Broadcast Regulation

The Radio Act of August 13, 1912, provided for the licensing of radio operators and transmitting stations for nearly 15 years until Congress passed the Radio Act of 1927. From 1921 to 1927, there were continual revisions and developments and these still serve as the basis for current broadcast regulation. This book chronicles that crucial six-year period using primary documents. The administrative structure of the Department of Commerce and the personnel involved in the regulation of broadcasting are detailed. The book is arranged chronologically in three sections: Broadcast Regulation and Policy from 1921 to 1925; Congestion and the Beginning of Regulatory Breakdown in 1924 and 1925; and Regulatory Breakdown and the Passage of the Act of 1927. There is also discussion of the Department of Commerce divisions and their involvement until they were absorbed by the Federal Communication Commission. A bibliography and an index conclude the work.

To guide the industry in the 21st century, counsel for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and leading attorneys have prepared the only up-to-date, comprehensive broadcast regulatory publication: NAB’s Legal Guide to Broadcast Law and Regulation. Known for years as the "voice" for broadcast law, this publication addresses the full range of FCC regulatory issues facing radio and television broadcasters, as well as intellectual property, First Amendment, cable and satellite, and increasingly important online issues. It gives practicing attorneys, in-house counsel, broadcasters and other communications industry professionals practical "how to" advice on topics ranging literally from "a" (advertising) to "z" (zoning). Now in its 6th edition, NAB’s Legal Guide to Broadcast Law and Regulation is available to keep you current on changes in the law, significant court decisions, FCC rules, agency policies and applied solutions. The National Association of Broadcasters is a nonprofit trade association that advocates on behalf of local radio and television stations and broadcast networks before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and other federal agencies, and the courts.

From AM radio to color television, broadcasting raised enormous practical and policy problems in the United States, especially in relation to the federal government's role in licensing and regulation. How did technological change, corporate interest, and political pressures bring about the world that station owners work within today (and that tuned-in consumers make profitable)? In Radio and Television Regulation, Hugh R. Slotten examines the choices that confronted federal agencies—first the Department of Commerce, then the Federal Radio Commission in 1927, and seven years later the Federal Communications Commission—and shows the impact of their decisions on developing technologies. Slotten analyzes the policy debates that emerged when the public implications of AM and FM radio and black-and-white and color television first became apparent. His discussion of the early years of radio examines powerful personalities—including navy secretary Josephus Daniels and commerce secretary Herbert Hoover—who maneuvered for government control of "the wireless." He then considers fierce competition among companies such as Westinghouse, GE, and RCA, which quickly grasped the commercial promise of radio and later of television and struggled for technological edge and market advantage. Analyzing the complex interplay of the factors forming public policy for radio and television broadcasting, and taking into account the ideological traditions that framed these controversies, Slotten sheds light on the rise of the regulatory state. In an epilogue he discusses his findings in terms of contemporary debates over high-resolution TV.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is but one party in the development of broadcast regulations--it feels pressure from not only the industry and Congress but also the White House, citizen groups and the courts. Four major commission actions are analyzed in terms of those pressures. These actions are: the shift of FM from the 44 mhz range to the 98 mhz range in 1945; the development of an all-channel receiver bill of 1962 as a means of aiding UHF television; the abortive effort in 1963 to adopt the National Association of Broadcasters commercial limits as commission rules; and the establishment in 1970 of policy to aid license-renewal applicants who are faced with challenges by competing applicants--a policy subsequently overturned by the courts.

"An exemplary study of how media regulation works (and, by implication, how it could work better) set within a wider discussion of democratic theory and political values. It will be of interest not only to students and scholars but to people around the world grappling with the same problem: the need to regulate markets, and the difficulty of doing this well." - James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London In Media Regulation, two leading scholars of the media examine the challenges of regulation in the global mediated sphere. This book explores the way that regulation affects the relations between government, the media and communications market, civil society, citizens and consumers. Drawing on theories of governance and the public sphere, the book critically analyzes issues at the heart of today′s media, from the saturation of advertising to burdens on individuals to control their own media literacy. Peter Lunt and Sonia Livingstone incisively lay bare shifts in governance and the new role of the public sphere which implicate self-regulation, the public interest, the role of civil society and the changing risks and opportunities for citizens and consumers. It is essential reading to understand the forces that are reshaping the media landscape.

The broadcasting industry’s trade association, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), sought to sanitize television content via its self-regulatory document, the Television Code. The Code covered everything from the stories, images, and sounds of TV programs (no profanity, illicit sex and drinking, negative portrayals of family life and law enforcement officials, or irreverence for God and religion) to the allowable number of commercial minutes per hour of programming. It mandated that broadcasters make time for religious programming and discouraged them from charging for it. And it called for tasteful and accurate coverage of news, public events, and controversial issues. Using archival documents from the Federal Communications Commission, NBC, the NAB, and a television reformer, Senator William Benton, this book explores the run-up to the adoption of the 1952 Television Code from the perspectives of the government, TV viewers, local broadcasters, national networks, and the industry’s trade association. Deborah L. Jaramillo analyzes the competing motives and agendas of each of these groups as she builds a convincing case that the NAB actually developed the Television Code to protect commercial television from reformers who wanted more educational programming, as well as from advocates of subscription television, an alternative distribution model to the commercial system. By agreeing to self-censor content that viewers, local stations, and politicians found objectionable, Jaramillo concludes, the NAB helped to ensure that commercial broadcast television would remain the dominant model for decades to come.

The authors argue that TV regulation should be based on the same principles used for print media, for which control of editorial content lies in private hands rather than the government.

New technology is revolutionizing broadcasting markets. As the cost of bandwidth processing and delivery fall, information-intensive services that once bore little economic relationship to each other are now increasingly related as substitutes or complements. Television, newspapers, telecoms and the internet compete ever more fiercely for audience attention. At the same time, digital encoding makes it possible to charge prices for content that had previously been broadcast for free. This is creating new markets where none existed before. How should public policy respond? Will competition lead to better services, higher quality and more consumer choice - or to a proliferation of low-quality channels? Will it lead to dominance of the market by a few powerful media conglomerates? Using the insights of modern microeconomics, this book provides a state-of-the-art analysis of these and other issues by investigating the power of regulation to shape and control broadcasting markets.

A state-of-the-art account of what we know and do not know about the effects of digital technology on democracy.

Electronic Media Law and Regulation is a case-based law text that provides students with direct access to case law as well as the context in which to understand its meaning and impact. The text overviews the major legal and regulatory issues facing broadcasting, cable, and developing media in today's industry. Presenting information from major cases, rules, regulations, and legal documents in a concise and readable form, this book helps current and prospective media professsionals understand the complex realm of law and regulation. Students will learn how to avoid common legal pitfalls and anticipate situations that may have potential legal consequences. This sixth edition provides annotated cases with margin notes, and new chapters address such timely issues as media ownership, freedom of information, entertainment rights, and cyber law.