Sunset Cruise

Sitting at his White House desk. President Eisenhower listened solemnly last week while a worried, deeply tanned Government official told him about a Florida vacation. Explained John Charles Doerfer, 55, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission: he and his wife had taken an innocent little pleasure cruise last February, six days and nights aboard Lazy Girl, sleek yacht of Big Florida Broadcaster (twelve radio and TV stations) George B. Storer. There was also a free round trip from Washington on Storer's private plane. As chairman of the commission which regulates and licenses all U.S. telecommunications, Doerfer saw nothing wrong in accepting such lavish hospitality; in fact, he argued, it was his duty to know and associate with broadcasters.

When the explanations were finished, Ike said quietly: "If you want to offer your resignation, it will be accepted." Doerfer might have got off easier if he had not cruised through hot water with Storer once before. In 1958--long before the rigged quiz and payola investigations--Doerfer told the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight that he had spent a week in Florida and the Bahamas at Storer's expense, and admitted that he had also accepted at least $1,000 worth of airline tickets, hotel bills, fees for speeches, and the loan of a color TV set, from broadcasters. That time he was forgiven.

Republican Doerfer, a longtime Wisconsin politician and bureaucrat, and a protege of Senator Alexander Wiley and ex-Governor Walter Kohler, went to Washington in 1953 as a member of the FCC, was elevated to the chairmanship in 1957.

He has been a notable friend of the broadcasting industry. His successor as FCC chairman: Frederick W. Ford, 50, a tough, shrewd West Virginia lawyer, a member of the FCC for three years, a good friend of Attorney General William Rogers, and an advocate of stern new regulations to curb the excesses of the industry.

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