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Washington
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Regulatory Legislation Weighed By Number of Federal Agencies
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Sparks being generatetl Ij\ the \aiious goveinmeni groups probing broadcasting continue to represent wiiat many in the industry consider to be a hazard to touch off a barrage of legislation. A number of agencies are reported to be formulating proposed legislation aimed at regulating the broadcasting industry. One of these agencies, tlie Federal Communications Commission, recently asked Congress to make it a crime to offer or accept payola and to participate in deceptive broadcasting practices.
Taking the viewpoint that "the control of public media by the government would spell the end of individuai freedom," Harold E. Fellows, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, has been urging public support to halt any government control of broadcast programs.
Broadcasters Described as Best Qualified to Regulate Industry
In an address delivered before the Electric Institute Inc., in Boston, Mr. Fellows said that the answer to the broadcasting industry's problems is "self-regulation." We feel that 5,000 broadcasters resident in the communities of their interest throughout the nation are better qualified to determine what programming is to go on the air to satisfy the needs and wants of their audiences than a government body of seven men — or any other body located in Washington, or any other central place.
"The central issue," Mr. Fellows continued, "is not alone whether or not the broadcaster himself shall be free to offer the programs which he thinks are most responsive to the wants and needs of his audience, but to the very basic and fundamental rights of the people themselves. If tliis concept is thoroughly understood by the people of this country, I am sure that unanimously they would rise in resistance against any kind of artificial control or direction of material broadcast over our nation's stations."
Broadcasting in Orbit Around Three Different "Worlds"
Broadcasting's "three worlds" were discussed by Charles H. Tower, manager of the NAB department of broadcast personnel and economics, in a talk before tlie Georgia Radio and Television Institute. Stating that in broadcasting there are the educational world, the ^vorld of commercial broadcasting and the regulatory, or Washington world, Mr. To^ver expanded on the final item.
"With almost monsoon-like regularity," he said, "regulatory storms lash the shores of broadcasting. This time the storm has come from such unhappy occurrences as payola and allegedly deceptive advertising. The underlying issue is an ancient one long discussed but never settled — the degree to which the government, through the FCC, should control the level and diversity of programming Articulate minorities with specialized tastes make much of the responsibility of the broadcaster, but with little heed to the essential implications of the First .Amendment."
(Cont'd on p. 18)
U. S. RADIO
March 1960
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