The Fresno Bee from Fresno, California • 14

miMBbrewr hOM 12 The Fmno Bee Mon Dee 251978 FCC Ends Fresno aerea 8 Hearing But KMJ Issues Still Hang month of long days in the courtroom and nights spent preparing for the next day in the courtroom Their principal recreation was sampling the cuisine of various Fresno restau I ByDAYLEMOLEN Special to The Bee The Federal Communications Channel 24 show al-ready more than four years old has been preempted by the holidays But unlike other television series that are cancelled if they don't draw much of an audience this lightly attended fact-filled entry will be back After 16 days of testimony in Fresno recently the basic question remains unanswered: Who will be awarded the FCC license to operate Channel 24? The plot line is more complicated than that A variety of issues are involved in the battle for the license between KMJ-TV owned by McClatchy Newspapers and the San Joaquin Communications Corp: Did a private investigation of SJCC principals by McClatchy dig too deeply into their private lives? -Did SJCC misrepresent its financial data in its FCC license application? Has McClatchy too much influence in the San Joaquin Valley through its ownership of multiple media outlets? Did SJCC misrepresent to the FCC its plans for construction of a studio and transmitter building? Do the signals of McClatchy television stations in Fresno and Stockton overlap subjecting some valley residents to an unreasonable exposure to McClatchy editorial output? Does KMJ-TV control its own programming or is the direction determined by McClatchy executives from the headquarters in Sacramento? The recent Fresno hearings were devoted almost exclusively to the investigative and misrepresentation issues By the time court reporter Gerry Bixler had packed up his equipment for the return to Washing- ton DC he had used more than tapes (90 minutes each) to make two copies of all the testimony The transcripts from previous hearings totaled about 6000 pages Bixler estimated that each day in Fresno increased that by about 250 pages Add to that a few thousand pages of exhibits and even then the trial record is not complete could pro The testimony could provide plots and subplots for half a dozen novels It spilled over into such side issues as the controversy over federal water and acreage limitations in the Wes- Hands Water District the complexi-i politics ties of the business world motivations for the challenge and the tactics of private investigators who in no way resembled such fictional stalwarts as Mike Hammer James Bond and Sam Spade The parade of witnesses included bankers ranchers private eyes accountants journalists businessmen attorneys and a crusader for small farm ownership Almost all were called upon to search their memories and try to recall conversations that in some instances went back more than four years have no clear recollection of or just remember" were as close to a universal response that the hearings produced Almost as common was the frequent lament of Administrative Law Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick that page is A poor copying job on some exhibits made many pages difficult to read even when the originals were clear For three teams of attorneys from Washington DC it was almost a I OUR FIRST FALL CLEARANCE SALE STARTS! 0 PROVIDING EXPERT DRY CLEANING SINCE 1920 30 BANKAVERiCARD rants The separation from home was difficult for FCC attorney especially Norman Goldstein His new daughter was five days old when he had to leave for the hearings The license case is out of the infant stage It started in 1974 when Ralph Millard a Fresno State University Journalism graduate with a degree in television news and documentary film production from UCLA organized SJCC He drew together a group of supporters included that included some West lands landholders business men and bankers SJCC then challenged the application of KMJ-TV for renewal of its FCC license SJCC asked that it be awarded the license on the basic grounds i sification of ownership: Mi media interests were too dominant in the Fresno area SJCC claimed the public would benefit from a new media voice The KMJ-TV response was that its record of community service was outstanding and that it would be in the public interest if it retained the license In the years since the issues have been broadened by other developments including those of misrepresentation and investigative operations Few license challenges ever get beytmd the filing of a petition to deny a renewal Indicative of that this is the first challenge in Fresno history to reach a hearing stage and KMJ-ild the Channel 24 license TV has held more than 25 years The process is slow Not until last April were the first hearings held In July more hearings were held in Fresno to take testimony on the caliber of KMJ-TV public service In litional hearings were October addit held in Washington DC on the McClatchy management structure and its relationship to day-to-day operation of KMJ-TV The investigative issue was not fully explored until the FCC road troupe returned to Fresno last month It centers on a McClatchy Newspapers decision in late 1974 to hire a firm to investigate SJCC principals because as a McClatchy witness said wanted to know who they The company McClatchy hired was Neilson and Green of San Francisco Head of the company is Michael Hamel-Green a mild-man nered middle-aged man who might have served as the model for a character in a John Le Carre novel about British intelligence Hamel-Green did serve in the British army during World War II and worked with Br tish military intelligence in Germany after tiie war before he came to the United States and entered private investigative work What occurred during the activi-len ana his invest i- ties of Hamel-Green gators in the SJCC probe remains a controversy SJCC contends that Hamel- operatives were too thorough and went into pe personal affairs of lives Hamel-Green generally denies anything wrong was done The investigators began by going back through court records copying any entries pertaining to SJCC principals They then interviewed about 300 persons asking for information Sm KMJ-TV tap 17 to $66 NOW WITH 15 LOCATIONS IN FRESNO CLOVIS FIRST TUESDAY GREAT FASHION CLEARANCE SAVE 25 to 33 REDUCTIONS FROM OUR REGULAR FALL STOCKS! 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