Tribune Co. v. Oak Leaves Broadcasting Station, Inc.

68 Cong. Rec. 215, 69th Cong. (2d. Sess. 1926)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Tribune (P) owns a newspaper and a radio station. P began to broadcast on 302.8 meters. Things were great because no one else occupied that bandwidth. About a year later, another station, owned by Oak (D), changed its frequency to within 50 kilocycles of P. D’s new station interfered with P’s and P sought to enjoin D. The court issued a TRO preventing D from broadcasting on frequencies close to P’s such as to interfere with P’s signal. D moved to dissolve the TRO. P argued that it was the first to use that wavelength and had done so for a significant period of time, it has spent money to develop its station, the public already recognized P by that bandwidth, and P had a significant following. D countered in that a wavelength cannot be owned or privately controlled and its signal was 40 kilocycles from P, and there was no interference.