Blue Book (FCC)

Last updated

Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees was a report published in 1946 by the (U.S.) Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which sought to require radio broadcasters in the United States to abide by a number of public service requirements. [1] The report was informally and commonly referred to as the FCC Blue Book because of the report's blue cover.

Contents

The Blue Book bound the privilege of holding a lucrative and scarce radio broadcast license to certain public service requirements. The Blue Book specified the requirements and tied failure to meet these obligations to hearings and to the potential revocation of a broadcast license. Such a standard was never before proposed in the annals of the FCC, and hasn't been proposed since. [2]

The Blue Book—and the commissioners and staff at the FCC who wrote, published, and defended it—faced a considerable backlash from commercial broadcasters. [3] The backlash was tied closely to anti-Communist fervor in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. Opponents, in particular the National Association of Broadcasters and the radio industry's leading trade magazine, Broadcasting , decried the Blue Book as Communist-inspired, pro-censorship, and anathema to freedom. Broadcasting’s editorials attacked it for 15 consecutive weeks and were later compiled by NBC president Niles Trammel in a red-covered booklet called “The Red Book Looks at the Blue Book.” [4]

The backlash was ultimately successful. Those staff most closely involved with the Blue Book were driven out of the FCC; none of the Blue Book's policy prescriptions were ever implemented, and no U.S. radio broadcaster ever lost its broadcast license as a result of violating the Blue Book's prescriptions.

Context

Disfavor ran rampant against the state of radio in the 1930s and 1940s. Chief among the complaints: the vulgarity of radio commercials and overcommercialization, the erosion of so-called "sustaining (non-commercial) programs", the influence of advertisers to shape news coverage, and the lax performance of broadcasters to abide by their original obligations towards public service. [5] Emblematic of this sentiment was the highly popular novel The Hucksters (1946), which depicted greedy radio station owners. A later film adaptation of The Hucksters (1947) starred Clark Gable.

This sentiment dovetailed with a progressive current at the FCC, whose chair James Lawrence Fly spearheaded a number of initiatives—among them the 1941 Report on Chain Broadcasting [6] that resulted in the breakup of the NBC radio network and the formation of the ABC radio network. The Supreme Court in its 1943 decision NBC, Inc. v. United States affirmed that FCC had the authority to establish programming objectives.

One subsequent initiative was a formalization of the rules of the social contract between radio broadcasters and the public; that crystallized as the Blue Book, which codified the thinking of the majority of FCC commissioners at the time. The Blue Book was unanimously approved by the commission and published on March 7, 1946.

Content of the Blue Book

The Blue Book comprised five parts and was 59 pages long. The five parts are roughly summarized as follows:

1. Local broadcasting is important, and many radio stations violated their commitments for localism.

2. The FCC has the jurisdiction to evaluate public service performance.

3. A number of public service issues are discussed, including public interest considerations regarding license assignment, and what programming suffices to serve the public interest, defining the functions thereof.

4. Statistics show increasing profitability on the part of radio broadcasters, but little improvement of programming. This contradicted the claim that broadcasters couldn't afford public interest programs.

5. Four requirements for broadcast licensees are outlined: promote live, local shows; devote programming to discussing public issues; sustain "unsponsorable" programs; and eliminate "excess advertising".

At the time of the report, there were no Black owners of radio stations and little programming that addressed the Black community. Further, some minority listeners were complaining to the FCC that radio programs frequently contained ethnic stereotypes and caricatures. [7] That is why a segment of the Blue Book asserted that "the American system of broadcasting must serve significant minorities among our population, and the less dominant needs and tastes which most listeners have from time to time." [8]

WBAL Trial

In the fall of 1946, the William Hearst owned Baltimore radio station WBAL was challenged by the Public Service Radio Corporation (PSRC). [9] Formed by well-known radio newsmen, Robert Allen and Drew Pearson, the PSRC claimed WBAL shouldn't have its broadcasting license renewed due to failure in adhering to the Blue Book's regulations in not providing public service programming to the local community and conglomerating a newspaper, radio station, and television station in one city market. [9] The FCC hearings were held between November 1947 and February 1948, to reach a decision, but ultimately stalled allowing WBAL to hold a temporary license. [10] In 1951, the commissioners voted and determined in a three to two vote with two abstains that the WBAL demonstrated competence despite imperfections. [10]

Failure

The FCC never obtained congressional legislation or judicial approval to support the Blue Book's progressive regulations. [11] The Congress was becoming increasingly conservative allowing for increased sympathy for broadcasters and hostility towards radio reformists. [12] Senate Interstate Commerce Committee chairman, Republican senator Wallace White and Republican house representative Charles Wolverton drafted the White-Wolverton Bill to impose clear regulatory guidelines for the FCC and increased constraints on broadcasters. [12] Provisions included granting the FCC authority in determining any station's public service performance, but prevented discriminatory withholding of licenses. [12] The bill also included pro-monopoly legislation prohibiting the FCC from preventing newspapers from owning radio stations. [12] Both broadcasters and reformists were dissatisfied, especially broadcasters as the industry benefited from keeping the FCC's power vague so interventions could be contested automatically. [13] In June 1948, neither of the companion bills received a vote and were discarded.

By the end of 1947, hearings on broadcasters that failed Blue Book standards were dropped and chairman Charles Denny backtracked on the Blue Book's principles. [14]

Impact

Other similar FCC's policies were challenged including the Mayflower Doctrine which prohibited political editorializing, expressing partisan opinion rather than news. [15] On June 2, 1949, the rule was revoked and replaced with the Fairness Doctrine allowing radio stations to choose their own programming, but requiring a reasonable amount of air time to be devoted to public service programming of interest to the community and be designed to hear opposing views on public issues. [16]

In February 1944, the University of Chicago announced the formation of the Hutchins Commission to inquire on the function and responsibilities of the American press. [17] Formed and chaired by University of Chicago president, Robert Hutchins and composed of twelve commissioners that would interview individuals throughout the news industry including advertisers, editors, readers, and reporters. [17] The commission interviewed FCC commissioner and head of the Blue Book study, Clifford Durr and FCC chairman, Lawrence Fly and studied the Blue Book closely to draw its conclusions. [18] In March 1947, the commission released its report and like the Blue Book outlined the need for the press to service programming for the community to clarify societal goals and values. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadcasting</span> Distribution of audio or audiovisual content to dispersed audiences

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum, in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began with AM radio, which came into popular use around 1920 with the spread of vacuum tube radio transmitters and receivers. Before this, most implementations of electronic communication were one-to-one, with the message intended for a single recipient. The term broadcasting evolved from its use as the agricultural method of sowing seeds in a field by casting them broadly about. It was later adopted for describing the widespread distribution of information by printed materials or by telegraph. Examples applying it to "one-to-many" radio transmissions of an individual station to multiple listeners appeared as early as 1898.

Pacifica Foundation is an American non-profit organization that owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/liberal political orientation. Its national headquarters adjoins station KPFK in Los Angeles, California.

The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints. In 1987, the FCC abolished the fairness doctrine, prompting some to urge its reintroduction through either Commission policy or congressional legislation. However, later the FCC removed the rule that implemented the policy from the Federal Register in August 2011.

Media democracy is a democratic approach to media studies that advocates for the reform of mass media to strengthen public service broadcasting and develop participation in alternative media and citizen journalism in order to create a mass media system that informs and empowers all members of society and enhances democratic values.

Radio broadcasting has been used in the United States since the early 1920s to distribute news and entertainment to a national audience. In 1923, 1 percent of U.S. households owned at least one radio receiver, while a majority did by 1931 and 75 percent did by 1937. It was the first electronic "mass medium" technology, and its introduction, along with the subsequent development of sound films, ended the print monopoly of mass media. During the Golden Age of Radio it had a major cultural and financial impact on the country. However, the rise of television broadcasting in the 1950s relegated radio to a secondary status, as much of its programming and audience shifted to the new "sight joined with sound" service.

A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary from band to band.

WIYY is a commercial radio station in Baltimore, Maryland. It is owned by Hearst Communications and broadcasts a mainstream rock radio format. WIYY shares studios and offices with sister stations WBAL and WBAL-TV on Television Hill in the Woodberry section of Baltimore. WIYY's transmitter utilizes WBAL-TV's 'candlestick' antenna on the shared Television Hill candelabra tower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WBAL (AM)</span> Radio station in Baltimore, Maryland

WBAL is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Baltimore, Maryland. It is owned by the broadcasting division of Hearst Communications and broadcasts a news/talk radio format. The station shares its studios and offices with sister stations WBAL-TV and WIYY on Television Hill in Baltimore's Woodberry neighborhood. WBAL and WIYY are the only two radio stations owned by Hearst, which is primarily a publishing and television company.

WIPL is a television station licensed to Lewiston, Maine, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Portland area. The station is owned by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, and maintains transmitter facilities in West Baldwin, Maine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clifford Durr</span> American lawyer

Clifford Judkins Durr was an Alabama lawyer who played an important role in defending activists and others accused of disloyalty during the New Deal and McCarthy eras. He also was the lawyer who represented Rosa Parks in her challenge to the constitutionality of the ordinance, due to the infamous segregation of passengers on buses in Montgomery. This is what launched the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott.

WOPG is an AM radio station licensed to Albany, New York and serving the Capital District. It is owned by Pax et Bonum, Inc. and has a Christian radio format aimed at Roman Catholic listeners, with much of its programming coming from the EWTN Radio network. WOPG simulcasts with WOPG-FM at 89.9 FM in Esperance, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WCBM</span> Radio station in Baltimore, Maryland

WCBM is a commercial AM radio station in Baltimore, Maryland. It is owned by WCBM Maryland, Inc., and broadcasts a talk radio format, calling itself "Talk Radio 680 WCBM." The radio studios and offices are on York Road in Lutherville, off the Baltimore Beltway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Press (organization)</span>

Free Press is a United States advocacy group that is part of the media reform or media democracy movement. Their mission includes, "saving Net Neutrality, achieving affordable internet access for all, uplifting the voices of people of color in the media, challenging old and new media gatekeepers to serve the public interest, ending unwarranted surveillance, defending press freedom and reimagining local journalism." The group is a major supporter of net neutrality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Lawrence Fly</span> American lawyer

James Lawrence "Larry" Fly was an American lawyer, famous as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and, later, director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He helped inaugurate standards for commercial television broadcasting, and vigorously opposed wiretapping throughout his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KKRB</span> Radio station in Klamath Falls, Oregon

KKRB is a radio station licensed to serve Klamath Falls, Oregon, United States. The station, launched in 1983, is owned by Wynne Broadcasting and the broadcast license is held by Wynne Enterprises LLC.

Media cross-ownership is the common ownership of multiple media sources by a single person or corporate entity. Media sources include radio, broadcast television, specialty and pay television, cable, satellite, Internet Protocol television (IPTV), newspapers, magazines and periodicals, music, film, book publishing, video games, search engines, social media, internet service providers, and wired and wireless telecommunications.

Victor Pickard, an American media studies scholar, is a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. He works on the intersections of U.S. and global media activism and politics; the history and political economy of media institutions; and the normative foundations of media policy.

The Mayflower doctrine was a mandate implemented by the U.S. Government Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that required American radio broadcasters to "provide full and equal opportunity for the presentation to the public all sides of public issues". The doctrine was the predecessor of the fairness doctrine that was introduced by the FCC in 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Siepmann</span>

Charles Siepmann (1899–1985) was a British-born media scholar and policy advocate who spent much of his career in the United States where he was a professor at New York University's graduate communication program for over two decades. Siepmann was instrumental in drafting the FCC document "Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees", which became known as the "Blue Book" for its distinctive colour. Though he was an academic, Siepmann remained an advocate for the democratic potentials of radio and television and was "overtly political and engaged with media policy interventions" during his career. His advocacy was met with a "storm of protest in the [broadcast] industry" and he was frequently red-baited for his views.

Broadcasting reform in the United States has a long history beginning in the 1930s. During the 1940s discontent with commercial media, especially radio, was widespread in the United States with the chief complaints centering on media monopolies, advertising and lack of local accountability. Advanced by the contemporary civil rights and antiwar movements, broadcasting reform efforts of the 1960s were undertaken by various organizations at the local and national level including the American Council for Better Broadcasts (ACBB), Action for Children's Television (ACT), Citizens Communication Center (CCC), National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting (NCBB) and the Office of Communications of the United Church of Christ (UCC).

References

  1. ↑ FCC (Federal Communications Commission) (1946). Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees [The Blue Book], 7 March. Washington, DC: FCC.
  2. ↑ Victor Pickard, “The Battle over the FCC Blue Book: Determining the Role of Broadcast Media in a Democratic Society, 1945-1948”, in Media, Culture and Society 33, no. 2 (2011): 172.
  3. ↑ Pickard, “The Battle over the FCC Blue Book”, 182–5.
  4. ↑ The Red Book Looks at the Blue Book. NBC Publications, 1946.
  5. ↑ Pickard, “The Battle over the FCC Blue Book”, 178.
  6. ↑ Federal Communications Commission: Report on Chain Broadcasting (May 1941).
  7. ↑ Victor Pickard. "The Battle Over the FCC Blue Book: Determining the Role of Broadcast Media in a Democratic Society, 1945–8." Media, Culture, and Society, 33 (2), 2011, pp. 3-4.
  8. ↑ Blue Book quoted in David Honig, "How the FCC Suppressed Minority Broadcast Ownership," Southern Journal of Policy and Justice, XII (2018), p. 52.
  9. 1 2 Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 84.
  10. 1 2 Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 85.
  11. ↑ Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 91.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 92.
  13. ↑ Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 93.
  14. ↑ Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 94.
  15. ↑ Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 98.
  16. ↑ Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 116.
  17. 1 2 Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 155.
  18. ↑ Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 95.
  19. ↑ Pickard, Victor (2015). America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 173.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.