The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 14

14 The Boston Globe Tuesday, December 20, 1968 Opening Ceremonies Go On Even If TV Station Doesn't v. I Fred Cusick will be seen interviewing the governor and mayor. Following the studio ceremonies, the guests went to the Union Club, on Park for dinner. Ralph Lowell, FCC Commissioner Lee, Mayor Collins, James T. Lynagh were headv table guests, with John I.

Taylor as toastmaster. At the dinner, brief remarks were made by Edgar F. Kaiser son of Edgar Kaiser, president of Kaiser In- dustries Corp and WKBG, Inc. "It's with mixed emotions that I am here. Sorry that my father is not at the dinner because I can't express as well as he what he would want to say.

I'm glad I am here for I had great opportunity to meet the people who are putting Ch. 56 on the air. From my observations they all are. fine people. I have great confidence in what they will do." (UHF), on which Channel 56 will operate.

Also in attendance were John Q. Adams, Vice President of John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Mayor Edwin Gill of Woburn, where the Ch. 56 tower is located; Ralph Lowell, of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, and Hartford Gunn, manager of WGBH-TV, Ch. 2, Boston's educational station. The studio guests were given a tour of the plant and congratulated both the Ch.

56 personnel and John I. Taylor, president of the Globe, owner of the station in conjunction with Kaiser Broadcasting Corp. The studios, control room, film facilities at 1050 Commonwealth avenue have the latest in TV equipment. The inaugural ceremonies, on tape, will be telecast tonight at 8 o'clock. By ELIZABETH SULLIVAN Globe TV-Rdlo Editor Channel 56 didn't go on the air Monday night, but the opening day celebrations went on anyway even though they were somewhat less festive than planned.

James T. Lynagh, general manager of the station, received word of trouble shortly before the station was scheduled to begin broadcasting at 6 p.m. and it was decided to postpone the first transmission until today, in light of the technical problems. Despite the 24-hour delay, ceremonies went on as scheduled in the Channel 56 studios at 1050 Commonwealth av. Participating were Gov.

Volpe and Mayor Collins, as well as FCC Commissioner Robert E. Lee, a leading exponent of ultra high frequency FCC COMMR. ROBERT E. LEE the TV set is not a baby sitter" Like a Wedding Without the Bride I By PERCY SUMS Globe Television Crltit Celtic Game Due On Ch 56 Tonight CH. 56 Continued from Page 1 "I was delighted to see the number of people who are looking forward to our coming on the air," Lynagh said.

"I truly hope we won't have to disappoint them again." Lynagh suggested viewers tune in Ch. 56 around noon, just to make sure. He said a special program marking the inaugu- ration of WKBG will be aired tonight at 8. It will be followed by Celtics basketball at 8:45, live from Minneapolis, with the Celts taking on the Detroit Pistons. AT PREVIEW DINNER Mayor Collins (left) with Hartford Gunn and Ralph Lowell, members of the Globe's board of directors.

(Bob Dean Photo) FCC Head Predicts Bright UHF Future help in several crucial moments and got it. Just yesterday afternoon it had run into difficulty splicing three sections of film together for the half -hour dedication, due to a balky taping machine. But WGBH-TV, remembering its own tenderfoot days, quickly remedied the difficulty and put the show on the road. "We also had help from our friends at WBZ-TV and WNAC-TV when other splicing and timing equipment problems occurred," station officials said. "Everyone was most cooperative." Comr.

Lee, prior to addressing the dinner, hailed the growth of UHF television as a spur to creativity in informal remarks at the reception. "These new stations will be out to challenge the old, the set way, of doing things. They will be trying out new ideas. Some of them will click. It will put the entire industry on its toes." He points out in his introductory remarks on tonight's dedication that "every other set in Greater Boston can view this program.

And in a few years it will be 90 to 100 percent of the sets in the area." He also foresees a fourth commercial network in the near future, and perhaps fifth educational network, too. "Television is about to reach maturity," he said. "Stations like WKBG-TV are one of the reasons." Early today the last of the tower equipment will be put in place. By mid-afternoon patterns should be showing on the screen for those who look for Ch. 56.

In the early evening telecasting will start with the dedication show now set for 8 p.m., to be followed by the big sporting attraction of the night the Celtics' game at Detroit. In the dedication there will be a reference to the "fruit of 59 days' work." Now you can make that 60. The one day's delay rounded the figure off nicely. Frustrated by troubles at its transmitting tower, Boston's newest television station the Kaiser-Globe's WKBG-TV (Ch. 56) put on its show Monday night for an audience of one.

Maybe Arden Woofter, the outlet's transmitter supervisor, felt a bit special-all this just for him. But it was part of the studio's "dry run" to ensure efficient operation when the station could be seen and heard by all starting today. All personnel went through the motions as if telecasting were under way. The dedication program, set for 7:30, was beamed to the tower in Woburn. But that's where it stopped.

Woofter was keeping his lonely vigil. He was unable to transmit further be- cause final adjustments had not been made on the three tons of antenna. One windy day had knocked out the time schedule and darkness set in last night before the job could be completed. The postponement hardly put a damper on the reception and dinner held last night to celebrate the new opening, however. It was a bit like a wedding without a bride, but in view of the remarkable job done in getting so close to schedule in the face of all sorts of obstacles, no one was inclined to feel let down.

As Jim Lynagh, 32-year-old general manager, observed, "It was all put together in eight weeks' time. And in four weeks the loft of a mercantile company-was converted into a TV station." Celebrities who included Gov. Volpe, Mayor Collins of Boston and Mayor Gill of Woburn, FCC commissioner Robert E. Lee, and many others were impressed as they roamed the studios, with its tangle of wires and equipment, at 1050 Commonwealth prior to dinner at the Union Club. Along the way the station had needed "This new channel will help WSKB-TV, Channel 38, and vice-versa," he said.

Lee quipped that when he attended opening ceremonies for Ch. 38 then WHIS-TV and operated by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Cardinal Cushing said he had sent out 1000 letters telling recipients to "convert." "They did," he said. Lee said UHF technical advances during the past 10 years give it some advantages over VHF. "UHF signals are more resistant to man-made interference such as airplane flutter," he said. "Color reception and reproduction is generally considered to be better on UHF.

Lee said he was upset by television election predictions given before the polls closed. "It spoiled the whole night for me," he said. "On election night we usually have some friends in, have a few drinks, something to eat. We just got started and it was all over." He said such predictions will be looked into by his commission and undoubtedly will be discussed by the incoming dren put in watching television, Lee said: "I don't know if it's good or bad. It's a social problem.

I think there is some social responsibility on the part of the programmers to teach as they entertain. "And, too, there is parental responsibility. The TV set is not a baby sitter. There are times when parents just have to turn the set off." Lee predicted a bright future for ultra high frequency television. He estimated UHF stations will be fully competitive with VHF (Very High Frequency) stations within 10 years and UHF stations especially in Boston will be operating in the black much sooner than they expected.

"Today, one of every two TV sets in the Greater Boston area is capable of receiving UHF. By 1970 this reception capability will be above 90 percent. "By then there will be no discussion of UHF versus VHF it will all be just plain Lee's rosy prediction for Boston area UHF was based, he said, on the city's newest UHF channel being the second UHF outlet here. By ROBERT B. KENNEY Staff Beporter Federal Communications Comr.

Robert E. Lee speaks freely about such lofty matters as television broadcasting direct from satellites into American homes. And he speakes just as freely about such down-to-earth subjects as the amount of time children spend watching television. The FCC man was in Boston Monday to help inaugurate the city's new television outlet, WKBG-TV, Channel 56, a joint venture of the Boston Globe and the Kaiser Broadcasting Corporation. However, technical difficulties set in at WKBG late Monday afternoon, delaying the start of telecasting for a second time.

Lee said direct broadcasting from a satellite to the home, in his opinion, just isn't feasible. "It would take roughly $5 billion just to set up such a broadcasting satellite. It's just too unlikely. Besides, such a setup would negate the need for local TV stations and I don't think the government would allow that," he said. Lee said what is needed is a broadcasting system of satellite to ground stations.

Discussing the interminable hours chil inimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiii mi iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ii iiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii niniiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiifiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiii iiiiiinn inimiuini i iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiini mi iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiii Object of Crime Commission: Investigation, Not Prosecution "But after a while they began to clam up. Their lawyers told them to plead the Fifth Amendment.The quality, the substance of the cases began to go down, down, down, and this is what we had to deal with," Brooke said. The commission's cases were dependent solely on evidence given by persons who had been participants in the crimes. They depended on a petit jury believing the participants. Simonds, who was the commission's general counsel, explains: "The key evidence depended on a converted witness who was an admitted wrongdoer, and this makes the witness himself subject to bias and suspicion in the mind of a jurv.

"Secondly, the conduct of these people was of a very hif.h derrrpe of intelligence and very considerable talent. These were very bright, tounh-minded, imaginntivc people. "And if their conduct was criminal at all it was accomplished with skill, forethought and planning. The result was that the evidence was hidden from view; much of it was indirect or had to be built up from circumstances. "Juries were asked to view very complex fact situations and make very sophisticated judgments, and this made prosecution difficult." The area had been a political sanctuary for the simple reason that the crimes were difficult to prove.

It had gone on for so long; it had become a wav of political life. As Goss explains, "I don't know ore individual involved in the mess who would stick up a candy store. "That's a crime, and you don't do those tilings." NEXT-Conflict over Continuity. So there's more to it than a batting average. The Crime Commission was expected not only to win the game but to help clean up the ball park.

One major problem encountered by the commission and Brooke was the inability to procure enough experienced trial lawyers who could prosecute the commission's cases. Both Brooke and former Chairman Alfred Gardner embarked on an endeavor to find them. A number of Boston's leading law firms, according to a commission lawyer, were asked to contribute legal talent to the commission but refused. "I'm deeply annoyed with the organized bar for its professional failure to provide men with ability and talent," he asserted. Those who did serve have been criticized for their lack of experience or sophistication, which, critics say, magnified the actual evidence in certain cases.

Brooke defends them, pointing out that they served for "practically no return." "I went to law firms," he said. "I tried to get law firms to come in to look over the cases, check on the indictments." The prosecutors faced unique cases, not the ordinary type of crime, and skillful attorneys who had, for the most part, large amounts of money available for the defense. The defense fund in the small loans case, alone, was at least $4 million. TALK EASES OFF At the beginning, Brooke pointed out, the commission's strength was in its element of shock. Witnesses talked in fear of the commission.

They tattled on each other to save their own skins. This is not a fair way to measure the commission's effectiveness. Its prime mission was not to prosecute. It was under legislative mandate to investigate government and recommend reform legislation. Seven men a lawyer, two educators, a newspaperman, a banker, an Air Force brigadier general and a criminologist undertook the sensitive assignment at the request of Gov.

Volpe. Born of controversy, the commission was crippled from beginning to end by the Legislature and general public apathy so aptly defined as the cause of corruption when the commission asserted. "Too many have looked the other way, have compromised, have failed in their duty to speak up." It was the Legislature's lack of moral backbone which created the conditions necessitating creation of the commission. And it is in the Legislature not the courtroomwhere the success of the commission will be ultimately decided. Seventeen bills await legislative action.

Public indifference to the sordid mess of corruption uncovered by the commission has been evident in the lack of interest in the commission's recommendations. REFORM LAGS No vigorous campaign has been waged in support of the necessary reforms. No pressure has been exerted on the Legislature, which asked the commission for the proposals. A civic committee, formed with the intention of tub-thumping for the commission's recommendations, fizzled out. The lonely voices of seven persons the former members have made the strongest pleas for legislative reforms needed to safeguard the commonwealth against corruption.

COMMISSION Continued from Page 1 Two of the commission's most important cases, one involving the Executive Council and the other the State Banking Dept. and the small loans industry, were won by Brooke's office. The councilors' case resulted in long-needed reform which reduced the powers of the council. The result of the small loans case remains to be seen. It, too, could lead to more reform.

A number of factors must be considered In any assessment of the commission's worth in the fight against corruption. Among them, for example, are the internal problems, including an incessant conflict with the attorney general's staff and a resulting loss of cases. 1 One of the prime causes of the friction was insufficient continuity between the commission and the attorney general's office, from the investigatory to the trial stages of cases. It resulted also from a feeling that the attorney general took credit for the courtroom victories but shunted the blame in defeat. HALF ARE WINS The commission was handicapped also by a lack of capable lawyers with trial experience, caused by the selfish reluctance of leading law firms to free their good men for civic duty.

Since the commission returned its stinging Indictment against the moral conscience of state government and went out of existence, public scrutiny of its role has increased with trial of each case. It is being judged in terms of batting averages, the number of wins and losses in the courtroom. The average is probably .500, pniiiiiiiMiiinwunuiiiiiinminiiniiii.