Censorship of AFVN news in Vietnam

In this time of increasing pressure against incumbent licensees at renewal time, all aspects of the renewal process have come into sharper focus and importance. One topic of special interest has been the licensee's “Ascertainment of Community Needs”; section of his renewal form. Hoping to make the process more realistic, the FCC issued revised guidelines on the ascertainment process early in 1971. This issue of the Journal offers four articles exploring the present status of ascertainment, beginning with this overview of a sample of western television licensees which compares ascertainment filings in 1968 (before the FCC Primer) and 1971 (among the first filed afterwards) and demonstrates that the new FCC policy is having a telling effect. Dr. Joseph Foley is assistant professor of speech communications at Ohio State University.     

Broadcasting‐film academic budgets: 1971–72

As a supplement to the standard “Niven list”; (which follows in this issue), the Journal offers here a look at the finances of many of the broadcasting‐film departments detailed by Niven. Based on budgets for the 1971–72 academic year, Bensman and Futrell provide data on four‐year colleges and universities offering broadcasting and/or film degrees. Dr. Marvin Bensman is assistant professor of speech at Memphis State University while James Futrell is a graduate assistant in the same department.     

Sale and value of radio stations

Appraisal of a broadcasting station for the purpose of sale is an activity involving considerable risk and even more guesswork. It is very hard to determine value, particularly when the purchase price is determined more by intangible assets and prospects than real property, and a cursory examination of the public record of the purchase price yields insufficient information about these prospects, assets and attributes.

Most of the important information desirable is available, however, in the public records of the Federal Communications Commission, on file in Washington. Obtaining the desired information from these records requires considerable effort, from first finding out just what is available and then performing the time‐consuming task of abstracting from the records. In this activity, knowledge of FCC procedures is a valuable asset. In the report that follows, data were gathered by Dr. Walter B. Emery, former FCC staff member and presently Professor in the Television and Radio Department of Michigan State University, while spending much of the summer of 1960 at the FCC under a research grant from Michigan State University. The correlational analyses and composition of the report were conducted by Dr. Paul J. Deutschmann, Director of the Communications Research Center at Michigan State University.     

Black ownership of broadcast stations: An FCC licensing problem

The development of minority (in this case, black) ownership of television stations as a factor in licensing is analysed through discussion of the Orlando, Florida TV 9 and Hunts‐ville, Alabama Garrett cases. The author, part of the department of communication at Florida Technological University (Orlando), contends that Appeals court actions have forced the FCC to more carefully consider minority ownership aspirations—but that many basic questions need to be clearly answered prior to any definitive rule‐making on the subject.     

Trades,techniques—and a fable

A generation of broadcasters has grown up without a firsthand knowledge of the now‐out‐of‐print FCC “Blue Book.” Mr. Meyer's personal overview of the content and effects of this document will be followed by a future article on “Reaction to the ’Blue Book’.” It is accepted that any one individual's summary of a controversial document will itself be controversial. Richard J. Meyer is Assistant Professor and Director of Educational TV at the University of Wichita, and wrote the MA thesis on which this article is based under the direction of Professor Stanley Donner at Stanford University. He also has worked in broadcasting at stations KZSU, KSAN‐TV and KQED (TV).     

Missing the newscaster: Reactions to the 1967 AFTRA strike

The following study reports viewer reactions to missing network news anchormen, and concludes the strike and substitute newsmen had little effect on viewing habits. Dr. Lawrence W. Lichty is associate professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin in Madison while Dr. David J. LeRoy is assistant professor of speech at Florida State University. This study was accomplished with the aid of funds provided by the Computer Center and Graduate School at Wisconsin.     

The evolution of FM radio: 1941–1946

The following verbatim extracts from FCC Annual, Reports are part of a continuing series published in the Journal of Broadcasting that includes: “The Evolution of Television: 1927–1943” (Summer, 1960); “The Evolution of Television: 1944–1948” (Winter, 1960–61); and “The Evolution of FM Radio: 1935–1940” (Spring, 1961).     

Evaluation of television drama: Interaction of acting styles and shot selection

That television is basically a low‐key and close‐up medium is demonstrated in the following research undertaken by two members of the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences of Queens College, City University of New York. Alan H. Wurtzel is an instructor at Queens while working on a doctorate at New York University. Dr. Joseph R. Dominick is assistant professor and holds the Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Both authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of their colleague, Dr. Gary Gumpert.     

Fan mail to Liberace

Although stations, networks and advertisers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on various rating services and audience measurement surveys, they often overlook a gold mine of voluntarily submitted feedback from their audience: the fan letter. It is true that the “pan” letter condemning a program often gets inordinate attention on decision‐making levels, but the run‐of‐the‐mill fan letter, if properly analyzed, can provide a wealth of information about the effect of a program upon its audience. Charles Winick is author of Taste and the Censor in Television (an Occasional Paper for the Fund for the Republic) and numerous articles in publications dealing with the mass media, such as Gazette, and the Journal op Broadcasting (“Censor and Sensibility,” Spring, 1962). Dr. Winick is a research psychologist and children's television program consultant at NBC who has taught and conducted research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University and New York University.     

Fulton of Fulton and trueblood

This article fills a need of teachers of speech by describing Workers Education, plus reporting on a survey made to determine what types of speech and other oral communication training is being given to union leaders through various University Workers’ Education Programs.     

Books on broadcasting in the library of congress: Programming and audience research

Because advertising is the bread‐and‐butter of broadcasting in the United States, any attempt to limit the number and length of commercials is, bound to meet with strong opposition. One such unsuccessful attempt was made by the FCC only four years ago, but already memories of the events and maneuverings that swirled around this proposal are fading. Lawrence D. Longley investigated this topic in connection with his doctoral dissertation on “The Politics of Broadcasting” which is nearing completion at Vanderbilt University. Mr. Longley is instructor in the Department of Government at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin.     

Analysis of broadcast literature: Broadcast Journalism in “education on the air” 1930–1953

During the past six years the Journal of Broadcasting has brought to its readers bibliographies on specific topics (audience measurement techniques, content analysis, etc.) and from publications devoted to a specific field (law, economics, journalism, etc.). The bibliography published below belongs to this second category. Education on the Air, the yearbook of the Institute for Education by Radio‐Television, is a continuous record of the deliberations of a convention devoted to exploring the informative and cultural uses of broadcasting. Under the direction of I. Keith Tyler, the IERT was for many years the only major association devoted exclusively to this subject area, and many of the present organizations now in the field are “spin‐offs” from these annual meetings hosted by the Ohio State University. Within the framework of the IERT, the subject of broadcast journalism has not been neglected. Over a period of almost 30 years, this use of radio for informing the public of the events of the day was discussed in various IERT sessions.

This bibliography was prepared to assist researchers and students interested in the growth and development of broadcast journalism as reflected in the IERT annual meetings. Dr. Heath is professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University, and is former chairman of the Council on Radio‐Television Journalism of the Association for Education in Journalism. Mr. Wolfson is working toward his doctorate at Michigan State University. They collaborated on this bibliography while at Iowa State University.     

Effects of music on source evaluations

Dr. Simpkins is an assistant professor in the department of advertising at Michigan State University, while Mr. Smith is a media analyst at Campbell‐Ewald, Inc. in Detroit. The research that follows offers some useful advice to producers of commercials and other material using a musical background.     

Book reviews

Zillmann, D., Bryant, J., & Huston, A. C. (Eds.). (1994). Media, children, and the family: Social scientific, psychodynamic, and clinical perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 351 pages.

Grant, A. E. (Ed.). (1994). Communication technology update (3rd Ed). Boston: Focal Press. 389 pages.

Jankowski, C. F., & Fuchs, D. C. (1995). Television today and tomorrow: It won't be what you think. New York: Oxford University Press. 237 pages.

Braun, M. J. (1994). AM stereo and the FCC: Case study of a marketplace shibboleth. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. 206 pages.     

Political broadcast advertising and primary election voting

The following three part debate is in response to the article “Functionalism and the Mass Media,” which appeared in 19:11–22. Dr. Pryluck is associate professor in the Department of Radio, Television and Motion Pictures at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Anderson directs the Broadcast Research Center at Ohio University, and Dr. Meyer is a member of the communications faculty at the University of Massachusetts.     

Book of the Month: Cable

Don R. Le Duc's Cable Television and the FCC: A Crisis in Media Control (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1973—$7.95),     

Religious broadcasting: 1920–1965, a bibliography

The following bibliography is the first installment of an extensive bibliography of books, pamphlets, theses, dissertations, documents, addresses, unpublished mimeographed and other miscellaneous materials, and periodical articles on religious broadcasting. The years covered are from the dawn of American broadcasting up to the present. Of particular importance is the first section on “Sources of Bibliographical Information” on this subject.

Because of the length of the entire bibliography, only the sections on sources, theses and dissertations, books and pamphlets, and unpublished and miscellaneous materials will be published in this issue of the Journal. The section on periodical articles will be published in a forthcoming issue. It is also intended to update the entire bibliography from time to time.

The importance of religious broadcasting is well‐recognized by anyone who has ever completed the programming section of an FCC application form, or has ever examined the body of law that has ranged from the Scott and Schuler cases of yesterday to the Maclntyre case of today. Those readers who find this bibliography of interest might also wish to read FCC Commissioner Lee Loevinger's “Broadcasting and Religious Liberty” in the Winter 1964–65 issue of the Journal of Broadcasting.

The major portion of this bibliography was compiled as a part of the author's Ph.D. dissertation, completed in 1965 in the Department of Speech of Michigan State University. Co‐chairmen of the guidance committee were Drs. Kenneth G. Hance of the Speech Department and Walter B. Emery of the Department of TV‐Radio. It has been updated and corrected to July 1965. Dr. Dick is Associate Professor of Speech and General Manager of KSDA at La Sierra College in Riverside, California.     

Who's next?: The retreat of canon 35

Significantly, most of the debate on Canon 35 has ignored the opinions of those who are expected to follow its dictates—members of the legal fraternity itself. To find out what judges and attorneys actually thought of broadcasting of trials became the concern of Dr. Sherman P. Lawton of the University of Oklahoma more than a year ago. Although the bar groups have at times surveyed their members with respect to the Canon, this was probably the first statewide study of its kind. Here Dr. Lawton reports on the results of the study in light of recent court developments.     

Some effects of voice quality on retention

All radio and television stations in some way use the human voice as a major communications tool in their programming and their programs and advertising messages. Although some research into this instrument was conducted, particularly in the late 1920s and 1930s, research into the qualities and effects of broadcast voices recently has been infrequent.

Ken Hadwiger earned the M.A. from the University of Iowa and the Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. A former member of the faculty at Wichita State University, he presently is Director of Mass Communications at Eastern Illinois University. Dr. Hadwiger has logged eight years of professional radio and television announcing and directing experience.