "New York Times" or the "Los Angeles Times" before February 1960. Note that Brilmayer and Goldsmith write, "The record reflects that GenCorp has owned and operated RKO General as a Delaware subsidiary since 1955" (559). To be more precise, just as GenCorp is the direct corporate descendant of General Tire, RKO General is the direct descendant of General Tire's subsidiary RKO Teleradio, indeed founded in 1955.]

A leading broadcaster

The classic RKO General station lineup was based around the WOR stations in New York City, the KHJ stations in Los Angeles, KFRC-AM-FM in San Francisco, WGMS-AM-FM in and near Washington, D.C., the WNAC stations in Boston, the WHBQ stations in Memphis, and the CKLW stations in Windsor/Detroit, which RKO purchased outright in 1963. The company later acquired radio outlets in the major markets of Chicago and Miami–Fort Lauderdale. Between 1958 and 1972, RKO owned a sixth TV station, WHCT-TV, a UHF outlet in Hartford, Connecticut. After the Canadian government tightened rules on foreign ownership of radio and TV stations, RKO General was forced to sell off the Windsor group in 1970. [ [http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/listings_and_histories/radio/histories.php?id=365&historyID=150 CKLW-AM Radio Station History] . Retrieved 11/21/06.] In the mid-1970s, RKO sought to dispense with the FM outlets it had established in some of its oldest markets, while maintaining its presence on the AM dial: San Francisco's KFRC-FM was sold in 1977; around the same time, WHBQ-FM in Memphis was divested as well. An attempted sale of the company's Boston FM station was aborted. [ [http://www.sfcall.com/issues%202002/8.23.02/stangl_8_23_02.htm "KMEL Is a Dry Hump"] part of the "San Francisco Call" website; [http://www.tangentsunset.com/sfradiohistory2.htm San Francisco Bay Area Radio History—Part 2] part of the "Tangent Sunset" website; [http://oidar.com/CHAPTER6.htm "Puttin' on the Hits": Chapter 6] ebook by former radio program director John Long. Retrieved 11/28/06.]

RKO General's lineup included some of the leading top 40 and urban contemporary radio stations in North America. In May 1965, KHJ (AM) introduced the highly successful Boss Radio variation of the top 40 format. Consultants Bill Drake and Gene Chenault, who had devised the restrictive programming style, soon brought it to RKO's AM stations in San Francisco, Boston, and Memphis, also with great success. The format helped Windsor's CKLW (AM) to become the dominant station not only in Detroit, but also in more distant cities such as Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio. [ [http://www.thebig8.net/impact.html "The Long-Lasting Impact of CKLW on the Whole Radio Industry"] essay by Steve Hunter; part of the "Classic CKLW Page" website. Retrieved 12/9/06.] Before long, many non-RKO broadcasters around the country were hiring the Boss Radio consulting team to convert them to the format, or simply imitating it on their own. In October 1972, KHJ-FM debuted Drake-Chenault's new automated rock oldies format, Classic Gold, another major hit. [ [http://www.bossradioforever.com/html/rko.html RKO] historical essay by Woody Goulart; part of "Boss Radio Forever" website. Retrieved 11/28/06.] As WOR-FM and its later incarnations, rock-formatted WXLO and urban WRKS-FM, RKO's New York FM station pioneered a number of styles, including a more oldies-heavy version of Boss Radio and, later, so-called rhythmic formats. In 1983, it became one of the first major stations to play rap music on a regular basis. [ [http://www.daveyd.com/interviewgredalertchronicle.html Interview w/Kool DJ Red Alert] interview by Davey D, September 1996; part of "Davey D's Hip Hop Corner" website. Retrieved 9/23/06.] On October 1, 1979, the company launched RKO Radio Networks, a syndicated programming division. ["RKO Radio Set to Start a Network," "New York Times", August 23, 1979; [http://radio.about.com/library/history/blhistory1001.htm Today in Radio History: October 1] part of the "About.com" website. Retrieved 11/24/06.] In 1981, RKO Radio Networks began transmitting what has been claimed as the first national talk show delivered by satellite—the six-hour-long "America Overnight" broadcast out of Dallas and Los Angeles. [Cox, Jim, "Say Goodnight, Gracie: The Last Years of Network Radio" (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002), 174–175; [http://www.in-flightmedia.com/our_team/index.html Our Team—Marty Miller, Radio Host] professional biographies of In-Flight Media Associates management team. Retrieved 10/23/06.]

As a television broadcaster, RKO General was known as an operator of independent stations. New York's WOR-TV ran without network affiliation during its entire tenure with RKO, as did Hartford's WHCT-TV. Los Angeles's KHJ-TV was a DuMont affiliate until 1955 and independent for its next 33 years under RKO control. Windsor's CKLW-TV was nominally an affiliate of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, but was programmed largely as an independent. [For the unique programming history of CKLW, see [http://www.walkervilletimes.com/27/CBC1.html "The Dawn of Local TV"] article by Chris Edwards; part of the Walkerville "Times" website. For ownership details and affiliation with CBC, see [http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/listings_and_histories/television/histories.php?id=15&historyID=34 CBET-TV, Windsor, Canadian Broadcasting Corp] part of the Canadian Communications Foundation—Fondation Des Communications Candiennes website. Both retrieved 12/05/06.] Two of the company's stations were run as network affiliates: Boston's WNAC-TV, originally a CBS affiliate, also aired DuMont and ABC programming during its early years. It became a full-time ABC affiliate in 1961, returning to CBS exclusively in 1972. Memphis's WHBQ-TV was a dual CBS/ABC station at its 1953 launch; it joined ABC full-time in 1956.

The company's independent television stations (including CKLW) were known for showing classic films under the banner of "Million Dollar Movie". The trend-setting movie package was launched by WOR in 1954, nearly a year before General Tire's acquisition of RKO Pictures and its library. Into the 1980s, "Million Dollar Movie"—introduced by music from 1952's "Ivanhoe" and, later, "Gone with the Wind"—aired RKO productions and those of many other studios as well. [For the early history of "Million Dollar Movie" and WOR-TV's film programming, see Segrave, Kerry, "Movies at Home: How Hollywood Came to Television" (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1999), 40, 48; "News of TV and Radio; 'Studio One' Returns for the Winter Season," "New York Times", September 19, 1954 (excerpted [http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/million_dollar_movie/ online] ); "WOR-TV Acquires 10 Selznick Films; It Pays Record $198,000 for 'Package'—Will Be Shown on 'Million Dollar Movie' Discord Theme of Show," "New York Times", February 25, 1956; "2 Feature Films Bought By WOR-TV; Station Adds 'Champion' and 'Home of the Brave' to its 'Million Dollar Movie,'" "New York Times", June 16, 1956. For a broader discussion, with a description of the "Million Dollar" music, see [http://www.film-center.com/ccrko16m.html C&C RKO 16mm Prints] part of the "eFilmCenter" website. Retrieved 12/9/06.] In summer 1962, RKO General initiated on WHCT what became the first extended venture into subscription TV service. Until January 31, 1969, the station aired movies, sports events, concerts, and other live performances without commercial interruption. The operation generated income from installation and weekly rental fees for descrambling devices—provided by RKO's partner, Zenith Electronics—as well as individual program charges. ["Fee-Vee," "Time", July 6, 1962 (available [http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,940031,00.html online] ); "Payday, Some Day," "Time", December 27, 1968 (available [http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900475,00.html online] ); Mullen, Megan, "The Prehistory of Pay Cable Television: An Overview and Analysis," "Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television", vol. 19, no. 1 (January 1, 1999). See also U.S. Congress, House, Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, "Subscription Television–1969, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Communications and Power/91-1. on H.R. 420. Nov. 18-21, 24; Dec. 9-12, 1969". For a "Pay-As-You-Go" cable TV plan launched in Canada a year earlier, see Haines, Richard W., "The Moviegoing Experience, 1968–2001" (Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland, 2003), 127–128.] During its final decade as a significant business entity, the company would reenter the movie industry that had given it its name, reviving the RKO Pictures brand in 1981 for a series of coproductions and then its own independent projects. This new RKO Pictures was involved in the production of about a dozen feature films, the best known including a 1982 remake of the RKO classic "Cat People" and the Vietnam War movie "Hamburger Hill" (1987).

The licensing saga

Troubles begin

In 1965, RKO General applied for renewal of its license for KHJ-TV in Los Angeles. Fidelity Television, a local group, challenged the renewal, charging RKO with second-rate programming. Later, and more seriously, Fidelity claimed that General Tire conditioned its dealings with certain vendors on the basis that they would in turn buy advertising time on RKO General stations. Arrangements of this type, known as "reciprocal trade practices," are considered to be anticompetitive. RKO and General Tire executives testified before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), rejecting the accusations. In 1969, the commission issued an initial finding that Fidelity's claims were correct. That same year, RKO faced a license challenge for WNAC-TV in Boston, again charged with reciprocal trade practices. In 1973, the FCC ruled in favor of RKO in the Los Angeles case, pending findings in the still ongoing investigation of the Boston charges. When RKO applied for renewal of its license for WOR-TV in New York in 1974, the FCC conditioned this renewal on the WNAC-TV case as well. [ [http://www.nyls.edu/cmc/uscases/rko.htm RKO General, Inc. v. FCC (1981)—I. Procedural History] December 4, 1981, decision by U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. Retrieved 11/27/06.]

On June 21, 1974, an administrative law judge renewed the WNAC-TV license despite finding that General Tire and RKO General had engaged in reciprocal trade practices. In December 1975, Community Broadcasting, one of the companies competing for the Boston station, asked the FCC to revisit the case, alleging that General Tire bribed foreign officials, maintained a slush fund for U.S. political campaign contributions, and misappropriated revenue from overseas operations. RKO expressly denied these and other allegations of corporate wrongdoing on General Tire's part during a series of proceedings that followed over the next year and a half. On July 1, 1977, however, in settling an action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, General Tire admitted to an eye-popping litany of corporate misconduct, including the bribery and slush fund charges. [ [http://www.nyls.edu/cmc/uscases/rko.htm RKO General, Inc. v. FCC (1981)—I. Procedural History] . Retrieved 11/27/06.] Nonetheless, the RKO proceedings dragged on.

The loss of WNAC-TV

After a half-decade in the most recent round of hearings and investigations, the FCC stripped RKO of WNAC-TV's license on June 6, 1980, finding that RKO "lacked the requisite character" to be the station's licensee. [ [http://www.nyls.edu/cmc/uscases/rko.htm RKO General, Inc. v. FCC (1981)—(Intro) Opinion] . Retrieved 12/09/06.] Factors in the decision were the reciprocal trade practices of the 1960s, false financial filings by RKO, and the gross misconduct admitted to by General Tire in nonbroadcast fields.

The basis for revocation, however, that would prove most damning was RKO's dishonesty before the Commission. In the course of the WNAC-TV hearings, RKO had withheld evidence of General Tire's misconduct, including the fact that the SEC had begun an investigation of the company in 1976. RKO also denied that it had improperly reported exchanges of broadcast time for various services, despite indications to the contrary in General Tire's 1976 annual report. The FCC consequently found that RKO had displayed a "persistent lack of candor" regarding its own and General Tire's misdeeds, thus threatening "the integrity of the Commission's processes." [ [http://www.nyls.edu/cmc/uscases/rko.htm RKO General, Inc. v. FCC (1981)—II. Invalid Bases of the FCC Decision; III. RKO's Lack of Candor] . Retrieved 11/27/06.] The FCC ruling meant that RKO lost the KHJ-TV and WOR-TV licenses as well.

RKO appealed the decision to the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals. The court upheld the revocation solely on the basis of RKO's lack of candor, writing in its opinion that " [t] he record presented to this court shows irrefutably that the licensee was playing the dodger to serious charges involving it and its parent company." [ [http://www.nyls.edu/cmc/uscases/rko.htm RKO General, Inc. v. FCC (1981)—Conclusion] . Retrieved 11/27/06.] However, the court interpreted the candor issue so narrowly that it only applied to WNAC-TV, and ordered rehearings for the WOR-TV and KHJ-TV licenses. RKO General again appealed, this time to the U.S. Supreme Court. On April 19, 1982, the court refused to review the license revocation. RKO had lost the case for good. As a result of the decision, RKO General sold WNAC-TV's assets to New England Television (NETV), a new company resulting from the merger of Community Broadcasting and another competitor for the license, the Dudley Station Corporation. As part of the settlement, the FCC granted a full license to NETV, which renamed the station WNEV-TV. ["RKO Loses WNAC," "The Tech", May 4, 1982 (available [http://www-tech.mit.edu/archives/VOL_102/TECH_V102_S0328_P002.pdf online] ).] The station has since become WHDH-TV.

Endgame

In February 1983, the FCC began a concerted effort to force RKO out of broadcasting. It began taking competing applications for all of the company's broadcasting licenses. ["License Bids Against RKO," "New York Times", February 10, 1983 (available [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D03EFDF143BF933A25751C0A965948260 online] ). The article does not mention WOR-TV, for which Multi-State Communications had previously registered a challenge. See [http://www.nyls.edu/cmc/uscases/rko.htm RKO General, Inc. v. FCC (1981)—I. Procedural History] ; "Court Backs RKO On WOR License," "New York Times", March 8, 1984 (available [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E5D71539F93BA35750C0A962948260 online] ).] RKO, however, was about to get a partial, and temporary, reprieve. Congress passed a law, sponsored by New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, requiring the commission to automatically renew the license of any commercial VHF television station relocating to a state without one, “notwithstanding any other provision of law.” The only states qualifying at the time were Delaware and New Jersey, where no commercial VHF outlet had been licensed since 1962. [Tollin, Andrew L., "The Battle for Portland, Maine," "Federal Communications Law Journal" vol. 52, no. 1 (available [http://www.law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v52/no1/10tollin2.mac.pdf online] ).] On April 20, 1983, RKO General officially changed WOR-TV's city of license from New York to Secaucus, New Jersey, where it remains today. ["Court Backs RKO On WOR License"; "Rulings Stand on WOR License," "New York Times", November 14, 1984 (available [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9505EEDC1E39F937A25752C1A962948260 online] ).] The FCC required the station to move its main studio to New Jersey and step up coverage of events in the state. [ [http://lautenberg.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=254269& "Lawmakers Call on FCC to Investigate Fox News' Attempts to Move WWOR T.V. Out of New Jersey"] press release issued by Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, September 10, 2004. Retrieved 12/15/06. See also "Fresh Fare Puts a New Face on Independent Stations," "New York Times", February 2, 1986 (available [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE2DA1431F931A35751C0A960948260&sec=&pagewanted=print online] ).] Nonetheless, with featured programming such as New York Mets baseball games, WOR-TV maintained its identity as a New York station. [See, e.g., Overbeck, Wayne G., "Major Principles of Media Law" (London et al.:Thomson Learning, 2002), 420.] Ironically, WOR radio was first licensed to nearby Newark, New Jersey, and didn't move to New York until 1941. [ [http://wor710.com/pages/58403.php WOR Radio 710 HD—WOR History] official history of the radio station. Retrieved 8/17/06.]

A year after the renewal of the WOR-TV license, General Tire reorganized its farflung corporate interests into a holding company, GenCorp, with General Tire and RKO General as its leading subsidiaries. The RKO Radio Networks operation was sold to United Stations. [Smith, F. Leslie, John W. Wright II, and David H. Ostroff, "Perspectives on Radio and Television: Telecommunication in the United States" (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., 1998), 67.] The WOR move did little to relieve the regulatory pressure on RKO General, and GenCorp put the station on the market early in 1986. MCA outbid Cox Communications and Group W for control of the station, receiving FCC approval for the purchase in late November. ["MCA Is Termed a Serious Bidder for WOR-TV," "New York Times", February 18, 1986; "MCA to Buy WOR-TV for a Hefty $387 Million," "New York Times", February 19, 1986; "F.C.C. Approves Sale of WOR-TV to MCA," "New York Times", November 27, 1986. See also "Editor's Note," "New York Times", December 20, 1986 (available [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50717F634540C748EDDA80994DE484D81 online] ).] On April 29, 1987, MCA changed the station's call letters to WWOR. [ [http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WWOR-TV Call Sign History: WWOR-TV] part of the Federal Communications Commission website. Retrieved 12/15/06.]

The timing of the WOR-TV sale was fortunate for RKO. In August 1987, FCC administrative law judge Edward Kuhlmann found RKO unfit to be a broadcast licensee due to a long history of deceptive practices. He ordered RKO to surrender the licenses for its remaining two television stations and twelve radio stations. Among other things, he found that RKO misled advertisers about its ratings, engaged in fraudulent billing, lied repeatedly to the FCC about a destroyed audit report, and filed numerous false financial statements. Kuhlmann described RKO's conduct as the worst case of dishonesty in FCC history. ["Turning Off RKO's Licenses," "Time", August 24, 1987 (available [http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965303,00.html online] ); "KHJ Enveloped in Scandal," "Metropolitan News-Enterprise", December 5, 2002 (available [http://www.metnews.com/articles/reminiscing120502.htm online] ). Note that the "Time" article says that in addition to denying the still-pending KHJ-TV license renewal, Kuhlmann also "stripped the company of its licenses for twelve radio stations and one other TV outlet." In contrast, the "Metropolitan News-Enterprise" article says he "recommended that the FCC strip" the licenses and that the other TV outlet in quesion was WOR-TV. On the first point, Kuhlmann ruled that the licenses be stripped, but they were not actually removed, pending appeals. On the second point, the "Metropolitan News-Enterprise" is clearly incorrect: WOR-TV had already been sold; at the time of the ruling, RKO's only remaining TV outlet beside KHJ-TV was WHBQ-TV in Memphis (see "License Bids Against RKO," op. cit.). See also "Mediation Set for RKO Case," "New York Times", September 12, 1986 (available [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DC173CF931A2575AC0A960948260 online] ).] After declaring that all of the employees responsible for the misconduct had been fired, GenCorp and RKO entered an appeal, claiming that the ruling was deeply flawed. ["Turning Off RKO's Licenses"; "RKO Appeals F.C.C. Ruling," "New York Times", October 20, 1987 (available [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5D8173EF933A15753C1A961948260 online] ).] However, the FCC let it be known that it would almost certainly reject any appeals and strip the licenses. It urged RKO to sell the stations before that became necessary. ["KHJ Enveloped in Scandal."] RKO's parent company, GenCorp, then battling a hostile takeover bid by an investor group, was hungry for cash as a result of paying a premium on its own shares to stave off the attack. Liquidation of assets on the verge of being lost was the obvious course.

Exiting the media business

Over the next four years, RKO dismantled its broadcast operations. Its original AM station in Boston, whose name it had changed from WNAC to WRKO in 1967, and its FM station in the city, at that point known as WROR, were sold to Atlantic Ventures. [ [http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/1902.html The Boston Radio Dial: WRKO (AM)] ; [http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/1901.html The Boston Radio Dial: WBMX (FM)] . Retrieved 11/28/06.] In New York, WOR (AM) was acquired by Buckley Broadcasting and WRKS-FM (the former WOR-FM) went to Summit Communications. The company's two radio stations in the Washington, D.C., market were sold to Classical Acquisition Partnership. [ [http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~kondrak/cmput650/w8_015 Marketing Brief] wire service report, October 12, 1988. Retrieved 12/21/06.] In Los Angeles, the KRTH (formerly KHJ) radio stations were purchased by Beasley Broadcasting, which in turn sold KRTH (AM) to Liberman Broadcasting. Liberman renamed the station KKHJ, then restored the original KHJ calls in 2000. In 1988, the decades-long licensing saga of KHJ-TV officially came to an end: Under an FCC-supervised deal, the station's license was granted to the company that had raised the original challenge to RKO General, Fidelity, which then transferred it to the Walt Disney Company. For the station and its assets, Disney paid $324 million, with RKO collecting approximately two-thirds and Fidelity the remainder. Disney would rename the station KCAL-TV the following year. ["KHJ Enveloped in Scandal." Note that this source says that KHJ-TV was charged with "requir [ing] its vendors—if they wanted to continue to sell to KHJ-TV—to be advertisers," a different (though not necessarily contradictory) description of the illegal practice in question than that which appears in the 1981 court decision cited above.] During this period, the company also divested its radio stations in Chicago and Miami–Fort Lauderdale, as well as the remaining assets of its movie-related operations. By the turn of the decade, its last significant media holdings were the WHBQ TV and AM radio stations in Memphis and KFRC (AM) in San Francisco. In 1990, the Memphis stations were sold to Adams Communications. The following year, KFRC was sold to Bedford Broadcasting and RKO General was out of the entertainment business. [ [http://www.bayarearadio.org/schneider/kfrc1.shtml The History of KFRC Radio] part of the "Bay Area Radio Museum" website; [http://www.tangentsunset.com/sfradiohistory2.htm San Francisco Bay Area Radio History—Part 2] . Retrieved 11/24/06. See [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/GenCorp-Inc-Company-History1.html GenCorp—Company History] , part of the "Funding Universe" website, for the sales prices of some of these assets. Retrieved 11/21/06. Note that not only the media holdings were divested. With its subsidiary RKO Bottling sold as well, there was very little left to RKO General.]

Former holdings

Television stations

Notes

External links

* [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/GenCorp-Inc-Company-History1.html GenCorp—Company History] corporate history with particular emphasis on RKO General; part of "Funding Universe" website
* [http://www.bossradioforever.com/html/timeline.html Boss Radio Timeline] part of the "Boss Radio Forever" website
* [http://www.uiowa.edu/~cyberlaw/lem97/dayinlif.html "A Day in the Life: The Federal Communications Commission"] article by Nicholas Johnson and John Jay Dystel, "Yale Law Journal" vol. 82 (1973)
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04E0DB1339F937A15750C0A967948260 "General Tire Profit Due to RKO Unit"] brief business article, "New York Times", March 24, 1981