Public Broadcasting. Throughout their history, public radio and television have struggled to survive in a minimally regulated broadcasting system dominated by commercial interests. Although educational radio stations airing instructional programming were prevalent in the 1920s, their numbers plummeted in the 1930s in the face of economic hard times and powerful national commercial radio networks. The limited federal regulatory legislation of the interwar years, primarily the Communications Act of 1934 that established the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), made no explicit provision for educational and nonprofit stations.

This situation remained largely unchanged for the next thirty years despite the FCC's reservation of a small number of radio bands and television channels for nonprofit stations. Then, in 1966, spurred by the FCC's failure to diversify commercial television and reflecting the spirit of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society initiatives, a report by the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television on the state of public broadcasting led to the most significant event in the history of the medium: the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. To address congressional concerns about the dangers of both political interference and the creation of a “fourth network,” the legislation established a highly decentralized structure under which the newly formed Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) would allocate federal grants to separate national associations of noncommercial television and radio stations—incorporated in 1969 as the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). These associations would in turn coordinate interconnection among their member stations.

Over the following three decades, federal funding, the number of stations, and the audience for public programming all grew substantially, and the medium solidified its position in American culture. Many programs attracted a large and loyal audience including public radio's news feature All Things Considered and Garrison Keillor's variety show A Prairie Home Companion; PBS's educational and witty children's show Sesame Street; the British drama import Masterpiece Theatre; the science series Cosmos and Nova; and Eyes on the Prize, the 1987 series documenting the history of the civil rights movement. Charged with the sometimes contradictory mandate of providing unique, high‐quality, and diverse programming to the most varied audience possible while maintaining strict objectivity and balance, public broadcasting faced increasing criticism from both the political left and right. From the left came charges that women and minorities were underrepresented, that programming catered too much to an elite audience, and that the system had become overly reliant on corporate underwriters. Conservatives complained that the CPB and public‐broadcasting networks were overly centralized bureaucracies that reflected a liberal, even left‐wing bias and used federal funds to glorify aberrant social practices. The conservative critique came to a head in 1995 when the Republican‐controlled Congress called for the phased‐in elimination of all federal funding for public broadcasting. However, a widespread show of support (particularly for the beloved Sesame Street) defeated this effort.

In the heyday of the major networks' almost exclusive control of the airwaves, public broadcasting clearly provided innovative and influential children's, cultural, and public‐affairs programming that was otherwise unavailable. Although public television and radio continued to provide moments of national cultural import, such as Ken Burns's 1990 documentary series The Civil War, in the far more diverse and expansive communication environment at the turn of the century, its future remained unclear.
See also Journalism.

Bibliography

John Witherspoon and and Roselle Kovitz , The History of Public Broadcasting, 1989.
Marilyn Lashley , Public Television—Panacea, Pork Barrel, or Public Trust?, 1992.

Anthony Harkins

CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING

A National Beginning

In 1966 there were 114 educational-television stations, up from 52 in 1961. But they remained struggling local stations with little money and almost no national, quality programming. In 1967 the tide began to turn with two events. The first was the start of the Public Broadcasting Laboratory (PBL), an experimental news and features broadcast funded by the Ford Foundation and broadcast on educational television for two hours on Sunday evenings. The second was the publication of Public Television: A Program for Action, a report by the Carnegie Commission on the future of educational television.

Commitment of Ford

While the programming produced by the PBL was widely derided as boring and without any real signifigance, the project underscored the commitment of the Ford Foundation to public broad-casting. From 1951 to 1977 the Ford Foundation donated more than $292 million to public radio and television, helping to support stations and to fund programming.

Public Broadcasting Act of 1967

President Lyndon B. Johnson used the Carnegie report as the basis for legislative proposals to create a national system of public broadcasting. The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 became law in November 1967. The most important part of the legislation created the Corporation for Public Broad-casting (CPB). The purpose of the CPB was to funnel money from the federal government to educational television stations and to underwrite programming. The initial funding by Congress was $5 million.

John W

Macy. John W. Macy was named chief executive of the CPB in 1969. His first programming project was the Children's Television Workshop, which was formed to develop educational shows for children. The first product of the workshop was Sesame Street, which premiered on 10 November 1969 and quickly became a favorite of children and television critics.

Public Broadcasting System. The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) was created by CPB in 1969 to aid in connecting the educational-television stations. Along with the Ford Foundation, PBS helped create a network of program distribution; one of its goals was to help local stations create their own programs which could then be shared with other stations and broadcast nationally. PBS helped to raise the quality of programming seen on public television and to standardize what was shown across the country.

Slow Support

While widespread viewer support and a large audience would be slow in coming for public television, the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act was a watershed in establishing government support for quality television. While it had little direct effect on the overall quality of television, the CPB at least helped guarantee an outlet for programming not regarded as commercially viable.

Sources:

"Future of Non-Commercial TV: Exclusive Interview with John Macy,
Corporation for Public Broadcasting," U.S. News and World Report,
67 (8 December 1969): 94-97;

"Meatier than Bonanza," Business Week (4 November 1967): 38;

"Whither Public TV?," Newsweek, 73 (21 April 1969): 104.

public broadcasting see broadcasting .