Abstract

The FCC Listens In

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the U.S. has taken notice of the plight of the radio listener and issued a mercilessly critical report on programming, severely entitled "Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees." Actually the report is a highly circumspect document, and its issuance should have caused no surprise since former Chairman Paul A. Porter had announced its preparation a year ago in a speech. Public service has been a prerequisite for station licenses since crystal-set days, but until the issuance of this report no one had tried to define the phrase. The report asserts that in the future, in issuing and renewing the licenses of broadcast stations, the commission proposes to give particular consideration to four service factors relevant to public interest.