NBC Chairman Says Ban Wouldn’t Solve Alcoholism Problem : Tinker Defends TV Beer, Wine Ads

Proposals to ban beer and wine commercials on TV and radio aren’t a “solution of any kind” to the problem of alcoholism cited by citizen’s groups seeking a ban, National Broadcasting Co. Chairman Grant Tinker said Wednesday.

“What we think we should do is participate--and we are participating--in a great deal of homework” on the question of the effect of beer and wine commercials on the public, he told a news conference for out-of-town TV critics and writers at the Century Plaza.

And, he said, “we also are meeting with the principal advertisers, particularly the beer people,” about issues raised by advocates of such a ban. “We don’t want to stick our heads in the sand.”

The proposals may get House and Senate hearings later this year. Commercials for hard liquor currently are banned on radio and television.

According to the Television Bureau of Advertising in New York, beer and wine advertisers spent a total of $290.65 million on local stations and the networks from last September to the present, up 35% from the same period a year ago. The bureau had no breakdown on how much of that was spent with the three networks.

Tinker said he doesn’t know whether a prohibition on beer and wine advertising would have a bigger financial effect than the ban on cigarette advertising imposed on the networks in the early 1970s.

He said he doesn’t believe that broadcasters “are part of the problem” of alcohol abuse, which advocates of the beer-wine ban claim, although “we are very aware of the fact that others do think we are.”

During his one-hour press session, NBC’s top officer also said his network “is not uninterested” in acquiring new TV stations under the Federal Communications Commission’s recent decision to liberalize its multiple-station ownership rules for broadcasters.

A broadcasting company can now own no more than five very-high-frequency (VHF) TV stations, but on April 2 a company will be permitted to own up to 12 stations as long as the total reach of the station group doesn’t exceed 25% of the nation’s homes with televisions.

“Within the limits that will be allowed and other things making business sense, we would be interested” in acquiring more stations, Tinker said. He didn’t indicate whether any negotiations for such acquisitions are now under way and didn’t specify in which regions NBC might be interested in purchasing TV stations.

However, Tinker--whose NBC-owned TV outlets include KNBC in Burbank and WNBC in New York--said “we would probably look at very large markets” in considering the purchase of one or more additional TV stations.

Tinker, whose network currently is No. 2 in prime-time ratings after nine seasons in third place, also predicted that NBC’s pretax profits for 1984 would show “substantial improvement over ‘83” when the figures are made public.

The company’s 1983 pretax profit was $152.6 million, which Tinker said was up 50% over the previous year. He said the percentage of increase for 1984 won’t be that high “but it’s going to be very healthy.” NBC is a unit of New York-based RCA Corp.

However, he noted that NBC still hasn’t caught up with either ABC or CBS in profit, and cautioned that this will take time.

“We are chasing the other guys just as fast as our little legs will carry us, but we’re not catching them yet,” he said.