The Church as Broadcaster

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A communications system is totally neutral. It has no conscience, no principle, nor morality. It has only a history. It will broadcast filth or inspiration with equal facility. It will speak the truth as loudly as it will falsehood. It is actually no more or less than the men or women who use it. 
—Edward R. Murrow 

The Mormon Church is a formidable broadcast institution. Through subsidiary corporations and institutions it owns sixteen radio and television stations, a sophisticated international broadcast distribution system, a Washington news bureau, a cable TV system and production and consulting divisions. These broadcast holdings are controlled in three ways: 1) through Bonneville International Corporation with its 13 commercial radio and television stations; 2) through Brigham Young University and Ricks College with two noncommercial/educational radio stations and one television station, and 3) through the Public Communications Department and Bonneville’s production division with a worldwide program production, duplication and distribution system whose primary purpose is distributing General Conference and other LDS programs and building the Church’s public image. 

According to Bonneville Vice President Robert W. Barker, the Church owns broadcast stations “to serve the public interest of the communities to which the stations are licensed and to exert a positive influence in the broadcasting community.”[1] Bonneville counsel and former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Rosel H. Hyde sees this as “consistent with the long established policy of the Church to foster education, the development of the arts and of course to provide spiritual inspiration.”[2]

The Church’s ownership of radio and television stations is not without its paradoxes. Because the stations are licensed through the FCC, they have prescribed obligations. The desire of any Church leaders to use these stations to spread the gospel is limited therefore to indirectly portraying a positive image of the Church. Because the Bonneville stations cannot be used to prosylyte, the Church has made a substantial effort to enlist non-Church stations through the use of public service announcements and other means. 

Another sensitive issue for the Bonneville stations is the question of sex and violence on television. While condemning the effects of such programs, the Church is in the awkward position of owning stations with obligations to both a national network and a public whose tastes may differ from those of the Church. 

The parent corporation, Bonneville International, is owned by Deseret Management Corporation which also owns several other LDS commercial enterprises.[3] The Bonneville Board of Directors includes Church authorities, broadcast professionals and assorted business and community leaders.[4] Bonneville’s holdings include broadcast stations and broadcast support divisions. While the Church presently owns three television stations, four AM radio stations, and nine FM stations, it is not the licensee of any of them. The boards of directors of the respective stations, not the Church, have the legal responsibility to operate the stations in the public interest. Bonneville holds the licenses of KBRT-AM and KBIG-FM, both of Avalon (near Los Angeles),[5] WCLR- and KSEA-FM, Skokie (near Chicago),[6] as well as KMBZ-AM and KMBR-FM, both in Kansas City, Missouri. Through its subsidiary, Radio New York, Worldwide, Incorporated, Bonneville holds the license for WRFM-FM, New York City. Bonneville also owns KIRO, Incorporated which is the licensee for KIRO TV-AM-FM, Seattle. Perhaps the best known of the Church’s broadcast holdings is KSL, Incorporated, which is the licensee for KSL-TV-AM-FM, Salt Lake City and the first of the Church’s broadcast stations. The most recent acquisition is KOIT-FM, San Francisco which is owned by Bonneville through its subsidiary, Bay Area Broadcasting Company. KOIT-FM was purchased in June 1967.[7]

All the Bonneville stations are commercial operations, are recognized for their “state-of-the-art” engineering, and all FM stations broadcast in stereo. KSL-TV AM, KIRO-TV-AM, and KMBZ-AM are affiliates of the CBS network. Other Bonneville stations have no network affiliation. 

Bonneville’s own business interests agree substantially with those of the Church and the FCC. Bonneville’s stated corporate goals, by priority, are “outstanding community service, planned personnel development, quality programming and profitability.”[8] By providing community service and quality programming, they meet the “public interest, convenience, and necessity,” and generate revenue through profitable advertising sales. 

In addition to Bonneville’s holdings, the Church owns three noncommercial educational stations. KBYU-TV and KBYU-FM are operated by Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. KBYU-TV is a member of the Public Broadcasting Service, and KBYU-FM is affiliated with National Public Radio. Ricks College is licensee for KRIC-FM, a student operated station serving Rexburg, Idaho. 

All Church-owned stations are subject to regulation by the FCC whose function is to insure that they serve the “public interest, convenience, and necessity” as required in the Communications Act of 1934. Every three years each station must apply for renewal of its license and provide evidence of its operating in the interest of the area it serves. Stations are to provide public affairs, news and other services of interest and value to the community. The FCC’s “fairness doctrine” requires licensees to provide programming on significant issues of public importance, a balanced presentation of all viewpoints on these controversial issues, reasonable access to broadcast time to political candidates, information on ballot initiatives and referenda and equal opportunity to op posing candidates for access to program and spot announcement time. Stations are subject to libel and slander law and are required to give anyone who is personally attacked an opportunity to reply. Stations can editorialize or endorse candidates, but must provide response program time. 

Since the noncommercial/educational stations do not operate for profit, they measure their success by different standards, those of educational and student training benefits.

Broadcast Stations Licensed to Church Corporations and Institutions
Location	FM Radio	AM Radio	Television	Licensee
New York, N.Y.	WRFM			Radio New York, Worldwide, Inc.
Avalon, CA.	KBIG	KBRT		Bonneville Int’l Corp.
Skokie, Ill.	WCLR			Bonneville Int’l Corp.
Seattle, Wash.	KSEA	KIRO	KIRO	KIRO, Inc.
Kansas City, Mo.	KMBR	KMBZ		Bonneville Int’l Corp.
Salt Lake City, Utah	KSL	KSL	KSL	KSL, Inc.
San Francisco, Calif.	KOIT			Bay Area Broadcasting Co.
Provo, Ut.	KBYU		KBYU	Brigham Young University
Rexburg, Id.	KRIC			Ricks College
Assembled from Broadcasting Yearbook, 1976 Edition

In addition to its radio and television stations, Bonneville owns production, marketing, distribution and creative services. Divisions within the corporation thus serve the Bonneville stations and contract with the Church and other broadcast and commercial entities, all of which pay for their services. 

Bonneville Productions—This Salt Lake City based division of Bonneville operates the Church’s worldwide marketing and distribution system and is the contracting entity for the Church’s more recent ventures into creative use of prime-time public service and general interest programming. 

Under contract with the Church, Bonneville Productions handles all recording, duplication, marketing and distribution of general conference, The Spoken Word, and other Church productions. They provide similar services for their sister division, Bonneville Broadcast Consultants. They also provide promotion, engineering and related special services. According to Bonneville Productions’ General Manager Richard D. Alsop, the creative services and marketing/ distribution departments of the division work “essentially 100 percent on Church projects” while the recording and duplication departments spend “30 to 50 percent” of their time on Church projects. (Bonneville President Arch L. Madsen, however, places the Church share at closer to 30 percent overall).[9]

Bonneville Productions has its own audio production studios but subcon tracts all film and video production. Perhaps the best examples of its creative capacity are its Homefront radio and television public service announcements and family TV specials. 

Bonneville Broadcast Consultants—This Bonneville division is based in Tenafly, New Jersey. Its president, Marlin Taylor, was drafted for the job as a result of his success in programming Bonneville’s WRFM in New York. Taylor’s “beautiful music ” format, which blends music, news, community affairs and personable announcers, moved WRFM to the top of the New York FM market. Bonneville Broadcast Consultants grew out of an effort to transfer WRFM’s success to Bonneville’s other stations.[10]

Bonneville Broadcast Consultants now provides services to over eighty radio stations. Its services are essentially to provide prerecorded music for automated broadcast systems together with consultation on program format, promotion and engineering. Its clientele is growing rapidly, evidence of both its expertise and a mushrooming demand for such services within the radio business.[11]

North Utah CATV—Bonneville owns 50 percent interest in North Utah CATV, which operates a cable TV service in Logan, Utah. As with other cable systems, North Utah CATV imports distant television signals and for a monthly fee pro vides a direct hookup to subscribers’ home sets.[12]

Financial Information—Bonneville is a closed corporation and does not publish any financial statements. Information on Bonneville’s assets is, however, available from the balance sheets on each station which are part of the public record at each station and at the Federal Communications Commission. These sources show Bonneville’s assets to be in excess of $50 million. This is only their book value, however, and Bonneville executives emphasize that the true market value of the stations is far greater. There is no accurate information available to the public on Bonneville’s earnings.[13] KBYU-TV-FM and KRIC-FM do not operate for profit, but their assets are estimated by station management to be approximately $3 million.[14]

For the multitude being so great that King Benjamin could not teach them all within the walls of the temple, therefore he caused a tower to be erected that thereby his people might hear the words which he should speak unto them. 
—Mosiah 2:7 

The Church’s broadcast holdings have mushroomed from a modest beginning in 1922 with a tin shack perched atop the Deseret News building, to a multimillion dollar operation using audio and video tape, microwave and satellite for distribution of Church-related information worldwide for broadcast on over 2,700 radio and television stations. 

The Church’s first broadcast interests grew from its press holdings. The Deseret News Publishing Company established the Deseret News on June 15, 1850. As the voice of the Church, it was a natural place for the development of broadcasting. Melvin R. Ballard, circulation manager of the Deseret News, also happened to be Boy Scout Commissioner of the Ensign Stake. In 1920 he received permission from the Deseret News to sell newsprint roll ends, using the proceeds to build a wireless station on top of the Deseret News building. With it Ballard taught the Boy Scouts the Morse Code and distributed news bulletins. 

This experience convinced Ballard that radio had a future. He in turn convinced Deseret of the value of setting up a voice transmitter to send news to Boy Scouts with receiver sets in churches throughout the Ensign Stake. Deseret invested $1,000 in the project which allowed Ballard and his scouts to build a tin-and-wood shelter for the transmitter on the roof of their building. Deseret News staff members designed, located, purchased and assembled the com ponents of the transmitter,[15] and on May 6, 1922, Ballard’s station began trans mission with the call letters KZN. 

Deseret supported the station for two years until news management unsympathetic to broadcasting implemented policies requiring Deseret to divest itself of KZN. In 1924, Deseret sold KZN to John Cope, who had been radio engineer, and his father, F. W. Cope. They formed Radio Service Corporation of Utah and changed the call letters of the station to KFPT. 

Recognizing the commercial potential of the medium, the Copes hired Earl J. Glade, an advertising executive and part-time professor of business administration at the University of Utah, as sales manager and advertising counsel to the station. Glade, later mayor of Salt Lake City, immediately saw the need to put the new corporation on sound financial footing. After five months of fruit less search, he persuaded the Church to help the fledgling station and arranged the transfer of 51 percent ownership in the corporation to the Church in exchange for studio space and the necessary capital to construct a 1,000-watt transmitter. This infusion of capital allowed the station to move actively into programming. 

In 1925, when the Church assumed majority ownership of the station, it placed General Authorities at its head, changed the call letters to KSL and hired Glade to manage the station. From this point forward, Glade provided the direction for KSL and pioneered most of its early broadcasting. 

In 1929 KSL became an affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) which began carrying broadcasts of the Tabernacle Choir. The Choir broad casts with Richard L. Evans, were carried on NBC from 1929 to 1933 when KSL became affiliated with the CBS Network. CBS was still carrying the Choir broadcasts in 1936 when the program took its present format as Music and the Spoken Word. Now with Spencer Kinard, it has the distinction of being the oldest continuously broadcast network program in America. It is significant too because it cast the mold for subsequent efforts at creating a favorable image for the Church. Church programs have largely been low key, with less emphasis on doctrine than on good taste and common appeal. It has never been the Church’s style to attack other faiths or to use the hard sell common to many religious broadcasts. In fact, Music and the Spoken Word is not even classified as a religious program under FCC rulings. 

Even in the beginning when KSL was operating in the red, the Church chose to continually upgrade its facilities thereby providing maximum coverage of its broadcast signal. By 1933 KSL-AM was in its present form, a Class I-A clear channel station operating at the maximum allowable power, 50,000 watts. 

After being delayed by World War II, KSL-FM went on the air in December, 1946. FM radio was in a largely experimental stage and KSL was the first to attempt it in Salt Lake City. Bonneville describes KSL-FM’s profitability until 1971 as “disappointing,” noting that in spite of low returns, KSL has invested in FM stereo and quadraphonic broadcast equipment and established 39 FM translators in Utah.[16]

Excited by the possibilities of television, KSL applied for and received a permit to construct and operate KSL-TV, which began broadcasting on June 1, 1949. Since then, KSL, Incorporated, with its three stations has served as the flagship of Bonneville’s broadcast holdings. The Church had to provide support for the stations as they developed, but they soon were able to support themselves and to allow for expansion. 

Within a few years, the Church also invested in other broadcast stations. Among the first of these were KIRO-TV-AM and KSEA-FM in Seattle which it acquired in March, 1964.[17] KIRO-TV and KSL-TV are the only two television stations owned by Bonneville at the present time. 

Between 1950 and 1976, the Church purchased two additional AM stations, an international short wave station with five transmitters, five additional FM stations, and invested in two other FM stations owned by other groups.[18] By 1974, Bonneville (which was not created until 1964) had sold the short wave stations and its minority interest in the two Idaho stations, leaving Bonneville’s holding in 1976 at seven FM stations, four AM stations, and two TV stations.[19]

During the same time, the Church also developed its noncommercial broad cast interests. KBYU-FM went on the air in i960 and KBYU-TV on November 15,1965. KBYU’s stated goals are to operate FM-TV within FCC license requirements, maintain licenses for the University, offer radio and television programming consistent with LDS standards, maintain academic laboratories and pro vide student training in broadcasting. Programs produced by KBYU are occasionally broadcast nationally over the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). BYU’s film and video production facilities are recognized as “one of the finest independent motion picture, sound and TV facilities in the country.”[20] KRIC FM went on the air in 1972 and has since served primarily as a teaching tool for students at Ricks. 

It was during this period of growth that the Church felt the need to shift ownership of its commercial broadcast interests to a separate corporation. To accomplish this, it created Bonneville International Corporation in 1964.[21] Arch L. Madsen, who had worked with Earl J. Glade during the early KSL days and had since worked in commercial broadcasting on the East Coast, was then head of KSL. He was selected to be the chief executive of the new corporation and it has been under Madsen’s direction that the Church’s broadcast interests have become truly international. 

God in His wisdom has given us television and radio to assist Him in His great pur poses. May we be blessed and ever diligent in the use of all communications media to hasten the day of His kingdom. 
—Arch L. Madsen 

Radio and television have always captured the imagination of the Church authorities because of their potential to reach a mass, worldwide audience. At the close of World War II, President George Albert Smith talked to LDS servicemen in the Pacific during a special short wave broadcast. The experience impressed him deeply, and he spoke of it during the October 1946 general conference of the Church: 

I have traveled more than a million miles in the world to divide the gospel of Jesus Christ with my fellow men, but that was the first time I ever delivered a religious address to a congregation seven thousand miles away. Short-wave broadcasting will continue to improve, and it will not be long until, from this pulpit and other places that will be provided, the servants of the Lord will be able to deliver messages to isolated groups who are so far away they cannot be reached. In that way and other ways, the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord, the only power of God unto salvation in preparation for the celestial kingdom, will be heard in all parts of the world, and many of you who are here will live to see that day.[22]

President Smith was not among those to live to see that day. One who did and who helped make it possible, was Bonneville President Arch L. Madsen. Twenty years later, from the same pulpit, Madsen reminded the priesthood session of conference that the Prophet Joseph had declared: “The truth of God will go forth boldly, till it has penetrated every continent, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished.” He then told the audience: 

King Benjamin, in his efforts to communicate the gospel more effectively, caused a tower to be built that he might speak to the great multitudes.

What mighty towers has our Heavenly Father permitted us to have in this dispensation through the use of radio and television. Surely they are powerful instruments beyond imagination, to help the gospel message ‘sound in every ear’ on this planet.

Under the direction of our Prophet, the use of radio and television is expanding. The Church now owns totally, or has ownership in 20 broadcasting facilities.[23]

Madsen pointed out what he called the “awesome challenge” of communicating to “earth’s rapidly multiplying billions.” Illiteracy proliferates in under developed nations more quickly than educational institutions can cope with it, he stated, adding: “The only way we can reach millions of people will be through the spoken voice.” He then presented his case for using radio to reach millions throughout the world. His vision of the use of broadcasting to help spread the gospel is summarized in an earlier statement: 

Now that the instruments of communication are enabling the world to become One Great Neighborhood, our challenge is to effectively communicate our God- given knowledge and help transform the world into One Great Brotherhood.[24]

From 1961 through 1974, one of the main instruments for meeting that challenge was WNYW, Bonneville’s international shortwave station. WNYW were the call letters for five transmitters near Boston, broadcasting programs originating in New York.[25]

International shortwave is used primarily by organizations such as the United States Information Agency, the Voice of America, Radio Liberty and others in the business of communicating across international boundaries to deliver messages not necessarily welcomed by the governments of host nations.[26]

While its transmitters broadcast with a much higher power than conventional commercial radio (in order to carry the signal further), WNYW’s broadcasts were unreceivable in the United States. WNYW’s five transmitters broadcast daily in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and German. In describing the purpose of WNYW, Arch Madsen explained: 

Although 95% of the WNYW programming is not Church material, we have about 15 programs weekly in English and another 15 in Spanish presenting Church news, doctrine, and culture. We also broadcast the Tabernacle Choir and sessions of general conference over these facilities.[27]

In his 1966 conference address, Madsen detailed another dimension of the WNYW broadcast purpose: 

Most of these 3,000 shortwave stations are government owned and operated, and are used in an ideological war of freedom vs. collectivism which most Americans should have the privilege of hearing. It is raging through the air with venom enough to turn the color of the air. In this project (operating WNYW), we have entered a great arena . . . It is an opportunity presented to us to help explain to the world . . . the divine principles of the Constitution of the United States attacked overseas viciously (and) misunderstood by too many of us at home.[28]

Because of the important function Bonneville’s chief executive saw for WNYW, it may seem curious that the station was sold in 1974. But Vice President and General Counsel Robert W. Barker explains that new technology has made shortwave obsolete: “For our purposes we could do it more effectively with satellites, telephone cable and distribution of video tape.[29]

Bonneville is very effective in international distribution of its programs. Church conference is distributed to over 200 television and 125 radio stations in sthe United States, Canada, and Australia, and to a number of LDS chapels in Europe where it is translated into French, German, and Dutch. Music and the Spoken Word is broadcast by over 50 television and 525 radio stations in the United States and Canada and by the Voice of America and the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. 

In addition to these broadcasts, Bonneville produces and distributes inter nationally assorted other public affairs, cultural, health and sports programs.[30]

Most children spend more time in front of the TV set than in front of a teacher during a year’s time. In just the preschool years alone, some U.S. studies show that the average child spends more time watching TV than he spends in the classroom during four years of college. 
—Victor B. Cline 

The Church has for some time expressed concern over the effects of broad casting on children and on the family. One of the most innovative and successful uses of broadcasting by the Church in this area is its Homefront project created by Bonneville for the Church’s Public Communications Department. 

Homefront is a series of 30 and 60 second radio and television “spot” announcements aimed at raising the level of consciousness about the importance of the home and family. The spots portray a variety of family situations and through drama and narration leave messages such as, “Give your children everything . . . give them your time.” The spots end with the phrase, “A thought from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . . . the Mormons.” 

The spots don’t proselyte, but in the words of Homefront executive producer Gordon Johnson: “The spots identify the name of the Church in a favorable way. When nonmembers are contacted by missionaries, they already have a favorable impression of the Church.” Church Public Communications Director Wendell J. Ash ton adds: “We think these announcements, identified as they are with the Church, are an effective missionary tool.” 

Homefront is the Church’s most successful effort at penetrating the normally impenetrable “prime time” on radio and television. Homefront spots, now in their sixth series, are broadcast by over 2,220 radio and 450 television stations throughout the world. They are produced in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Australian versions.[31] Homefront has won numerous awards, including the Hollywood Radio and Television Society award as one of the best in the international broadcast field; two Gabriel Awards from the International Catholic Communications Association; and awards from the Utah and the American Advertising Federations. 

Because Homefronts spots are often used in the evening or weekday broadcast schedules rather than the less favorable Sunday morning time often reserved for religious broadcasts, it is probable more people have seen or heard Homefront sports than anything else the Church has distributed.[32]

The Church has also been successful at producing prime-time special programs created by Bonneville under the direction of the Public Communications Department with Heber G. Wolsey of the electronic media section.[33] The first of these was a 30 minute drama broadcast in December, 1974. Titled A Christmas Child, the drama was broadcast on 200 television stations either as a public service or with commercial announcements approved by the Church. The pro duction starred Barbara Stanger and Kristopher Marquis, both Hollywood professionals, and it told the story of an airline stewardess who, finding herself alone in Salt Lake City on Christmas Eve, leaves her hotel room for a walk through Salt Lake’s snowy streets. There she finds a lost six-year-old boy and together they search for his parents. Their search takes them through Temple Square where the Tabernacle Choir is giving an outdoor Christmas performance. Her conversation with the boy brings a flood of childhood Christmas memories which at first upset, then relieve her. 

Dr. Wolsey saw a major advantage to the Church in permitting commercials: “By getting approved sponsors we were able to get into the major markets on prime-time rather than the Sunday morning ghetto.”[34] Encouraged by this venture, the Church chose to commit more money to a bigger project. 

Under contract with the Church’s Public Communications Department, Bonneville arranged for the production and distribution of a one-hour family special for broadcast during National Family Week in November, 1976. The program, The Family . . . and other living things, starred Bill Bixby, Gary Burghoff, Ruth Buzzi, the Lennon Sisters and the Osmonds. The dramatic-variety format was built around “the odyssey of a separated mother, a ‘weekend father,’ and their son, who see a world of more successful marriages and more fulfilling family relationships than their own,” according to Dr. Wolsey who supervised the production of the film. “Along the way they observe, they learn and they enjoy, and they finally change.[35] The program was produced at KTLA-TV in Hollywood by a professional television crew.[36] Aimed at young adults, it was intended as a “door opener” that will allow Church members to introduce to their nonmember friends some of the basic principles of the Church regarding the family.[37]

This program was unique in Church broadcasting. The Church not only paid for the production of the program,[38] but bought prime-time slots in the top 54 markets of the country. In addition to Church-approved commercials during the show, there were short announcements on family unity which offered a copy of an abbreviated Family Home Evening manual to viewers who called a toll-free number. 

Bonneville Productions General Manager Richard D. Alsop said that the objective of the program was to counteract some of the negative family images on television and “to put the family in a positive light, to make it an enviable institution.”[39]

The Church’s Public Communications Department saw the program as an experimental effort in using the media for a “major proselyting effort” which included the direct support of members of the Church.[40]

Production of The Family . . . reflects the emphasis the President of the Church places on TV’s impact on the home. In the October 1975 general conference, President Spencer W. Kimball spoke out on an issue which, while quite controversial within the broadcast industry, is little known outside it—that of the “family viewing time” policy of the National Association of Broad casters:[41]

We are encouraged by the expressed desire of executives of television networks to reserve at least a portion of the early evening hours for entertainment when parents may watch with their children without embarrassment.[42]

The Family , . . and other living things and Bonneville’s support of family viewing time are natural outgrowths of President Kimball’s affirmation of the policy. Bonneville is known within the broadcast industry for its stand on the concept. In June, 1976, for example, Bonneville placed full-page ads in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times stating its support of family viewing time. Bonneville’s stand on this issue and the activity of Bonneville and the Church’s Public Communications Department are among the most dramatic illustrations of how a church’s attitude can affect broadcast policy. 

Many people in the community don’t share the same standards we do, and we must serve them too. We must not make everything conform strictly to our tastes.
—Robert W. Barker 

The FCC issues licenses to stations and stations are under obligation to provide services to the public and to be responsive to the interests of the com munities they serve. If an individual or group is unhappy with a station’s service, they can oppose renewal of the license. The Bonneville stations have been subject to either petitions to deny their licenses. Three recent petitions, one against KSL, another against KIRO and a third against WRFM, illustrate some dilemmas the Church faces as a broadcast proprietor. 

On June 1, 1974, KSL Incorporated filed renewal applications for KSL-TV AM-FM. On September 3, 1974, the U.S. Department of Justice filed with the FCC a petition to deny KSL’s renewal request on the ground “that a grant of the renewal applications would be inconsistent with the public interest since the renewals would perpetuate the high degree of concentration in the dissemination of local news and advertising that now exists in Salt Lake City.”[43] During the same time, the Justice Department also filed petitions to deny the licenses of nine other non-Church-related stations on similar grounds. The KSL petition was part of a larger effort by the Justice Department to test the legality of broad cast/newspaper crossownership. 

The Justice Department’s petition sought to break up what it feels is a virtual media monopoly in Salt Lake City. The Justice Department objected because KSL, Inc. is under common ownership with the Deseret News Publishing Company which publishes the Deseret News, one of the two Salt Lake City daily newspapers. Deseret News Publishing Company also owns 50 percent of News paper Agency Corporation (NAC) which runs the business functions of both Salt Lake City newspapers including all advertising sales. These holdings, together with KSL-TV-AM-FM and KSL’s cable TV holdings, the Justice Department contended, result in “so high a degree of media concentration as is so injurious to competition as to be inconsistent with the public interest.”[44] Using data from a January 8, 1974 Dun & Bradstreet Business Information Report for KSL, Inc., and January 15, 1974 Dun & Bradstreet Business Information Report for Newspaper Agency Corporation, and other public financial data, the Justice Department estimated “that the KSL-NAC media agglomerate obtains 81 per cent of the local advertising business in the Salt Lake City urban area.”[45]

In opposing the Justice Department’s petition, KSL, Inc., through their Washington law firm[46] defended KSL on all substantive points in the petition and called the petition “procedurally deficient”:

It raises issues which more properly belong in another forum and is legally and factually insufficient to justify denial or designation for hearing of the KSL applications.[47]

KSL’s opposition to the Justice Department’s petition stated that “one of the fundamental flaws” of the petition was “its failure to fully comprehend the nature of the broadcast industry, the service area of the KSL stations, the circulation patterns of the Deseret News, the interrelationship of KSL, Deseret News Publishing Company, Bonneville International Corporation, Deseret Management Corporation, Newspaper Agency Corporation, Kearns-Tribune Corporation and the citizens residing in the area and the historical development and present status of mass media competition in the Salt Lake City area.”[48]

The KSL rebuttal objected to the Justice Department’s charge of media concentration and cited examples of print, broadcast and advertising competition in Salt Lake City and the surrounding area served by KSL. 

Joining KSL in opposition to the petition to deny was the Kearns-Tribune Corporation, owner of the Salt Lake Tribune. Through their attorneys, Kearns Tribune argued that media and advertising competition does exist in Salt Lake City, that the 81% of local advertising stated by the Justice Department was “not even remotely accurate,” and that the Justice Department misunderstood the function of the Newspaper Agency Corporation. The Kearns-Tribune opposition challenged the accuracy of the Justice Department’s financial estimates, stating they were “vastly inflated,” but did not reveal detailed financial data which would clearly show Kearns-Tribune’s Deseret News Publishing Company’s or KSL’s actual revenues and the share of the Salt Lake City market advertising revenues they represent.[49]

Also writing in opposition to the petition to deny was Utah Attorney General Vernon B. Romney, whose correspondence included affidavits from a number of prominent Utahns.[50] While Romney acknowledged it had “seldom been the practice of the Attorney General to appear on behalf of the State [of Utah] in matters between a private citizen and a federal agency, there are some matters which, because the interest of the State is so substantial, compel action by the Attorney General.” The KSL case, Romney added, was just such a matter. 

On October 22, 1976, the FCC ruled in favor of KSL. The FCC stated that the Department of Justice had shown no evidence of improper acquisition of market power or abuse of market power. The FCC pointed out that the number of broadcast outlets in the Salt Lake City area had increased dramatically since the KSL stations came to their present form. The decision, however, did not address the question of whether or not the KSL stations actually do possess excess market power in the Salt Lake City market. Rulings in similar cases by FCC about the same time also allowed the renewal of other non-church-related licenses caught up in the Justice Department’s challenge to cross ownership. 

The FCC’s decision was not, however, the end of the story. On March 1,1977, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a company cannot own a newspaper and a broadcast station in the same city unless such a joint ownership is “clearly . . . in the public interest.” Chief Judge David Bazelon wrote that “nothing can be more important than insuring that there is a free flow of information from as many divergent sources as possible.”[51] This decision directly affects the joint ownership of KSL and the Deseret News as well as 78 other joint newspaper/broadcast ownerships across the country. The decision is expected to be appealed before the Supreme Court and if upheld would require years to actually affect divestiture. Unless the ruling is overturned, the Church may have to decide within a few years whether to divest itself of KSL or the Deseret News. 

In another case, the FCC received on January 2, 1975, a petition to deny KIRO’s license from an organization calling itself Citizens Institute.[52] The petition cites twelve reasons the petitioners felt KIRO was unqualified to continue to operate the station. Among these the petition alleged that KIRO “repeatedly utilized its broadcast license, facilities, and programming for the purpose of purveying favorable propaganda about, and/or proselytizing for, the Mormon religion and the Mormon Church, KIRO-TV’s ultimate corporate owner, in direct violation of both the Establishment and Free-Exercise clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” They also charged KIRO with “distortion, omission, and bias in its ostensibly objective news coverage” and with substituting the “religious and social biases of its ultimate corporate owner, the Mormon Church, for local standards of taste and appropriateness.” The petition further claimed that KIRO failed to provide quality programming for its juvenile audience, that it engaged in deceptive advertising and that it broadcast children’s programs which were “excessively violent and which include harmful racist and sexist stereotyping.” 

The petitioners objected to KIRO’s failure to broadcast a two-part repeat of Maude dealing with abortion, and for refusing to carry a network feed of The Graduate. These were, according to the petition, examples of KIRO’s imposing the standards of its owner on its viewers. 

By July, 1975, KIRO had responded to the petition, rebutting the charges and urging “prompt consideration of the KIRO matter.” By early 1976, the FCC rejected the petition, stating they found no basis in fact for the allegations of censorship of news programs or KIRO using the station for Mormon propaganda. The FCC added that Mormons were part of KIRO’s service area and as such could be served as long as other groups were not precluded.[53]

A third petition to deny was directed against WRFM, New York, in 1974. In June of that year WRFM applied for renewal of its license. Within a few months a group of black petitioners requested that Radio New York Worldwide, Incorporated be denied the license to operate WRFM. The group charged that the “racist” policies of the Church automatically resulted in racial discrimination at WRFM. In early 1976, the FCC ruled on the case. The Commission said that the actual practices of WRFM showed no outright discrimination. However, as it was with other stations, the FCC imposed employment recruitment reporting requirements on WRFM because of the low percentage of blacks employed by the station. 

Significantly, the Commission’s decision reflected their position that WRFM was to be measured against the standard of its own performance and not against that of its ultimate corporate owner. It would appear, therefore, that the FCC does not consider the Bonneville stations responsible for the practices or policies of the LDS Church. 

Television has brought back murder into the home, where it belongs. 
—Alfred Hitchcock

We won’t stoop to any levels to reach the greatest possible market. 
—Joseph A. Kjar, Exec. Vice President, Bonneville International Corporation 

While the KIRO matter was resolved in favor of the station, the issues brought forward raise some interesting questions. The question of standards of taste is sensitive because Bonneville’s television stations operate under two possibly conflicting obligations. On the one hand they are required by law to meet local interests and tastes which may vary dramatically from the Church’s. In doing so they are faced with the decision as to whether to broadcast programs with instances of sex and violence, which while acceptable to the public, run counter to what the Church believes is acceptable. 

In the October 1976 Church conference, President Spencer W. Kimball made clear the Church’s opposition to some television programming when he said: 

The path to the grievous sins of fornication, adultery and homosexuality can begin, too, with the viewing of some of the sex-and-violence oriented programs now being shown on television, including network television.[54]

Whether the Church-owned stations can, or should impose standards of taste on communities they serve is clearly a sensitive issue. In answer to a question as to whether Bonneville stations censor their programming to conform to Church standards, Bonneville President Arch Madsen in 1974 said: 

Each of the stations operates under license from the Federal Communications Commission and is obligated to serve the community where it is located. This sometimes means that we apply different standards in different communities.

Several times in the past we have deleted network programming which we felt would be offensive in the cities we serve. Because our television stations are network affiliates, our ability to exercise complete control over programming is limited.

However, for our radio stations, we have more freedom in the selection of material. In order to help us maintain high quality in both lyrics and music, we employ a record selection service which screens all records before they are played on any of our stations.

Bonneville International is mindful of the need for the highest quality in programming and is especially sensitive to the standards of the Church.[55]

Bonneville Vice President Robert W. Barker explains it this way: “We have always been careful to operate these stations in the interests of all sections of the community. Not just the Church, but others as well.” Barker says that when controversial programming is fed down the network line, the Bonneville stations decide whether or not to carry them based on “what serves the public interest.” The stations can, he explains, “exercise licensee responsibility” and choose not to air a program, but adds that not everyone in a community shares the same standards of taste. He points out that stations are obligated to serve all segments of the public and adds, “We must not make everything conform strictly to our tastes.”[56]

On the same subject, Bonneville counsel Rosel H. Hyde states that:

It would be a violation of the trust to restrict broadcast content to only such content as would be approved under Church views; it would also violate the principle basic in Church philosophy that the ideas of others should not be repressed.[57]

Viewers can and do let the Bonneville stations know when they object to a station’s program policies. Four different viewer letters from the KSL public files provide examples and point up the paradoxes: 

We, my family and I, are writing to let you know that we find the shows you expose us to unsuitable for family entertainment. There are prostitutes and bad language in many of them and too many vulgar insinuations and all together too much immodest dress.[58]

If KSL has the power to stop or limit shows using swear words, lots of violence, sex and the Lord’s name in vain, I suggest they do so.[59]

I was recently terribly disappointed concerning the quality of viewing on Channel 5 with the episodes of Medical Center dealing with a transsexual. The acting and story were powerful and convincing. Due to that ‘power’ of the drama the viewer was led to twisted, distorted conclusions about the possible solutions to the problems a transsexual has. I also feel the material is not suited for a broadcast over a TV network and would appreciate more careful scrutiny on your part of the things shown on a Church associated TV station. There are certainly enough evils (blatant and subtle) chipping away at society’s shaky moral structure without KSL adding to the melee.[60]

Aren’t you owned and operated by the LDS Church—if you are how can you let that filth, All in the Family be shown on your Channel?[61]

Jay Lloyd, Senior Vice President and General Manager of KSL-TV recognizes the dilemma: “The Church as such cannot have any influence over the station’s programming—that’s legally true. The only church connection is that approximately 50 percent of the viewing audience is Mormon.” Regarding KSL’s pre-emption policy, Lloyd responds: 

I’ve pre-empted only two movies and one special. One was The Graduate, not because of the Mormons, but because it was a moral issue. It had a theme that was offensive because of too much sex and promiscuity. The other movie I preempted was Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice which was just in poor taste.

The network did Sticks and Bones—kind of a sick thing. It was in poor taste, not sexual, not violent, just poorly done. I felt it was bad and decided not to play it before I knew the other stations had rejected it.[62] We’ve delayed some shows to a later time period and done some editing. Some things that would be offensive to people, mostly sex or violence. 

Lloyd voices the frustrations of a station manager faced with a wide diversity of “public taste:” 

Frankly, every one of our viewers thinks we should program just to them. They think everyone else feels exactly the way they do. But there are almost as many tastes as there are viewers. My responsibility is to program to as many of the masses as we can. We will offend someone no matter what we do. We will preempt if we think it will be offense to most.[63]

A complicating factor in Bonneville’s programming is the fact that most of their program schedule comes from the CBS network. The network sells advertising time based on the number of people who are watching. When a station pre-empts a show, the station not only loses the program, but the advertising revenues as well and it must come up with something in its place which will attract enough audience to pay its way. Bonneville Sectretary/Treasurer Blaine Whipple sums it up: “We do try to influence the market to include good pro grams. It’s just the network. If we bump too many programs or ads they’ll look for a new affiliate.”[64]

TV movies the Bonneville stations didn’t bump have included a two-part special on the Charles Manson murders Helter Skelter, Bonnie and Clyde, Valley of the Dolls, Tora! Toral Toral, and Cry Rape. All are, coincidentally, among the movies with the largest television audiences in the past 15 years.[65] That is a further part of the dilemma. The biggest TV money makers are often those programs containing the most violent and sexually explicit scenes.[66]

While the situation is somewhat different in public television, KBYU-TV faces a similar dilemma with regard to some of its network programs. Because the station is not dependent on advertising revenues or huge audiences, how ever, it can and does pre-empt or edit those programs it feels will be offensive to its audience and does so without risk of financial repercussion. 

Apparently the Church takes little direct action to influence programming matters other than speaking in a general way at conference time. Jay Lloyd says the Church authorities do forward letters of complaint to KSL for response and adds: “I’m sure that there are lots of things they don’t like, but they have to weigh the good against the bad and evidently up to the present, the good out weighs the bad.” 

While the Church does not intervene in the programming practices of its stations, Church authorities and publications do speak out against television’s excesses in general. President Kimball has repeatedly spoken out against the harmful effects of sex and violence on television. Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, member of the Council of the Twelve and a Bonneville Director, has spoken out in conference about, “the flood of pornographic filth, the inordinate emphasis on sex and violence” in movies and on television.[67] Elder Robert L. Simpson has called for a closer review of the television listings and establishment of rules for viewing, noting that, “evidence is conclusive that mind polluting pornography is just as addicting and just as devastating as Satan’s other tools of destruction and degradation.”[68] Editorials in the Church News condemn TV movies and the effects of sex and violence on children who watch such programs on television.[69] In addition to these statements by Church authorities, there are numerous articles in Church publications condemning sex and violence on television.[70]

A further dilemma faced by the LDS broadcaster is the question of advertising products condemned by the Church.[71] While Bonneville banned advertisements of cigarettes on its stations a year before the FCC prohibited such advertising, the Bonneville stations still advertise other tobacco products and alcoholic beverages.[72] To stop advertising these products would mean a loss of revenue, but to use a Church-owned facility to promote alcohol and tobacco products poses somewhat of a paradox. Bonneville does not see this as a para dox because of what it sees as a “distinction between licensee corporations on the one hand and the Church on the other.”[73]

Television is a sword rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.
—Edward R. Murrow 

Bonneville International Corporation has an excellent reputation in the broadcast industry. Its stations are consistently at the top of the ratings in most markets and have won numerous prestigious awards. Other broadcasters are paying to use the successful radio formats developed and marketed by Bonneville. Most of their commercial operations earn a good profit.[74]

Bonneville also effectively serves the Church. It is the source for creative, production, distribution and marketing services. Bonneville’s stature in the field has given the Church far more inroads in distributing Church-related broadcasts than would have otherwise been possible. When the Church wants a broadcasting job done, it can have it done by its own people, in a first-class way. 

Bonneville clearly provides a valuable service to the Church through its production division and through the prestige, know-how and influence it enjoys in the broadcasting industry. Bonneville is thoroughly professional in arranging production and distribution of Church programs and announcements worldwide in such a way that the Church’s interests are served. None of this violates broadcast regulations. On the contrary, Church productions such as the Homefront spots provide broadcasters with public service announcements required as part of their broadcast service. 

Similarly, BYU’s radio and TV stations are well equipped, professionally staffed, and highly regarded in the public broadcasting industry. It is at the operational/business level of the Church’s commercial television holdings that the dilemmas appear. Ironically, Bonneville finds itself being party to the very excesses the Church condemns by serving as a conduit for network television programs and advertisements that breach Church standards. This situation points up the dilemma of conflicting obligations the Bonneville stations face. 

The Church’s primary interest in radio and television continues to be their utility as public relations tools to present positive images of the Church. To the extent they serve that end, they are valued and used. Expansion beyond the traditional conference, Tabernacle Choir and other religious broadcasts into less conventional modes such as Homefront and its prime-time specials which penetrate the mainstream of the medium demonstrate the Church’s professionalism. 

Wendell J. Ashton sums up the mission of the electronic media division of the Public Communications Department this way: “We deal with research into methods of more effectively teaching the gospel through the media and through other means. Another overall goal, of course, is to teach the gospel around the world to all nations.”[75] While Bonneville stations cannot be used to this end, its expertise can help production and distribution efforts of the Public Communications Department. 

Another and related interest of the Church in broadcasting is its effect on society and more especially its effect on the values and habits of its members. Much of the early discussion of radio and television’s great potential for spreading the gospel is now tempered by admonitions against the damaging effects of sex and violence on television. Broadcasting, while still an ally, is now adversary as well. 

Bonneville’s stations are obligated to serve their communities of license by providing services appropriate to the public tastes, but which may be inappropriate for Church tastes. To serve the one is to slight the other. In the end station management is in the awkward but necessary position of being the arbiter of public taste. They must place in balance the station’s obligation to its owner, to its public and to the FCC. They must make decisions on which hang the station’s license, credibility in the community, status in the profession and profits. It is amazing, then, that the broadcast managers have succeeded in finding a posture that allows them to be at once businesspersons, Churchmembers and egalitarian enough to cater to tastes they don’t share. 

The mass media in general, and television in particular, increasingly exert a potent socializing force. Television continues to be the primary source for information and entertainment for most Americans and increasingly for most people of the world. The Church has the opportunity to use its influence and resources to enter that arena in significant ways. More and more it is doing so. Whether it should continue, and in what ways, are decisions certain to help shape the world view of Mormonism and to further define the role the Church sees for itself in an international marketplace of ideas. 

---

[1] Correspondence, Robert W. Barker to Fred C. Esplin, November 12,1976. In an inter- view Barker elaborates: “By serving the public interest, the Bonneville stations gain status in the community. Therefore it reflects favorably on the Church if Bonneville does a good job. Somebody’s got to own them, and it might as well be someone with a positive point of view.”

[2] Rosel H. Hyde in comments on a draft of this article, October 27, 1976.

[3] Deseret Management Corporation was created in February 1967 at which time several commercial ventures owned by the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including Bonneville International Corporation, were transfered to Deseret. In addition to Bonneville, these include Zions Security Corporation; Elberta Farms, Incorporated; Deseret Book Company; Deseret Farms of California; Zions Printing and Publishing Company; Management Systems Corporation; and the Utah Hotel Company. Deseret Management Corporation was formed to keep the Church’s commercial functions separate from its ecclesiastical functions and to allow its commercial operations to be taxed.

[4] The First Presidency of the Church are, respectively, Chairman, First and Second Vice Chairmen of the boards of Deseret Management Corporation, Bonneville International Corporation, and KSL, Incorporated. Arch L. Madsen is President and Director of Bonneville, Director of each of its subsidiaries, and a director of Deseret Management Corporation. Anthony I. Eyring, a Seattle banker, is Chairman of the Board of KIRO, Incorporated and a Director of Bonneville. Lloyd E. Cooney is President and Director of KIRO, Inc. and Vice President and Director of Bonneville. Gordon B. Hinkley is a Director of the boards of KSL and KIRO, Inc. and Chairman of the Bonneville Executive Committee. Thomas S. Monson is a Director of KSL, Inc., Bonneville, and Deseret Management Corporation. Robert W. Barker is a Director, Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of Bonneville and its subsidiary corporations. James B. Conkling, President of Raymar Book Company, Inc., is a Bonneville Director. L. H. Curtis is Vice President and Director of Bonneville and President and Director of KSL, Inc. Blaine W. Whipple is Secretary and Treasurer of KSL, Inc. and Vice President, Assistant Secretary and Treasurer of Bonneville, its subsidiaries, and Deseret. Bernard Z. Kastler, President of Mountain Fuel and Supply Company, is a Bonneville Director. Dr. William F. Edwards, former Dean, BYU School of Commerce, is a Bonneville Director. Ruth Hardy Funk, President of the Church’s Young Women’s organization, is a Bonneville Director. A complete list of the boards of all Bonneville subsidiaries is available at the Federal Communications Commission and in the public files at each station.

[5] The community of license is Avalon, Ca., but the service area includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

[6] The community of license is Skokie, Ill., but the service area includes metropolitan Chicago. 

[7] Purchase price was $2,750,000.

[8] Robert W. Barker, interview, Washington, D.C., September 4, 1976.

[9] Richard D. Alsop, telephone interview, September 14, 1976.

[10] All but one of Bonneville’s FM stations have adopted Taylor’s “beautiful music” format. WCLR has developed its own format utilizing some aspects of the Taylor format.

[11] Bonneville Broadcast Consultants is among the top radio program syndicators in the country. Their service provides an inexpensive way and successful way of allowing FM stations to program separate from their AM stations. The FCC requires this of joint licensees and Bonneville’s service helps them boost profits by putting on a good program without the expense of additional staff. For from $400 to $3,000 a month, a subscriber receives prerecorded programs in a proven format. Bonneville Broadcast Consultants is trying to shed the “background music” image. Marlin Taylor states: “We believe we have a foreground sound—music for people who really want to listen and enjoy it.” In addition to “beautiful music,” other Bonneville music formats include “soft rock,” “contemporary middle-of-the-road,” and “traditional middle-of-the-road.”

[12] Bonneville also owned 50% interest in a cable TV system serving Salt Lake City, but sold their interests in 1974 as a result of an FCC ruling prohibiting the same entity from operating broadcast and cable systems in the same community.

[13] The best available information is in FCC reports on revenues for each radio and TV market (TV Broadcast Financial Data, 1975, Federal Communications Commission, August 2,1976, and AM and FM Broadcast Financial Data, 1974, Federal Communications Commission, November 8, 1976). Even this data, however, is limited in estimating Bonneville revenues.

[14] The financing of KBYU poses somewhat of a dilemma for BYU which traditionally eschews federal support and the obligations which accompany it. KBYU-TV-FM since 1969 has received $652,000 in federal support in the form of “community service grants” from the federal Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The amount of federal support is growing each year with increased federal appropriations for public broadcasting. In fiscal 1976, KBYU-TV-FM received $240,000 in federal support. That support included such items as a “women’s training grant” to train a female producer/director.

[15] Bell Telephone Company then issued licenses for the use of some of the hardware Deseret wanted. Rather than obligate themselves to Bell, Deseret sent its staff around the country and into Canada to find equipment not subject to the Bell license fees. 

[16] Opposition to the Petition of the Department of Justice to Deny Renewal Applications— Regarding Applications of KSL, Incorporated, Wilkinson, Cragun & Barker, before the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C., February 18, 1975, pp. 7-8.

[17] Saul Haas, the major stockholder of the stations, sold his interest to the Church in 1963 along with the other minor stockholders. Haas, an original board member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, was until his death a board member of KSL, Inc., KIRO, Inc. and Bonneville International Corporation.

[18] WRFM-FM, new York was acquired May 16, 1966; KMBR-FM and KMBZ-AM, Kansas City, were acquired May 12, 1967; KBIG-FM and KBRT-AM, Avalon, were acquired March 11, 1969; WCLR-FM, Skokie, was acquired October 2, 1975; and KOIT- FM, San Francisco, was acquired June 15, 1976. During that same time the Church in- vested and later divested itself of stock in KID-FM, Idaho Falls, KBOI-FM, Boise, and its shortwave station, WNYW, New York.

[19] The FCC allows a single entity to own up to seven TV, seven AM, and seven FM stations so long as there is no overlap of signals of stations in the same service area.

[20] BYU’s film and video capacity is far above that of most universities. Through KBYU and related audio, video and film services, BYU serves a variety of Church needs. For details on BYU’s activities in this area see, “Provo’s Answer to Hollywood,” by Loretta K. Huerta, Educational Broadcasting, September/October, 1976, pp. 22-24, 41.

[21] Bonneville International Corporation was formed August 12, 1964 and reported directly to the Corporation of the President until 1967 when Deseret Management Corporation was formed.

[22] George Albert Smith, “Dissemination of the Gospel,” The Improvement Era, November 1946, p. 687.

[23] Arch L. Madsen, Conference Reports, October 1966, pp. 91-97.

[24] Arch L. Madsen, “The World is One Neighborhood,” The Instructor, January 1964, pp. 26-27.

[25] The Church at that time owned five of the seven privately owned international shortwave transmitters licensed by the FCC.

[26] Bonneville’s shortwave holdings are an item of curiosity within the broadcast industry. Sol Taishoff, editor of Broadcasting says: “When you talk about international broadcasting, you’re talking USIA, Voice of America, Radio Liberty and Bonneville International. Bonneville’s into the commercial end of it though.” A senior editor with Television Digest adds: “I can’t understand why they would want to be in it.” Interviews with Fred C. Esplin, September, 1976. 

[27] “How Are We Using Electronic Mass Media to Spread the Gospel?”, The Improvement Era, May 1967, pp. 28-32.

[28] Madsen, Conference Reports, p. 94.

[29] Robert W. Barker, Interview, Washington, D.C., September 4, 1976.

[30] Some users pay for these programs, and others use them as public service broadcasts.

[31] Bonneville Productions General Manager Richard D. Alsop estimates the value of broadcast time given to Homefront in 1975 at more than $12 million.

[32] The wide use of Homefront spots results from the fact that all broadcast stations are required by the FCC to devote a certain amount of time to public service announcements. Since they must broadcast something, they want the best available and Bonneville’s spots are among the better, offering a universal appeal which is unlikely to offend anyone.

[33] The Public Communications Department is entirely separate from Bonneville. It is part of the Church’s internal operation, is not in business for profit, and has as its primary purpose image making and missionary work. It is managed by Wendell J. Ashton and handles exhibits, electronic media, press and pageants. Ashton sees his job as “telling our story to the world as an aid to the missionary effort.” (“Presenting the Church’s Image: A Conversation with Wendell J. Ashton,” Ensign, May 1973, pp. 50-52.) The Internal Communications Department of the Church, a separate entity headed by Robert D. Hales, handles Church magazines, distribution and translation, instructional materials, editing, graphics and special development.

[34] “TV Features Church Program,” Church News, December 7, 1974.

[35] “Church TV Special to Stress Family Unity,” Church News, September 13, 1976.

[36] Executive Director of The Family . . . and Other Living Things is Jerry McPhie; Producer, Bobby Scherr; and Chief Writer, Rod Warren. Their collective credits include the Tony Orlando and Dawn show, the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, the Danny Kaye Show, the Donny and Marie show and other specials featuring stars from Barbra Streisand to Perry Como.

[37] “Top Stars Set for TV Special,” Church News, October 30, 1976, p. 3.

[38] Dr. Wolsey’s office would not release the figures but indicated it costs $240,000 to produce a one-hour Donny and Marie show which is similar to the Church program.

[39] Richard D. Alsop, interview, Salt Lake City, September 14, 1976.

[40] As part of the project, detailed utilization instructions including invitations to view the program to be handed out to friends, were sent to all wards in the areas where the program was broadcast. The instructions suggested that “the involvement of the individual members of the Church is essential if this major proselyting effort is to be successful.” The instructions then outlined five steps. Bishops were asked to submit a detailed report on member involvement and the effectiveness of the project as a missionary effort.

[41] A poll taken by Opinion Research Corporation in 1975 showed that while 42% had heard of it, 80% of all Americans favor the “family viewing concept and that 70% are convinced that television programs are too violent. In 1975 the family viewing time rule was written into the NAB code, specifying that no program “deemed inappropriate for viewing by a general family audience” will be aired between 7 and 9 p.m. But in December, 1976 the mandatory enforcement of family viewing time was declared un- constitutional by a federal court. Bonneville is an ardent supporter of the concept.

[42] Spencer W. Kimball, “The Time to Labor is Now,” Ensign, November 1975, p. 6. 

[43] Petition of the Department of Justice to Deny Renewal Applications, In the Matter of KSL, Inc., Before the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C., September 3, 1974.

[44] Reply of the Department of Justice to Oppositions of KSL, Inc. and Kearns-Tribune Corporation to Petition to Deny Renewal Applications In the Matter of KSL, Inc., Before the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C., March 31, 1975. Ironically, the Justice Department had approved the KSL/Deseret News/Tribune arrangement 15 years previously. 

[45] Petition of the Department of Justice, FCC, September 3, 1974.

[46] Wilkinson, Cragun & Barker of Washington, D.C. represent all Church broadcast holdings and are assisted by Rosel H. Hyde, an FCC commissioner from 1946 through 1969. 

[47] Opposition to the Petition of the Department of Justice to Deny Renewal Applications, In Regard to Applications of KSL, Inc., Before the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C, February 18, 1975.

[48] Ibid.

[49] Petition of Kearns-Tribune Corporation to Intervene and Opposition to the Department of Justice’s Petition to Deny Renewal of KSL Licenses, Before the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C, January 23, 1975. 

[50] Memorandum of the Utah Attorney General in Support of Renewal Applications, In the Matter of KSL, Inc., Before the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C, July 3, 1975. The memorandum includes affidavits in support of KSL from Rabbi Abner Bergman, Congregation Kol Ami; Senator E. J. Garn; Robert H. Hinkley, former Vice President of the ABC Network; John F. McNamara, Administrator, Utah Juvenile Court System; Hon. Warren E. Pugh, former President of the Utah State Senate; Father Elias Stephanopolous, Holy Trinity and Prophet, Elias Greek Orthodox Churches; and D. Frank Wilkens, former Chief Judge of the District Court of Utah.

[51] Broadcasting, March 7, 1977, pp. 21-24. For years the Department of Justice left broadcast antitrust matters up to the FCC, but in the 1960s entered the controversy on the side of breaking up common ownerships. The Justice Department, while stopping short of calling cross-ownerships a violation of antitrust laws, feels they are not in the public interest. When it became apparent the FCC didn’t agree with the Justice Department, the Justice Department began issuing petitions to deny to force the issue to a conclusion. KSL’s case is just one of several involved in the issue. For their part, the FCC states that cross-ownership by itself does not disqualify a licensee, but would urge divestiture if a true monopoly exists (one which is in violation of the Sherman Act). 

[52] Petition to Deny Renewal of Broadcasting License of KIRO-TV, Before the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C, December 30, 1974.

[53] The Television Code of the NAB, to which Bonneville stations subscribe, states that “In the allocation of time for telecasts of religious programs, the television station should use its best efforts to apportion such time fairly among responsible individuals, groups and organizations.” Bonneville stations include the broadcast of religious programs other than those of the Church. Among them is a radio broadcast, Prelude to the Sabbath. This program, on KIRO-AM and KSL-AM, is broadcast every Sunday morning from 12 midnight to 6 a.m. Also, 7-10 a.m. each Sunday is devoted to programs by or for other denominations. To avoid a monopoly of broadcast time with Church programs, Bonneville has also experimented with side band transmissions on its FM stations. Through this means, regular programming can be on the main frequency while auxiliary bands can transmit general conference in its totality. This method is somewhat limited in its utility, however, as special receivers are required to pick up the signal.

[54] Spencer W. Kimball, General Conference, October 1, 1976, Ensign, November 1976. p. 6.

[55] Ensign, June 1974, p. 59.

[56] Robert W. Barker, Interview, Washington, D.C., September 4, 1976.

[57] Rosel H. Hyde in comments on a draft of this article, October 27, 1976.

[58] Viewer letter, September 25, 1975, KSL, Inc. public files, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[59] Viewer letter, September 23, 1975, KSL, Inc. public files, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[60] Viewer letter, September 18, 1975, KSL, Inc. public files, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[61] Viewer letter, undated, KSL, Inc., public files, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[62] For the first time in CBS’s history, 94 of its 186 affiliates refused to carry a network program when Sticks and Bones was rejected in March 1973. Neither KSL nor KIRO carried this controversial anti-war drama written by David Rabe and produced for CBS by Joseph Pa pp.

[63] Jay Lloyd, Interview, Salt Lake City, Utah, September 8, 1976.

[64] Blaine Whipple, Interview, Salt Lake City, Utah, September 19, 1976.

[65] Helter Skelter was CBS’s number one rated TV movie and the rest were within the top 100 movies on all three networks since 1961. “Hit Movies on TV Since 1961,” Variety, September 15, 1976, p. 56.

[66] Advertising rates, which are the principal source of income for commercial broad- casters, are determined by the number of people the station/network can deliver to the advertiser to receive his message. The most successful programs are often those which feature the most sex and violence. Such being the case the response at the network level is increasingly to more adult, avant-garde subject matter. Previously unmentionable topics, from abortion, to homosexuality and rape are now commonplace fare on tele- vision-^-precisely because they can deliver an audience to the advertiser. Nor does the trend toward violence appear to be diminishing. In his annual report on TV violence, Dr. George Gerbner, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication, reported that 1976 was the most violent TV year on record with ABC leading the pack and CBS showing the highest increase in violence in family viewing time. Broadcasting, February 28, 1977, pp. 20-21.

[67] Gordon B. Hinkley, “Opposing Evil,” Ensign, November 1975, p. 38.

[68] Church News, October 14, 1972, p. 11.

[69] Church News, January 12, 1972, June 28, 1969.

[70] Glen C. Griffin and Victor B. Cline, “Screening Out the Garbage,” Ensign, August, 1976, pp. 19-21; Keith M. Engar, “TV and the Prophet Joseph Smith,” Improvement Era, May 1965, pp. 392-393; Mary L. Bradford, “An LDS Mother Looks at Television,” Improvement Era, March 1969, pp. 72-73; Elaine S. McKay, “I Threw Away Our TV,” Ensign, February 1973, pp. 23-24; Victor B. Cline, “How Do Movies and TV Influence Behavior?,” Ensign, October 1972, pp. 12-15; Victor B. Cline, “The ‘New Morality’ in Motion Pictures and TV,” Improvement Era, February 1962, pp. 103-105, 132-134. Victor B. Cline, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Utah, is an internationally recognized spokesperson on the effects of pornography and media violence and frequently finds himself in the minority when expressing the point of view that sex and violence on television can exert negative influences. 

[71] The Church-owned Deseret News, which is not licensed to any federal agency, faced a similar situation in advertising X-rated movies. It resolved the dilemma by deciding not to advertise them. KSL also decided not to carry ads for X-rated movies some time before that.

[72] The NAB code prohibits the advertising of hard liquor, but allows advertisements for beer and wines “when presented in the best of good taste and discretion.” 

[73] Correspondence, Robert W. Barker to Fred C. Esplin, November 12, 1976.

[74] [Editor’s Note: In the PDF, this is labeled as a second recurrence of footnote 71] When asked by the author for their opinion of Bonneville, trade press reporters replied: “They’ve good businessmen. They’re reputable. They are good operators with a high degree of integrity. Arch Madsen is highly regarded in the field.” They also added: “They’re conservative. Among the most conservative in the business. They’ll oppose anything that disturbs the status quo.” Interviews with editorial staff of Broad casting and Television Digest.

[75] [Editor’s Note: In the PDF, this is labeled as a second footnote 72] Ashton, Ensign, May 1973.