Harold Hitz Burton

“ Unless protected by law, the consuming public is at the mercy of restraints and monopolizations of interstate commerce at whatever points they occur. Without the protection of competition at the outlets of the flow of interstate commerce, the protection of its earlier stages is of little worth.
2. The publisher's attempt to regain its monopoly of interstate commerce by forcing advertisers to boycott a competing radio station violated § 2. The findings and opinion of the trial court describe the conduct of the publisher upon which the Government relies. ”

“ While the decree should anticipate probabilities of the future, it is equally important that it do not impose unnecessary restrictions and that the procedure prescribed for supervision, giving notice, keeping records and making inspections be not unduly burdensome. ”

“ From 10 to 12% of the station's program consists of news, world-wide in coverage, gathered by United Press Associations. The news is received from outside of Ohio and relayed to Elyria through Columbus or Cleveland. From April, 1949, to March, 1950, the station broadcast over 100 sponsored sports events originating in various states.
Substantially all of the station's income is derived from its broadcasts of advertisements of goods or services. About 16% of its income comes from national advertising under contracts with advertisers outside of Ohio. ”

“ Lorain County, which includes the communities of Lorain, Elyria and Oberlin, contains about 120,000 people, 52,000 of whom live in the City of Lorain.↑ Other findings show that the station broadcasts advertisements of goods and services on behalf of suppliers outside of Ohio. These sometimes result in interstate orders and shipments. Orders received by its local advertisers are sometimes filled by out-of-state suppliers. The station's broadcasts inevitably reach across state lines. They are heard with some regularity by many people in southern Michigan. ”

“ Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor * * *.↑ The individual defendants named in the complaint were Samuel A. Horvitz, vice president, secretary and a director of the corporation ”

“ From 1933 to 1948 the publisher enjoyed a substantial monopoly in Lorain of the mass dissemination of news and advertising, both of a local and national character. However, in 1948 the Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Company, a corporation independent of the publisher, was licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to establish and operate in Elyria, Ohio, eight miles south of Lorain, a radio station whose call letters, WEOL, stand for Elyria, Oberlin and Lorain. ”

“ Those factors made the Journal an indispensable medium of advertising for many Lorain concerns. Accordingly, its publisher's refusals to print Lorain advertising for those using WEOL for like advertising often amounted to an effective prohibition of the use of WEOL for that purpose. Numerous Lorain advertisers wished to supplement their local newspaper advertising with local radio advertising but could not afford to discontinue their newspaper advertising in order to use the radio. ”

“ No reference has been made in the record or in the argument here to competition from any radio station other than WEOL.↑ The license also covers WEOL-FM but the two stations are here treated as one. WEOL operates on a frequency of 930 kilocycles and WEOL-FM of 107.6 megacycles. The station outlines its primary listening or market area on the basis of a half millivolt daytime pattern and a two millivolt nighttime pattern. Its day pattern reaches an area containing all or part of 20 counties and an estimated population of over 2,250,000. ”