Broadcasting

Reagan FCC Abolishes Fairness Doctrine in 4-0 Vote, Eliminating Balanced Coverage Requirements for Broadcasters

1987-08-04 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 10/10

FCC Chairman Dennis R. Patrick’s Commission votes 4-0 to abolish the Fairness Doctrine in the Syracuse Peace Council decision, eliminating the 38-year requirement that broadcast licensees using publicly-owned airwaves must provide balanced coverage of controversial issues and present opposing …

Dennis R. Patrick Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Ronald Reagan Mark S. Fowler Mimi Weyforth Dawson +3 more media-regulation fairness-doctrine deregulation fcc regulatory-capture +3 more

FCC Adopts Seven-Station Rule Limiting Broadcast Ownership to Prevent Media Monopoly and Ensure Viewpoint Diversity

1953-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

The Federal Communications Commission formally adopts the “seven-station rule” (Report and Order in Docket No. 8967, 18 F.C.C. 288) establishing that no single entity may own more than seven AM radio stations, seven FM radio stations, and seven television stations nationwide, with the …

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) media-regulation ownership-limits seven-station-rule fcc antitrust +2 more

Red Channels Published, Launching Broadcasting Blacklist and Corporate "Smear and Clear" Racket

1950-06-22 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

American Business Consultants Inc. publishes Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television on June 22, 1950, as an anti-Communist pamphlet-style book naming 151 actors, writers, musicians, broadcast journalists, and others in the context of purported Communist manipulation …

American Business Consultants John G. Keenan Kenneth M. Bierly Theodore C. Kirkpatrick Vincent Hartnett +5 more hollywood-blacklist mccarthyism red-scare corporate-complicity broadcasting +1 more

FCC Establishes Fairness Doctrine Requiring Broadcasters to Present Balanced Coverage of Controversial Issues

1949-06-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

The Federal Communications Commission adopts the Fairness Doctrine through its “Report on Editorializing by Broadcast Licensees,” establishing a formal regulatory requirement that broadcast license holders must (1) provide adequate coverage of controversial issues of public importance …

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) U.S. Congress media-regulation fairness-doctrine fcc public-interest-standard broadcasting +1 more

Communications Act of 1934 Creates FCC and Consolidates Federal Media Regulation Under Public Interest Standard

1934-06-19 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Communications Act of 1934 (Chapter 5 of Title 47 U.S. Code), replacing the Federal Radio Commission with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and consolidating federal regulation of all interstate and foreign communications including radio, …

Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S. Congress Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Federal Radio Commission media-regulation fcc public-interest-standard new-deal communications-policy +1 more

CBS Founded as Radio Broadcasting Oligopoly Takes Shape

1927-09-18 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 7/10

The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System (later CBS) is founded in New York, initially as a network of 16 radio stations, just months after the Radio Act of 1927 establishes federal licensing. William Paley’s family purchases controlling interest in 1928 for $400,000, and Paley transforms …

William Paley Columbia Phonograph Company Arthur Judson Paramount Pictures media-consolidation institutional-capture broadcasting corporate-consolidation

Radio Act of 1927 Establishes Public Ownership of Airwaves and "Public Interest" Broadcasting Standard

1927-02-23 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

President Calvin Coolidge signs the Radio Act of 1927 (Public Law 632, 69th Congress), establishing the foundational principle that radio spectrum frequencies are publicly owned natural resources held in trust by the federal government for the American people. The legislation creates the Federal …

Calvin Coolidge Clarence Dill Wallace H. White Jr. Federal Radio Commission U.S. Congress media-regulation public-airwaves fcc broadcasting public-interest-standard +1 more