Chapter SIX

The Soaring

Awakening, Rebellion, and the Moon

The 1960s saw the beginnings of conscientious FCC implementation of the “public interest, convenience, or necessity” provision of the Communications Act of 1934, an approach that lasted well into the 1970s. The reasons were twofold: (1) the election in 1960 of a new, young, liberal President, one whose efforts included appointing commissioners to the FCC who held proconsumer rather than proindustry philoso-phies, and (2) an environment in which large numbers of citizens rebelled against the previous decade’s oppression of freedom and expression, with a leap toward individual choice, derision of hypocrisy, and greater sensitivity to the plight of less fortunate people and the will to do something about it. One manifestation of such commitment was the growing civil rights movement. Another, later in the decade, was the women’s liberation movement.

The decade saw citizens’ increasing and forceful participation in the legal and regulatory processes of their country, in an attempt to achieve equal opportunities and a redress of grievances. The media and the FCC were not immune. The public became aware that the exploding mass media industries were rapidly gaining increased influence over the information disseminated to the public and the ideas the public formed from that information. The electronic media’s control of the nation’s political process had begun.

The decade started with a remarkable demonstration of the power of television. Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy were the Republican and Democratic nominees, respectively, for the Presidency. Nixon seemed a sure winner, according to the early polls, as long as nothing dramatic happened to change the course of the campaign. He was therefore opposed to participating in television debates with Kennedy; however, he felt that his refusal could be used effectively against him and, hence, agreed to several debates. The first debate, on September 26, turned the election around. The largest audience to watch a single television program up to that time, an estimated 75 million, saw a fresh, vigorous, bright Kennedy and a seemingly unshaven, tired, scowling Nixon, the latter’s gray suit fading him into the background. Kennedy had makeup and costume experts prepare his physical appearance; Nixon decided he didn’t need theatrical trappings. Those who heard the debate on radio believed that, on the issues, Nixon had won; by contrast, those who saw it on television felt that Kennedy had won. Though Nixon regained ground by the time all four debates were over, the damage had been done and Kennedy was in the lead in the polls. Politics would never again be the same: Image would replace issues in reaching the public through television, and most of the public would thereafter vote on the basis of personality rather than policy.

To preclude debates among all of the 16 bona fide Presidential candidates on the ballot in one or more states that year, Congress suspended the equal-time provisions of the Communications Act, allowing the media to restrict their debate coverage to only the two leading eligible political parties. Another innovation in TV and politics that year was the networks’ use, for the first time, of computers to predict the voting results on election day, even before the polls throughout the country had closed.

Another scandal rocked the FCC. President Eisenhower asked for the resignation of the FCC chairman, John C. Doerfer, following charges of (1) false billing of expenses and (2) accepting substantial gifts from the industry Doerfer was supposed to regulate. Increasing numbers of citizen complaints about broadcasting prompted the FCC to establish a Complaints and Compliance Division, the responsibilities of which continued, under different organizational names, into the 2000s.

Eighty-seven percent of U.S. homes had TV sets in 1960, with 440 VHF and 75 UHF stations on the air. More than 4,000 radio stations were in operation, 815 of them FM. Although sales of radio sets had doubled from 1955, only 11% of the public yet had FM receivers. Cable TV now had 650,000 subscribers—but that number was still only about 1.5% of the nation’s households.

The networks developed programming to meet the overall growth, in the process starting to take back control of programming from advertising agencies. Instead of accepting shows that the advertisers provided, networks attempted first to get rights to programs and then to sell them to sponsors. This approach gave the networks better control of their schedules as well as of individual programs.

Television program content varied. On one hand, Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly’s Harvest of Shame documentary on See It Now the day after Thanksgiving, with its theme, as stated by one of the farm supervisors, that “we used to own our slaves; now we just rent them,” prompted public outrage and congressional legislation to protect migrant workers from cruel exploitation and inhuman living and working conditions. CBS wasn’t the only network to deal with controversial issues. NBC’s White Paper and ABC’s Close-Up series documented and suggested humanistic solutions to problems that many people in the United States tried to pretend didn’t exist.

On the other hand, the success of a new show, The Untouchables, with its 35-share of the audience (the percentage of sets on tuned to a given program), paved the way for a copycat deluge of similarly violent programs. Within a year the nightly spewing of violence from the TV screens was causing concern among many citizen groups and in several federal government agencies—anxiety and disapproval that have not stopped since.

Fig 6.1 This FM program guide cover reveals the fine-arts image characteristic of the medium in the 1950s and early 1960s. Leopold Stokowski poses for station KHGM, “Home of Good Music.”

Courtesy Lynn Christian.

The Olympics were televised for the first time in 1960, and also for the first time a cartoon sitcom, The Flintstones, came to prime time. Whereas subsequent animated programs were only sporadically successful in prime time and for many years virtually nonexistent, in 1990 the unexpectedly high ratings of a comparable cartoon series, The Simpsons, suggested that it might again be time for prime-time animation.

Fig 6.2 Garrison Keillor.

Photo © Cheryl Walse Bellville.

Radio programming continued to change. The last four network soaps left radio, replaced principally by news shows. KFAX, in San Francisco, became the first all-news radio station, and in Los Angeles, KABC went all-talk. More prophetic was the change-over at WABC, the ABC radio network’s pilot station in New York. Losing listeners and money, the station switched to a fast-paced, top-tune, musical ID rock-and-roll format. From a rating of 3 (the percentage of all radio homes tuned in) in its market, it jumped to a rating of 20 by the end of the decade. Stations throughout the country that followed its lead also found growing audiences. The nation’s radio stations became primarily rock-and-roll operations.

Technical innovations helped both radio and television. Tape cartridges, or “carts,” began to be used in more and more radio studios. The cordless microphone, or “mic,” came into being. Transistors made possible the development of portable radios, a boon to radio’s survival and FM’s reemergence. To stay on the air by cutting personnel costs, a number of small radio stations tried automation. Television received a boost with Emerson’s distribution of the first small, portable, battery-operated television sets, with 3-inch screens. Motorola’s development of microwave communications made it possible for TV stations to carry remotes live from almost any site. Coupled with mobile TV units—which all the networks used at the 1960 political conventions—microwave greatly enhanced the immediacy of news broadcasts.

Its implications for the future escaping most of U.S. industry, RCA struck a deal with Japan, where workers’ wages were lower than in the United States, to assemble RCA television sets in Japan from parts made in America. It seemed a good idea at the time because the savings in production costs enlarged RCA’s profits. Eventually, however, Japan began to manufacture the entire set for RCA, then made sets for other companies, and finally made sets on its own, gradually taking world leadership away from the United States in the production and distribution of television and radio equipment. But back then, U.S. industry looked on Japanese industry as something it could use for its own benefit, and even the following year, 1961, when the first Japanese-made television set, by Sony, went on sale in the United States, few people took it seriously.

1961

Within weeks after his appointment by President Kennedy to head the FCC, Newton N. Minow made his famous “vast wasteland” address at the annual convention of the NAB. Although the catchphrase was intended only as an incidental part of his speech, it became a symbol of Minow’s efforts to push television toward more and better programming in the public interest. What concerned broadcasters more specifically was the section of his speech in which Minow said, “I understand that many people feel that in the past licenses were often renewed pro forma. I say to you now: renewal will not be pro forma in the future. There is nothing permanent or sacred about a broadcast license.” The broadcast industry hadn’t heard such tough talk from regulators since the Blue Book had been issued 15 years earlier.

Fig 6.3 Newt Minow.

Courtesy Newton Minow.

One of Minow’s priorities was the development of noncommercial educational broadcasting, later on in the decade to be named public broadcasting. To facilitate the growth of this service, Minow established at the FCC an Educational Broadcasting Branch, which was to continue for almost two decades, only to be abolished, ironically, by another Democratic FCC chairman, President Jimmy Carter’s appointee, Charles Ferris. Ferris began the process of deregulation that during the subsequent Reagan administration reversed most of the Kennedy–Minow regulatory actions regarding the public interest. Minow was also responsible for arranging for a commercial frequency in New Jersey to become New York City’s first noncommercial educational television (ETV) station, in 1962. There were 51 ETV stations on the air, offering mostly cultural and instructional programming. An instructional television experiment that began in 1961, the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI), transmitted programs to class-rooms in six Midwestern states from airplanes—an early version of today’s satellite programs.

Minow attempted to strengthen the Fairness Doctrine, which was under continuous fire from the industry. His strong concern with monopolistic practices led to FCC rules that prevented networks from dictating, as they had been, even nonprime-time programming schedules for their affiliates. He was a strong advocate for the development of UHF. Two other early Kennedy FCC appointees, E. William Henry, who joined the FCC in 1961, and Kenneth Cox, who became a commissioner in 1963, were instrumental in carrying on Minow’s strong regulatory policies after Minow left the Commission in 1963, shortly before Kennedy’s assassination. During his Presidency Kennedy encouraged Minow’s efforts, reportedly telling him on one occasion, “You keep this up. This is one of the really important things.”

Kennedy used television not only for political purposes but to open up government operations to the public. He arranged for TV to cover every one of his press conferences with no restrictions. Just before Kennedy had assumed the oath of office, outgoing President Eisenhower used television to make a remarkable admission. During his Presidency he had supported McCarthyism and even jingoistic efforts of the military, the defense industry, and the CIA. Perhaps feeling he no longer needed the support of those organizations to maintain his Presidency, he used TV for his last address as President to warn the country of the dangers of the military-industrial complex.

In 1961 Westerns dominated TV programming, with such favorites as Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Wagon Train. One could see 22 different Westerns on network television every week. Violence on television continued to concern the public, and a Senate committee headed by Senator Thomas J. Dodd began an investigation of the frequency and effects of violence on TV.

During the Kennedy administration, Ed Murrow left CBS after 25 years to become head of the United States Information Agency (USIA), where his job was to present a positive picture of the United States to the rest of the world. One of the ironies of his USIA directorship was his request to the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) not to show his own Harvest of Shame because it gave such a negative picture of America. The BBC showed it anyway, and Murrow later expressed regret for having made such a request.

FM got a boost when the FCC authorized FM stereo in 1961. Within a few years, stereo, plus the clean sound of FM, began to attract many young music listeners to the service. Paradoxically, in a move that eventually permitted FM to overtake AM as the preferred sound medium, the FCC turned down a petition for AM stereo. This action kept the older medium at a significant competitive disadvantage when stereo-phonic sound all but replaced monaural. Within the next few years, first Germany and then Japan would ensure FM’s future in the United States by exporting small, inexpensive, portable FM receivers.

1962

John Henry Faulk won his lawsuit against AWARE, Inc., and Laurence Johnson in 1962. The jury awarded Faulk $3.5 million—even more than he’d asked for. It turned out, however, that Johnson was virtually bankrupt, and so Faulk got little of the award—not enough to compensate for the fact that because he was controversial he never again worked for any network. Officially, the blacklist was now ended. Unofficially, broadcasting continued it in what was called a “graylist.”

Both the President and the First Lady made television history in 1961. President Kennedy’s ultimatum to the Soviet Union to withdraw its missiles from Cuba—his “Cuban Missile Crisis” speech—was carried on all three networks. Jacqueline Kennedy personally conducted an hour-long tour of the White House, carried by both NBC and CBS; the President joined her at the end to say good night to the viewers.

In other action related to the media, President Kennedy signed into law the All-Channel Receiver Act, which amended the Communications Act to authorize the FCC to require that, beginning in 1964, all TV sets made had to be capable of receiving both VHF and UHF. While UHF has still not achieved parity with VHF in this new millennium, this act did provide UHF with an opportunity to survive and indeed enabled many UHF stations to become very profitable.

Kennedy also signed into law the Educational Broadcasting Facilities Act, which provided, for the first time, federal grants to assist in the construction of educational television stations.

Fig 6.4 Lawrence Laurent worked at The Washington Post for more than 30 years, covering television for 28 of those years. He retired from the Post in 1982 and was formerly vice president/communication for the Association of Independent Television Stations. He has taught broadcasting courses at four major universities and is also editor in residence at the Broadcast Pioneers Library.

Photo by Anna Ng, Washington, D.C. Courtesy Lawrence Laurent.

In combining his interests in space and in telecommunications, Kennedy pushed for enactment of the Communications Satellite Act of 1962. It was passed and signed just a month after the launch of the United States’ first communications satellite, Telstar I, which debuted with demonstration programs between the United States and Europe. Although it would be many years before satellites were used for network transmissions across the United States, the Soviet Union in 1962 announced plans to use four Sputnik satellites for interconnection in its territories. The Communications Satellite Act of 1962 authorized a Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT, established in 1963) to coordinate and represent all U.S. telecommunications satellite operations.

The advances in satellite telecommunications opportunely occurred at the time that a new guru of communications, the Canadian professor Marshall McLuhan, began to have a worldwide impact on thinking in the field, including his concept that, because of electronic communications, “time has ceased, space has vanished … [and] we now live in a global village.” His theory that “The medium is the message” would become both a pro- and an antitelevision slogan.

Perhaps the most dramatic proof of the world simultaneously expanding and getting smaller was the televising in 1962 of astronaut John Glenn’s earth orbit in a space capsule, an event seen by some 135 million viewers.

Ninety percent of U.S. homes now had TV sets. What network shows were they watching? The top-rated program in 1962 was The Beverly Hillbillies. Number two was Candid Camera. A notable premiere was Johnny Carson’s taking over from Jack Paar as host of NBC’s The Tonight Show, a job Carson held for 30 years, until 1992. A notable special was Barbara Walter’s first major assignment for The Today Show, Jacqueline Kennedy’s goodwill tour of India.

FM development got another boost from the FCC in 1962 when the commission put a freeze on new AM stations. Broadcasting magazine’s headline read, “For Radio, Birth Control Begins at 40.” Many applicants who wanted new radio stations reluctantly switched to FM, little knowing at the time how fortunate a move that was.

1963

On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Television was the principal news source of the tragedy. Americans stayed glued to their sets for four days and watched with a mixture of horror and unbelieving fascination as Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused killer of Kennedy, was murdered on the television screen right before their eyes by Jack Ruby, in a police station, before Oswald could be questioned about the assassination.

Earlier that year Newton Minow gave his final speech to the NAB convention, stating, “You need to do more than feed our minds. Broadcasting must also nourish the spirit. We need entertainment which helps us grow in compassion and understanding. Certainly make us laugh; but also help us comprehend. Of course, sing us to sleep; but also awaken us to the awesome dangers of our time. Surely, divert us with mysteries; but also help us to unlock the mysteries of our universe.”

Fig 6.5 Newspaper headline reporting Kennedy assassination.

Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution.

When Minow left the FCC, Kennedy appointed as chair Commissioner E. William Henry, who carried on the administration’s public interest philosophy. One of his initial efforts, to restrict the amount of commercial time on television—which was exceeding even the limits suggested in the NAB’s own code—was frustrated when the House passed a bill forbidding the FCC from doing so. The FCC withdrew its proposal.

Television news expanded. Following a Roper poll that showed television to be the principal source of news for the U.S. public, the networks extended their evening news broadcasts from 15 to 30 minutes. ABC strengthened its competition with CBS and NBC by hiring Elmer Lower to head its news division. Television news helped move the country closer to civil rights legislation when in August it televised the March on Washington, in which the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Sports made news, too, with the first use of the instant replay (in the Army–Navy football game). Before long, the technique was a standard feature in TV coverage of every athletic event.

Fig 6.6 Newspaper account of the electronic media’s response to the assassination of President Kennedy.

Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution.

Then as now, ratings drove broadcasting. Concern about the validity of ratings led to a congressional study, and the House Commerce Committee reported that several rating companies were providing inaccurate information. Thereafter a closer eye was kept on rating systems, though they continued to be the arbiter of all programming.

Fig 6.7 Julia Child.

Courtesy Julia Child Productions, Inc.

1964

Politics—party and public—interacted strongly with broadcasting in 1964. The election campaign between President Lyndon B. Johnson, who as Vice President had succeeded Kennedy, and Republican Senator Barry Goldwater introduced the kinds of negative television spots that would later dominate U.S. elections. So strong was one spot implying that Goldwater would start an atomic war that the Democrats voluntarily withdrew it. At the same time, both parties experimented with subtle ads designed to affect the viewer psychologically and to capitalize on the experiences of previous campaigns via commercials stressing personalities and biographical sketches rather than issues. Politicians were more sensitive than ever to the power of television, and where previously TV crews had full and free access to convention activities, the Goldwater contingent tried to maintain its control of the Republican Convention by controlling the movements of reporters. In one dramatic incident, NBC’s John Chancellor was arrested, on camera, by the Goldwater forces for crossing into a forbidden area. As he was being dragged away, Chancellor signed off with “This is John Chancellor, somewhere in custody.”

A public interest group, the Office of Communications of the United Church of Christ (UCC), monitored broadcast stations’ services, especially in relation to the growing civil rights movement. Under its director, Everett Parker, the UCC Office of Communications investigated the programming and employment practices of WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi. It found the station racist in both respects and petitioned the FCC not to renew WLBT’s license. The FCC renewed it anyway, rejecting the UCC’s request for standing in the matter. In dissenting opinions, FCC Chairman Henry and Commissioner Cox insisted on the right of the public to participate in the FCC’s licensing and renewal process. The federal district court overturned the FCC’s action in 1965 and ordered WLBT’s license revoked. The court’s decision stated: “After nearly five decades of operation the broadcast industry does not seem to have grasped the simple fact that a broadcast license is a public trust subject to termination for breach of duty.”

In 1964 the FCC issued a Fairness Doctrine Primer, which not only explained how stations could implement the Fairness Doctrine but reaffirmed their obligation to do so. Coincidentally in 1964, on radio station WGCB in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, a right-wing minister, Billy James Hargis, made a personal attack on the loyalty of Fred Cook, who had written a book critical of the Republican Presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater. Cook asked for free time to reply, under the Fairness Doctrine. WGCB refused but offered to sell him time. Cook complained to the FCC, which ordered the station to comply. The station continued to refuse, and the case wound up in the Supreme Court, which five years later, in 1969, issued its landmark Red Lion decision, upholding the Fairness Doctrine and the “scarcity principle” that justified government regulation of broadcasting. (The “scarcity principle” maintains that because there are a limited number of frequencies, the airwaves belong to the public and must therefore be operated in the public interest, under an agency established by the public’s representatives.)

Other FCC actions in 1964 included hearings on payola and plugola and the establishment of fees for filling applications for licenses. Another FCC action had a long-term effect on FM. The commission, believing that FM was now ready to survive on its own, eliminated some AM-FM program duplication, forcing FM stations to develop their own programming at least 50% of the time—a move that broadcasters protested but that we now know was in FM’s best interest.

Fig 6.8 The number of radio stations programming exclusively to blacks grew in the 1950s and 1960s.

Courtesy Rick Wright.

At another federal office an event occurred that would in a few years have a significant impact on broadcast advertising: The surgeon general, who in 1956 had first warned the public about the dangers of smoking, issued the now-famous Report on Smoking.

One thousand cable systems were in operation in 1964. Fred Friendly became president of CBS News. Cassette recorders became standard equipment in radio stations. While Hello, Dolly was a national hit, rock grew as the music of the Beatles began to dominate the airwaves. The first movie especially produced for TV, The Killers, was made, starring Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan. The movie never reached the air, however—it was considered too violent.

TV’s revealing eye saw some results from its handiwork. The Civil Rights Act was passed and the Reverend King received the Nobel Peace Prize. TV would soon turn that eye on another matter that would galvanize public action: the United States’ participation in the war in Vietnam.

1965

Surveys showed that color TV programs resulted in increased viewing and greater attention to commercials, and in 1965 all the networks were now broadcasting pre-dominantly in color. Color film was being used in news programs. Among the news programs that were of most interest to Americans were those with reports from Vietnam. The networks expanded their coverage as U.S. forces expanded their participation in the conflict. Seeing the horrors of war and the body bags being carried virtually across their living rooms, more and more Americans, especially college students, began to rebel against their government’s military involvement in Southeast Asia. Vietnam became not only an issue in campus discussions but an important theme in the folk music that captured the attention of the 1960s generation. Anger and protests grew as television began to include U.S. atrocities in its reports. One such report in 1965 that had a profound effect on many Americans was news correspondent Morley Safer’s coverage of U.S. troops flicking their cigarette lighters and burning down a village of 120 huts because some of its residents had reportedly helped the Vietcong.

The Vietnam War and the continued hardening of the Cold War with the Soviet Union gave rise to a number of spy series on television. Two of the most popular were Mission: Impossible and I Spy, the latter breaking new ground in casting by costarring in an otherwise white cast a young African-American performer named Bill Cosby. Even comedy got into the TV spy act with Get Smart.

Fig 6.9 Rick Sklar with surrealist painter Salvador Dali, who served as the judge of a 1964 WABC contest.

Courtesy Rick Sklar.

At the FCC, the Kennedy legacy continued, with Chairman Henry getting the Commission to adopt public interest standards and service to the community as significant factors in judging to whom to award licenses in comparative hearings (those in which there were two or more applicants for the same frequency or channel). The FCC gave satellite communications further encouragement by autho-rizing COMSAT to operate commercial facilities.

Fig 6.10 The National Association of FM Broadcasters pushed for parity with AM throughout the 1950s and 1960s. An FM receiver in every car was a primary goal.

Courtesy Lynn Christian.

The industry was in good shape financially and statistically in 1965. More than 30 million radio sets were sold that year, about a fourth of them with FM. Almost 99% of all homes and 80% of automobiles had radios. Television was now in 93% of U.S. households. Four thousand radio stations were on the air, some 1,300 of them FM. Two hundred and fifty noncommercial educational FM stations were in operation. Five hundred and seventy commercial TV stations and 100 noncommercial educational TV stations were operating. In fact, the rapid growth and importance of educational television prompted efforts to build it into a system that could be a national alternative to commercial television. To study and determine such options, the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television was established.

But two rivals to broadcasting loomed large, one with its foot already in the door and the other on the horizon. The number of households with cable television had doubled in five years and now exceeded 1.3 million, served by more than 1,300 community cable systems. The National Cable Television Association (NCTA) made its presence known when it hired as its president a former FCC chair, Frederick W. Ford. The competition on the horizon came from the Far East, as the first videotape recorders (the VTR, later the VCR), the Sony Videocorders, which sold for $995 with a 9-inch receiver, came into U.S. homes.

Other horizons visually came closer in 1965. The previous year an international conference had established INTELSAT, a global satellite communications system. On June 28, 1965, it was inaugurated with INTELSAT I, called Early Bird, transmitting across the Atlantic Ocean. Not long after that, one of the authors of this book was invited to a gala event where, on a giant screen in Washington’s Mayflower Hotel ballroom, he saw another miracle of the new satellite communications age: the first television transmission between Japan and the United States. For international telecommunications, it seemed that not even the sky was the limit.

1966

The war in Vietnam not only was a subject for television news but directly affected the operations of television in 1966. The networks continued to refuse to be critical of U.S. involvement, and sometimes they even distorted coverage to avoid stimulating negative public concern or embarrassing the administration. To do so at the time would have been considered controversial and, to some, even un-American. As Variety, the industry newspaper, finally put it, the networks were guilty of “no guts journalism.” So many voters were outraged, however, that in early 1966 the Senate began hearings on Vietnam. After initial coverage of the hearings, CBS abruptly stopped and substituted reruns of I Love Lucy and The Real McCoys. The CBS News president, Fred Friendly—one of the few news executives who displayed consistent integrity as well as courage—resigned in protest.

By the following year, antiwar protests had spread throughout the country, and network news programs were no longer able to ignore the demonstrations and marches by millions of Americans. Broadcasting provided more and more coverage, and finally individual journalists and news teams began to probe for the truth of what was happening. Their continuing efforts for honest coverage through succeeding years contributed to the government’s eventually ending the war. It was television’s stories on Vietnam and the public protests that reportedly persuaded President Lyndon Johnson not to run for another term. One account alleges that after he saw Walter Cronkite criticizing his military policy in Vietnam, Johnson decided that if Cronkite opposed him, then the average American couldn’t be far behind and he had lost his base of support.

Fig 6.11 Network coverage of the Vietnam War was extensive and had a profound effect on viewers.

Courtesy Irving Fang.

Citizen sensibility and outspoken action affected television programming directly. After 15 years on CBS television, the most recent ones as a variety program rather than in its original sitcom form, Amos ’n’ Andy could not survive the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and public antipathy to its stereotyping and alleged racism forced it off the air for good. “People power” was reflected in other ways as well. A highly innovative show that made its debut in 1965 was the science fiction adventure series Star Trek. It bombed in the ratings, consistently finishing near the back of the prime-time pack, never higher than number 52. There was no way it could survive in bottom-line broadcasting. But a vociferous letter-writing cult developed around the show’s essentially antiwar, prohumanistic story lines, reflecting the mood of much of the country. Accordingly, the series was kept on the air for three years, eventually spawning a series of theatrical movies, a new Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series—which did better commercially than the first one—followed by more spin-off series and frequent syndicated repeats of the original one. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and other characters remained household words through the remainder of the century, as did annual conventions of “Trekkies.”

Fig 6.12 Network TV struck pay dirt in the mid-1960s with an adaptation of the comic strip favorite Batman. The show starred Adam West and Burt Ward.

Courtesy Artist’s Proof, Alexandria, Virginia.

The so-called ’60s generation was represented on the FCC as well. Appointed in 1966 by President Johnson, Commissioner Nicholas Johnson (no relation) vigorously and unabashedly symbolized the public interest—putting the needs of the consumer above the profits of the industry. For the next seven years, to the end of his term, Johnson would push for public interest rules and regulations that angered many broadcasters and annoyed his more conservative colleagues.

Courtesy Ann Loring.

Another Lyndon Johnson appointment was also a surprise but not at all controversial. When FCC Chairman Henry resigned in 1966, the President, instead of naming a Democrat to succeed him, named a sitting commissioner and a former chair, Rosel H. Hyde, a moderate Republican who had started his career with the old Federal Radio Commission. Because much of Lyndon Johnson’s personal fortune was based on broadcast holdings, some believed he was attempting to avoid charges of conflict of interest that might have been leveled had he appointed someone from his own party, politically beholden to him. Hyde kept the commission on an even keel for several years, leaving only when the next President, Richard M. Nixon, appointed his own chair.

Spy and war films were popular on TV and, to fill the “software” gap, NBC started to produce its own made-for-TV movies. ABC went it one better and paid millions to present the first blockbuster movie in prime time, The Bridge on the River Kwai. This action started a trend that still continues.

ABC, in third place and hurting financially, attempted to merge with International Telephone and Telegraph (IT&T). This arrangement would have provided the network with a needed infusion of money and created a new conglomerate with expanded media power. Although the FCC approved the merger, the Department of Justice fought it and the following year it was canceled. An attempt to establish a fourth commercial network failed, too. The Overmyer Network was established in 1966, became the United Network, and went on the air in 1967 with programs broadcast on 125 stations; a lack of advertisers caused it to fold in a month. Though regional and specialized networks (such as sports) were able to make it, another national network didn’t come on the scene again for 20 years. Then, with the huge resources of its founder, Rupert Murdoch, to back it, the Fox network not only survived but began to grow.

Cable continued to expand, with national corporations such as GE, Time, Inc., and various regional telephone companies entering the field. The FCC, deciding it was time to assert strong jurisdiction over cable, mandated that cable systems carry all local broadcast stations and limit importation of distant signals. Meanwhile, the commission closely monitored and occasionally checked the medium’s growth in major metropolitan markets.

In addition, that other future competition to broadcasting, still just a gleam, made a little headway as the price of VTRs came down to about $400.

1967

The FCC, spurred by Commissioners Johnson and Cox and responding to the public’s assertion of its rights, issued a number of strong regulatory actions in 1967. Among them were rules requiring Fairness Doctrine implementation of time to answer personal attacks on any individual (the Red Lion case, still not decided by the Supreme Court), banning station identifications that misled the audience on the station’s city of location, and—one of the most controversial rulings in the history of broadcast regulation—applying the Fairness Doctrine to cigarette advertising. Petitioned by John F. Banzhaf III, an attorney and professor of law, and relying on the findings of the surgeon general’s office on smoking and health, the FCC ruled that stations carrying cigarette commercials had to present antismoking viewpoints or offer time to antismoking organizations. Despite vehement industry protests and lawsuits, the FCC had the backing of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other government offices, and the courts found the FCC action to be constitutional. It was this ruling that led Congress, a few years later, to ban all cigarette advertising on television and radio, a ban that went into effect on January 2, 1971. Why January 2, instead of the more logical January 1? It gave the television industry and cigarette manufacturers a final huge audience to whom to sell their wares: those watching the January 1 football bowl games.

In cable, two companies were formed for the express purpose of providing regular programming to cable systems, going beyond simply carrying off-the-air broadcast stations. In radio, ABC was authorized to establish four news networks, an innovative approach to providing different kinds of news to different kinds of audiences. A dozen years later, other radio networks would follow suit, and a trend of multiple, short-form (as little as one program or one program series) and long-form (a continuous block of time, similar to the old radio structure) offerings of various specialized formats to affiliates developed. This scheme helped radio networks to survive and grow.

The rebellious nature of much of the country was reflected in radio by what was to become known as the underground rock format. Tom “Big Daddy” Donahue, a former disciple of “more music king” Bill Drake, inaugurated underground radio’s precursor, progressive radio, at KMPX in San Francisco. While vacationing at home, Donahue arrived at the conclusion that only one or at best two cuts on any hit album were getting airplay and that the remaining cuts were being ignored. This realization led him to implement an album cut–intensive format at a time when AM Top 40 was the reigning monarch of the airwaves. Several months after Donahue’s programming innovation, Boston’s WBCN-FM initiated a free-form (anything goes) progressive format. Soon there were dozens of such stations across the country.

Owing in part to their nonconformist image, derived from the unorthodox mix of music and announcers who often sounded sedated—what one observer referred to as “those voices from the purple haze” (a reference to a popular rock song of the period)—many of these stations became part of the much-ballyhooed counterculture movement. The term underground, with its clandestine and subversive connotations, was ascribed to stations that gave the impression (if nothing more) of being outside the mainstream of American thinking on such issues as war, sex, and drugs. The so-called underground stations—a phrase that prompted a snicker from the leader of the Black Panthers, Eldridge Cleaver, who thought it an absurdly inappropriate name when such stations could readily be tuned in on any radio receiver, from the White House to Shaker Heights—were also later referred to as “acid rockers” because of their heavy emphasis on music associated with the psychedelic drug movement. The climate of social unrest that existed, at a time when rock music was becoming more diffused and a substantial segment of the radio audience was disenchanted with the predominance of the highly formulaic Top 40 sound, gave real impetus to the album rock format.

In the meantime, educators had convinced both President Johnson and Congress that it was time for the establishment of an educational television network. The congressional plan was based on the Carnegie Commission’s report, Public Television: A Program for Action. After many months of lobbying, radio was included, and the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 was passed. Its principal provision was to establish the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which, with federal funding and an independent board of directors—somewhat along the lines of the BBC—was to set up one or more national systems of public television and public radio. Within a few years CPB had created, for television, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and, for radio, National Public Radio (NPR). Whether President Johnson’s key role in getting the legislation passed was for political or educational reasons—or both—has been debated by public broadcasting historians. One of the authors of this book, who was involved in the Public Broadcasting Act legislation, was at the bill-signing ceremony at the White House and chatted briefly with the President about his role and the fact that inasmuch as the first public television station was KUHT in Texas, it was appropriate that a President from Texas should be responsible for this next historical step.

1968

The year 1968 was a high-water mark of protest, of going underground to fight the establishment, of trying to make changes in the structure of the country. There were underground newspapers, underground magazines, and underground radio stations. People fought not only against the war abroad but against poverty and discrimination at home. When they did so openly, they suffered, sometimes by harassment and beatings and sometimes worse, as in the government’s predawn raid in 1969 of a Chicago apartment where the leaders of the Black Panthers were sleeping, killing two of them in their beds. Blood, death, and tears galvanized America, especially its youth.

Television covered student demonstrations on college and university campuses all over the country. Urban demonstrations became violent. “Revolts,” some called them; others said “riots.” “Burn, baby, burn!” was a battle cry heard frequently on TV news, as desperate, underprivileged people, facing hopeless poverty and racism, futilely torched and rioted.

Not only were militant protesters attacked, but two mainstream leaders, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, were assassinated that year. The latter happened virtually in our living rooms, on TV, on Presidential primary day in California. Television also showed us, live, the police violence against protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, shocking America just as the police violence against protesting civil rights marchers in the South had done only a few years before.

Though television was now willing to report more of the truth of America’s rebellion, it was unwilling to take a controversial viewpoint itself, as Murrow and Friendly would have done. Public television, through PBS’s predecessor, National Educational Television (NET), tried to, with an Inside Vietnam documentary that was promptly attacked by a number of members of Congress as being un-American and pro-Communist. Two young comedians who had quickly risen in the ratings with their Smothers Brothers TV show tried to reflect the mood of the country and angered their network, CBS, by insisting on putting on the folk guitarist and singer, Pete Seeger, playing his popular anti-Vietnam War song, “The Big Muddy.” The Smothers Brothers continued to inject political and social humor and comments into their programs until the following year, when CBS, still headed by William Paley, abruptly threw them off the air for not being, as the network put it, sufficiently “mainstream.” Was Joe McCarthy laughing in his grave?

The Tet Offensive in Vietnam in early 1968—a bloody, massive assault by Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces into South Vietnam—revealed an enemy stronger than the military had led the public to believe. Key opinion makers like Walter Cronkite began to express misgivings about the war. Given the turmoil and the mood of the country and the erosion of his popular support, President Johnson made a television address in which he described the state of the war, announced a halt to the U.S. bombing, and then, unexpectedly, stated he would not run for reelection.

Fig 6.14 Pacifica Radio has presented some of the medium’s most innovative and controversial programming since its inception in 1949.

Courtesy Pacifica Radio.

The nation’s attitudes spurred some changes in broadcasting. In Boston, a group of mothers concerned about the increasingly low quality of children’s programs, including violence, sexism, racism, and the cupidity of advertisers, formed Action for Children’s Television (ACT), which during the next few decades proved to be a thorn in the side of the FCC, Congress, broadcasters, and sponsors in its attempts to improve the quality of children’s programs and reduce the avarice of commercials. ACT continued into the 1990s under the leadership of one of its original founders, Peggy Charren.

One of the emerging gurus of underground broadcasting was Lorenzo Milam, who, frequently without compensation, helped radio stations get on the air and develop programming that reflected the attitudes and dissent of large, voiceless segments of the populace.

Daytime programs for “housewives” began to change, with less emphasis on the stereotypes of clothes, cooking, and cosmetics and increased attention to the political, social, and economic concerns of the community, including its women members. The number of talk shows, discussing the furious controversies of the time, increased, with 18 such programs in syndication in 1968. One irony: Although changing attitudes toward sex and violence were key aspects of a changing America, networks censored the sex and violence aspects of films shown on TV.

After lengthy consideration, the FCC officially authorized pay TV. Pay TV’s potential supplanting of advertiser-supported “free TV” was still not given serious credence. One technical development strengthened TV’s ability to cover and disseminate the news: A handheld camera developed by CBS was used with great success at the national political conventions.

1969

The year 1969 witnessed both Woodstock and people on the moon. Woodstock was reported in the media as the epitome of the 1960s “hippie” or “flower child” generation; 500,000 people arrived at a farm in upstate New York to listen to contemporary music’s greatest stars and rebel against the establishment with the slogan and action “Make love, not war.”

On July 20, 1969, all the networks televised the first landing of human beings on the moon, from the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Neil Armstrong’s “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” entered the lexicon of famous quotes. People who didn’t have TV sets at the time of the event rented them so they could watch. While Vietnam was tearing the country apart, for a moment the moon landing brought it together.

Fig 6.15 Fred Rogers.

Courtesy Fred Rogers.

America watched a wide variety of television programs that year. The Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) was established and promptly produced Sesame Street, arguably the most popular and meaningful children’s TV program in history, still continuing in the United States and many foreign countries into the 21st century. Sesame Street was designed to provide preschool learning for disadvantaged children. Although the show has often been criticized for catering principally to children of the relatively affluent middle class in terms of its materials and values, it has nevertheless had a demonstrated impact on the early learning of language and numbers on the part of all children who watch and has inculcated understanding of different cultures, races, and beliefs.

With The Smothers Brothers dropped, another show, building on the comedy approach of The Smothers Brothers, made its debut. Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In introduced the burlesque, blackout-skit format to television and, while avoiding any highly charged controversial topics, nonetheless included bits of topical satire. Laugh-In was so popular that Presidential candidate Richard Nixon appeared as a guest in 1968, uttering the show’s “Sock it to me” tag line. Although some viewers thought his appearance ludicrous, enough people felt he proved he was a “regular guy” and he gained many votes. The show became the model for later successful programs of this genre, principally Saturday Night Live. Another comedy event, although for the participants perhaps not intended as such, was the highly hyped marriage of performer Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show.

A new network got under way, with CPB establishing PBS as an alternative to commercial broadcasting, using federal funds and a generous grant from the Ford Foundation.

The FCC was busy. A conservative Republican, Dean Burch, who had been manager of the 1964 Goldwater Presidential campaign, was appointed new FCC chair by the new President, Richard Nixon. The days of consumer-oriented, tough regulation might soon have ended, but the times prompted the FCC to continue its public interest standards for some years more. For the first time, the FCC voluntarily revoked the license of a TV station on the grounds of monopolistic cross-ownership: Boston’s WHDH, co-owned with the Herald-Traveler, a daily Boston newspaper. Earlier violations of rules by WHDH regarding ex parte undue influence on commissioners were also considered factors. After appeals by the stations failed—the company also owned local AM and FM radio stations—the revocation became final in 1972.

Revocation of the license of WLBT, Mississippi—finally ordered in 1969 by the Supreme Court, which chastised the FCC for not doing it sooner following the 1965 federal district court’s order—gave heart to a number of citizen organizations repre-senting multicultural groups traditionally denied equal access to or programming by the media. As a result, a number of citizen petitions to deny license renewals were filed at the FCC.

The commission affirmed a three-year trafficking rule, which required the purchaser of a station to hold it for at least three years before selling it. This requirement precluded buying a station for a quick turnover and profit without regard to programming in the public interest. The FCC authorized cable to carry commercial advertising on systems of more than 3,500 subscribers, provided that the income was used for original programming.

In 1969 the Supreme Court upheld the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine, and the privilege of replying to personal attacks, in its Red Lion decision (see years 1964 and 1967), stating, “It is the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount.”

One of the hallmarks of the new Nixon presidency was its continuing confrontations with the press and its attempts, on several occasions, to browbeat the media and influence news coverage of the administration. Such actions began early, with a televised address by Vice President Spiro Agnew attacking the media as biased. Although the media responded that the charges were themselves biased and untrue, Agnew’s continued attacks had a chilling effect on media news commentary. The press was objective and even relatively kind to Agnew when, a few years later, he was forced to resign to avoid the possibility of impeachment because of corruption.

Fig. 6.16 Television film crews and the law sometimes clashed during the heated 1960s.

Courtesy Irving Fang.