"David Eduardo" wrote in message
...

"Sid Schweiger" wrote in message
...

Then there was WHDH....RKO...these were financial shenanigans, if I
remember correctly. So not a one lost a license based on "fitness".

The WHDH case stemmed from an improper contact between a representative of
an applicant for a TV license in Boston and an FCC commissioner (chronicled
in Sterling Quinlan's book "The Hundred Million Dollar Lunch").

And that was in the general area that rendered RKO lacking the character
qualifications to hold a license. In other words, "fitness." Add the General
Tire dealings in Libya and Argentina, and you got the required divestiture
of the remaining RKO properties.

Okay, okay, so "fitness" relates to a number of qualities. I get you there. What I
was differentiating, though, was how a licensee could be "unfit" simply by airing
content not considered conventional or even valid....the other misfeasances, criminal
and otherwise, can certainly make a licensee unfit, but there are bigger issues with
those failures than simply giving a soapbox for goofs. Long ago (late 60s?
Certainly early 70s) the FCC made it abundantly clear (in the course of a station
sale and license transfer) that they would have no opinion on an expected format
change with the news owners (I think the station was classical, and its loss was
considered by its audience to be unacceptable).

Frankly, I still don't see what's so wrong with requiring a licensee to accomodate a
community's needs (after all, aside from that little condition, the station is free
to make as much money with the license as it can) but this clearly will never happen
here so long as the First Amendment is considered to encompass in toto the operation
of a broadcast outlet. It's free speech we're guaranteed, and until broadcasters
give out airtime for free, that's not free speech.
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