Word: mcninch
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Died. Frank R. McNinch, 76, member (under President Hoover) and chairman (under President Roosevelt) of the Federal Power Commission, later head of the Federal Communications Commission, longtime foe of bigness in the power industry, the first to administer the "death-sentence clause" which forced the breakup of the big public utilities holding companies; of pneumonia; in Washington...
...Humphrey White Jr., grandfather of FCC, took a squint at the nation's ethereal affairs, promptly clamored loudly for a Senate investigation of radio networks and of his grandchild. But before Senate guns could be trained on the agency, Franklin Roosevelt whisked lively little Trouble Shooter Frank Ramsay McNinch of the Federal Power Commission to the chairmanship of FCC. Chairman McNinch cut out a lot of FCC deadwood, then began an investigation of the whole radio industry...
Soon FCC findings on super power set 50 Kw. as the maximum strength for commercial transmission. Not so rapid was the progress of FCC's monopoly-investigating committee, first presided over by Chairman McNinch, later by fat-jowled, cautious Thaddeus Harold Brown, Republican wheel horse of the Commission. Starting in November 1938, with NBC's David Sarnoff as its first witness, the committee rambled on until the following May. Then it began to brood. Not until last week did it make known the results of its inquiry. They were enough to send a network tycoon gibbering...
Last week 66-year-old Chairman McNinch, ill since April with a stomach ailment, resigned. As he often does in such cases, Franklin Roosevelt published their exchange of letters, praised Frank McNinch's work. Broadcasting-Broadcast Advertising, radio's authoritative trade journal, observed: "He certainly was not lacking in courage, and no one questions his sincerity, though many in radio have not seen eye to eye with him on the majority of his proposed 'reforms.' But ... his selection of William J. Dempsey as general counsel has proved a boon to the efficiency...
Before the radio industry had time to cross its fingers over the President's intentions, he acted. Once more Franklin Roosevelt went outside FCC to pick a chairman. Like Frank McNinch, 41-year-old James Lawrence Fly made his name with the New Deal program. TVA's general counsel since 1937, able Jim Fly won TVA's two major tilts in the Supreme Court. A tall, quiet, hard-working Texan who graduated from Annapolis and spent three years in the Navy before loping through Harvard Law School in two years, Lawyer Fly is a New Dealer...