Educational Broadcasting Returns

EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING RETURNS

A Neglected Idea

Since the establishment of nationwide commercial broadcasting in the 1920s, media critics had argued that the full potential of mass-communications technology such as radio was not being realized. They found the absence of educational broadcasting especially troubling. Commercial radio, driven by advertising dollars, focused on entertainment and rarely presented the public with in depth news analysis, fine arts, or complex informational programming. Critics argued that radio could become a formidable tool for in depth information and education and pressured the networks and the government to require such broadcasting. They were ineffective before World War II, but during the war the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which supervised American broadcasting, began a sweeping reconsideration of broadcasting's public responsibility. Because the new technologies of frequency modulation (FM) radio and television promised to open new broadcasting horizons, the FCC revised established restrictions. For the first time, they set aside certain bandwidths of the electromagnetic spectrum for educational broadcasting. Educational television and educational radio were born.

A Shaky Start

Ardently opposed by commercial interests, educational broadcasting got off to a difficult start. The FCC, responding to commercial pressure, rarely granted educational broadcasters AM radio licenses. FM licenses were readily granted, because most American radios only received AM signals, and thus the FM market was unattractive to the networks and advertisers. Similar economic considerations also governed the development of educational television. Commercial broadcasters vehemently opposed FCC licenses for educational broadcasting on the commercially lucrative very-high-frequency (VHF) wavelengths. Most American television receivers carried the VHF signal, and commercial broadcasters wanted the FCC to reserve VHF channels for their transmissions. Educational programming was thus shunted to the ultrahigh frequency (UHF) wavelengths, effectively blocking its development.

Precedent for the Future

Despite commercial opposition, educational broadcasting did begin in the 1940s. Small-scale educational programming on FM radio was such a success that by 1948 the FCC revised its broadcast rules and permitted educational programming by radio stations limited to 10 watts of power—enough for a two to five-mile transmission radius. The FCC normally limited licenses to stations with 250 watts of power or more, but the 10-watt stations, usually located on college campuses, effectively met the needs of the local community and provided on-site training for broadcasting students. By 1952 there were ninety-two educational FM stations operating. Similarly, educational television was located on college campuses, servicing local communities and providing valuable experience for broadcasting students. By 1948 five universities in the United States operated their own television stations. Given the enormous expenses involved in television production, however, educational television would not become a significant force in broadcasting until the federal government began to underwrite the costs of educational television in the 1960s.

PAY RADIO

As radio profits declined with the advent of television, broadcasters resurrected an idea rarely heard since the beginning of air transmission: pay radio. Pay radio proposed an end to advertiser support for broadcasting. In place of ad revenues, pay-radio programmers would charge subscribers five cents a day (eighteen dollars a year) for broadcasts (scrambled to nonsubscribers) uninterrupted by advertisements. Many proponents of pay television proposed a similar scheme. The advertising industry was naturally opposed to the concept and by 1948 had killed it. Nevertheless, the principles of pay radio and pay television would return in the 1970s with the rise of public radio and cable television.

Source:

Christopher H. Sterling and John M. Kinross, Stay Tuned: A Concise History of American Broadcasting (Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth, 1978).