"CW" wrote in message
...
The real reason for the original law (they gave a few spurious
reasons, of course) was a desire on the part of large media
corporations to protect their big investments in mediumwave networks
from competition from lower-expense shortwave upstarts, who could
easily have covered the nation with a couple of 50,000-Watt
transmitters. Can't have that!
You know that is BS. That law is older than both of us. It was put in
place
long before any "large media"
NBC was formed in 1926, which certainly predates the FCC and probably
predates the FRC. When was this presumed law enacted? If it's actually a
FCC regulation, when did the FCC enact it?
. The sole purpose was to PREVENT large media
from controlling the airwaves. It was thought that it would be far more
beneficial to have small, reasonably local stations that would reflect the
view of local communities and provide a voice for differing points of
view.
There was only a small fraction of the stations on the air before WW2 as
there are now. In the 30s and 40s, radio was centered in the big cities.
Nearly all stations had to run network programming in order to survive.
There was very little local radio programming before WW2. Local
programming, such as it was, developed in the 50s, after the networks turned
their interest to television.
It is the same reason that you need federal approval to buy a media
outlet
such as radio stations, TV stations and newspapers. It was thought, and
they
were correct, that diversity of views was a good thing and having a few
giant companies controlling the media would be counterproductive.
Giant companies such as NBC, CBS and Mutual controlled radio. Well, they
did split NBC.
You are
right in that the FCC seems to be more and more attracted to the money but
that is a relatively recent thing, counter to the old rules under
discussion.
Then why did the network backed stations get the best frequencies, the clear
channels and the highest power limits?
Why were the school affiliated stations ghettoized?
Frank Dresser
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