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- History of Broadcasting
- History of Broadcasting: Television, 1965-1975
- Social Changes
- national civil rights legislation passed
- urban race riots
- anti-Vietnam War protests
- Tet Offensive changed public opinion about the Vietnam War
- police violence at Democratic National Convention in Chicago
- “The Whole World is Watching”
- Watergate break-in at Democratic National Convention headquarters
- President Richard Nixon was involved in the cover-up of the investigation
- Nixon resignation, 1974
- Counterculture movement
- beats and hippies
- rebel poetry and folk music
- “tune in, turn on, and drop out”
- second wave feminism
- Betty Friedan’s Feminist Mystique, 1963
- National Organization for Women, 1966
- gay liberation
- American Indian Movement
- Radio
- FM radio proliferated in the 1960s
- AM radio was mainstream
- top–40 music
- standardized formats
- FM radio was underground
- FM transmission was superior to AM
- less prone to interferences
- stereo sound
- Freeform Radio
- shift from 45 record to LP album
- nonprofit and college radio stations
- WBAI New York
- KSAN Berkeley
- WORT Madison
- commercial stations
- KMPX San Francisco
- WOR New York
- genre mixing
- rock
- jazz
- blues
- classical
- Commercial FM Radio
- emerged in the early 1970s
- standardized playlists
- new formats
- album-oriented rock
- “beautiful music”
- soul
- country-western
- progressive jazz
- classical
- Types of TV Stations
- network O&O station
- owned by networks
- located on VHF band
- network affiliate station
- independently owned
- carries network programming
- mostly located on VHF band
- independent station
- independently owned
- programming
- off-network syndication
- first-run syndication
- local origination
- mostly located on UHF because they were newcomers
- public television station
- non-profit stations
- big-market stations produce
- share programming on Public Broadcasting System
- Network TV Stations
- three networks and their affiliates
- NBC: 31.8%
- CBS: 28.5%
- ABC: 23.6%
- station affiliated with a network
- percentage of network affiliated stations dropped
- new stations on UHF band
- viability of independent stations
- increase of public TV stations
- Types of programming
- first-run network
- off-network syndication
- first-run syndication
- local origination
- Financial Interests
- networks owned all or held an interest in 91% of their prime-time programs
- received share of advertising revenues from network broadcast
- received residual payments from syndication market
- Hollywood TV
- demand for filmed series
- demand for made-for-TV movies
- independent production companies
- some worked with only one network
- some sold programs to all three networks
- Desilu
- largest program suppliers of the 1960s
- The Untouchables
- Our Miss Brooks
- The Lucy Show
- The Danny Thomas Show
- Talent Agents
- central to the production process
- packaging talent
- sold to an independent producer
- work out a distribution deal with a major studio
- sell program to a major network
- Struggle of Television Producers
- TV broadcasting was lucrative market
- many competitors entered the field
- limited buyers
- three broadcast networks
- local syndication markets
- surplus of programs
- producers called for reforms to reduce risk
- New Outlets
- satellite transmissions
- competition from new cable TV channels
- retransmission of UHF channels
- public TV stations demanded more programming
- Cable
- Community Antenna TV
- established 1945
- distant signal importation
- local cable TV operator offered a channel
- 3,500 local cable companies, by 1975
- offering 10 or more channels
- consolidation
- buying local cable companies
- growing multiple systems operators (MSO)
- Supreme Court ruled that FCC had authority over cable TV, 1968
- FCC issued new rules for cable TV, 1972
- cable could expand to top 100 TV markets
- local companies had to offer at least one public/educational/government (PEG) access channel
- cable companies “must carry” all “significantly viewed” local stations for retransmission
- new alternative to network TV
- more diversity and innovation
- Pay TV over cable
- market for movie channels
- expanded sports broadcasting
- Independent Stations
- emerged in the 1960s and 1970s
- opening of the UHF band
- empowered by must-carry rules for cable TV distributors
- viewership levels and program ratings grew
- programming offerings expanded
- off-network syndicated programming
- movies
- first-run syndicated programs
- Public Television Stations
- Ford Foundation funding of National Educational Television (NET)
- belief that the US needed its own BBC-like network
- criticism of commercial broadcasting, post–Quiz Show scandal
- Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” intiatives
- Public Broadcasting Service
- Congress passed Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
- establishment of Corporation for Public Broadcasting
- program sharing service
- WGBH Boston
- WNET New York
- KCET Los Angeles
- WTTW Chicago
- KQED San Francisco
- Children’s Television Workshop
- founded 1968
- financed by Ford and Carnegie Foundations and US Department of Education
- produced Sesame Street
- uses language of commercial television
- promote educational message
- accelerate educational development for preschool-aged children
- Financial Interest Rule
- designed to keep networks from owning or controlling programming
- limited network ownership of primetime programs
- 15 hours of non-news programming in primetime
- production companies could stay independent
- Syndication Rule
- networks were permitted to buy a limited first-run
- after network run, producer regains rights to broadcast program
- producer could sell program into syndication
- syndication sales allowed producer to break even or even profit from program production
- Public Time Access Rule
- designed to allow local control of primetime
- forced stations in top–50 markets to stop taking network feed
- first hour of primetime (“access hour”)
- usually 7:00 - 8:00 PM EST
- Monday – Saturday
- opened up the first hour of prime time for scheduling of syndicated or locally produced programming
- FCC Third Order and Report on Cable Television, 1972
- advocated cable as an alternative to broadcasting
- policy reformers envisioned cable TV as a new kind of television
- progressive social action groups lobbied to transform television as a community-oriented, locally-regulated medium
- cable industry adopted reformist rhetoric to gain regulatory favor
- introduction of satellite transmission would indeed provide a viable alternative to broadcast network TV
- Fairness Doctrine
- broadcasters had to present, in balanced terms, a diverse set of views
- Mayflower decision (1941): “the broadcaster cannot be an advocate.”
- 1960s, FCC adopted policy of ascertainment, broadcasters were to
- cover controversial issues
- important to the local community
- seek out well-rounded alternative viewpoints
- confirmed by Red Lion (1969) decision
- broadcast spectrum scarcity argument
- the FCC could curtail broadcaster’s First Amendment rights
- Age of Relevance
- conception of network TV audience diversified
- generational divide between…
- baby boomers, born after World War II
- parents, came of age during World War II
- networks sought to maintain its integrated oligopoly
- emerging youth audience demanded realism
- balance “transgression with tradition”
- Youth Audience
- large in numbers
- high levels of disposable income
- rebellious against parent’s generation
- less conservative about race and sex
- Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
- CBS, 1967–1969
- variety program akin to radio and early TV programs
- folk singer brothers seemingly plucked from vaudeville
- Dick, the straight man
- Tom, the airhead
- politically subversive humor
- conflicts with CBS network over censorhip
- cancelled due to political content
- Dragnet
- NBC, 1967–70
- created by Jack Webb
- revival of police drama set in Los Angeles
- radio: 1949–1957
- TV: 1951–1959
- double meaning
- entertain youth audience
- reassure parents of social order
- Mary Tyler Moore
- CBS, 1970–1977
- created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns
- revival of early 1950s career-woman comedies
- workplace comedy
- introduction to the emerging feminist movement (“women’s lib”)
- All in the Family
- CBS, 1971–1983
- remake of Till Death Do Us Part
- developed by Norman Lear
- icon of relevance in television
- frank language
- depictions of racism and prejudice
- generational and gender conflicts between family members
- The Jeffersons
- CBS, 1975–1985
- developed by Norman Lear
- spin-off from All in the Family
- African American couple “moved on up”
- first series with a primarily African-American cast
- interracial couple lived next door
- began as a socially relevant sitcom but abandoned those issues in later seasons
This outline is based on material from Michele Hilmes, Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States. 4th ed. Boston: Cengage, 2014.