Word: fcc
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Petitions against more than 100 stations are pending with the FCC, the biggest number the overworked commission has ever had. The complaints vary, but they center mostly on allegations of inadequate programming for minorities or discrimination in hiring or promotions. The United Church of Christ, a pioneer in seeking better treatment of minorities by broadcasters, currently has seven complaints awaiting action by the FCC. They charge discriminatory policies by stations from Bakersfield, Calif., to Syracuse...
Victories. Despite the best efforts of the broadcasters-and often of the industry-dominated FCC-the challengers have won several major victories. After a petition by another commercial group, the license for Boston's WHDH-TV was taken away from the company that also owned the Herald Traveler newspaper. As a result, the Herald Traveler, which depended on TV revenues, will cease publication and sell its assets to the Hearst newspaper chain. In an out-of-court settlement, Mexican-American groups engineered some revisions in Time Inc.'s proposed sale of its five TV stations to McGraw-Hill...
...networks over the programming they carry. That campaign received an uncalculated boost last year when the Federal Communications Commission limited the networks to three hours of evening prime-time programming (leaving 550 local stations across the country to fill the other half-hour with programming of their own). The FCC also barred the networks from acquiring financial interests in outside programs being produced for their use. Last week, in a move that spread consternation and confusion, the Justice Department in effect put the industry on notice that it had not seen anything...
Strictly speaking, none of the networks produce more than 10% of their 21 hours per week of prime-time programming. That is, each network buys about 90% of its prime-time shows from independent producers. But the FCC ban on financial interests in these outside productions has never really been effective, and even if it had, the networks could still retain interests in productions that were created before the agency ruled. The suits sought to prohibit all "ownership interests," claiming that they applied in substantially more than half the prime-time shows broadcast by the networks. Oddly, the suits cited...
...joined CBS in denouncing the suits and vowing to oppose them vigorously in court. All the networks also maintained that the suits, by duplicating FCC rulings in some cases and going far beyond them in others, tended to undermine the authority of the very agency that is responsible for regulation of the industry...