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Show Sen. Moss1 Maiden Speech Is Plea For TV Boosters A strong plea for continuation of VHF television boosters was made in his maiden Senate talk by Senator Frank E. Moss of Utah. The statement was inspired by a recent ruling of the Federal Communications commission outlawing out-lawing the boosters. Senator Moss, along with other westerners, western-ers, believes the ruling will hike TV costs to unreasonable totals in areas remote from broadcasting broadcast-ing centers. "If this order is allowed to stand it will deny to the people of a large area of the state the recreational and educational benefits of television at a price they can afford to pay." He pointed out that a VHF booster in San Juan County was installed for approximately $10,- on a practical basis." The Utah Democrat announced joint sponsorship of a resolution and called for open hearings by the FCC in the balance of his speech which follows: "I am therefore joining with Sen. Carroll from Colorado in sponsoring the resolution which would express the sense of the Congress as supporting the authorization au-thorization of TV booster stations, sta-tions, and urging the FCC to modify its rules and orders. "I am also hopeful that the FCC will recognize the burdens it has caused by its decision and proceed immediately to reexamine reexam-ine the whole problem. If there is any question in the Commission's Commis-sion's mind with respect to the extent of the burden and the type of equipment that is now 000 and that to replace it with VHF translators would cost $40,-000 $40,-000 to $50,000. In addition, each set owner would be put to the expense of converting to UHF bands and antennas. Sen. Moss pointed out that the FCC itself was divided on the necessity for. its prohibition oi VHF boosters. "Commissioner Craven, the only FCC Commissioner Commis-sioner with an engineering background back-ground and considered one of the foremost authorities in radio engineering in the country, dis-, sented from the action of the full Commission," he said. "He has stated that the Commission can and should establish reasonable reason-able rules providing for the authorization of VHF boosters! available, then it should hold an open hearing and allow interested inter-ested parties to present their testimony in person so that a full and complete record can be developed. "In my judgment, this problem of bringing television service to the remote, area is so important I will urge Chairman Warren G. Magnuson and the Senate Committee Com-mittee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to request Commissioner Commis-sioner Craven and his colleagues to appear before the Committee to explain the divergence in views with respect to the practicality prac-ticality of adopting reasonable rules and if necessary support appropriate legislation to meet the problem. |