Communications 1984 September-Oci-Ober $2.50 the Critical Review of the Electronic Media

Home , Concealed Enemies, Denis Forman, John Harkins (actor), Something About Amelia, Steve Sohmer, Television Watch

What Do Women nt? ÿ Walter Karp CDC 00415 C A NN O F COMMUNICATIONS 1984 SEPTEMBER-OCI-OBER $2.50 THE CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA

SPECIAL PULL-OUT SECTION HAPPY- BIRTHDAY; A SEARCH FOR COMMUNICATIONS EXCELLENCE ACT CHANNELS SALUTES: The Best Television Company in the World

The Deregulation Super Superstation Revolution Radio's BY NORMAN BLACK The Cable Service That Really Serves

11, The Pay Channel That No One Disconnects } The Local Broadcaster the People Rely On

Also-A Critics' Circle Picks the Year's Best

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of excellence. with setting a standard There's only one problem it. Not Maintaining upliftingg entertainment. turn to Disney p Families o f hettime just some of the time.All commitment. challenge. And our our That's our months, y subscribers In the coming Disney will see more yor library. And morelegendaryreea the to keep delivering programming Channel: promise of The Disney an inspiring, Love Leads the Way, drama of aman true -life n for a lifetimese_ sight and finds a mi Black Arrow, a castles-and-swordsLcuis adventure film based Stevenson classic. intimate Family Album, an Disney d creative g loos at the blithe spirits the Disney a from -adventure Bay, an action Irt\'IF II 11 -AUS Danger in the Pacific series shot on location 1111 it WAY Northwest. dramatic of the critically-acclaimed Thirteen new episodes Five Mile Creek. series, sponta- Allen's Comedy Room, Steve with comedy neous conversations t, C11111111 Carl Reiner ,-.111111.33313 greats like Milton Berle, IMME- and many more. It's The Disney Channel. deliver. wants. And only yyou isrep family THE DISNEY CHANNEL Family Album The Commitment

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SEPT-OCT 1984 VOLUME 4, NUMBER 3

What Do Women ISSUES & REPORTS Want? To judge by the talk shows LETTERS PAGE 4 aimed at them, women don't feel quite at home, at home. CROSSCURRENTS BY WALTER KARP Ideas and Observations PAGE 8

COMMENT & CRITICISM Sitcom Domesticus The broad base for broad PRIVATE comedy has split asunder, EYE along with the nuclear family. "TV and My Vast Waistband" BY SUSAN HOROWITZ by William A. Henry III PAGE 65

PROGRAM NOTES "When PBS Chose Docudrama over Documentary" HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COMMUNICATIONS ACT! by John J. O'Connor PAGE 68 The Deregulation Why Deregulation Revolution Won't Last "To Err Is Human, If Not Insisting the days of media Politicians haven't grasped Necessarily Funny" scarcity are over, the FCC what it means to liberate by James Traub PAGE 70 is chopping off rules broadcasting. adopted during the last BY LES BROWN half -century. PAGE 61 ON AIR BY NORMAN BLACK "The Political Ad: A Necessary Evil" PAGE 52 by Edwin Diamond and Stephen Bates PAGE 71 A Spectrum of Views on Deregulation COVER ILLUSTRATION BY HOVIK DILAKIAN l'ACE 55 CARTOONS BY PATRICK McDONNELL

A SEARCH FOR EXCELLENCE SPECIAL PULL-OUT SECTION-Page 25

The Best Television Company in the World by Regina Nadelson 26 Radio's Super Superstation by Eric Zorn 30 Cable's Own Public Television Network by Brooke Gladstone 33 The Pay Channel That No One Disconnects by Lee Margulies 38 The Local Broadcaster the People Rely on by Nick Coleman 41 A Critics' Circle Picks the Year's Best 44

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CHECK NEXIS. You've just been handed a late publications. You also get the full In the intensely competitive breaking story. It's almost airtime. text of Reuters, UPI, the AP and world of news gathering and broad- lbo late to research the facts. Tbo seven other newswire services. casting, NEXIS enables you to get late to dig up background material. How do news gathering orga- a leg up on the competition- Or is it? nizations and corporations use without the legwork. Not if you have NEXIS', the NEXIS today? It has set us apart from our largest single source of news, busi- Last year, when a Korean air- competition. It could set ness and general information in liner was suddenly downed you apart from yours. the world. over Soviet airspace, the For more informa- Millions of articles, stories and Sakhalin Islands meant tion write Jack W. facts that can flesh out the barest nothing to the world. But Simpson, Presi- bones of any story. All of it instantly when NEXIS sub- dent, Mead Data and easily available. The average scribers entered the Central, Dept. search takes about 20 seconds. islands' name into CC784, PO. Box With NEXIS you get the com- the database, 261 1830, Dayton, OH plete text of The New York Times, stories were found 45401. Or call The Washington Post, Newsweek, and immediately us toll -free at Time, Forbes and over 100 other available. 1-800-227-4908. NE1ZIS 1984 mead Corporation Who. What. Where. When. Now.

www.americanradiohistory.com C H A NN E L S

%IN EDITOR-IN -CHIEF Les Brown PUBLISHER George M. Dillehay

pCT MANAGING EDITOR Audrey Berman SENIOR EDITOR Steve Behrens ASSOCIATE EDITORS James Traub Savannah Waring Walker 011oill801404 LTh ASSISTANT EDITORS Richard Barbieri Lisa Moss shows might have tuned in, but other peo- Promos Unbound CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ple, who might have liked the show but Mark Edmundson, Walter Karp. I READ "THE HOT SELL" [by JIM MINTZ, saw from the promo that it was more Martin Koughan, Michael Pollan, Michael Schwarz May/June] with more than pedestrian in- empty-headed soft porn, did not. Those EDITOR-AT-LARG E Everett C. terest. As ABC -TV's vice president in looking for a sexy show would not tune in Parker INTERN charge of creative services from 1976 to a second time; all others never got a Elisa Guarino 1982, I was responsible for on -air and chance to "discover" the show on their other promotional services. own. DESIGN DIRECTION In today's on -air promotion, the only This might help explain why NBC has Mark Borden differences among the networks are sty- so many shows that are loved by critics Marian Chin listic. Some messages are high -style, yet die in the ratings. Sohmer makes the VICE PRESIDENT, ADVERTISING SALES some low. Madison Avenue might call it mistake of assuming that all viewers will Paul D. Jampolsky hard -sell vs. soft -sell. But labels, and ar- watch shows loaded with sexual innu- ADVERTISING ASSISTANT ticles such as Mr. Mintz's, are too often endo-he assumes that everyone's inter- Marirose Erskine misleading. ests in entertainment are the same as his. ADVERTISING SALES OFFICES New York: West The primary objective of TV promo- Current promotional policies will always 304 58th St., New York, NY 10019: 212-315-2030. Southeast: Casey & Shore, 320 West is tion usually to generate sampling of a result in the sex -interested viewers tun- Wieuca Rd., N.E.. Atlanta, GA 30342.404-84 2432. show, but in the case of Steve Sohmer's ing out after one try and all other viewers West Coast: Gwen Campbell Winthrop. I5167 -E promos at CBS in the late '70s and now at never tuning in. Magnolia Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403, NBC, it appears sampling was a second- HERBERT J. ROTFELD 213-784-3493. ary priority. Generating enthusiasm Assistant Professor of Advertising CONTROLLER within the network, among the affiliates, Pennsylvania State University Joseph E. Edelman and in the rest of the industry was far University Park, Pennsylvania Media Commentary Council, Inc.: Lloyd N. more important. Steve Sohmer's promo- Morissett, Chairman; Laurel Cutler. Jerry Della Femina, Arthur Lipper Ill. Mary C. Milton. Thomas tion gave the network and the stations A Sharper Irony B. Morgan, William J. Ryan. something far more valuable than 30 sec- CHANNELS of Communications (ISSN 0276-1572) onds on a program. It gave them electric- IN THE. ARTICLE "DAN RITCHIE. TVs MORAL is published bimonthly by the Media Commentary Council, Inc.. a not ity during a brown -out. Minority" [May/June], 1981 is given as -for-profit corporation. Volume 4. Number 3, Sept/Oct, 1984. Copyright © 1984 by the I wonder if Mr. Mintz would have writ- the date for Group W's acquisition of Media Commentary Council. Inc. All rights ten about TV promotion had there been WPCQ-TV from Ted Turner. West- reserved. Subscriptions: $18 a year. All foreign no sex in the story. Or does sex in maga- inghouse actually entered into a contract countries add $6 per year. Please address all zine articles not attract as much attention to buy the station in 1979 and took active subscription mail to CHANNELS of Communications, Subscription as sex in TV promotion does? Service Dept., Box 2001, Mahopac, NY control of it in early 1980. 10541, or call 914-628-1154. SYMON V. COWLES Ted Turner borrowed the money to Postmaster: Send address changes to CHANNELS Vice President and Director start CNN against the sale of WPCQ in of Communications, Subscription Service Dept.. International Development Westinghouse. So, to sharpen the irony, Box 2001, Mahopac, NY 10541. No part of this magazine may ABC Video Enterprises the money received by Turner from West- be reproduced in any form without written consent. For information, call New York City inghouse went not "to keep CNN in Universal Press Syndicate, 1-800-255-6735. business" but rather to start CNN. I IT IS INTERESTING THAT YOUR ARTICLE ON PRO - think it is fair to say that Westinghouse A NOTE TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS motion of network TV shows focused on financed the start of both news networks, Channels took a summertime break this year Steve Sohmer, the "promotions wizard" CNN and SNC. and did not publish the regular July/August is- for NBC. Promotions add to the overall REESE SCHONFELD sue. Your subscription will be adjusted to ensure advertising clutter, and the dumb repeti- Vice President, Communications your receiving the full number of issues prom- tion of the teasers might impel some peo- Development ised. The interruption in our publishing cycle was temporary; we hope it did not cause you any ple to turn off the set, but it is doubtful Cablevision Systems inconvenience. they really do much to help the success of Woodbury, New York One other item of note-we moved during the new shows. summer. Our offices may now be addressed as If anything, Sohmer's promotions follows: might be seen as strong evidence of how Animated Merchandising CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATIONS 304 West 58th Street false or misleading advertising can con- BEING INTERESTED IN ANIMATION, I NOTICED New York, N.Y. 10019 tribute to the "death" of a product. He some time ago the trend towards com- used sex to entice viewers to watch Bay mercializing children's programming (212) 315-2030 George M. Dillehay Publisher City Blues. Viewers interested in sexy mentioned in Jan Cherubin's article,

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www.americanradiohistory.com "Toys Are Programs Too" [May/June]. simply turned its back on enforcement of General Westmoreland when the fact is Animation is one of the costliest forms many rules remaining on the books. The that 60 Minutes had absolutely nothing to of production. Paying for animation has proof is the drastic reduction in the num- do with the Westmoreland broadcast? gotten especially difficult in recent years, ber of enforcement actions under Mark When I called Mr. Raksin in California so the marriage of drawing and merchan- Fowler. to point this out to him, he told me that dise was perhaps inevitable. I helped create the FCC's policies on any references in his piece to Westmore- Dungeons and Dragons stands out program -length commercials. For many land had been added by Channels. But from the Saturday -morning herd in its years, we kept that degrading form of not only is his original, unedited manu- look. It was farmed out to Japan's Toei crass commercialism, largely aimed at script laced with references to Westmore- Studios, and is more Japanese than children, off the air. It's too late for radio, land, it starts out, "Last summer, 60 Min- American in style. Animation merchan- but there is still time to salvage something utes executive producer Don Hewitt dising in Japan is likewise a vast industry. for children out of television. ventured into Newsweek's My Turn Those who worry about the interaction of ARTHUR GINSBURG column to defend his show's handling of production and program, and how it will Adjunct Professor of an interview with General Westmore- affect the audience, might consider doing Telecommunications land." field work among the Japanese. Northern Arizona University Next time, be more careful to whom PATRICK DRAZEN Flagstaff, Arizona you give access. Carbondale, Illinois DON HEWITT s No Access Executive Producer, 60 Minutes JAN CHERUBINQUOTEDTHE FEDERAL COMMU- CBS News nications Commission's Al Baxter, sup- IN A PIECE IN YOUR "ACCESS" COLUMN CALLED Nell' York City posedly the chief of something called "All the News That Wiggles" [May/ complaints and compliance. It's fitting June], Alex Raksin replied to a piece that lower-case c's were used for the title of mine that Channels ran last January The Truth About Taping because the Complaints and Compliance ["The Pow of the Press"]. Division was abolished in 1980. I should Mr. Raksin took his title from some- SANFORD WOLFF'S ARTICLE. "WHO GETS know. I was the last chief. The only rem- thing an unnamed television executive Hurt by Home Taping?" [March/April], nants today are ineffectual bits and said: "We like stories that have wiggle." was interesting, though full of hyperbole, pieces scattered around the commission. Apparently, Mr. Raksin does too. If not, inflated figures, and emotionalized facts. Since the dismantling, the FCC has why write a piece that ties 60 Minutes to I was left with the impression that home taping is about to destroy the very fabric of the American economy and swell the unemployment rolls. Let's try to look at things realistically: People usually resort to do-it-yourself methods when what they want is not ob- tainable. People can be deterred from pi- rating by the availability of reasonably priced tapes. If a prerecorded movie is affordable-as are the recent Paramount releases, among others-then it makes sense to buy the tape rather than pirate it. The home taping controversy basically GRAB ONTO stems from the producers' attitude of "How can we force more money from the THE BEST IN public for our product?" If they could shift their point of view to "How could we make the public want more of our product?" everyone would benefit. CRAIG ANDERSEN FREE Baltimore, Maryland INFORMATIONAL PROGRAMMING Join over 543 cable systems and 9,942,390 subscribers who TV or Not TV enjoy the diversity of MSN - BIZNET NEWS TODAY, No TV IN HUNGARY ON MONDAY NIGHTS MOVIEWEEK, Hour-long Magazine [CrossCurrents, March/April] Sounds Format Shows, and our like a good idea. Unless Hungary has own THE HOME SHOPPING SHOW - informative and been doing that for some time, it is follow- entertaining. ing in the footsteps of Iceland, which has banned TV on Thursday for years. Call George Umberto or Cheryl Vosswinkel We couldn't cancel Thursdays, how- at 800-237-8671 for further details. ever: Can't miss Cheers and Hill Street. STUART D. BYKOFSKY Philadelphia

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www.americanradiohistory.com We've declared total war...

Bacteria in lab dish (1) elongate after addition of piperacillin, a new antibiotic (22 the cell wall of the microorganism weakens (3), then ruptures and dies (4). ...on ìnfectious diseases. Infectious diseases are the enemy-ranking fifth among the leading causes of death in the United States. More than two million people require hospital treatment each year for a wide variety of infections, adding an extra $1.5 billion in hospitalization costs alone to our country's already staggering health-care bill. Not only do these disease -causing invaders strike swiftly and severely when the body's defenses are weak, but over the years new strains of many bacteria have appeared-strains that are resistant to many existing medications. Fortunately, research scientists have developed a new generation of antibiotics, including a semi -synthetic penicillin (whose bacterial action is pictured above), to battle against a broad spectrum of life -threatening microorganisms. These rapid - acting antibiotics provide physicians with powerful new weapons for their medical arsenals. But the war against infectious diseases continues and our search for even newer, more effective medications goes on.

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www.americanradiohistory.com CROSS CURRENTS

mere addition of brightness and clarity, not to mention color, can transform an Over the Rainbow old print. Victor White, president of Hal Roach Studios, recently showed a visitor Color breathes new life into old monochrome films. the original black -and -white version of Mutiny on the Bounty, and then a new EFORE THERE WAS COLOR televi- color print. The color was extraordinarily sion, many many years ago, subtle, and the background of a storm there was black and white. It's scene, black and muddy in the original, hard to imagine how we put up suddenly disclosed a mast, the white with it. Nowadays when we flip past a spray of foam, light glancing off the relic of that epoch, perhaps on a mid- waves. afternoon stroll through the channels, we Perhaps the most remarkable piece of gawk for a moment and pass on, as we news about Vidcolor is that it is now be- might hurry through Granddad's album. ing used for several network series. Well, television's neglected antiques are White says that he is not "at liberty" to about to stage a comeback. Hal Roach say which ones, and describes some of Studios in Los Angeles has developed a have remained in the same place. This the studio's work, rather darkly, as "clas- computerized coloring technology and several other computerized methods sified." But he does explain why a pro- known as Vidcolor, and is not only tinting take care of about 96 percent of each grammer might consider Vidcolor better black -and -white footage but even provid- frame in a given scene. The artist then than the real thing. "Usually when you're ing original color for several current net- colors the remaining pixels by hand. Fi- shooting a foreground, the background is work shows. Vidcolor, says Robert nally the colors, which have been trans- out of focus; but we can bring the back- Glaser, former president of Viacom syn- lated into digital information and stored ground alive with color. We can put in a dication, "is going to absolutely rejuve- on a disc in the Dubner, are combined jillion different shades of green for each nate those old prints." with the black -and -white images in the object in an outdoor scene-grass, trees, The process works as follows: Black - first computer to form a final product. shade, what have you." and -white tape is fed into a computer and A computer -colored black -and -white Black and white, as Hal Roach execu- projected onto a large screen, known as film can turn into something altogether tive Wilson Markle put it in a recent an electronic easel, connected to a sec- new. Glaser recalls that he first saw the speech, is "unnatural" and "foreign to ond computer, itself called a Dubner technology four years ago, in an excerpt the human eye." That is, dull. Markle character generator. An artist is seated at from the film Gunga Din. "In color," he counts 17,000 domestic black -and -white the easel, which may be as large as 12 feet says, "Gunga Din is one of the great epic movies and 1,400 black -and -white TV se- across. Before him is a single frame from pictures. There's a scene where the Scot- ries crumbling into dust in Hollywood's the tape, blown up so large that each ties go marching right into a trap with archives. Now the dead shall be raised; pixel-one of the tiny dots that together their colors flying and their bagpipes blar- Gunsmoke may go on forever and ever compose a television image-can be seen ing. It brought us right off our seats." The and ever. J.T. individually. The artist takes in hand his electronic paintbrush-a sleek instru- ment that can assign any of 4,000 hues to each pixel-and starts coloring hats, skirts, trees, clouds, whatever. Before he Some Like It Taped even sits down, the artist will have conducted painstaking research into the col- A new self-help video cassette teaches 'Love Skills.' ors appropriate to the time, place, and personalities of the film or tape. Stan SINCE sex and self-help are just Given the lurid content of so many pop- Laurel's brilliant red hair and pale blue about the most popular subjects ular cassettes, it is difficult to suppress a eyes, for example, have been restored to for video cassettes, it seems smirk at news of this high-toned erotica him in one tape colored by Roach. only logical that someone coming from a major entertainment con- Since it takes about 10 minutes to paint would have seen fit to combine them. glomerate. But the project's principals a single frame, it would take months to Sometime this year, MCA Home Video emphasize its instructional nature. "Ev- paint a whole film in this manner-and will offer an hour-long instructional pro- erybody bent over backwards to make what an ironic return to the painstaking gram called Love Skills. With its $330,000 sure it was erotically appealing without days of hand craftsmanship that would budget, the tape will have the additional being sleazy," says Dr. Joshua Golden, be. Instead, the computer automatically distinction of being the second most ex- director of UCLA's human sexuality pro- imparts the assigned color and brightness pensive one ever made (after Making Mi- gram and the chief of the five Love Skills to the pixels on the following frames that chael Jackson's "Thriller"). consultants. Golden delivers speeches on

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sexual problems at the beginning and end act the view that "you're not supposed to Skills should have a considerable advan- of the tape. be creative or intelligent about sex, be- tage over the movies and sports events Not that the tape will be strictly clini- cause that would be unspontaneous." often sold on video cassette: Nobody will - it is made, Love bridle at watching it more than once. J.T. cal. David Winters, the Peabody award However tactfully fi winning director who filmed the program, says he made great efforts to show "beautiful locations-poolside locations, bedroom locations." Other scenes were The Petition Against God shot in a forest or by a stream. There will shows its muscle. be nudity on the tape, and actors will sim- With 16 million letters, the gospel audience ulate intercourse; but not all the scenes FEDERAL will involve the sex act. Golden mentions AROUND the Federal Communi- c St7919 LICATlO,yj Washington. COMMIjjS10 a scene in which a couple will be "touch- cations Commission they're ngton, D. C. ing and caressing" while a narrator explains known as "the letters." They 20054 n the importance of tenderness and the constitute the largest lobby- Gentlemen: RE: p

need to view sex as something more than ing campaign any special -interest group 1 am the place an Ameori proud intercourse. Other segments will deal with has ever directed at the FCC: Sixteen mil- afaith of my has heritage. Therefor ed 1.8 in the positions, "turn-ons," and "obstacles." lion letters, million last year alone, all any programs e, freed designedprotest any human a nearly identical in content, have arrived to The program will conclude with se- show faith in Gad to rem or quence of five common sexual fantasies at the agency since 1975. They continue 5 shot in what Winters calls a "neon" style. to arrive, at the rate of 15,000 a week. It sounds mighty Hollywood, but Golden FCC clerks store them in boxes in the Sinter says he didn't mind lending his profes- mailroom, where they sit for 30 days be- sional prestige to the sequence. The fan- fore being thrown away. "freeze" on all applications by religious tasies include a man having sex with two It all began in 1974, when Jeremy Lans- groups for educational television and FM women, and a woman "being coerced in a man and Lorenzo Milam, two maverick radio licenses. The petition, tagged RM - socially acceptable way," according to broadcasters from California, filed a peti- 2493 by the FCC, said that religious Golden. The point, he says, is to counter - tion with the FCC that proposed a broadcasters "thrive on mindless, banal

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www.americanradiohistory.com CURRENTS programming." Acting with uncharacteristic swiftness, the FCC rejected RM -2493 only eight months after it had been filed. "The commission is enjoined by the First Amend- &"c ich ra?in ment to observe a stance of neutrality toward religion," ran the opinion. "No federal law or regulation gives the FCC the authority to prohibit radio and television stations from presenting religious programs." By that time (in 1975), the CZ.zreellence FCC had already received 750,000 letters opposing RM -2493. But, despite the FCC's unequivocal rejection of the petition, that was only the beginning. The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), an association of 679 religious radio and television stations, played an ac- WE CONGRATULATE BANFF tive role in starting the campaign. Two THE WINNERS OF months after RM -2493 was filed, NRB executive director Ben Armstrong sent THE 1984 FESTIVAL letters to the group's members urging in Best Television Comedy A Kick Up The Eighties them to "join together opposing the BBC Scotland forces that would put an end to gospel Best Television Feature The Ghost Writer broadcasting." Armstrong insists that re- WGBH/Boston and Malone Gill, ligious broadcasting was being attacked in association with BBC and ridiculed by the petition. "I per- Best Children's Program Big Bird in China ceived it as a genuine threat," he says. Children's Television Workshop, U.S.A. The NRB, which called the FCC's de- Best Light Entertainment Romeo & Juliet on Ice Indian Road Productions Inc., CFTO-TV, Canada nial of RM -2493 a "landmark decision," Best Fine Arts Program The Seven Deadly Sins has been accused of exaggerating the Hungarian Television, MTV, Hungary threat posed by the petition in order to Best Social and Political Gurkhas of Nepal solicit bigger donations. Samuel Buffone, Documentary Sepia Films, Toronto, Canada the lawyer who filed the petition for Best Outdoors and Wildlife Never Stay in One Place Lansman and Milam, calls the NRB's Documentary Australian Broadcasting Corporation action "a good fund-raising technique." Best Drama Special In The Fall But it also stands as a political warning. CanWest Broadcasting (CKND-TV), Winnipeg, Canada John Commuta, the NRB's operating Best Continuing Series Rumpole of the Bailey-Rumpole and manager, once said the letter drive "con- The Old Boy Net tinually reminds [the FCC] of the poten- Thames Television Limited, United Kingdom tial clout of religious broadcasters." Best Limited Series Kennedy Another group that got the letter cam- Central Independent Productions, U.K., in paign rolling was the Christian Crusade, association with Alan Landsburg Productions, United States Billy James Hargis's fundamentalist sect, Best of the Festival The Ghost Writer based in Oklahoma. In June 1975, six WGBH/Boston and Malone Gill, weeks before the FCC issued its rejection in association with BBC of RM -2493, the Crusade's weekly news- First Special Jury Award Adam paper published a front-page article re- Alan Landsburg Productions, U.S. porting that Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the Second Special Jury Award Tiger Post for well-known atheist, was campaigning in Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Federal Republic of Germany favor of RM -2493. The newspaper said Third Special Jury Award Caught in a Free State O' Hair was headed for Washington to ap- Radio Telefis Eireann, Republic of Ireland pear before an FCC hearing. Actually, O'Hair was doing nothing of the kind, but View the winning productions at the the Christian Crusade's error was not corrected in print for a month. New School for Social Research in New York Nobody will admit originating the NOVEMBER 2, 3 and 4. O'Hair story. The Christian Crusade identified the NRB as the source in its Les Brown of Channels, Neil Hickey of TV Guide false report, but Armstrong, who admits and Canadian Director Claude Fournier will that the O'Hair story was "the genesis of discuss new programming trends. the hysteria," claims the rumor began "somewhere out there in the hinterland." In 1979, Congress gave the FCC a spe- P.O. Box 1020 Banff, Alberta TOL OCO (403) 762-6400 Telex ArtsBanff 03-826657 cial appropriation of $250,000 to try to

12 Channels SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER S-J www.americanradiohistory.com ::Nb* Mai N

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www.americanradiohistory.com CURRENTS stop the letters. The commission re- 1980, the FCC thought it had finally seen cut techniques were being perfected, the sponded to about 100,000 of the letters the beginning of the end. Soon, however, makers of commercials boasted master- and embarked on a massive mailing of its the letters were arriving again in ing the art of 30 -second drama. Sesame own, including 20,000 letters to religious droves-and they have not let up since. Street, with its quick -take mini -lessons, leaders, churches, and the media. For a "The well-known petition against God," took inspiration from the artistry of tele- time, the flow of letters subsided. When says FCC lawyer Jonathan David, "has vision commercials. And now the original only 9,000 letters came in during January taken on a life of its own." R.B. Sesame Street generation has graduated to the teenage version, MTV. Television news also picked up the beat. Its growing popularity may have Small Wonder less to do with the importance of content than with the style of presentation-fast, In the long run, media abundance will make programming shorter. brief, and glitzy, and watch as much as you like. For some people, no doubt, the T. MAKE IT big today, you've got stands the best chance of attracting view- news is just music video a capella. to make it small: microcompu- ers. Good Morning America and Enter- But it's really cable that is leading the ter chips, compact discs, music tainment Tonight leap to mind as para- way to the new kind of television. For videos, the Watchman-that digms. Tune in and something's gained; example, the Weather Channel, which sort of thing. The most profitable pro- tune out and nothing is lost. some people think is a dopey idea, could gram in all television today-no joke-is Now the big networks are starting to turn out to be a stroke of genius if every- the one -minute network newsbreak in think small in prime time. The rash of one in the country were to watch two prime time. Without question, small is bloopers shows has provided a way to minutes a day. From what's available on how programming is going in the second package small things in larger form: Stay cable today, one can do a substantial age of television-tailored to the atten- as long as you like. Next fall, CBS will amount of viewing in only half an hour: a tion span. introduce a sitcom about an aspiring rock bit of weather, two or three numbers on When there are so many shows to group, called Dreams, which is really a MTV, a spot of news on CNN, and one of choose from but only so many disposable way to hang music videos on a story line. those film fillers on HBO. More or less a hours in a day, the programming that Advertising taught television about balanced diet, leaving the rest of the eve- makes the least demands on one's time smallness. In the late '60s, when the fast - ning free to spend at the computer. L.B.

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'"c1.134" Columbia Picture. Television, a div son of CPI www.americanradiohistory.com MAN AND MUSIC the story of music in Western society

This major new series begins with four programmes COMPOSER AND COURT music composed by Liszt at Weimar Monteverdi at Mantua Haydn at the court of the Esterhazys the musicians of Louis XIV at Versailles filmed in the locations in which it was composed and played Made by Granada Television International

Granada Television International Limited 36 Golden Square, London W1R 4AH Telephone 01-734 8080. Cable Granada London. Telex 27937 and in the United States, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 3468, New York NY 10020 USA. Telephone (212) 869-8480. Telex 62454 UW

www.americanradiohistory.com What Do Women Want? To judge by the talk shows aimed at them, women don't feel quite at home, at home.

by Walter Karp

1STENING to women's talk them; the terrible "look" disfiguring his if they did not need the money, her fellow shows on television, a man face; strong hands clamping down on frail guests gasp in amazement. That mother- tends to feel like an eaves- wrists; the shocking slap hard across the ing might take precedence over making dropper. Could these con- face. One woman was drugged by a extra money seems a reactionary and by versations possibly be wealthy physician and awoke several no means welcome idea. The point, how- meant for a male's tender ears? Phil hours later sprawled on the living-room ever, is instantly dropped, for the pre- Donahue shows his audience a pump -like floor with her clothes in shreds. The phy- cepts of the women's movement are not device that can be implanted in sexually sician was peacefully asleep in his bed- debated. Disputes break out only on how impotent men. He and his guests-im- room. As each guest bears witness to the best to apply them. planters and implantees-bat around this treacherous brutality of her attacker, the "Is man -sharing an alternative to mo- harrowing subject for an hour, much to others lean forward in their chairs, listen- nogamy?" Pat Mitchell asks her 10 or so the amusement of the elderly women in ing intently with tears welling up in their guests. A complicated discussion breaks the studio audience. They seem to regard eyes. The scene is intensely moving, for out. One woman says she sees several the sexual inadequacies of men as Na- they all seem to share in their own flesh men and they are quite free to see other ture's just punishment for male presump- the pain and defilement each victim has women. There is no quarrel with that un- tion. Sonya Friedman of Sonya takes up suffered. There is great dignity in this til one woman asks, suppose one of those sexual problems attendant on giving bond of compassion. Nevertheless, it "shared" men happens to be somebody's birth. "Try oral sex," suggests a young made me feel like a guilty intruder in an husband? Another guest then freely ad- mother. "I'm glad you brought that up," exclusively woman's world. mits to having a "relationship" with a says Sonya, utterly unabashed, which is It is a strangely disjointed place, this married man. The other women are more than could be said about me. televised woman's world. Perhaps the frankly distressed by this Jezebel, but not On Woman to Woman several young most revealing examples of this are the because they disapprove of adultery as women gather around hostess Pat Mitch- contradictory manifestations of the wom- such. Going out with another woman's ell to discuss "date rape," the violation of en's liberation movement. On many spouse, they contended, makes women women, not by strangers, but by men shows its influence, quite understand- "competitive" with each other, thereby whom they know. Several victims tell ably, seems all -pervasive. Child -rearing threatening the solidarity of women. In 1 their agonizing stories-the door to the is duly called "parenting," even on cable the long run, "committed relationships" date's apartment slamming shut behind shows devoted entirely to baby care. are better for women. This, however". When one woman guest on Working does not settle the matter. There are Walter Karp, a contributing editor of Mother remarks that her own mother, other scruples to satisfy. What is the dif- Channels, is now working on a book though strongly for women's liberation, ference, asks one woman, between seek- about the origins of the Korean War. did not think young mothers should work ing an "emotional commitment" from a

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER '84 Channels 17

www.americanradiohistory.com man (as opposed to sharing him) and the disparity merely mirror the shows' demo- more authentic identity. This is certainly old, degrading obsession with "getting a graphics. It is true that cable television an operative assumption of Working man"? And so the argument rages on for still chiefly serves small towns and sub- Mother, which characteristically shows half an hour. Although the women on the urbs, and that the old-fashioned shows housewives how to puff up a resume show disagree sharply, the entire discus- are all cable shows. But Sonya, The '80s when they enter the job market (if you sion is couched in exclusively feminist Woman, and Working Mother are cable worked as a volunteer fund-raiser, for ex- terms, as if no other moral language has shows, too, and there is nothing particu- ample, call yourself a "developmental as- any validity any longer. larly old-fashioned about them. More to sistant"). The old-fashioned shows are Perhaps this is only surprising to a 50 - the point, if demographic differences be- not really old-fashioned. What they seem year -old man who has failed to keep up tween city and suburb explained the dis- to provide is temporary surcease from with the times. If so, then the real sur- parity, one would have to conclude that the rigorous demands that the liberation prise of television's woman's world is the American women are sharply divided be- of women makes upon women, demands number of programs in which hardly a tween strong adherents and strong foes of the young mothers in the audience regard trace of the women's movement can be the women's movement. I myself was so as just and proper even if they are not found. All -pervasive one hour, it is non- sure that such a rift existed that I ex - living up to them. If basic feminist goals have indeed been adopted by more women than I had previously expected, there is a comple- mentary shift of attitudes toward the Even the home: Homemaking and child -rearing have simply ceased to represent a fully shows most legitimate life even to those women who are leading that life. concerned with The other major disjunction in the televised woman's world may well spring homemaking from the lost legitimacy of the household sphere. This is the striking contradiction don't argue between the severe practicality of the women's shows and their extreme sub- against the goals jectivity. That women chiefly want to hear about of feminism. real -life troubles and how to surmount them is the assumption of almost every program I watched, however else they might differ. As Donahue warned a guest existent the next. On shows such as Alive petted the old-fashioned shows to take a expert when he began talking abstractly, and Well, Hour Magazine, Daytime Mag- swipe now and then at careers and day- "This is a practical audience." They want azine, The Great American Homemaker, care centers. These are, after all, the two to get down to brass tacks. "Problems" You!, and Mother's Day, time seems to chief rivals of the mother at home. But and "help" are the very stuff of life on the have stopped around 1953. Women cook nothing of the kind occurred. In six women's shows. On a given day, the pan- and sew, shop and raise children. They fret weeks of watching the women's talk elists of The '80s Woman discuss with over hemlines and accessories, kitchen shows I never saw a seemingly old-fash- Barbara Feldon the problems of teenage smells and leftovers. They delight in ioned show so much as hint that a day- sex, Hour Magazine tackles nervous watching beauticians "make over" wom- care center might be inferior to a mother's breakdowns, Donahue airs the problem en's faces and homey chefs demonstrate care, or that a business career can be con- of teenage suicide. Hour after hour, life's their recipe for, say, Chinese-style chili. siderably less than fulfilling. The libera- problems pass in review: alcoholic coup- They want "expert" advice about choles- tion of women is neither promoted nor les, the neglect of the aged, May-Decem- terol and Caesarian section, about "hy- disparaged on these shows; the topic is ber marriages, babies born drug -ad- peractive" children and how to harden shunned. dicted, dangerous exercises, teen-age fingernails. Such is the American woman drug abuse, "one-night stands," lower - on these shows: a conscientious home- T WAS SUGGESTED to me that per- back pains, premature births. maker and avid mother struggling to stay haps the producers of these The problems demand solutions, and attractive to her spouse. shows deliberately deprive these are often provided by a guest ex- What, I wondered, could account for their homebody viewers of pert-a physician, a psychotherapist, a this odd disparity between the powerful anti -feminist views, but such a social worker. The afflicted are urged to presence of the women's movement on so conspiracyI of silence, it seems to me, seek "professional guidance." Every many shows and its near -total absence on would not long survive the headlong op- problem seems to have spawned some others? The obvious explanations do not portunism of the television industry. My kind of organized help, and the women's seem to suffice. The disparity does not guess is that the women's movement is talk shows act as a referral service. reflect, for example, the difference be- shunned because even the young mothers Young mothers who cannot "cope"-a tween an audience of career women and who watch the old-fashioned shows are favorite word in the women's -show lexi- an audience of homebodies, because deeply committed to basic feminist goals con-are sent for "support" to a moth- homebodies constitute the audience for and would not take kindly to seeing them ers' center. Parents of suicidal children all the shows. Woman to Woman is on at belittled. They, too, hope one day to en- are directed to the American Association 10:30 in the morning, presumably for ter the great world beyond their door- of Suicidology. Young mothers who wish mothers and housewives. Nor does the steps in order to gain independence and a to attend college are referred to the Na -

18 Channels SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER '84

www.americanradiohistory.com tional Coalition for Campus Day Care. Parents of missing children are sent to Child -Find. True to their practical spirit, the women's shows often provide brisk practical Help with real -life tips as well. Viewers learn how to detect incipient alcoholism in a child: Note a problems is the sudden drop in his school grades. They learn how to spot potential "date -rap- stuff of the shows, ists": Beware of men with a proprietary attitude toward women and men who dis- but the guests do cuss everything in sexual terms. Such advice comes in addition to the usual tips on not sound like skin care, fitness, makeup, bargain -hunt- ing, dieting, and "business manners." practical people. (Should you, as a woman executive, stand up when a man enters your office? Yes.) As relief from the grinding practicality of its daily two-hour fare, Daytime Magazine offers five concluding minutes of "reflections" on matters more spiritual were no common solutions to common you feel within yourself." Such extreme than cooking and clothing. The five-min- problems. For better or worse, this is subjectivity leaves several guests mark- ute exception proves the rule of practical- simply not the way practical people talk. edly distressed because it renders the ity. The practical spirit is objective and com- whole issue hopelessly confused. Indeed, There is nothing novel, of course, monsensical. Thinking in the woman's it would undermine the integrity of any about this severe practicality. It was once world of television tends to be radically common code of morality. regarded as characteristically female. subjective. Subjectivity even invades the practical The very word "economy" derives from The subjectivity is so potent that it can sphere itself. Quite often on the talk the Greek word for managing the house- even undermine the precepts of the wom- shows, the problem under discussion is hold-which is to say, from traditional en's movement. On Woman to Woman given a sharply subjective twist. The women's work. Moreover, the practical- Pat Mitchell, who is very adept at bring- problem of teenage suicide becomes the ity of the women's shows is said to be ing out this very difficulty, asks her parents' sense of failure when a child at- based on extensive surveys of women guests to tackle the question of erotic lin- tempts his life. The problem of the elderly viewers. It was the viewers, reportedly, gerie. Can a modern woman wear the becomes the emotional pain of parking who insisted on seeing real -life problems black mesh accoutrements of a Gay '90s them in nursing homes. In this way the aired on daytime television. courtesan and still retain her self-re- desperately unhappy child and the des- Yet, strangely enough, the women who spect? Absolutely not, insist a few of the perately lonely old lady are shoved off appear in the televised woman's world do guests. It is plainly "exploitative of the stage by "guilt," a secondary and de- not sound like practical people and down- women." A surprising number of guests rivative problem, but one that conforms to-earth realists. They talk about "what disagree. It is only exploitative, they con- to the general belief in the higher reality is real for me" as if there were no such tend, when there is "pressure and proof the purely personal. thing as a real world at all. They make gramming." Wearing erotic lingerie is not Severe practicality and extreme sub- judgments in accordance with "my value exploitative "if you are pleasing your- jectivity exist side by side like two war- system" and "my own needs" as if there self." It all depends, they say, "on how ring modes of thought and feeling. One stems from a shared world, the other from the lack of a shared world. Insofar as the television audience wants to hear about practical problems, it is rooted in CHA«GE the traditional shared world of home and THE CHANNE family. Insofar as the viewers believe in "what is real for me" and "feeling good about myself," they live in a void. House- work and child -rearing take up enormous gobs of their time and energy, but plainly they do not seem quite real. True self- hood lies elsewhere, and real needs are satisfied elsewhere. It is as if these housewives are determined to do a good job as mothers and homemakers, but their hearts and minds are not in it. According to the hostess of Woman to Woman, "The woman at home is alienated." If the televised woman's world mirrors with any fi- delity the actual situation of women, then what they seem alienated from, essentially, are their own homes.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER'84 Channels 19

www.americanradiohistory.com YOU'RE WCKY. CHA REMEMBER THESE TW AND CHANCES AI

www.americanradiohistory.com U'ICES ARE YOU'LL O MGES TRR'#L tE, MARIE WON'T. Heinz, Jason Robards, and others; THE HURT. local programs; editorials; specials; You see, Marie has Alzheimer's news reports and viewer informa- Disease, a brain disorder that tion brochures. affects her memory, her thinking and her speech. THE HELP. Like other Alzheimer's victims, The culmination was the broadcast Marie's affliction will only worsen. If of "Whispering Hope: Unmasking you were to live and care for her you'd the Mystery of Alzheimer's," a see her mind slowly being stripped documentary followed by a live, away. Her simple forgetfulness interactive satellite telecast from the would progressively slip into severe six Group W television stations in memory loss-from not knowing Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, what day it is to not even knowing Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and San your name, or perhaps even who Francisco. To put it simply, it was you are. There's little known about TV at its best. Informative. En- Alzheimer's Disease. We do know lightening. Innovative. Emotional. it strikes adults in their 40's and 50's, Hundreds and hundreds of viewer and beyond. letters said it best. Almost two -million American ".../your) news team also proved to families face the hardship and frus- be sensitize, caring human tration in caring for Alzheimer's vic- beings..." tims. And at least 100,000 deaths are "...your coverage immediately attributed to Alzheimer's annually. mobilized people and was instrumental in the passage of THE HOPE. two bills vital to alleviating Although there is no known some of the suffering caused by cause or cure, there is hope. An Alzheimer's..." organization called ADRDA, the "I was not only pleased, but Alzheimer's Disease and Related overwhelined. " Disorders Association, does remark- We'd also like to think that Don able things in helping to fight this McGannon, former Group W debilitating disease by informing the President, and victim of Alzheimer's public on behalf of victims and who died this past May, would be their families. proud, too. Not so much that "The The Group W Television Station Alzheimer's Project" was dedicated group also felt that this silent to him, but more importantly, we epidemic should be brought out in fulfilled a public service and lived the open. up to being good, responsible We knew we could do a good ser- neighbors. vice to families like yours who may For all the hurt that Alzheimer's someday be faced with caring for Disease victims GROUP someone with Alzheimer's. and their families So we rallied around this cause and suffer-we hope created "The Alzheimer's Project"- our effort helped. the most ambitious, month -long public in Group W awareness project Westinghouse Broadcasting and Cable Co., Inc. Television's history, which included: WBZ-TV, Boston; WJZ-TV, Baltimore; group and locally produced PSA's WPCQ-TV, Charlotte; KDKA-TV, Pittsburgh featuring President Reagan, Senator KYW-TV, Philadelphia; KPIX, San Francisco.

www.americanradiohistory.com Sitcom Domcsticus A Species Endangered by Social Change

The broad base for broad comedy has split asunder, along with the nuclear family.

by Susan Horowitz

ACK IN THE 1950s, when television was young and the children of the Baby Boom still nestled in the embrace of the nuclear family, watching the domestic zaniness of I Love Lucy was a Monday -night ritual. Lucy's portrayal of housewife as clown/child beset by familiar problems, surrounded by husband and friends, entranced millions of loyal viewers. (The birth of Little Ricky outdrew the Eisenhower Inauguration.) In the decades that followed, dozens of sitcoms succeeded by playing lightly upon recognizable family situations. As families, and family problems, changed, so did the sitcoms: from Ozzie and Har- riet to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, whose snug "family" consisted of co- workers and boss. Situation comedies dominated the airwaves to such an extent that 10 years ago they constituted eight of sodes in the weekly top 20. "In the early days, the whole family sat the 10 top -rated shows. The decline of the sitcom-and per- down to watch television together," says But now, in the 1980s, the popularity of haps the success of Kate & Allie-has Marvin Mord, ABC marketing and re- the form is waning. In the 1982-'83 sea- much to do with changes that have oc- search vice president. "Theory was that son, there were only three situation com- curred in family structure in our society. the woman controlled the dial in the eve- edies among the top 10 shows. Last sea- The half-hour domestic comedy, as a ning, so others in the family who might son, 1983-'84, no situation comedy was form, has barely survived the breakdown not have made a sitcom their first choice consistently able to hold a place among of the traditional nuclear family for which came along for the ride." The concept of the highest -rated shows-with the excep- it was originally designed. Kate & Allie, a women as the choosers of programming tion of CBS's Kate & Allie, a midseason show about two divorced women who for the family was of major importance to entry whose good press and word of live together along with their children, is advertisers, and consequently to prime - mouth helped land four of its first epi- as carefully crafted for the contemporary time schedules. domestic mood and circumstance as Though no longer the choosers, Lucy and other successful comedies were women still constitute about 60 percent of Susan Horowitz, a doctoral candidate at for their times. prime -time viewers; when it comes to sit- the City University of New York, is writ- Network researchers are acutely coms the ratio is even higher. "Three out ing a book titled Funny Women, about aware of how changes in the structure of of every four advertising dollars in prime women in comedy. the audience have imperiled the sitcom. time are aimed at women," says David

22 Channels SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER'84 www.americanradiohistory.com Poltrack, CBS research vice president. the children and teens who watch the temporary family life while providing How life has changed from the days early shows) is not ready for at 8 P.M. is an fantasies of a glamorous alternative life- when the family watched television to- untried and perhaps inferior sitcom." style. gether is reflected in the evolution of the The influence of M*A*S*H's serio- But for the sitcom to break loose from sitcom. This longtime staple of television comic tone and multi -character format the traditional family-the original has gotten grittier in its style and bolder in can be found in many of the shows that source of its broad -based appeal-has its themes since the sweet, innocent days now out -rank sitcoms in appeal, such as been more difficult. Even All in the Fam- of I Love Lucy. Hill Street Blues, a dramatic series with ily, for all the controversy it stirred, fea- The divorce rate, relatively low in the traces of black comedy about an inner- tured a close-knit group of mother, fa- 1950s, soared through the '60s and '70s city police precinct. Another police ther, and child. So, despite its superficial and has continued high in the '80s. Grown show, Cagney & Lacey, has been able to provocativeness, does The Jeffersons, children left home and often postponed incorporate much of the traditional fe- one of the few sitcoms surviving from the parenthood and even marriage-trends male appeal of the sitcoms by providing '70s. Even so, the same period saw the that promoted the pursuit of entertain- two women as leads. Its mixed format al- rise of such situation comedies as Alice, ment outside the house. lows the show to combine domestic life The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and One In the days when most households had a single TV set, the sitcom flourished because it was, as CBS's Poltrack puts it, "the best example of a broad -based pro- 'I don't know why the shows aren't better gram. They would take a situation that everyone could identify with, such as a written,' says a network executive. `Maybe husband, wife, and kids trying to get through the normal toil of daily exist- writers are stuck trying to figure out ence-the Lucy shows being the best example-and introduce exaggerated char- what to do with the form.' acters and a lot of physical humor that would add comedic elements to the show." (one cop is single, the other married) and Day at a Time, in which single women But the sitcom no longer has the natu- comedy with the action of the police tried to make it alone, often with the sup- ral constituency it once had. According show. port of a surrogate family of co-workers. to Poltrack, "there's no intensity of These and other, more lighthearted With these shows, the sitcom found a viewer loyalty. They're shows you watch shows, such as A -Team, Magnum, P.I., way of relating to the increasingly com- because you're watching television-not and Simon & Simon-what Poltrack calls mon reality of its viewers, as Lucy had in shows you go out of your way to watch. "action/adventure with comedic over- the '50s. That is the line of succession This week's audience of a serial drama tones"-have usurped a good part of the that led to such contemporary shows as will generally be back next week; in sit- sitcom audience. The adventure come- Kate & Allie. coms maybe only 33 percent will be back. dies pull in children, teens, and men (with According to Sherry Coben, creator So when there are more options, a sitcom the macho action), along with a fair num- and principal writer of Kate & Allie, "Our is vulnerable." ber of women who tune in for the hand- show is really a personality comedy- The half-hour comedy of yesteryear some, tough -yet -vulnerable heroes. The Mary Tyler Moore style. The Mary and was protected from this lack of viewer juiced -up plots of these shows are well Rhoda friendship was only a little thing loyalty by a surrounding "comedy served by the promotional spots used to between other scenes, but that's the part block" of similar programming, creating attract viewers, among whom the flashi- I adored-I'd never seen it before. It's a mood that carried over from show to est package tends to win out. "A high - like most of the female friendships I've show. Today's sitcom, often adrift in a concept show like A -Team can attract had, where we just talk on the phone or sea of unrelated programming, is forced more than a sitcom that depends on in- over lunch. And it's probably the strength to create its own viewer loyalty-and volvement with characters over a period of our show." may very well fail in the attempt. of time," says Mord. The viewer's identification with the Thus the sitcom is more vulnerable character is the crux of it. This wasn't so than other television forms to today's FlVEN JUICIER-and more suc- vital before, when the viewer could con- competitive situation, in which broadcast cessful-is the recently sider Lucy an improbable lunatic and yet television vies for attention alongside ca- evolved format of the night- tune in to laugh at the physical comedy. ble, video cassettes, and the like. "No time soaps: Dallas, Dynasty, Even if Archie Bunker seemed exagger- one is doing 40 shares anymore," says Falcon Crest, and Knots ated and obnoxious, you could laugh at Marvin Mord. "The average sitcom Landing. The degree of titillation, vio- his one-liners or get caught up in the draws only 25 percent of all viewers lence, and cynicism in these shows would moral issues raised on the show. But tuned in at any one time. Performance of be completely incongruous in a family ve- Kate & Allie and its ilk demand that you all network programs has declined 10 per- hicle such as the sitcom. Their melodra- like and believe in the characters. cent, and for sitcoms, it's down 32 per- matic style engages the crucial female Mary Tyler Moore was one of the first cent." viewers, while their obsession with to depend in this way on audience identi- "Sitcoms tended to run in the 8 -to -9 power and action draws the men. The ap- fication-primarily with Mary Richards, period on network prime time," adds peal of the night-time soaps lies mainly in the spunky heroine. To the extent that Poltrack. "But now, independent TV sta- their depiction of family life, exaggerated popular television programs reflect con- tions rerun the best of sitcoms, like and disordered though it is. Almost all the temporary audience concerns, one might M*A*S*H, All in the Family, Barney serials feature fantastically wealthy, loosely speculate that the largely middle- Miller, and Taxi, between 6 and 8 o'clock. powerful, and corrupt extended families. class, educated, female audience tuning The one thing the audience (particularly The shows reflect the disruption of con - (Continued on page 50)

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER '84 Channels 23

www.americanradiohistory.com AS THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT SOARED, SO DID THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA. C»;

Beyond all the glory, the grandeur, the gold, above the roar of the record-breaking crowds, something very special happened at the Games of the XXIII Olympiad in Los Angeles. A renewed spirit of pride and patriotism, of brother- hood and a belief in ourselves, echoed across the land -and indeed around the world. ABC is proud to have brought the Games of the XXIII Olympiad to the world. As produced by ABC Sports, it was the most watched event in television history. And we're proud to have been a part of the Olympic spirit that lifted the mood of our nation, and brought the nations of the world closer together. The American Broadcasting Company ABC Television /ABC Radio The Olympic Tradition Continues...

www.americanradiohistory.com SEARCH FOR xcellence OuÏxi- rvDiNG is one of the more literal words in the language; excellence, because it is so rare, does stand out. When the editors of Channels decided to initiate a series of articles on excellence in the electronic media, we thought we might be looking for needles in a haystack. But these were needles of distinction, bright and shiny, and surprisingly easy to spot. You simply know excellence when you encounter it. We found it in five media organizations-companies that adhere to values beyond ratings, profits, and stock digits. These five prove that there ig'nothing inevitable about banality in the mass media. Banality, like excellence, is a choice. These companies also prove that excellence carries no commercial penalty. All are enviably successful, Most of the companies saluted here express the vision of a single person, usually a founder. Most have had stable management of exceptional longevity. Each has withstood the pressures of the marketplace to preserve its beliefs and traditions. The excellent treat their audience as respected customers; the others treat theirs as demographic units for sale. The excellent are neither elitist nor low -brow, but catholic in their tastes..The excellent, above all, have excellent intentions. To select the year's best television programming, Channels has assembled a circle of writers and critics from around the nation. Their choices also appear This special pull -rait section is in this section. sponsored hr the Mobil C'orpuration, Our search has only begun. Somewhere exists an exemplary cable system, which participated solely as sponsor and did not in ans way influence the videotex service, program distributor, satellite operator, or other media -re- editorial decisions or the selections. lated enterprise deserving notice in our next roundup.

SI PII;\Ilil It /III 54 LIIIIIItIcI, 25

www.americanradiohistory.com RITAIN'S Christmas gift Granada is also responsible for the Crown, Christopher Dunkley, A to American TV view- Coronation Street, a wry look at critic of The Financial Times, ers this year is The life in the company's own home- wrote: "It is arguable that Gra- SEARCH Jewel in the Crown, a northern England-that is unde- nada aims higher in terms of intel- dazzling 14 -part adaptation of niably the most popular program lect and quality than the BBC." FOR Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet. in British history. This small Americans may find it hard to be- Some consider it better than broadcaster represents a unique lieve that Granada is in business Brideshead Revisited. Like combination of commercial suc- to make money. Brideshead, which kept us in an cess and commitment to quality. This is a company that once Excellence II -week state of Baroque bliss, Granada may be suspected of spent a couple of million dollars Jewel was produced by a small trying to beat the British Broad- on a history of Victorian still pho- commercial broadcaster, Gra- casting Corporation at the game it tography, and now has in produc- nada Television. invented. After viewing Jewel in tion a series covering the history of television throughout the world. This expensive series is being made not because anyone envisions a huge world market for it but because Granada thought it ought to be made. It's a quirky, THE BEST TELEVISION unconventional company that cherishes its eccentrics but is solid enough to have retained its broadcast license and much of its IN THE staff since the origins of British COMPANY commercial television in 1956, the only outfit to have done so. Granada is a mainstream Brit- ish institution that takes pride in WORLD breaking ground and breaking rules. Its high-minded approach to television has been revealed BY REGINA NADELSON over the years in scores of first- rate documentaries, in Olivier's King Lear, in adaptations of Hard Times and Country Matters, in Brideshead and Coronation Street. What's more, while most American network executives rarely see the working side of the camera, Granada executives have almost all been program makers and generally still are. It is, in fact, good form to take a sabbatical from an executive job to work on a show, as Granada chairman Sir Denis Forman recently did when he served in India as executive producer for The Jewel in the Crown. Granada's success is rooted in a felicitous conjunction of economics, history, geography, and - above all - personality. The company still bears the im- print of its founder, Lord Sidney Bernstein, Baron of Leigh. He is retired now, but at age 85 the tall, beautifully tailored man remains a real presence in a company that from the start has been a family affair. His nephew Alex is the chairman of the Granada Group, a thriving conglomerate (1983 profits of $75 million) that includes music publishing, movie theaters, bingo halls, real estate, LORD SIDNEY BERNSTEIN, founder and president of the Granada Group

Regina Nadelson is currently writing a book about the movies.

26 Channels SEYEEMIDER/OeIT)HER'W www.americanradiohistory.com an extremely lucrative TV- and video -rental business (now also operating in the United States) and, of course, the television company that not only holds its own financially but gives the group its cultural clout. It is Bern - stein's unerring feel for show biz and good business, together with his particular brand of idealism, that has kept the engines at Gra- nada racing. "Granada works because of its longevity, because it remains essentially the company Bernstein built," says Jonathan Powell, a former Granada prodiacer who is A street in Manchester masquerades as London's Baker Street for now head of series and serials at Granada's /3 -part The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. the BBC. "Granada," Powell adds, "is the creation of one man 1956 Granada was born in Man- to ensure "a proper balance of in- based on the idea that television chester, the capital of England's formation, education, and enter- could influence people for the heavily populated industrial tainment," as mandated by the better." northwest. It also rains a lot Broadcasting Act, which set up Sidney Bernstein was born, it there. commercial television. As re- is said, "with a silver screen in his The system created by the Tel- cently as 1980 it revoked two of mouth." Heir to a small string of evision Act forces the stations to the country's 15 licenses. silent cinemas, he not only loved ranada take their public obligations seri- Though ITV is commercial the business, he had a sense of its is an established ously, because licenses can be television, the stations can be far future. He adapted his cinemas struck down as easily as they are more independent of their adver- first for talkies, then color, then British institution awarded. In the main, commer- tisers than American program- Cinemascope. that takes pride in cial television in Britain takes mers can afford to be. Granada, In 1925 Bernstein helped found place on a single channel shared with its 8 million -plus viewers, the Film Society, which brought breaking ground by a number of regional compa- enjoys a virtual advertising mo- Eisenstein and other avant-garde nies. Channel 3, or ITV (Indepen- nopoly in its region, as do the filmmakers to Britain. Soon after, and breaking rules. dent Television), today is divided other stations. And the IBA code wowed by his visits to New It remains the among 10 small regional stations offers further insulation. Not York's Roxy, Bernstein built Eng- and five relatively large ones that only are stations limited to six ad- land's first picture palaces. There company Sidney serve as the major programmers. vertising minutes per hour (the were ranks of ushers in white Bernstein built: 'the (Last year a second commercial FCC recently abolished all such gloves, dog kennels and tea channel was added, expressly to limits here), but sponsors must rooms, cut glass and Moorish creation of one serve minorities and to create op- buy spots in the schedule without arches. As his first super-cinema on portunities for independent pro- knowing which shows will appear was about to open, he sought a man, based the ducers.) there. "That means bad ratings suitably exotic name. Recalling a idea that television Some ITV programming is don't automatically wipe out happy walking trip in southern shown on a strictly regional basis. good programs," says Barrie Spain, he settled on "Granada." could influence But the five majors must also con- Heads, chief of Granada Interna- By the mid -'.50s Bemstein's ca- people for the tend for air -time to show their tional. reer had included movies and mu- works nationwide, leading to the sic halls, London society and better,' says a curious arrangement of five pro- The '50s: In the brave new Brit- American show business. With gram controllers meeting every ain flush with postwar idealism, his keen eye for the main chance, former Granada Monday to slice up the weekly conventions were crumbling, and he was bound to find something producer. schedule. (About half of ITV's moribund institutions were bat- new before long. The chance ar- weekly 104 hours are produced tered by those who refused to be- rived in 1954, when Parliament by the five, and most of their pro- lieve they'd never had it so good. passed the Television Act, open- grams are seen nationally.) At London's Royal Court The- ing the way for independent, The whole of ITV is governed atre, John Osborne's Look Back commercial television. The op- by a central body, the Indepen- in Anger-which Granada tele- portunity to compete in a market dent Broadcasting Authority vised-shocked audiences with in which only the BBC had ex- (IBA), which superficially resem- its vitriolic anti -heroics. Work- isted seemed to be, as Canadian bles our own Federal Communi- ing-class bloke and northerner publishing magnate Lord Thom- cations Commission. Like the alike began to crack London's son put it, "a license to print FCC, the IBA grants and renews middle-class cultural strangle- money." The scramble was on. broadcast licenses, and sets cer- hold. At Granada Television Sidney Bernstein was ready. tain content -related standards. young journalists bristled with a He had already applied for one But there the resemblance ends. sense of mission. of the franchises in the north of The IBA owns, builds, and oper- "It was still an age when BBC England. In a legendary business ates the transmitters that the vari- TV newsreaders wore dinner decision, he figured that where ous companies must lease; as jackets and opened every broad- the population was densest, and such it is more a landlord than a cast with 'Yesterday, the Queen the rain heaviest, people would distant overseer. The IBA takes Mother,' " says Leslie Wood - stay home to watch TV. And so in very seriously its responsibility head, a longtime Granada pro -

27 SCI'IIiMIlI-.RrtH`IUIIIfR'xa Channels www.americanradiohistory.com were Olivier's versions of Harold radical Glasgow Media Group Pinter's The Collection and No and elsewhere argue that in- Man's Land, as well as The Good creased co -production with Soldier, Hard Times, and Coun- America means that, sooner or try Matters, the last two pro- later, producers will succumb to duced by the inimitable Derek the tastes of the international Granger. market and begin asking them- Bernstein had tracked down selves, "Will it play in Peoria?" Granger at The Financial Times, Mike Wooler, a former Granada where the latter had started the employee, is head of television at highly respected Arts Page. Goldcrest, Britain's booming film "Why not try TV?" said Bern- company. He gave grounds to this stein. "What do I do?" asked argument in a recent interview, Granger, who recounts how he saying that if it weren't for PBS he was promptly interviewed by would find it hard to sell The everyone at the company. (Gra- Jewel in the Crown in America. Characters compete in the egg -carrying event of an Olympic game nada works on a sort of "gentle- "If we can't sell in America, we on Granada's dramatic serial Coronation Street. man's agreement" that everyone can't get a return. We have to ought to get on with everyone work for the international mar- ducer. "So the style at Granada Under the terms of the 1949 Rep- else.) Hired as a documentary ket." seemed very cheeky, very irrev- resentation of the People Act, it writer, Granger switched to Britain has already embarked erent." was illegal to televise debates be- drama, in an unorthodox career on its first all-out, American -style The style, back in the begin- tween candidates or to interview move fairly typical at Granada. ratings war, fired by the ABC ning, was also pretty much seat - them on election issues. Granada He went on to become the head of mini-series The Winds of War. of-the -pants. No one knew much challenged that act by covering drama, producing Brides/mead Shown on ITV last fall, it about television. Most of the en- the election, and neither British and nurturing a seemingly end- snatched viewers from the BBC, gineers had to be hired from radar elections nor British television less supply of young directors. which quickly retaliated. "You and the electronics industry. have been the same since. "There are three kinds of direc Hardly anyone had ever been in- Subjects such as homosexual- tors who come out of television side a TV studio. In fact, Grana- ity, corporal punishment, Rhode- here," says British film producer da's was the first studio in Eng- sia, and the Pill were meat for David Puttnam. "There are direc- land built for television. early Granada documentaries, tors like John Schlesinger, who Sidney Bernstein was omni- though those were issues hardly have always been America -ori- present. " 'Granada, c'est moi,' anyone even mentioned. When ented; the slightly arty BBC di- he might have said," wrote Granada was attacked, Sidney rectors, and Granada's, who are Malcolm Muggeridge in 1961. Bernstein never wavered. distinguished by a sureness of Bernstein had an interest in cur- Granada also offered light en- craft and a regard for the audi- rent affairs and politics, an admi- tertainment, much of it devel- ence. Because it is commercial ration for American journalism in oped by Sidney's brother. Cecil. television, they're forced to ad- One critic said Jewel in the general and Edward R. Murrow The most innovative of these dress the marketplace." Crown tops BBC for quality. in particular. On -the -spot jour- shows was Chelsea at Nine. A And because it's forced to ad- nalism, virtually unknown in sort of British Your Show of dress the marketplace, Granada won't believe this," said Chris- England, became a Granada spe- Shows, it replaced the familiar has launched some of its greatest topher Morahan, director of The cialty. What the Papers Say, the girls in spangled tights with Jack talents on England's longest -run- Jewel in the Crown, last winter. first show to subject the press to Benny, Maria Callas, and Ella ning hit-Coronation Street. "The BBC has taken Panorama regular criticism, went on the air Fitzgerald. There was classical "We buy our way into heaven [its august documentary series] in 1956 and is still running. music, too, and opera and ballet, with Coronation Street," said from the Monday slot and put The But it was in 1963. when World for Bernstein had long believed in one Granada producer, noting Thorn Birds opposite the first epi- in Action started, that Granada making high culture widely avail- that the money and ratings earned sode of Jewel." came into its own. This was vivid able. His real passion was drama. from the show have allowed the But the real test of British TV's journalism, shattering the deco- company to indulge its interests mettle, most agree, will come if rous British tradition. "It's still ERNSTEIN had rela- in drama and documentary. Prime Minister Margaret running today, still pursuing evil tively left-wing, avant- Scores of famous writers and Thatcher succeeds in completely men," adds Woodhead, who also garde tastes in theater directors point with pride to their deregulating television, thus pre- helped develop the docudrama, a for those days, and stints on the "Street". The show cipitating a "snowstorm" of ca- ground -breaking form that has among Granada's early produc- is seen from Finland to Thailand, ble- and satellite -delivered pro- produced shows as diverse as The tions were Arthur Laurent's and when Violet Carson, one of gramming. Many in Britain view Search for the Nile, The Naked Home of the Brave and Arthur the original cast members, died this as a potentially calamitous Civil Servant, and Woodhead's Miller's The Crucible, with a very last year, it was national news. choice; in a no -holds -barred at- own Invasion, a devastating ac- young Scots actor called Sean Even the Queen is a fan. Corona- mosphere, the traditional values count of the Soviet invasion of Connery. From the drama depart- tion Street has rarely been out of that have governed British elec- Czechoslovakia which, to his sur- ment came a huge fund of talent: the top 10 since its 1960 debut. tronic media may swiftly become prise, turned up on ABC. directors such as Michael Apted outdated. Controversy, of course, went (Coal Miner's Daughter), writers It sounds a little utopian, this No company seems more likely with the territory. It may not such as playwright Hugh Dudley Do -Right of TV compa- than Granada to survive such a seem particularly earthshaking Leonard, Colin Welland, who nies. But can it last? Some critics switch intact. With its British now, but Granada's coverage of went on to win an Oscar for Char- feel that Granada has grown mid- faith in intelligence and care, and an off-year election in the town of iots of Fire, and Brian Clarke, dle-aged and muscle-bound, that its all -the -while flat-out appeal to Rochdale in 1958 caused an im- who wrote Whose Life Is It Any- it keeps its talent too long and has millions of British viewers, Gra- mense outcry in every quarter of way? for Granada. Among the too many star producers, too nada seems likely to go on un- Britain, including Parliament. most memorable productions much philosophy. Critics at the earthing jewels for a long time.

CIlilnnelb SHNI-F.A1111-JtUtIT)ItI 'SJ www.americanradiohistory.com MYSTERY! So entertaining - its criminal '98¢ -1985 Season Rumpole's Return October n Rumpole of the Bailey Series iii October 18 -November 22 AgathaChristies Partners in Crime November 29 - December 27 Praying Mantis Januarkl o - January 2¢ Agatha Christie Mysteries ii January 31- March 7 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes March 1¢ - April25 The Woman inWhite May 2 -May 3o Reilly: Ace of Spies (Encore) June 6- August 22

1984 Mood Corporation Illustration Edward Gorey Design, Gips+Balkind+Associateu. Inc.

www.americanradiohistory.com TATION manager Ray gural address," says Terkel fox- stories or invites favorite musi- A Nordstrand has just ily. "That was the hardest part. cians to play: another he presides finished showing a visi- Now I have to get myself nomi- over lively discussions of politics SEARCH tor WFMT's vast mu- nated and elected." He wanders or art or. really, does whatever he sic library-a room the size of a off. Nordstrand beams. Terkel pleases. "Studs," says Nord- FOR handball court packed with has been the station's star since strand, "is the spirit and the soul 30,000 classical albums and un- he was blacklisted out of network of this radio station." counted miles of original concert television in 1952. A best-selling Terkel's show isn't typical of Excellence tapes. In the hallway, the two run author and sometime actor, WFMT: Chicago's fine -arts sta- into Studs Terkel, chomping on Terkel has just used his daily tion is hard to typify. But the sta- an unlit cigar and looking dishev- hour-long program to engage tion and Terkel share a number of eled, as befits a legend. once again in some flights of qualities: They're both revered, "I have just delivered my inau- whimsy. One day he reads short successful, and idiosyncratic. Nordstrand and his compatri- ots run the FM station as though constantly amazed that it can be done. They're running probably the best all-around radio station in the country. Consider: RADIO'S SUPER WFMT radiates a singular, complete personality based on consistent excellence, not on a homogenized musical sound. It SUPERSTATION has won more broadcasting awards than any other commercial station. BY ERIC ZORN The station's commitment to performance taping is unprece- dented. At least a dozen times a week, its engineers go into the field to record concerts, interviews, and events, according to Nordstrand, a three -decade WFMT veteran. The station syn- dicates-to 400 stations in 23 countries-concerts by the Chi- cago, Philadelphia. Milwaukee. and San Francisco orchestras as well as performances of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Cana- dian Opera. WFMT shows respect for its listeners by limiting commercial time to an average of four minutes an hour, and maintains a high - quality sound by rejecting prerecorded spots and commercial jingles. In return, the audience seems to show a high "gratitude factor" to advertisers. Although the station ranks only about 20th in the Chicago ratings, its listeners, mostly upscale, have helped put it in the top IO in advertising billings. The station and its monthly program guide, which has grown over time to become the ad -thick Chicago magazine, have gross earnings of more than $15 million a year. Cable television operators in 40 states have recognized WFMT's merits, and added its audio signal to cable systems in 292 cities, making it the leading i radio "superstition." itir The late BERNARD JACOBS, who with his wife. Rita, ftnu/ed Chicago's FM exemplar and set its unusual policies Eric Zorn is a feature Writer who A. corers radio for the Chicago Trib- une.

30 t'lI[ll(Net.Y SEFTf.MBER((1(T(}BER'84 www.americanradiohistory.com Such a reputation is secure both in spite of and because WFMT of v,E ARTS STAI ¡(IN WFMT's relentlessly unconventional ways. There is, for instance, no fixed length for newscasts. An announcer reportedly once skipped the news entirely, explaining that there weren't any reports of sufficient importance. The announcers never become cloying "personalities," or even serve regular daily airshifts, but are uniformly well-spoken, musi- cally knowledgeable, and carefully chosen. Try out their audition script: It must by no means be assumed that the ability to pronounce R 1l \ORDSTRAND (r.), manager of WFMT, and NORMAN 'L'Orchestre de la Societ' des PEL1,1(:RINI, program director: stewards of the station who have Concerts du Conservatoire de nurtured its original spirit Paris" with fluidity and verve FMT ances too quickly, and they were tion one of the cleanest sounds in shows respect for forced to beg for donations on the broadcasting. Popular Mechan- its listeners by air. But canny marketing helped ic's called WFMT the only station WFMT survive as dozens of in the country "that transmits a limiting other radio stations abandoned signal clean enough to justify the commercial time to classical music for faster -selling price of the [most expensive] commodities. tuner." an average of four In 1968 Bernard Jacobs, in fail- The walls of one studio are ing health, sold the station to hung with strange pad-shaped minutes an hour, WGN, the Chicago Tribune's and shelf-shaped things. "We've and maintains a subsidiary. Listeners were finally gotten this room right," alarmed and fought to save the says Evans Mirageas, the young high -quality sound station's character. Two years assistant producer of Music in by rejecting and many petitions later. WGN America, WFMT's weekly audio backed off and donated the sta- odyssey. "Some of the lower fre- prerecorded spots tion to Chicago's major public tel- quencies were bouncing all over The legendary Studs Terkel, evision station, WTTW. Today, the place, so we built this thing. who's had a daily show on and commercial the for-profit WFMT subsidiary Traps 'em right up." WFMT for three decades jingles. In return, funnels more than $I million a Mirageas is in the middle of a year to its nonprofit parent. Ad- project for Music in America. outweighs an ease, naturalness. the audience shows vertisers are lured to WFMT's af- "I'm going through this ancient and friendliness of' delivery when a high 'gratitude fluent audience-the so-called Greek music looking for material at the omnipresent microphone. "Classical Advantage"-and the about the Olympics. We're going For example. when delivering a factor' to station takes credit within the ra- to take sort of a travelogue diatribe concerning Claudia Mu - dio industry for a small national approach to this one." Nord- zio, Benianrino Gigli. Hetty Plü- advertisers. The resurgence of classical -music strand calls Music in America macher. Giacinto Prandelli. station ranks in the radio. the most ambitious project in Hilde Rüssl-Majdan and Lini Six years of satellite transmis- WFMT's history. Mirageas and Pagliughi.,five out of six is good top 10 in Chicago sion to cable systems around the veteran producer Jim Unrath enough if the sixth one is mispro- radio advertising country have given WFMT a na- crisscross the nation to preview nounced plausibly. tional audience and prestige, but outstanding events in the week's WFMT outperforms public ra- billings. have had little financial effect, ac- cultural calendar. They have dio at its own game. it draws a cording to Nordstrand, who says intercepted and interviewed the similarly educated (94 percent at- the only gain in advertising has likes of Mstislav Rostropovich in tended college), wealthy (average been a few commercials for Bil- Washington. Joan Sutherland in household income $57.000) audi- ly's Bar and Grill in Key West, San Diego, and Aaron Copland in ence that rejects the banality of Florida. "We still think of our- Milwaukee. most commercial radio. But selves as a Chicago station serv- While classical music domi- WFMT's commerc al income ing Chicago listeners." nates its schedule, WFMT also makes possible a production Several years ago, WFMT airs poetry, comedy, drama, dis- budget beyond the reach of public moved from comparatively mod- cussion, documentaries, and folk radio stations. est quarters into offices and stu- music. It was the first U.S. sta- The superstation was started dios overlooking Lake Michigan. tion to play compact digital audio by Bernard and Rita Jacobs in A soundproofed, two-story con- discs over the air, and also the 1951, when relatively few people cert hall is surrounded by two stu- first to air Bob Dylan and the Bea- had FM receivers. The Jacobses, dios, three control rooms, and tles. "The only rule we have is to whose distinctive approach still three production rooms, each keep faith with the audience," inspires the station, started by ex- built atop rubber springs and says program director Norman panding the broadcast schedule rigged with state-of-the-art equip- Pelligrini. "Other than that, re- and the number of live perform- ment. The facilities give the sta- ally, anything goes." lil

SEPrEMBE.R/aK'T()BER'ItJ CllttAqels www.americanradiohistory.com THERE IS ONLY ONE presi - work-into a clear window strated that there are more ways A dent of a nationwide tel- through which the American peo- to "do" public affairs on televi- evision network who ple can watch the House of Rep- sion than the usual format de- SEARCH could make the boast, or resentatives and other federal scended from newsreels and ra- who would even want to. Brian bodies do our governmental dio. Alone among networks, FOR Lamb, head of the C -SPAN cable work. C -SPAN dares to be boring (al- network, is proud to say, "On any More than any other network, though it isn't always). Yet it has given day, it's totally out of our C -SPAN makes good on cable's a healthy and influential audi- hands." early promise to offer diverse ence, which includes C -SPAN Excellence As much as possible, Lamb is channels that narrowcast for spe- junkies who love to stare through trying to make the nonprofit, non- cific audience interests, and it ig- the window at Congress. On the commercial C-SPAN-Cable nores the dictates of mass -market average, at any one time, a quar- Satellite Public Affairs Net - economics. Lamb has demon - ter -million pairs of eyes are peer- ing in-which was reason enough to precipitate a testy little partisan fray this spring. Thanks to C - SPAN, the House will never be the same. CABLE'S OWN Whenever the House is in session, the unflinching camera is there, pointed at one podium or another. Neatly coiffed Repre- sentatives queue up daily for their PUBLIC TELEVISION moments on C -SPAN. Reveling in media exposure unbound by the usual time constraints and advertising rates of television, Con- gresspeople play to the folks NETWORK watching on 1,500 cable systems. The House floor show started last year, when Democratic dep- BY BROOKE GLADSTONE uty whip Bill Alexander (Ark.) began taking a nightly hour- which he split evenly with Repub- licans-to debate such issues as U.S. involvement in Central America. Then, early this year, a group of young, self -described "guerrilla" Republicans led by Newt Gingrich (Ga.) and Robert S. Walker (Pa.) began taking advantage of the House's traditional "special orders" period at the end of the day. They speechify on issues they think have been swept under the rug by the Democratic majority, such as school prayer, abortion, and the death penalty. Democrats called the tactic "grandstanding," and in May took the offensive. House Speaker Thomas P. ("Tip") O'Neill (Mass.) quietly amended the House camera operators' in- structions. Previously, the camera had always stayed fixed on the podium, lest it catch a smirk- ing or snoring legislator in his seat. But while Walker was speaking May 10, the camera began to pan around the chamber, revealing to C -SPAN viewers a virtually empty house. "It was a sham, what they were doing, and

Brooke Gladstone has covered 4` BRIAN LAMB founded the noncommercial channel now carried by 1,500 cable systems. cable television and public broadcasting from Washington, D.C., and is now associate editor of The Washington Weekly.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER'84 Channels www.americanradiohistory.com Mobil Masterpiece Theatre presents The Barchester Chronicles Based on Anthony Trollope's The Warden and Barchester Towers

Ambition led to reform -but there was no reforming ambition A seven -part series begins Sunday October 28 on PBS Starring: Donald Pleasence and Susan Hampshire Check local listings Host: Alistai r Cooke Mobil

Available in paperback from Signet Classic 51984 Mobil Corporation

www.americanradiohistory.com From a front -row seat, he witnessed its impact on two of the most embattled Presidents in recent history: Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. In 1966, after several years at a Lafayette. Indiana radio and TV station and a couple of years in the Navy, Lamb joined the John- son White House as a military aide. Hovering near LBJ's shoul- der several hours a day was for him "a mind -boggling experience." Late in the Johnson years, Lamb returned to Indiana to head the station in Lafayette. Then, in 1968, he took an irresistible as- signment with the Nixon -Agnew campaign: toting a tape recorder across the Midwest, organizing town meetings, stopping people in supermarkets, and otherwise getting them to "Speak to Nixon - Agnew." "It was a phony show," he

says "but 1 really thought it was for real. It was a question of trust. When C -SPAN started up in Mardi we just can't stand for that," GOP legislators are "really mean, At the briefing I asked them-is /979, it carried only the House of O'Neill told a reporter. that they're unfair, and that they this for real? They told mean aide Representatives floor action. Now The C -SPAN audience is an at- do support the rich." boiled down the tapes and the House coverage makes up only tractive one for speechmakers. In Those varying assessments shipped the excerpts to the cam- one -tenth of its 24 ;hour schedule. size, it's substantial; some 18 mil- would please Brian Lamb, paign plane. It was all hooey, a lion households receive the net- founder and president of C - gimmick to attract the attention of work, and a quarter of them tune SPAN. People are seeing the raw the evening news and plant firmly in with some regularity. More- event and making up their own in the minds of the public that over, its composition is bound to minds. They have "a chance to Nixon -Agnew wanted to listen to set congressional hearts aflutter. play journalist," says Lamb, who the people." He sighs. "Well, the Regular C -SPAN viewers are rel- would have liked to call C -SPAN rest is history." (This fall, how- atively affluent and well edu- "the People's Network," except ever, C -SPAN is producing a real cated, according to both a na- for the political connotations of voice -of-the -people show, Grass tional survey by Arbitron and a the phrase. The network has no Roots '84, going on location in 15 local survey in the Philadelphia aggressive or jaded journalists in- cities before Election Day.) area. Viewers are more likely terpreting events. C-SPAN's on - than non -viewers to write their air people are functionaries under AMB went on to other legislators, to volunteer for and strict orders to blend into the stints-with UPI Au- give money to campaigns, and to woodwork. The network's edito- dio, as a congressional vote. They are somewhat inde- rial responsibility extends only to press secretary, and pendent -minded as well, accord- selection of the hearings it covers then to President Nixon's Office ing to the Philadelphia survey. and the guests for its call -in of Telecommunications Policy, With equal numbers of Demo- shows. Lamb polices the cover- which had its own complaints crats and Republicans, and with age for bias, and rarely detects about biased political reporting. almost one-quarter independent, any. Viewers are urged to com- (He now concedes there were the viewing electorate are less ment if they detect a drift, and partisan motivations behind OTP likely than non -viewers to vote when they do, C -SPAN often ad- director Clay Whitehead's at- along party lines. justs. "Our respect for the audi- tempt to cut funding for PBS pub- Congressmen like to think ence has never wavered," says lic -affairs programming.) He they're swaying some of those Lamb. eventually became Washington swing voters. "A fellow wrote me In contrast, the kind of political bureau chief of Cablevision, an that he was a liberal Democrat be- coverage we see on the broadcast industry magazine. From that fore watching C -SPAN," says the networks has infected the public vantage point, he proposed the Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley's conservative Bob Walker. "Now with a low esteem for Congress idea of C -SPAN to a number of speech at the Democratic National he's a conservative Republican. and Washington in general, ac- cable industry executives, who Convention was one of the events The pulsebeat from my mail cording to some politicians and formed a nonprofit corporation. C -SPAN viewers saw that network seems to indicate that's going on a political scientists. Television's Five -and -a -half years ago, Lamb viewers did not. lot." Yet speaker O'Neill said in a typical brief reports from Capitol left his Cablevision job and took C -SPAN interview that the cable - Hill show a confused, conflict - charge of the new network. casting of the House proceedings ridden response to nearly intrac- The service was begun as an was a factor in Democratic victo- table national problems. And of- expression of good will on the ries in the last election. Accord- ten, newscasts zoom in on one part of the cable industry, Lamb ing to his mail, even Republican scandal. Lamb abhors network says. And cable systems still pay viewers were concluding that domination of television news. the $6 million budget of the corn -

Channels SEPTEMBERKK 1'nBER'N4 www.americanradiohistory.com mercial-free service, subscribing AMERICA'S aged grandstanding on all fronts. the complexities of some law - e spAn NETWORK at the rate of three cents or less It has made politically unpopular making issues cannot be clearly per subscriber per month. (In decisions tougher to make, and laid out, even in a whole evening comparison, cable operators pay given further advantage to the of floor debate. So the work is 15 to 44 cents per subscriber to charismatic politician over the delegated to subcommittees, carry Cable News Network.) unphotogenic. where representatives' time is Starting with gavel -to -gavel For the guerrilla Republicans, used more productively. (Walker House proceedings, the network or any minority, C -SPAN contends, however, that the real has gradually added coverage of presents a chance to turn up the reason Democrats resent being House and Senate hearings, Na- heat under their issues. Rep. called to the floor is that it inter - tional Press Club speeches, na- Walker knows that harsh words rupts their basketball games in tional call -in shows (President build ratings. Lamb told him that the House gymnasium.) Reagan has called twice), on -lo- the audience appears to swell Most certainly, C -SPAN is al. - cation programs showing "days when things get hot on the House fecting the scheduling of major in the life" of various congress - floor. Audience growth due to floor debates. Democratic deputy people and media organizations, floor fights "figures into the strat- whip Alexander has proposed and gavel -to -gavel convention egy" of the guerrillas, according scheduling important debates at 9 coverage this summer. Last year. to Walker. "If we can make the P.M. "Why do you think the Presi - C -SPAN expanded to a 24 -hour issue into a contentious one, then dent addresses the joint session of schedule, transmitting one -quar- we will have a larger audience. C- Congress at 9 o'clock? So people ter of it live. More than 200 hours SPAN is a new tool in the con- can see it." Other Democrats are of live hearings and 1,000 hours of gressional arsenal. Any member uneasy about the guerrilla Repub- taped hearings wre transmitted. n Now the House flour coverage makes up only 10 percent of C- C -SPAN, viewers SPAN's schedule. raw As nonpartisan and passive as see the event, C -SPAN is, the network's poten- and have a chance tial political clout has caused con- cern on Capitol Hill. The Senate to 'play journalist,' has continually refused to allow says founder Brian television cameras in its chamber, and the House still puts its Lamb. The network own employees in control of the cameras, under strict guidelines, has no aggressive rather than C -SPAN employees. or jaded journalists "The power to give reaction shots interpreting events. on the floor is the power to edito- r rialize, and that's the reason we Its on -air people l operate our own cameras," says Rep. Charlie Rose (D.-N.C.), are under strict who is so wary of C-SPAN's influence that he has banned the net- orders to blend into work from Capitol Hill's own ca- the woodwork. ble -television system. "The power to pick what committee Lamb polices the t hearings members of Congress coverage for bias, watch is the power to set your own legislative ageroda," says and viewers are Speaker Tip O'Neill changed the rules for televising the House when Rose. "I don't want members Republican "guerrillas" began orating directly to the C -SPAN subjected to any legislátive urged to comment audience. agenda but their own." if they detect a drift. The House only let in the tele- of Congress who hasn't noticed it licans' grandstanding. They have vision cameras after 30 years of hasn't been awake." proposed cutting off "special or- debate, and it is now experiencing C -SPAN may not only increase ders" time. And Rep. Tony nearly every good and bad effect the amount of invective heard on Coelho (Cal.), head of the Demo - predicted during those many the House floor, it may also in- cratic Congressional Campaign years. C -SPAN gives House crease the substantive business Committee, wants a law forbid- members direct access to the pub- transaéted there. Walker hopes ding the use of House floor foot - lic. It provides an alternative to so. For years, floor action has age in political advertisements. the rush and hype of network been a pro forma exercise; most Despite the controversies, C - news, and helps counterbalance of the legislative work has been SPAN has become an integral fix - television's disproportionately done in the 139 subcommittees, ture on Capitol Hill. "Television heavy coverage of the President's all under Democratic control. No is here to stay permanently doings. It has educated viewers in wonder Walker is glad to predict now," Speaker O'Neill told Lamb the political process, and possibly that "C -SPAN is going to force during an interview last March on bolstered the sagging image of Congress back to the floor." the network's fifth anniversary. If Congress. But C -SPAN has also But that was one reason televi- the plug were pulled on C -SPAN, greatly increased the volume of sion was kept out of Congress for he said, "we'd have to find an- hot air generated in an already so many years. Any congres- other organization, or go into the long-winded body. It has encour- sional assistant will confirm that business and do it ourselves."

SEPTEMBEWOCTOBER '84 Channels www.americanradiohistory.com piece Theatre presents its 4th Season Begins October28 Sundays at 9PM on PBS Check local listings Host: Alistair Cooke

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www.americanradiohistory.com EULOGIES for Los Ange - and The Movie Channel as well. moted competition? A les's home-grown pay - Most industry observers- Two years later, the eulogies television service, the even the people who worked at have yet to be delivered. Not only SEARCH nonsensically named Z the Z Channel-felt then that it has Z survived, it has prospered. Channel, were being prepared was only a matter of time before Precise figures are difficult to FOR early in 1982. After eight years of the local service withered away. come by, but cable industry ana- operating without competition, Z Who would want to lay out up to lyst Paul Kagan estimates that Z was going up against the big boys. $13.95 each month for its odd as- has about 72,000 subscribers on Its parent company, Group W Ca- sortment of current and classic the Group W system (more than Excellence ble, had decided to beef up its of- films when many of the same double the figure for HBO) and at ferings, to provide subscribers mainstream movies, plus a grow- least 20,000 on the 16 other not only with the Z Channel but ing number of first-run programs, Southern California cable sys- Home Box Office, Showtime, were available on the heavily pro - tems that carry it. Moreover, the Z Channel is said by Group W to have the lowest rate of subscriber turnover, or "churn" (roughly 2.5 percent per month) of any pay service it offers. At Valley Cable, one of Z's affiliates, the channel's THE PAY CHANNEL churn rate is so low that it appears the only people who disconnect it are the ones moving from the area. "It is obviously the single best local pay -television operation in the world," proclaims Mel Harris, president of the video division at Paramount Pictures. "No one knows its community DISCONNECTS and provides programming for it as well as the Z Channel." Indeed, in the movie -making BY LEE MARGULIES mecca, the Z Channel qualifies as a cultural shrine. It is a film buffs treasure trove, as eclectic as the industry it showcases. The programming on Z ranges from art films to exploitation movies, from the best of foreign cinema to the worst of Hollywood schlock, from star-studded blockbusters to no -name pictures that were shelved almost as quickly as they were made. At a time when the national pay channels are increasingly adopt- ing the commercial networks' philosophy of programming- please as many of the people as much of the time as possible-the Z Channel is sticking to the notion that pay television ought to offer alternatives to broadcast TV. The Z Channel is also a rarity for another reason: It is a channel programmed neither by committee nor by research but rather by a true movie lover, a man who seems less interested in making money than in exposing people to the widest variety of films. "I think the programmers in pay are keeping the audience from a lot of things," says Jerry Harvey, the soft-spoken, 34 -year - old film addict who is Z's pro -

JERRY HARVEY, who programs Z Channel for movie lovers like himself Lee Margulies writes about television Jro The Los Angeles Times.

Channels SEPTEMBENOCTOBEft'S4 www.americanradiohistory.com Musicals: Now and Then, which ance in every part of the country, included On the Town, Okla- the Z Channel need only clear the homa!, Carousel, Brigadoon, rights in the Los Angeles area. The Best Little Whorehouse in Also important is the special Texas, and The Decline of West- program guide that Group W pub- ern Civilization. There was even lishes for its subscribers, Z Mag- an installment of what Z calls its azine, a 38 -page monthly that not Z's foreign films, like Serie Best t).1' the Worst series: Son of only runs down the day-by-day Z Noire, usually are subtitled. Godzilla. Channel schedule but also pro- "Really terrible films can be vides plot summaries, back- gramming director and guiding entertaining," Harvey offers in ground information, extensive creative force. "Our idea is to in- explanation of this last feature. credits, and critical evaluations of vite people to stretch." There is a Besides, he adds, "if all you each film. policy at Z against showing porn wanted to put on your service "The problem for HBO and films, but other than that, Harvey were good films, you wouldn't Showtime," says Greg Nathan- says, he simply follows his in- have much to put on." son, head of programming for stincts in programming the chan- Z schedules its movies by the nel. "This is just the way I'd like week rather than by the month. to see it if I were a consumer," he Each Friday brings a new slate of explains. A screenwriter with one 13 to 16 films, which are rotated production credit (China 9, Lib- through the 24 -hour -a -day lineup erty 37), Harvey hooked on in and then, in most cases, retired. 1978 with the programming de- Those due for a return engage- partment at SelecTV, one of Los ment are shelved a minimum of Angeles's two over -the -air sub nthe six months. scription TV services, then It is this diverse, constantly moved over to Z in 1981. movie -making changing mixture of product that The achievement of which Har- mecca, Z Channel Harvey believes is the key to the vey is proudest is his having per- Z Channel's success. That is why suaded MGM/UA to let Z screen qualifies as a he professes only minimal con- the full-length version of Michael cultural shrine, a cern about Home Box Office ty- Cimino's critically panned Heav- ing up exclusive pay -TV rights to en's Gate in December 1982- film buff's treasure a growing number of Hollywood more than a year after it had been films. "A lot of people aren't go- pulled from theaters and written trove. Its schedule ing to mind missing the occa- off as the biggest money loser in ranges from art sional Tootsie," he maintains. motion picture history. Harvey "We live in the age of video cas- felt his subscribers would relish filmsto settes, so they can go rent it-or the opportunity to judge for them- exploitation they'll have seen it in a theater. Z gave its viewers a chance to selves, and he was right: The re- The reason we do as well as we do see Hollywood's biggest loser sponse was favorable enough to movies. 'I think the is because we have things they ever, Heaven's Gate. encourage MGM/UA to license haven't seen in theaters and that the film to other pay -TV outlets. programmers in aren't available on cassette." Golden Crest Television in Los Harvey was elated; it was con- pay are keeping the Despite rumors to the contrary Angeles, "is that their programs crete proof, he feels, that Z over the years, says Norm Nel- get just one line in a multichannel "could alter the perception of the audience from a lot son, the Group W regional vice guide, and if it doesn't excite the viewers; they were willing to lis- of things,' says Z president who oversees the Z viewers, they won't watch. Be- ten to us, and give the film a Channel, there are no plans to ex- cause Jerry controls his guide, he chance. I don't think all of Amer- Channel's pand the service beyond South- is able to make unknown films or ica thinks Heaven's Gate is a total impresario. ern California. "I don't think the classics sound interesting." failure anymore." 'Our appeal would be the same nation- Harvey agrees. "If we didn't Z Channel's June 1984 lineup idea is to invite wide," he contends. "The mar- have room to explain why we're gives a good idea of the balance keting effort wouldn't be worth running some of these films, we'd Harvey seeks. The main attrac- people to stretch.' it.' be in trouble," he says. tion was one of the channel's oc- That is also the feeling among Ultimately, though, the Z casional special events, Rainer cable and movie industry execu- Channel's biggest advantage is Werner Fassbinder's Berlin Alex- tives, who point to several special Harvey's own serious attitude to- anderplatz, a 151/2-hour series reasons for Z's success. Fore- ward film. The sheer range of Z made for German television in most is its location in the Los Channel films reflects enormous 1979. (Like most foreign films on Angeles area, which provides it respect for the varying tastes and Z, it was shown in the original lan- with a sophisticated, film -ori- interests of the audience. So does guage, with subtitles.) The rest of ented audience. Perhaps as many the fact that the program guide, Z the programming ranged from as 20 percent of the Z Channel's Magazine, doesn't try to hype commercial Hollywood films subscribers work in show busi- every movie that comes along. As such as National Lampoon's Va- ness. his rivals grow ever more leery of cation, Doctor Detroit, and Psy- Compared to HBO and other taking chances for fear of losing cho II, to the French La Nuit de national movie services, the Z subscribers, Harvey, with his Varennes, the Dutch Mysteries, Channel also has a strategic ad- flair for the off-beat, keeps his and the Italian Nest of Vipers, to vantage in booking classic films. subscribers from canceling: He a "festival" of four Woody Allen While the national services have keeps them wondering what movies and a retrospective called to arrange broadcast -rights clear- they're going to miss.

, l'EMBER/Ol'fOB1iR'1S1 Ch[rn(IPS www.americanradiohistory.com MYSTERY! PRESENTS THE THIRD SEASON OF RUMPOLE orrllu LEY CRIME PAID, BUT ONLY A LITTLE AT A TIME

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ENTION Minnesota tions in Minneapolis/St. Paul, the an early grain -milling firm that A to most people and nation's 15th largest media mar- begat General Mills-seems to they think of the ket. have dominated Minnesota com- SEARCH 3Ms: mosquitoes, What's more, in many circles munications since Marconi's Mondale, and The Mary Tyler the two stations are ranked time. The AM station is celebrat- FOR Moore Show. But mention the among the finest and most public- ing its 60th anniversary. For state to people in the broadcast- spirited local broadcast outlets in years, into the 1970s, the stations ing industry, and they're likely to the country. The reputation were owned by the Cowles, Rit- think of a different set of letters: proves to have some flaws upon ter, and other families prominent Excellence WCCO. For more years than close examination, but for the in Twin Cities newspapering. competitors would like to admit, most part it holds up. Now owned by the privately held the call letters have stood for the WCCO-the call letters refer Midwest Communications, the dominant television and radio sta - to the Washburn Crosby Corp., two WCCOs remain bound to their public-service tradition. WCCO-TV, a CBS affiliate, is renowned for the long line of talented journalists it has contributed to the network, among them Phil Jones, Susan Spencer, Bob THE LOCAL McNamara, and Susan Peterson. ABC correspondent Bill Stewart, killed in Nicaragua in 1979, was also a WCCO alumnus. On the business side, Thomas H. Daw- BROADCASTER THE son went from WCCO to CBS and rose to become president of the television network in the late I960s. The television station has been PEOPLE RELY ON recognized for the quality of its local news coverage. Among its awards are an Emmy and a Pea- BY NICK COLEMAN body for work by the respected investigative reporting unit billed as the I -Team. The Emmy last year was for an I -Team series on the sexual abuse of children, which charged that a Minneapolis judge had purchased sex from teenage boys-a charge that led to recommendations for the judge's removal from office. This year, WCCO won a Peabody for an I -Team series revealing flaws in an ambulance -dispatching system that had resulted in needless deaths. The sister station, WCCO- AM, also won a Peabody this year-the first time in 30 years that both halves of a TV -radio r combination have won Pea - ,srrlmºulinirtN bodies. The radio station's win- , 1 ning series reported on the ordeal 11 1_ 1 1 of a woman in need of a heart 3T transplant, who died while waiting for a donor. Through the years, the AM station has won five Peabodies, and the television station has won three, which makes it the winningest commercial TV -radio combination in the United States and Canada. The two stations have succeeded largely because they have become so interwoven in the fabric of Minnesota's daily life. WCCO'S DISTINCTIVE NEW $18 million quarters in downtown Minneapolis Nick Coleman is media critic for the Minneapolis Star and Trib- une.

SEPTEMBER,11(' 11 ,t.EK'Y4 C"ltll/llleÌ.ti www.americanradiohistory.com WCCO-AM's lead in the radio ratings grows greater still in winter because Minnesotans take their weather seriously. Novem- WCCO TV ber through April, most folks tune to the AM station to find out how bad the snow is, and whether they'll have to go to work. The 50,000 -watt clear-channel station frequently devotes two hours or more on the morning after a blizzard to school -closing announce- ments from all over the state. WCCO also reliably reports on tornadoes in spring, Minnesota Twins baseball in summer, and Minnesota Vikings football in the fall. (Music is such a minor part of the station's schedule that songs often aren't even finished.) For many Minnesotans, WCCO-AM is the local bulletin board, a relic two of small-town America that has Te WCCO-TV's award -winning investigative unit, the 1 -Team, includes persisted into the electronic age. stations reporters Al Austin, Larry Schmidt, and Don Shelby. While the AM station two decades ago boasted as much as 68 succeeded largely competition than its AM sister. producing a nightly I5 -minute percent of the Twin Cities listen- because they are But that competition, kept at a wrap-up that gave greater depth ing audience, its share has only high level by WCCO's commu- to its coverage. recently, and only slightly, interwoven in the nity -service standards, contrib- Covering the summer's two dropped below a very respectable fabric of utes in large measure to the un- conventions cost the station an 20 percent of the audience. With Minnesota's usually good quality of television estimated $150,000. but news ex- 19.1 percent of the audience this daily life. news in the Twin Cities. The tele- penditures like that aren't unu- spring, WCCO-AM was still the vision station has been in a see- sual for WCCO. The station second -highest -rated station in In winter, most saw battle for years with KSTP- maintains a full-time bureau in the top 25 markets (following people turn to TV, an ABC affiliate and flagship Washington, D.C., at a cost of station of Hubbard Broadcasting. some $500,000 a year. On many WCCO-AM to hear (WCCO and KSTP tied in the nights, the bureau's reports are May Arbitron survey, each win- little but warmed-over versions how bad the snow ning 34 percent of the viewing au- of the network news, but having is. For many, dience. The Nielsen survey the bureau also gives the station a placed WCCO at 31 percent. giv- jump on breaking national sto- it is the local ing KSTP a lead of 3 points.) ries, allowing it to milk the Min- bulletin board, When the U.S. Marine head- nesota angle for all it's worth. quarters in Beirut was destroyed WCCO-TV displays an unu- a relic of small- by a terrorist bomb last October, sual willingness to open its deci- only a handful of local television sions to public discussion, and to town America that stations sent crews to Lebanon, acknowledge its impact on the persists in the and three of those were from the community. Last spring, for ex- Twin Cities. It's worth noting that ample, the station aired a live de- electronic age. WTCN, the NBC affiliate, was bate on its investigative journal- TOM DOAR, chairman of first on the scene in Lebanon, and ism techniques. One I -Team WCCO's parent, Midwest that KSTP's nightly reports from report that came under fire was a Communications Beirut proved stronger than series that spent several nights WCCO's; but WCCO followed its proving the unremarkable fact KMOX-AM, the CBS -owned sta- reports with a typically thorough that bicycles tend to be stolen if tion in St. Louis). Its morning special report anchored by vet- left unattended in public places. team of Charlie Boone and Roger eran newsman Dave Moore, a Another employed a questionable Erickson remains far ahead of the veritable institution in Twin Cit- hidden -camera technique to re- competition; the duo presides ies television. WCCO's commit- veal that judges sometimes play over the second -highest-rated ment to news showed again in golf and tennis when they might morning show in the nation. July when it sent 21 people-ap- be at their desks clearing away Afternoon announcer Steve Can- parently the largest contingent the backlog of cases. non still enjoys the country's from any out-of-town TV sta- But the I -Team has never highest ratings. Although a com- tion-to the Democratic National stooped to report the skin -and - peting FM station, KSTP, is now convention in San Francisco. sin -type stories favored by many drawing a larger share of young KSTP carried glitzier coverage, stations to bolster their ratings. adult listeners, WCCO is still an broadcasting live (via portable WCCO continues to enjoy a na- AM survivor, defying the na- satellite antenna) from San Fran- tional reputation as one of a hand- tional trend toward FM domi- cisco's Telegraph Hill. And ful of local stations that set the nance. WTCN did a creditable job. But standard for television jour- WCCO-TV faces much fiercer WCCO again went the extra mile. nalism.

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THE BEST PRIME -TIME CULTURAL AND Excellence EACH year the three FICTIONAL SERIES: ENTERTAINMENT broadcast television networks together SPECIALS: send out some 1. Hill Street Blues (NBC) 20,000 hours of programming to- 1. The Kennedy Center Honors ward the unseen maw of the audi- 2. Cheers (NBC) (CBS) ence; cable networks transmit additional thousands. Given the 3. St. Elsewhere (NBC) 2. Live from Lincoln Center demands for quantity and popular- (PBS) ity, and the cynical acceptance of 4. Cagney & Lacey (CBS) mediocrity by so many people on 3. The American Film both the sending and receiving ends 5. Kate & Allie (CBS) Institute Salute to Lillian Gish (CBS)

"Hill Street had a few weak 4. Great Performances (PBS) moments-the forced -looking break-up of Frank and Joyce- 5. Live from the Met (PBS) but it's still TV's most compel- A ling regular viewing," says Bill "Twenty years ago, I would Carter. "I like Hill Street," have had much, much less says Kay Gardella. "Techni- Newhart. "Bob Newhart is trouble coming up with candi- CRITICS' cally, it's very well put to- still one of the best, but also dates for this category," says gether, but it has become too one of our most underrated co- Tom Shales. repetitive and far too violent." medians," says Don Freeman. "He Makes Me Feel Like "With all the lightweight fare Several panelists were alone Dancin' " may have been the CIRCLE on TV, CBS needed Cagney & in their enthusiasm. "Night most joyful program of the Lacey as much as Cagney & Court qualifies solely on the year," says Lee Margulies. Lacey needed CBS," observes basis of its potential," says Bill "NBC's three Live ... and in Person specials provided ex- PICKS Rick DuBrow. "It follows in Hayden. "The episodes aired the tradition of CBS's solid, so- so far show a steady evolution cellent entertainment." cial -oriented drama series of in the direction of Burner the past, such as The De- Miller or Cheers." THE fenders and Lou Grant." At least one panelist had The canceled situation com- barely enough enthusiasm to edy Buffalo Bill was a strong go around: "I'm not particu- runner-up. Lee Margulies larly enamored of any of them, YEAR'S called it "the most original, in all particulars," says Bob most unpredictable series to Knight, "but I can sit through come along in years." There first -run episodes without were also scattered votes for squirming in my seat."

THE BEST NATIONAL NEWSCASTS:

1. Nightline with Ted Koppel (ABC) B e

2. Evening News with Dan Rather (CBS) THE BEST TALK 3. Nightly News with Tom Brokaw (NBC) SHOWS:

4. The MacNeillLehrer 1. The Tonight Show with NewsHour (PBS) Johnny Carson (NBC)

5. World News Tonight with 2. Late Night with David Peter Jennings (ABC) Letterman (NBC)

3. Phil Donahue (syndicated) "Nightline is the best news Overnight, "the best TV news "narrowly parochial." He show of any kind on TV," says show I'd ever seen." says, "World news is almost 4. The Tonight Show with Bill Carter, "and Koppel is the Lengthening MacNeill nonexistent at times, and fo- Joan Rivers (NBC) best interviewer." But David Lehrer to an hour has made it cuses on quaint customs." But Marc contends that Nightline "twice as good," says Don Bill Hayden observes that the 5. Woman to Woman has "degenerated into Freeman. major newscasts "cram a lot of (syndicated) tied with This unwatchability," and laments Jim Bawden objects that the information into the time avail- Week with David Brinkley the passing of NBC News American news shows remain able." (ABC)

(IIURI(ei., SI gq R www.americanradiohistory.com of television, achievements of genu- THE BEST ine quality can be surprising and are THE BEST PUBLIC -AFFAIRS OR doubly encouraging. MADE -FOR -TV Channels asked an informal panel DOCUMENTARY SERIES: MOVIES OR of 22 professional television watch- ers, mostly critics on newspaper 1. Frontline (PBS) MINI-SERIES: staffs, to choose-based on recol- lection-the top five programs of 2. 60 Minutes (CBS) 1. Concealed Enemies (PBS) the 1983-'84 season in each of a dozen categories. A tabulation of 3. A Walk Through the 20th Century with Bill Moyers (PBS) 2. Something About Amelia their responses, with some ad lib (ABC) comments, appears here. 4. Vietnam: A Television History (PBS) The critics' circle included: Jim 3. George Washington (CBS) Bawden (Toronto Star); Dave Bil- 5. This Week with David Brinkley (ABC) lington (Edmonton Sun); Tom 4. Reilly, Ace of Spies (PBS) Brinkmoeller (Cincinnati Enquirer); Stuart Bykofsky (Philadelphia Daily 5. The Day After (ABC) News); Bill Carter (Baltimore Sun); Rick DuBrow (Los Angeles Herald- Examiner); Don Freeman (San Diego Union); Kay Gardella (New York Daily News); John Goudas (TV Key); Bill Hayden (Gannett News- papers); Ann Hodges (Houston Chronicle); Tom Jory (Associated Press); Bob Knight (Variety); David Marc (author of Demographic Vis- tas); Lee Margulies Angeles (Los "Frontline does some bril- it one of the best programs in Times); Jack Mingo (founder of the liant work, and has some huge TV history." Michael Pollan Couch Potatoes organization of TV misses," says Bill Carter. says the program "revealed fans); Michael Pollan (Harper's); "Overall, a dynamite show." more about American politics Marilynn Trib- Preston (Chicago Tom Shales calls 60 Min- than 10 years' worth of the une); Howard Rosenberg (Los utes "the most entertaining nightly news." Angeles Times); Tom Shales (Wash- show on prime -time televi- Jim Bawden asks, "What ington Post); Bob Wisehart (New sion," but Bill Carter says it has destroyed the public appe- Orleans Times -Picayune); and Ri- has become "a monster-it tite for documentaries? It's the chard Zoglin (Time). still does a lot of good stuff, balance the networks insist on. "This is the one area," says though it is more aware than That balance frequently means Bill Hayden, "where the me- ever of its star status." dullness." dium at least attempts to live Several panelists praised The Moyers program has up to its promise for the literate ABC's Viewpoint discussion such good footage, says Jack viewer." Ann Hodges agrees: program following The Day Af- Mingo, that he watches with "There were more good TV ter. "Koppel was at his best," the sound off. movies than anything else." says Rick DuBrow, "and that But Jim Bawden warns, "Mini- supporting cast of Henry Kis- series are running out of the old singer, Carl Sagan, et al. made stars to recycle and historical St characters to refashion into cardboard TV heroes." "For all the hype, The Day After was believable and fright- Panelists admired Carson, ening," says Richard Zoglin. Donahue, and the other mas- Adds Michael Pollan, "The ters of talk, but several have Day After was noteworthy as a had enough of it. "The talk era national event-quality be- has passed," says Jim Baw- THE BEST SOAP comes irrelevant." den. "The talk things bore me Aside from the top five, these days," complains Ann OPERAS: there were heartfelt favorites: Hodges. Richard Zoglin says, "Special Bulletin dealt power- "I don't think there are any de- 1. The Young and the Restless fully with a number of crucial cent talk shows left," but calls (CBS) contemporary issues," says David Letterman "the most Rick DuBrow. John Goudas original comic talent working 2. Falcon Crest (CBS) notes that "Jane Fonda's per- regularly on TV." formance in The Dollmaker is "Now that everybody is try- 3. Guiding Light (CBS) as good as anything she has ing to do on TV what Barbara tied with Dallas (CBS) done for the big screen." To Walters has been doing for Bill Carter, "The Ghost Writer years, I feel more appreciative 4. Dynasty (ABC) was superb television, the best of the superb way she does it," mix of literature and TV forms notes Tom Shales. 5. Knots Landing (CBS) that I've ever seen."

45 SEPfEMBER'fXT(>NGR'xd Channels www.americanradiohistory.com THE BEST THE BEST CABLE PROGRAM PROGRAMS FOR THE BEST SERVICES: CHILDREN: ADDITIONS TO NATIONAL TELEVISION THIS YEAR:

1. Kate & Allie (CBS)

2. A Walk Through the 20th Century with Bill Movers (PBS)

3. Buttalo Bill (NBC) 1. Cable News Network programming, they usually do it atrociously." 4. Harry Anderson, star of 2. Home Box Office "If it were national, Los Night Court (NBC) Angeles's Z Channel would be 3. ESPN my choice for best cable ser- 5. The growth of music videos vice, hands down," says Rick 4. Arts & Entertainment DuBrow. "It is by far the best It was a year of ennui to and most sophisticated of the some panelists. "I see nothing 5. C -SPAN pay -TV movie services." 'best' about the year," says DuBrow also cites C -SPAN Ann Hodges. "It was a very and its chief, Brian Lamb. 1. Sesame Street (PBS) empty year; nothing too good Cable News Network's "His story selection and his or powerfully bad seemed to sur- CNN Headline News service matching up of journalist 2. Afterschool Specials (ABC) face," comments David Marc. "is priceless for people who guests with phone -callers Marilynn Preston applauds don't structure their lives across the nation amount to a 3. Mister Rogers' the appearance of "more smart around the evening news- very special all -day news- Neighborhood (PBS) women" in series such as Kate casts," observes Tom cast-a blend of op-ed column & Allie and Cagney & Lacey. Brinkmoeller. When HBO and and marvelously in-depth fea- 4. Fraggle Rock (HBO) She also notes a "big improve- Showtime "stray into original ture." ment in Sunday -morning TV," 5. Captain Kangaroo (CBS) citing CBS News's Sunday Morning. Bill Hayden. who nominates Fraggle Rock (HBO) and Foe - THE BEST SPORTS COVERAGE: rie Tale Theater (Showtime), says that since cable can boast the Nickelodeon service as 1. ABC's Winter Olympics 5. ABC's major-league well, taken the coverage baseball coverage "it has over lead from PBS in providing Note: This survey bright, intelligent programs for 2. CBS's National Football League coverage was conducted kids." before the start "Having young children of ABC's compelled me to watch Ses- 3. NBC's major-league time." baseball coverage Summer ame Street for the first Olympics says Bill Carter; "an anutz- inglr good show. Mister Rog- 4. CBS's National Basketball coverage. is not for me, but the kids Association coverage ers are totally absorbed by him. He's doing something right."

THE WORST ADDITIONS TO NATIONAL TELEVISION THIS YEAR:

1. Bloopers shows The year offered so many ity run rampant," says Lee wretched innovations that Margulies. 2. Shows starring helicopters there was little consensus Other nominees for the and other hardware among the critics on any AEG year's worst: the I5 -second specific program. Several did commercial, Geraldo Rivera 3. Thicke of the Night agree, however, about Alan nterviewing Barbra Strei- Thicke's now -defunct sand, movies about hook- 4. Mini-series such as The show: among the worst. ers, Joan Collins, Joan Last Days of Pompeii "Nothing even comes Rivers, We've Got It close," says Rick / Made. and The New 5. The growth of music videos DuBrow. "Insipid - Show.

46 zE Clt(tl/l!('Ix SEPTEMNEHI(1("1_()1t1. www.americanradiohistory.com The Living Planet A Portrait ofthe Earth Witten and Narrated by David Attenbo rough A twelve -part series on PBS Begins Sunday February 3 at 7pm Check local listings

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"The story of a rape, of the events that led up toit" Based on Paul Scotts The Raj Quartet Starring Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Eric Porter, Tim Piggott-Smith and Art Malik Begins Sunday Dec.16 Check local listings Host: Alistair Cooke The Rai Quartet, published byAvon Books, available wherever books are sold.

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www.americanradiohistory.com SITCOMS fill orders for a family -recipe chocolate cake, so as not to disappoint entrepre- neurial -minded Kate. By the time Kate (Continued from page 23) decides to close up shop, and Allie can in to MTM in the 1970s now identifies less toddle off to bed for desperately needed with the single career woman trying to sleep, they have developed a deep aver- "make it after all"-as the theme song sion to chocolate. But never does a six- cheerfully advised us-and more with a foot cake explode out of their stove, nor somewhat older (mid -30s to 40) divorcee, do they stuff their faces for laughs. Kate often with children. and Allie are grown-up (albeit quirky) This woman, as represented in Kate & women in a sometimes painful, some- Allie, is trying to balance domestic obli- times amusing situation from which nei- gations with the need to make a living, ther they nor their audience expect an ab- and is overwhelmingly concerned with surd, farcical escape. Coben found even personal relationships. As Coben says, this episode a bit "slapsticky" for her "There are so many issues-the woman taste. "The more reality humor we do," without a career; the woman with a ca- she observes, "the better off we'll be." reer, but not the one she wants; the As the typical situation comedy found- woman alone with children; the woman ers in the ratings, network executives looking for a man; the ex-husband who's In Kate & Allie, protest that they are baffled by the ero- still around. sion of a genre that has nourished televi- "My phone number is listed, and I've `reality humor' sion from the beginning. "I don't know gotten at least two calls a day from people why the shows aren't better written," I've never met-divorced women with replaces Lucy's says CBS's Poltrack. "I have a hard time children who say, 'It's about me. How did believing that the writers don't exist. It you know? I've never seen myself on brand of slapstick. may just be this transitional period, television before.' You touch something where the writers are confused about that's real raw for a lot of people, and they what to do with the form." love to laugh." If Lucy was rooted in the certainty of bility allowed her to bounce off into yET THE SUCCESS of earlier sit- marital devotion, the household of Kate wildly improbable, comic antics. Getting coms-no less than that of & Allie is founded on the shakiness of a job meant conniving her way into a Kate & A/lie-should offer marriage in the '80s. Kate (Susan Saint candy factory with sidekick Ethel, and some guidelines to perplexed James) and Allie (Jane Curtin) are di- coping with a speed-up on the assembly writers. The sitcoms of the vorced women with children, who move line by stuffing her uniform, chef's hat, Lucy era reflected to their viewers a com- in together to split expenses and lend and cheeks with sweets until her eyes mon domestic ideal; those of the All in the each other emotional support. While Lu- bulged, fishlike. Home -baked bread was Family period mirrored the social up- cy's basic economic needs (though not likely to burst out of the oven in a six-foot heaval of the time. Today, with all the her fantasies of a glamorous lifestyle) loaf, pinning Lucy to the wall. diverging lifestyles, and the splintering of were supplied by her breadwinner In the most Lucy -like episode of Kate & both the television audience and the nu- spouse, Kate and Allie must support Allie, Allie winds up on her own choco- clear family, the sitcom must adjust to the themselves-Kate by working her way late treadmill. Dumped by her husband, a viewers' new realities. Certainly the up from an unsatisfying job, Allie by try- doctor, and with no career of her own, genre is at a crossroads. Other once -pop- ing to develop some marketable skill. Allie accepts Kate's advice to start a bak- ular television forms have faded from the The safety net of Lucy's domestic sta - ing business. She works day and night to screen, and the situation comedy may one day be as passé as the western or the variety show. But this year's sitcom ratings slump may be only temporary, as in the 1970-'71 season, when the only such program rated in the top 10 was Here's Lucy-a temporary lull that was shortly to be exploded by All in the Family and M*A*S*H. When Lucille Ball was fêted at the Museum of Broadcasting last spring, we were honoring a great clown and expressing our nostalgia for a classic of a genre now more than 30 years old. As the television marketplace becomes increasingly competitive, the success of new shows will determine whether the sitcom can be revamped to maintain viewers' interest, or whether the form will become a cult object seen, like I Love Lucy, only in reruns and museum retro- spectives.

50 Channels SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER '84

www.americanradiohistory.com www.americanradiohistory.com C H A W E LS has determined that the public interest is best served by the least government involvement. Considering the history of the FCC as a maker of rules, the idea itself is revolutionary. The extent of the revolution is told in a recital of the rules the FCC has thus far repealed, modified, or proposed to eliminate, all of which ultimately make it easier than ever for broadcasters to hold onto their licenses. For example: Radio and television stations have been The freed from government -imposed limits on commercial time, and from having to provide minimum amounts of news Deregulation and public -affairs programs. Television stations will not be forced to provide educational programs for children, and broadcasters can stage their own political debates instead of merely covering those arranged by outside organizations. Revolution Broadcasters no longer need to own their stations at least three years before selling them. The number of radio stations a company may own nationally is being in- Insisting the days of scarcity are over, the creased from seven AM and seven FM to 12 of each, and the FCC has proposed to FCC is chopping off rules adopted during loosen the limits in television as well. And there are no more limits on the num- the last half -century. ber of stations a company may own in a part of the country. No programming logs need be kept for public inspection, and annual financial reports are no longer required. Cable systems may import from other cities virtually any stations they wish. Over -the -air pay television has been almost completely deregulated. And applicants for low -power television stations aren't closely compared on their merits by Norman Black but gain their licenses by lottery. All these changes have occurred just eivvITHOUT CEREMONY, 50 cutting back the body of regulation cre- since 1980, and a lot more are on the way. years ago on June 19, ated ostensibly to ensure that the public The three networks will probably be al- President Franklin D. was properly served. And the FCC, as it lowed to buy cable systems. The FCC is Roosevelt signed into proceeds to eliminate the rules forged by considering repeal of the personal -attack law the Communica- each previous commission, fans the fires and political -editorializing rules, and tions Act of 1934. It has stood more or of a revolution. For the changes occur- questioning the Fairness Doctrine. And less sturdily for half a century, though ring in communications regulation prom- the rule that broadcast licensees must be along the way it has been amply amended ise sweeping changes in broadcasting that of good character may soon go by the by Congress, clarified by the Supreme are every bit as significant as the revolu- boards. Court, and embellished by the Federal tion in communications technology. These rule changes enlarge the First Communications Commission, the regu- The Communications Act designated Amendment rights of broadcasters but latory agency it created. broadcasters as trustees of the airwaves, raise this question: Will marketplace The FCC celebrated the law's golden obliged to serve "the public interest, con- competition assure media accountability anniversary not by popping corks but by venience, and necessity." The abstract to the public, which many argue is the language of the act permits all manner of essence of the Communications Act? Norman Black covers telecommunica- interpretation, and this FCC, embold- The FCC says yes, but public -interest tions and the FCC for the Associated ened by the Reagan Administration's advocates say no. The debate over this Press. faith in regulation by "the marketplace," question has soured relations-to the

52 Channels SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER '84 www.americanradiohistory.com point of name-calling-between the cur- celerated during the term of Charles rent FCC chairman, Mark S. Fowler, and Ferris, Democratic chairman of ti.e com- public -interest groups. Samuel A. Simon, mission from 1977 to 1981. Broadcasters executive director of the Washington - didn't like Ferris, says Erwin Krasnow, lased Telecommunications Research former general counsel of the National and Action Center (TRAC), walked out Association of Broadcasters, "but he laid of an FCC hearing last spring after telling the intellectual roots for this urregula- 7owler: "Mr. Chairman, if we had the tion. He brought in a very talented group -esources, we would ask the courts to of people, particularly economists, and disqualify you. You have demonstrated a pushed the commission away from look- dear and unalterable bias. Your ideologi- ing at things solely from a legal pzrspec- cal bent has become a theological cause." tive. Ferris had tremendous support. Like Simon, other advocates tend to President Carter went into office as an iescribe the Republican chairman and outsider, and there was a real climate lis colleagues as ideologues. Says An- for reforming regulatory agencies."

drew Schwartzman, director of the pub- Krasnow adds, "In a sense though, lic -interest law firm Media Access Pro- Ferris was more incremental in his ap- ject: "Mark Fowler really is the James proach. Fowler has taken bolder initia- Watt of the regulatory commissions. He tives, or at least the rhetoric is bolder. does things without moderation and to He's the one who called the FCC 'the last excess and without regard to long-term 'We've got to of the New Deal dinosaurs' and who de- ramifications. That's the revolutionary scribed the TV set as just an appliance, thing about Fowler compared to his pred- get away from like the toaster." ecessors; he just doesn't give a damn." Simon and Schwartzman obviously be- But Mark Fowler cannot be credited, this public -trustee lieve the Fowler FCC is going too far- or blamed, for starting this revolution. In- that unregulation means broadcasters are stead, its roots should be traced to the notion that has given a government license to use the air- 1974-'77 FCC chairmanship of Repub- waves with no deterrents against abusing lican Richard Wiley, who embarked on a confused us,' says that privilege. Fowler attacks a basic as- campaign he called "re -regulation," sumption often used to justify govern- prodding the commission to reexamine Fowler. ment involvement. He disputes the the- the rules and paperwork burdens that had ory that, since there aren't enough amassed over 40 years. Deregulation ac - frequencies to allow broadcasting by ev-

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER '84 Channels 53

www.americanradiohistory.com erybody who wants to, the government is mon. "Scarcity is a function of the fact into the market," which would tend to justified in allotting the scarce frequen- that two people can't talk on the same overcome "scarcity," says David cies to those who will best serve the pub- frequency at the same time. And it's the Aylward, chief counsel to the House lic interest. Where is the frequency scar- government that's picking one over the communications subcommittee, whose city, asks Fowler, when there are now other." chairman, Timothy E. Wirth (D. -Colo.), more than 10,600 radio and TV stations Fowler opponents have said there are is a Fowler critic. "It was the Ferris com- on the air in the United States? two types of deregulation: "letting in" mission that really moved to strike down "When Fowler counts outlets, he's and "letting go." "The first type is get- entry barriers and get more competitors missing the point entirely," responds Si- ting rid of regulations that restrict entry in the market." The second, "letting go" type of deregulation affects "regulations that relate to the right to speak on the public airwaves," and that regulate FCC Rules Going and Gone broadcasters' behavior. Unregulators insist that the days of media scarcity are over, and that old behavior rules can be APPROVED relaxed. But according to Fowler opponents, competition in the marketplace Radio Deregulation. (Approved by FCC, January 1981.) Eliminated: detailed reports required for renewal of licenses formal ascertainment by stations of community isn't yet strong enough; the government's programming needs limits on advertising time guidelines on minimum hours of news, "letting go" would give overwhelming public affairs, and local programming requirements that stations keep program logs open power to the voices with the most money. to public. Simon, Schwartzman, and Ferris him- License Extension. (Enacted by Congress, August 1981.) Extended: term of radio self concede that the public has benefited licenses, from three years to seven term of TV licenses, from three years to five. from some of the FCC's recent moves. In Children's Programming Rules. (FCC modified its 1974 policy statement, December actions initiated by Ferris, the agency has /983.) Eliminated recommendations that broadcasters: schedule children's programs "let in" many new electronic voices: au- throughout every week develop more educational programs schedule programs aimed thorizing the licensing of up to 4,000 new at specific age groups. low -power TV stations across the coun- Regional Concentration -of-Ownership Rule. (Eliminated by FCC, April 1984.) Eliminated: prohibition against owning three broadcast stations when two of them are try, which can serve small geographic ar- within 100 miles of the third. eas however they wish; modifying radio - Television Deregulation. (Approved by FCC, June /984.) Same as Radio Deregulation frequency policies to allow licensing of (above). 1,000 or more new FM radio stations in Multiple Ownership Rule. (Amended by FCC, August 1984.) increased from seven future years; creating a new, multichan- to 12 the number of radio stations a company is allowed to own -12 AM and 12 FM. nel "wireless cable" pay -TV service us- Delayed similar proposed action on television station ownership until April 1985 or later. ing microwave transmission, and allocat- ing other channels for the country's first satellite-to -home television. PENDING Cable Deregulation. (Passed in Senate, June 1983; passed in House energy and Point of Disagreement commerce committee, June 1984; awaits House vote.) Amendments are likely, but version "The idea was to open up the airwaves of bill at press time would: limit cities' authority to regulate basic rates that cable for more and more participation," recalls companies can charge subscribers mandate franchise renewal if cable operator meets original franchise standards s allow cable operators to drop guaranteed services "if Charles Ferris, who resigned the chair- circumstances change" require cable operators to provide a number of "leased access" manship to enter law practice after Presi- channels depending on franchise size. dent Reagan's election. The real focus of the current debate, Ferris says, is whether there are now, or ever will be, SIDETRACKED enough new players in broadcasting to Prime -Time Access Rule. (Repeal is being discussed by special FCC study justify repeal of rules prescribing good group.) Would eliminate requirement that networks limit their prime -time programming to behavior. "That's where Mark Fowler three hours nightly in the top 50 TV markets, and would reopen the 7:30-8 P.M. time slot to and I have an honest disagreement," network programs. Ferris adds. "Now, we did find evidence Must -Carry Rule. (FCC refused petitions to repeal; refusal is now under court that competition in one area-commer- challenge.) Would eliminate requirement that each cable system carry all commercial, cial radio-had reached the point where within 35 miles of its cabled area. public, and religious television stations market forces, not the FCC's rules, were Financial Interest and Syndication Rules. (FCC proposed to eliminate, August really driving broadcasters to behave in 1983; action since has been delayed at request of President and Congress.) Would allow three major TV networks: to have financial interests in the programs they buy to engage the public interest. And that's why we ap- in domestic syndication of prime -time entertainment programs starting in 1990. proved radio deregulation. But with TV, the market structure isn't right yet." Fowler's commission, however, felt PROPOSED television was ripe for deregulation, and Character Requirements of Licensees. (FCC inquiry into eliminating began August unanimously adopted a deregulation 198/.) Would weaken FCC policy that awards broadcast licenses on the basis of "good package in June. Fowler explained before character." the vote: "I view broadcasting as a very Fairness Doctrine. (Repeal proposed by Sen. Robert Packwood, and in FCC competitive, very vigorous market now, rule making, April 1984.) Would repeal law requiring broadcasters to devote reasonable with lots of voices, lots of players, and time to controversial issues, and to give reasonable opportunity for expression of opposing even others now waiting in the wings Viewpoints. RICHARD BARBIERI ready to come on board soon, such as satellite -to -home. And the mere immi-

54 Channels SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER '84

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www.americanradiohistory.com nence of the entry of new players has a But what if there is no backlash in Con- profound effect on existing players. We gress? Would further deregulation make can see that in many ways. We can see any difference to viewers and listeners? local TV stations now putting more "There hasn't been a damn bit of money into their news budgets, on the The question now change with radio," asserts Ferris. "We theory that in order to survive in the new had regulation with no meaning. The ra- video world, they've got to be more is whether there dio broadcasters were listening to a dif- deeply rooted in the community." By ferent drummer." To keep their listeners beefing up news, local broadcasters are enough new happy, for instance, disc jockeys were make the most of their intrinsic local -pro- playing far fewer than the number of com- gramming advantage over nationwide players to justify mercials allowed by the old rules. programmers. In such ways competitive, Simon questions how Ferris can assert "marketplace" pressures are improving repeal of rules. that deregulation hasn't affected radio broadcaster behavior, Fowler contends. programming, since radio stations are no The market has broadened and can be de- longer required to keep detailed logs of regulated. what they broadcast. "Nobody is chart- Randy Nichols, until recently Fowler's owning a piece of their old reruns and ing the industry to see how deregulation chief of staff and formerly a top lieuten- syndicating those reruns to local stations. has affected it," says Simon. "If competi- ant of Ferris, has his own perspective on The rules also are considered essential by tion is holding down the number of com- the two men. "Charlie Ferris changed the independent -station owners, who fear mercials, that's fine, go ahead and try it. approach of this commission 180 degrees the networks could deny them all the old But if you repeal the regulations and walk by trying to create more competition," series they need to compete against net- away from it so you don't ever know if it's Nichols says. "Both he and Dick Wiley work affiliates. Fowler, despite a well - working, that's another story." provided a legacy for Mark. The dramatic publicized meeting with President "I don't see any dramatic swings in change from Ferris to Fowler, though, is Reagan, who signaled his support of Hol- programming," responds the FCC's that this commission is not going to pre- lywood, does believe the Fin/Syn rules Nichols. "And what change I do see is for clude existing broadcasters from re- should be scrapped. But West Coast pro- the better, because any money that sponding to and being part of the new ducers-who depend on syndication rev- broadcasters save by getting bigger, or by competition. Charlie would have pre- enues for profits-and the independent not having to spend money on the regula- cluded the old guys from having a piece of stations have won enough political sup- tory process, will trickle down into the the action." port in Congress and at the White House quality of programming." And he doubts There's more than just "Reaganite to force Fowler to back off. "The record the rules give the average consumer principles" driving Fowler, according to speaks for itself as to the things that much effect on broadcasting anyway. Nichols. "People have to acknowledge haven't been touched," says Ferris. The only real recourse they have is that Fowler honestly and truly and deeply "In general, we're more than happy to through the marketplace, by turning the believes that the government shouldn't look at anything, up to the point that it dial and collectively affecting the earn- have a role in regulating content, period. becomes politically impossible," re- ings of stations they like and dislike. He doesn't just spout First Amendment sponds Nichols. In fact, there are signs Fowler says he wants to "restore free equality for broadcasters to hide some that some of the FCC's recent moves enterprise" to broadcasting by putting Republican agenda." have raised hackles in Congress, possibly broadcasters' fates and fortunes more di- to the point of provoking a backlash that rectly in the hands of their audiences. A Some Rules Untouched would make further deregulation politi- broadcaster should be able to say, "I own Despite the steady toppling of FCC cally less possible. this business, period. And the only way I regulations, not every proposed deregu- Several prospective actions have both- will lose this business is if I fail in the lation has met approval at the FCC. Even ered key members of Congress: the pro- marketplace, or I sell this business, pe- Fowler and Nichols are willing to ac- posed repeal of the political -editorializing riod." To grant that independence to the knowledge the FCC's reexamination of and personal -attack rules, and an inquiry broadcast businessman, Fowler believes old rules has not been as systematic or reexamining the Fairness Doctrine. Last "we've got to get away from this public - evenhanded as it might appear. There are June's vote to extend to television the de- trusteeship notion that has confused us rules untouched by the commission that regulation that had previously been ac- for so many years." can only be described as "protective" of corded to radio hurt relations with key "But there is a fundamental role for one segment of the communications in- House leaders. And in August, House government in this area, and there always dustry or another-rules that remain be- leaders persuaded the FCC to hold off on will be," insists David Aylward. "The cause broadcasters like them: increasing the maximum number of tele- government grants certain people the The Must -Carry Rule protects televi- vision stations under single ownership, right to speak and thus must recognize its sion stations against cable, forcing cable rescinding an action taken in July. responsibility to those who can't speak." operators to carry the signals of local Even in the Republican -controlled Today, there's a pervasive public dis- broadcast stations serving their markets. Senate, signs of a backlash can be seen. trust of the media in general, says The Prime -Time Access Rule in effect Barry Goldwater (R. -Ariz.), chairman of Schwartzman. If deregulation continues guarantees local television stations con- the Senate communications subcommit- its pace, and people conclude that they trol over the lucrative advertising reve- tee, said in a recent interview that he have lost the right to demand better ser- nue of the 7:30 -to -8 P.M. slot, during which doesn't believe the networks are "held in vice from a broadcaster-"that there is the networks can't program. any great esteem" by members of Con- no bottom -line regulation to at least make The Financial Interest and Syndication gress. And early this summer, the Senate sure somebody is not walking off with the Rules also protect certain interests- commerce committee rejected a bill that store"-he thinks the FCC will have set Hollywood interests-from network would repeal the Fairness Doctrine and the stage for a public backlash that Con- power, prohibiting the networks from the Equal Time Law. gress won't ignore.

56 Channels SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER '84

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www.americanradiohistory.com A Spectrum of Views on Deregulation: Wilhelmina Reuben Cooke: way of dealing with the realities of the Whose Airwaves Are These, Anyway? situation"-her powerlessness-she would be willing to trade a good deal of deregulation for a strong program of T SEEMS ONLY too appropriate that less foolhardy than broadcast deregu- leased access. the Citizens Communications lation. The passage of the deregula- The word "accountability" runs Council, the public -interest law tory bill now in the House would have, throughout Cooke's comments-it is firm that Wilhelmina Reuben she says, "disastrous consequences. I itself a kind of compromise with real- Cooke heads, has dwindled over the think cable has the capacity to become ity. If broadcasters, cable operators, last few years from five lawyers to a diverse and truly local kind of me- and even phone companies can no one-herself. For Cooke is a member dium"-but not if cable operators are longer be constrained to act in the pub- of a vanishing species, the dyed-in- left to their own devices. She feels that lic interest, she feels, then at least the-wool advocate of telecommunica- cities must retain the right to regulate their behavior should be open to pub- tions regulation. In the current dereg- basic cable rates and to subject opera- lic examination. To her the most gall- ulatory climate, few pure members of tors to a serious license -renewal proc- ing aspect of the FCC's 1981 deregula- the species remain, and Cooke speaks ess, if they are to ensure their franchi- tion of radio was absolving station often, if defensively, of her willingness sees' accountability. And yet, as "a owners of the obligation to keep pro - to yield on superfluous regulations, if she can find any. "The difference between [Federal Communications Commission chairman] Mark Fowler Henry Geller: A Realist, for All the Good and myself," she says, slowly and carefully, "is that I don't think the

choice is between government making viF A NEOCONSERVATIVE is a liberal that the broadcaster be permitted to all of the decisions and none of the de- who has been mugged by reality, offer entertainment programming in a cisions." Fowler, she believes, is then Henry Geller, public -inter- largely deregulated environment- throwing out the baby with the bath est lawyer, gadfly, and thorn -in - "which he'll do to a fare-thee-well"- water. all -sides, could be a charter member. in exchange for the payment of a

Cooke feels that a broadcaster's As general counsel to the Federal "spectrum usage fee" of 1 or 2 percent "public trustee" obligations, rooted in Communications Commission in the of gross revenues. That pool of capital the 1934 Communications Act, are '60s he helped formulate the Fairness would go to fund an independent and fundamental and should not be bar- Doctrine, and struggled mightily to robust Corporation for Public Tele- tered for anything-"they are condi- push through Congress such regula- communications, which would supply tions of the privilege" of occupying tions as percentage guidelines for the the educational, cultural, and chil- spectrum space, as she puts it. She broadcasting of public -affairs and ed- dren's programming in which Geller concedes that most of the act's noble ucational programming. But when he devoutly believes. sentiments have degenerated into hol- found himself continually rebuffed by The idea of trading significant de- low pieties; license renewal, for exam- the system, he concluded that the regulation, including the periodic ple, has become a mere formality. But ideal regulatory environment sought broadcast license -renewal process, better enforcement, she argues, could by liberals was not to be. for a spectrum fee, seemed to have a make the public -trustee ideal a reality. "So in the '70s," he says, "I flipped. chance in Congress until the National Failing that, it will still "provide a phil- I have been saying since the mid -'70s Association of Broadcasters swatted osophical basis for how the system that I give up on `public trustee' regu- it down. So Geller, for all his reason- should work." lation. I don't think it's worked for 50 ableness-"God, am I reasonable," Cooke rejects the argument that years. And I think when something he says sarcastically-is out in the regulations have had no significant ef- hasn't worked for half a century you cold. But he's not waiting for the mil- fect on the system. Children's pro- give up on it." He gave up to the point lennium. Like the liberal regulator he gramming, she claims, grew in quan- of renouncing the Fairness Doctrine. used to be, he's currently submitting a tity and perhaps quality for a few years Nowadays Geller is a man in the brief in a court case challenging the in the late '70s when the FCC focused middle-and virtually a minority of FCC's relaxation of children's pro- attention on it. During the Fowler ad- one. Like FCC chairman Mark gramming rules. ministration she feels that children's Fowler, he would do away with most Geller has another realistic, some- programming has declined to its origi- of the vast apparatus of broadcast thing -for -everyone proposal for cable. nal "dismal" level. She found the re- regulation. But he has one typically It too is based on his guiding principle: cent FCC study recommending an end blunt word for the deregulatory credo "Make the structure work for you." to oversight of kids' television an ex- that the marketplace will take care of At the moment, he says, cable firms ercise in "religious fervor"-a blind the public interest: "cockamamie." seeking franchises enter a compara- declaration of faith in the free mar- Broadcasters, he says, will never tive hearing process "where every- ket-rather than a rational analysis. serve the public interest; "they just body promises anything, and then re- Cable deregulation strikes her as no want to sell soap." Instead he suggests neges." City governments are as

58 Channels SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER '84

www.americanradiohistory.com The Rage and the Outrage

gramming logs, thus making public Eddie Fritts: scrutiny of their performance practi- Let the Yoke Be Lifted cally impossible. Cooke is equally concerned with what are called "structural" regulations (as opposed to "content" regula- O HEAR EDDIE FRITTS tell it, are necessary, says Fritts, "if Con- tions). She is especially worried that the whole wrangle over de- gress wants broadcasters to operate the FCC's proposed amendment of the regulation is little more than by public -interest standards." Multiple Ownership Rule-to in- a simple misunderstanding, The prime battle has been over com- crease the number of radio and televi- compounded by old-fashioned poli- parative license renewal, the one issue sion stations a single company can tics. "There's a universal opinion," on which broadcasters want to go be- own-will crowd minority owners out says the president of the National As- yond the mere extension and codifica- of the field, and thus threaten program sociation of Broadcasters, the trade tion of the FCC's 1981 radio deregula- diversity. On that issue, for once, she association representing 4,500 radio tion model. They'd like Congress to might have enough powerful company stations, 700 television outlets, and do away with the entire process, in to carry the day. the three broadcast networks, "that which license -renewal applications JAMES TRAUB deregulation in broadcasting means a are subject to comparative hearings stripping away of every rule and every when there are competing applicants regulation-including the public -infor the same frequencies. Practically terest standard. And that's not the speaking, incumbent licensees are vir- It Does Him case at all." tually guaranteed renewal anyway, All the NAB wants, says Fritts, is to but since the mid -'60s, when the FCC "eliminate the paperwork burdens the refused to grant incumbents an auto- powerless as the FCC to force public- Federal Communications Commis- matic preference in renewal hearings. spirited behavior on profit -making sion has put on television broadcast- the subject has been a tender one with companies. Why not, he suggests, pay ers, codify what [the commission] has established broadcasters-who, after the phone company to build the cable already done for radio broadcasters, all, have fortunes invested in their as- system, auction off the right to run it, and eliminate comparative renewal. signed frequencies. and let the operator "run a lean, mean That's it." At several points in the past year. tough operation"? The operator Under the heading of "burdensome the NAB and the House telecommuni- would receive a quarter to a third of paperwork" the NAB includes FCC - cations subcommittee seemed ready the system's profits, while the remain- required ascertainment procedures to strike a bargain involving an end to der, and the auction fee, would fund a (the formal surveying of local pro- comparative renewal and the estab- carefully planned public -access sys- gramming needs), restraints on the lishment of minimal standards for lo- tem on, say, seven of the 72 channels. amount of time a station can air com- cal and informational programming. Meanwhile, the operator would have mercials, and the obligation to keep But Fritts came to feel that legislators to yield up another 15 percent of the programming logs. All of that is redun- were demanding too much for the channel capacity for leased access, to dant or irrelevant, say broadcasters. swap, and talks broke down. give other programmers access to ca- "Look at radio," Fritts argues. Even if some deal is finally struck, ble viewers. The problems with this "Radio was deregulated [in those cat- the NAB wants it to be temporary- modest proposal are that cities won't egories] in 1981. Is radio serving the "sunsetted," in Fritts's words, by accept an auction, and the cable indus- public less now than it was in 1981? 1990. "Because by that time cable will try refuses to take leased access seri- Our surveys say no." have essentially wired America; di- ously. Broadcasters don't expect much rect -broadcast satellites will be here, Geller is nothing if not forward- action on attempts to repeal the Fair- low -power television will be here, the looking, and he is concerned that ness Doctrine, even though they con- multiplicity of additional radio signals emerging media such as the direct - sider it an unfair, intrusion on their will be here. And the competition for broadcast satellite and new fields such First Amendment rights. Fritts calls our entertainment attention span will as business data not be subjected to a the companion Equal Time Law a be so great, regulation will not be crippling regime of regulation. In "special -interest measure" that has needed." some distant future he feels that the favored the Congressmen who voted In this, as in other matters, Fritts sheer abundance of channels will for it. feels that the marketplace should be make most regulation superfluous. The NAB is also fighting any at- trusted. "The American public has the But since that time has not yet come, tempt to repeal regulations favoring its ultimate decision," he argues. "They and his own perfectly reasonable members (such as the Must -Carry can flip the dial. If a station doesn't schemes have not made much head- Rule, which requires cable systems to have an audience, then it won't have way, he intends for the time being to carry local TV stations). Those rules advertising, and the programming will fight the FCC, the Congress, and the change to reflect the needs and inter- industry as ferociously as ever. Ben Brown is the TV editor of USA ests of the people." J.T. Today. BEN BROWN

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER'ri4 Channels 59

www.americanradiohistory.com AN INFORMATIVE COMBINATION.

NBC NEWS AT SUNRISE WITH CONNIE CHUNG

NBC NEWS TODAY WITH BRYANT GUMBEL AND JANE PAULEY

WE BRING YOU THE WHOLE PICTURE. FROM SUNUP TO SUNDOWN. NBC NEWS A

www.americanradiohistory.com /¡^ / Nok! S -1-10h7 i N G 8y E LECTION

A'%,uoS moves to deregulate the broadcast media; some are even supporting deregulation bills in Congress for television and cable. Why Senator Robert Packwood (R. -Ore.) is such a champion of "First Amendment rights" for broadcasters that he has been working for the elimination of the Fair- ness Doctrine and Equal Time Law. Yet Packwood is among those asking the net- Deregulation works to refrain from exit polling. What is clear from the exit -poll episode is that the deregulation supporters scarcely grasp what it means to liberate broadcasting from the bond of public trusteeship. They are like people suing for divorce who expect to maintain the Won't same as before and be invited to Last regimen all the same dinner parties. After living by Les Brown for 50 years with broadcast media that are required to behave responsibly for the ASOBERING THING happened to While it is hard to defend the networks' sake of their licenses, the legislators ap- Congress on its way to de- preemption of the official vote count, it's parently assume that radio and television regulating the electronic harder to defend attempts by government will continue to be tacitly accountable, media. It got mad at the to suppress this or any other form of jour- even after they have been set free. networks for projecting the nalistic enterprise. The road to deregulation is paved with winners of elections while voting was still Congressmen such as William M. unrealistic assumptions of this sort. A in progress. Thomas (R. -Calif.), the ranking minority chief one is that the broadcast media are Determined to end that interference member of the task force, accuse the net- up against such fierce competition in the with the electoral process, the House has works of putting their own petty competi- marketplace that government cannot, in passed, by a vote of 352 to 65, a nonbind- tion for news ratings ahead of citizenship good conscience, continue to keep them ing resolution asking the networks to re- and social responsibility. In reply, net- on a regulatory tether. But, in fact, the frain from announcing the winners of the work officials have argued that reporting competition out there is skinny and frail. 1984 races on the basis of their own exit the news is itself a social responsibility, Anyone who looks will see that cable has polls, as they did in 1980 and 1982. The and they maintain there is no empirical lost its steam and that nothing too sub- House's task force on elections, headed proof that early projections keep people stantial is happening these days with by Al Swift (D. -Wash.), had been warn- from going to the polls. Qube, videotex, direct -broadcast satel- ing for several months that if the net- The paradox here is that many of the lites, or MDS. The networks, meanwhile, works didn't desist voluntarily there Representatives who are deeply con- are riding high in revenues and profits. would be legislative recourse. The elec- cerned about the ways in which televi- For all the competition that is thought to tion is, after all, the box office of politics sion might be affecting voter behavior exist, the television industry overall ex- e and therefore, in any politician's mind, have condoned, or at least tolerated, the pects record advertising billings this year . the ultimate public -interest issue. Federal Communications Commission's of $14.6 billion. Commercial television Politicians haven't grasped what it means to liberate broadcasting.

SEYTEMBEIVOCTOBER'it4 Channels 61 www.americanradiohistory.com may have lost some audience, but it is private enterprises protected by First gaining power. Amendment freedoms. But radio and tel- Another naïve assumption held by the evision, somewhat like the city parks, policy -makers, and pushed hard by the were thought to be public property. broadcast lobbyists, is that television and Lobbyists push How does a Congressman explain to radio are such mature industries today his constituents that there is no longer re- that they can be governed by their own the spurious idea course through government, and that standards of professionalism. The profes- Congress and the FCC, without asking sional broadcaster does indeed have a that broadcast permission, have given away the public's deeply ingrained sense of public service, right to hold television accountable? At along with an abiding respect for his me- professionalism some point, legislators will have to face dium; but the professionals are in a con- the fact that most people aren't prepared stant state of tension with the business - will prevail. to make the broadcast media as free as people in broadcasting, who are the dom- newspapers-or even almost as free. inant force and concerned almost exclu- Tom Krattenmaker, a professor at sively with surpassing last year's profits. Georgetown University Law School who This tension is most evident in the field serve the public interest. You can't worked for a time at the FCC, observes of television news. Back when news was achieve the great profit margins if you that during the '20s and '30s there were a loss leader-a nod by the station owner don't keep the license. Regulation is the public pressures to regulate motion pic- to his license obligations-the manage- support system of the broadcast profes- tures, and then during the next two dec- ment of the news departments was en- sional. When regulation goes, so does the ades similar pressures to regulate comic trusted to seasoned journalists. But once notion of professionalism in the sense books. The desire mainly was to shelter news blossomed as a profit center, it be- that legislators think of it today. children from influences that were came too important to be left to profes- There's no stopping deregulation. This deemed unwholesome. At a law confer- sionals. The businessmen took charge, is one of those times in Washington ence about cable held in New York a few brought in consultants to slick up the an- whose idea has come, an idea that has months ago, Krattenmaker cited five pro- chor team, and shoved out the old pros gone beyond the reach of reason. The gramming issues that would raise de- who put journalistic values first and question is not whether television and ca- mands for reform in an unregulated envi- would not reorder their priorities. ble will be set free, but rather to what ronment: violence, indecency, stereo- At virtually all the large broadcast cor- degree they will be deregulated, and typing, the broadcasting of false or de- porations, the founders and other veteran whether the bulldozing of rules will go to famatory information, and the exploita- executives have long since retired or the bedrock-the public -trustee concept. tion of the child audience. Calls for such died. Many have been succeeded by peo- But the sad thing about this drive to reforms, in fact, have been echoing for ple skilled in business but with no pre- deregulate the media is the futility of it- quite some time. vious experience in broadcasting. CBS the waste of man hours at the FCC and One suspects, however, that even be- Inc. and RCA, parent of NBC, are both Congress. Because if deregulation is in- fore the cries of the people are heard, headed today by executives who could evitable today, the return of regulation is Congress itself will lead the way back to not, by any stretch of the definition, be inevitable tomorrow-by popular deregulation-when it discovers that the called professional broadcasters. The mand, as they say. electronic press has more control over Mutual radio network is owned now by If members of the public seem indiffer- politics than politicians have over these Amway, a company that sells home -care ent to what is happening on the deregula- privileged, intrusive media. products and had no previous involve- tion front, it's because they have very lit- The rationale for deregulation is that ment with media. An investment group tle sense of what's at stake. It sounds like market forces can take the place of gov- bought KTLA Los Angeles, for a record a business issue, like the deregulation of ernment agencies. It is assumed that $245 million, and then Wometco Enter- the airlines and the trucking industry- competition from the new electronic me- prises, with extensive broadcast and ca- bound to carry some jolts, but nothing dia will keep broadcasting's power in ble holdings, for $842 million. William E. serious. No one told them deregulating check and force it to perform responsibly Simon, former Secretary of the Treasury, media that deal in ideas, information, mo- for its own survival. If, for example, peo- and a partner have purchased Forward rality, and ultimately political influence ple don't like the networks' children's Communications, owner of six television leads to a huge change in the order of shows, they can buy more uplifting video and 10 radio stations. Stephen Adams, a things. (When was the last time you heard cassettes or subscribe to cable for Nickel- Minneapolis banker, got into broadcast- a penetrating discussion of what broad- odeon. If enough people did that, the- ing by buying some stations last year, and cast deregulation means, on the medium oretically the networks would be this year added the three TV stations that from which most people get their infor- forced to make better shows for children. once comprised Springfield Broadcast- mation?) Like the Congressmen who are Why, then, don't the lawmakers apply ing in Massachusetts. The new owner im- all for deregulation but want to stop the this logic to the exit -polling controversy, mediately fired the management that had networks from predicting election results leaving it to the consumers to decide run the stations for three decades. through exit polls, people expect nothing whether they want the networks to call Many of the largest broadcast groups to change drastically when television is the races before the polls have closed? If are owned by companies whose main freed from its public -interest obligations. the people don't approve of it, they can business interests are outside broadcast- For half a century, when radio or tele- turn off television and wait for the morning. For the business mentality, televi- vision wronged or offended the sensibili- ing papers. Market forces. sion represents the opportunity to ties of people, government was there to Congressmen don't apply this logic, achieve 60 percent profit margins. do something about it. Through govern- because they know better. This is not fan- What keeps professional broadcast ment, people felt they had a voice. They tasy time. This hits right where they live. managers alive in the industry, and allows knew they didn't have such rights with Deregulation has hardly happened, and them to win some battles with the busi- the print media, because newspapers and already regulation is making a come- nessmen, is the statutory obligation to magazines were always recognized as back.

62 Channels SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER'84 www.americanradiohistory.com Questions THE STATE OF about your THE REVOLUTION Channels subscription? The all new 1985 Field Guide to the Electronic Media is something totally new in magazine publishing: an annual report on an entire industry. It reveals where each of the communications technologies stands Do you: in relation to all the others. Want to renew? Order a gift? MORE UPDATED INFORMATION Change your The 1985 Field Guide goes well beyond last year's. It remains the essential primer on all the electronic media but also examines, along with address? the state of the art, the state of the marketplace. The 1985 Field Guide gives you perspectives on: The technological Call our refinements The regulatory climate The business developments customer service The progress each technology has made number: EXTRAS 914-628-1154 Channels' 1985 Field Guide also contains A guide to the leading players in the field A report on international developments A glossary guide to the language of communications Cable programming charts Satellite charts EDUCATORS Useful graphs and illustrations

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www.americanradiohistory.com THE 1 MILLION TEENAGERS WHO GET PREGNANT EACH YEAR HAVE SOMETHING ELSE IN COMMON. They watch 191/2 hours of televisicn If you would lake to help. edu- a week. cate then through television give us Some of tnese teenagers bear a call. Planned Parenthood hies to unwanted d ldren far which they teach teenagers one of the most are neither mentally nor physically important lessons of their lives: how prepared. Sore seek an abortion. to be sexually responsive aduks. And All of the:n w17 never be quite the that makes us one of the best re- same again. sources cn this subject it the country. We as ccr.cerned adults share a So cor tact Planned Parenthood responsiófr":ty- To educate. To counsel. in your comrnunil; or call Through the years, you as tele- Cynthia Hammett, vice pt-es:dent for vision prog(a-nme:s have filled them cornm.Lnicatons, at 212) 541-7800. with a hot a.` iiiormaPon. Much of it After all who else but you has good. 19%2 hours of a teenagers undivided There's a lot of sex on television attention every week? every day. TF.rougn you they may learn o about sex. Bit through you they c--uld Planned Parenthood also learn about sexual responsibility. Federation of America, Inc.

www.americanradiohistory.com TV and My Vast Waistband

by William A. Henry III

ACOUPLE OF YEARS AGO I was approached about ap- journalist who specializes in TV topics has to learn to face the pearing regularly as a critic on Entertainment To- camera in self-defense. (How, the targets of one's snippier re- night. No-more than that: I was romanced. I views will ask rhetorically, do you dare to write about a kind of must have received 20 telephone calls from ET work you have never undertaken?) The first thing I noticed when officials on the West Coast. I wrote three audition watching myself in any pre -taped appearance was my self-satis- pieces and taped each of them six or seven times. I sorted out a fied smirk on being introduced. I had always thought of my smile schedule, heard offers of salaries beyond my dreams (if not my as ingratiating, even humble, and belatedly I began to under- avarice), and watched the show hour upon hour to get its tone stand a reason for the limitations in my social life. Next it became and rhythm. Finally, my tapes were returned to me with a curt if apparent that I never had a clue which camera I was supposed to apologetic note. Paramount's senior executives, who retain a be talking to, even though I have been told it is the one with the right of veto, had decided that they loved what I had to say and the way I said it, but thought 1 was fat. Now, my weight is not exactly a secret. Indeed, most people are capable of observing it when I come into the room. I am not quite large enough to require a zoning variance to walk down the street. But if slimness is the standard by which critics are to be Any journalist who specializes judged, I need to find another line of work. In fairness to ET and in television topics has to learn Paramount, I must note that they made noises about proffering a contract if I agreed to lose some specified amount of weight in to face the camera in some limited period of time -80 pounds in three days, or something of the sort. I demurred, and I remain an inkstained wretch self-defense. instead of a household name. I thought of my brief brush with glory as instructive. It taught me. if nothing else, cynicism. Since then I have been promised what seems like a hundred jobs as a TV performer. To date, all I have to show for the experience is the studied expression of red light on. As a result, I stared off into space, or at the very patient blankness that I take on whenever the makeup woman least looked shifty. And despite all my pained resolutions to tries to line my eyes and lengthen my lashes. I have developed a forebear, I still cock my head when I talk. stoic silence as producers confer about how to paint my chins so Once or twice I have tried to use a teleprompter, a device that that their number comes down at least to single digits. I have is supposed to make you look natural and conversational even learned the importance of conquering a stray lock of hair and a though you are intently reading. All the people we make fun of- curling shirt collar. I can tilt my glasses at the precise angle that those airhead local anchors who are supposed to have such easy minimizes the "bounce" of light off their lenses. I have noticed jobs-use the teleprompter with aplomb. I don't quite under- as well how infrequently anyone ever asks me a question about stand the technology. It seems to have something to do with my phrasing, my judgments, even my choice of topics. The last mirrors, although to me it looks as though the script is draped time I finished an audition, the words of encouragement offered right over the camera. In any case, the times I have tried it, my to me were, "That was cute. Real cute." expression has alternated between a faraway look and a desper- Although I never became a "series regular" anywhere. I have ate squint when the printing went out of focus. Say what you will by now appeared on television, for real, more than 100 times. about Ronald Reagan, any man who can read alternately from That is part and parcel of being a journalist these days, and any two teleprompters on opposite sides of the room while addressing Congress is a man entitled to my vote. William A. Henry III is an associate editor of Time magazine. In some ways I have improved. On talk shows my questions

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER'84 Channels 65 www.americanradiohistory.com I 1

used to run longer than a sermon by Jonathan Edwards. My time of the phone conversation and the air date, or I don't repeat answers were worse. I finally got rid of the preamble and learned the same responses in more or less the same phrases, the host is to hold myself to two flippant sentences. But I cannot break likely to lose track, and the interview may turn out to be disas- myself of wanting to follow the two sentences with a dozen trous. On the smoother shows, such as Good Morning America, more, leading off in four or five directions. In televised press the host may grab a moment for a rehearsal of his own: He will conferences à la Meet the Press, I learned the effectiveness of explain exactly what exchanges he hopes will take place-not to bad manners. If you just keep talking, the other questioners dictate opinions, but certainly to keep spontaneity under con- eventually will give up and let you have the floor. In talk -show trol. One notable exception is Nightline: Not only does Ted round -tables, I learned, the best way to hog the camera is to say Koppel insist on being in a separate studio from his guests, even something that is likely to get viewers angry. The host, in pure self-defense, will follow up with another question for you, hop- ing you will persuade the audience that you really didn't mean what you just said. Twice in years past I submitted to features for local evening is usually news programs. More times than I can count, I have been inter- Some underling viewed for documentaries. Hardly ever have my excerpted com- charged with the real ments, and the context in which they were placed, borne much relation to my recollections of the hour-long interviews they journalistic task, learning were culled from. I was amused, moreover, at how slack television's definition of an expert can be. From my third day on the about the guest. job as a TV critic for the Boston Globe some years ago, I started getting calls to come and pontificate on a subject about which I was still unnervingly ignorant. I wondered whether I was being offered some old-fashioned seduction-free publicity-from people I might eventually write about. After I trashed in print the when they are in Washington, he also charts his own path. Al- conduct of a video press conference in a Massachusetts guberna- though my few minutes of air -time last year were preceded by torial primary, I was invited to be one of the questioners in a several hours of conversation and mock interviews, Koppel senatorial primary interview two weeks later. I still don't know never once on air asked me anything I had been prepared for. whether that come-on was a compliment, a challenge, or an at- Given the pressures of live broadcasting, most hosts are re- tempt to trap me. markably calm. David Hartman seems to like to tease his staff, In the case of talk shows, the person who conducts an inter- chatting on the sidelines until he has only a fraction of a second to view on air is almost never the one who researches it before- slip into his seat for another perfectly delivered passage of transi- hand. Some underling is charged with the real journalistic task- tion or chat. Producers, on the other hand, are as nervous as old finding out what the guest thinks-in a mock interview, a sort of ladies in dark alleys. They want everyone in place an hour -and -a - rehearsal. I have found that if my opinions change between the half before show time. If you come in from out of town for an early -morning appearance, they may call your hotel room well after midnight to see if you are really there. I can empathize with their fears, to be sure. Once I appeared on the leading morning show in Boston, syndicated throughout New England, on a day when a blizzard wiped out nearly all the scheduled guests. A former BBC official and I wound up spending 45 minutes on air discussing the differences between British and American television. Even my mother turned it off halfway through. Out-of -studio interviews have given me some measure of sym- pathy for the burdens that TV reporters bear, even in this age of lightweight electronic equipment. They spend most of their time rearranging the furniture, composing the shots, then staging and restaging "reaction shots" to remarks that took place perhaps an hour before. Perhaps the most sobering thing I have learned is how much preparation goes into any show that is even halfway serious, and how much more the participants and producers know, after the prolonged hammering out of nuances, than ever gets onto the screen. The most extreme example was an installment of public television's The Advocates a few years ago. The research staff kept quoting back to me what sounded like nearly everything I had ever written. We talked for seven or eight hours. I had never been that ready for a college exam. Then we taped an hour, which whizzed by. When I watched later, I winced at how much had been left unsaid, at how the scant remainder seemed so aimless, sketchy, and contradictory. I would have given myself one of my sternest reviews. These TV people may have a phobia about fat, all right. But dammit, some of them really work for the money.

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When PBS Chose Docudrama over Documentary by John J. O'Connor

ONCEALED ENEMIES, the four- hour docudrama shown on public television's Ameri- can Playhouse series, set out to tell us, as evenhand- edly as possible, something about the Hiss -Chambers spy case, which first came to light in 1948 and is still capable of arousing intense political passions. In the end, the production may tell us even more about the programming politics of public television. The idea for Concealed Enemies origi- nated in Britain at least seven years ago. David Elstein of Thames Television com- missioned writer Hugh Whitemore to In the BBC docudrama, Eduard look into the story. Whitemore, whose Herrmann (above) represents Alger television credits include All Creatures Hiss (right, taking oath at House Great and Small, submitted a script for a hearing in 1948). six -hour mini-series. There was only one major hurdle: The English didn't have enough money to produce it on their own. Hiss. It's about lifetimes spent in self-jus- ing as Oppenheimer, another British Enter, several years later, American tification, about fashions in thought. As treatment of a sensitive American subject Playhouse, certainly one of public televi- the movie proceeds, it's also clear it is that appeared on American Playhouse. sion's worthier forays into ambitious and about time itself and the uses of history, With the bulk of Concealed Enemies re- provocative drama. With David M. Davis and maybe even the abuses of history, stricted to official hearings and court- as executive director and Lindsay Law as which is not only what can be docu- rooms, Peter B. Cook, the producer, was executive producer, the American series mented as having been, but also the way shrewd enough to recruit as director Jeff managed to come up with enough funding we choose to perceive the documented Bleckner, an American who has won sev- for the $4 million Concealed Enemies to facts ... it is a brilliant, sorrowful evoca- eral awards for directing the series Hill be produced by WGBH Boston, along tion of a most anxious age." Street Blues. Bleckner managed to infuse with Goldcrest of England and Comworld In one of those little ironic twists that Concealed Enemies with an energy that Productions. make show business fascinating, the Brit- kept the overall pacing remarkably crisp. Meanwhile, however, into the picture ish docudrama producers actually ap- The casting was outstanding. Edward came a documentary made by a lawyer- proached Lowenthal in 1978 with a re- Herrmann as Alger Hiss may have returned -filmmaker named John Lowen- quest to see his documentary. In return, flected more of the man's patrician ele- thal. The Trials of Alger Hiss was re- he would be hired as a consultant for their gance than his often -noted arrogance, but leased in 1980 and had a run at a dramatization. Lowenthal agreed, pri- the portrait remained totally convincing. Manhattan movie theater. In a New York marily for the money that would enable John Harkins as Whittaker Chambers Tunes review, my colleague Vincent him to complete his project. At the same brilliantly captured the physical look and Canby said the film "is about a series of time, he began submitting his documen- mannerisms of the magazine editor and events, as they were seen at the time in tary for a possible showing on public tele- admitted former Communist who ac- newsreels and other documentary foot- vision. Save for a few local stations serv- cused Hiss of having been a Communist age, and as they are seen now in dozens of iced by the Eastern Educational spy in the 1930s. And Peter Riegert as contemporary interviews with the sur- Television Network, his efforts were en- Richard Nixon contributed a carefully re- viving principal players, particularly Mr. tirely rebuffed. strained picture of a politician who, like Fortunately for public television, Con- many other politicians, is opportunistic John J. O'Connor is a television critic, for cealed Enemies turned out to be high - and very ambitious. The New York Times. quality drama, as painstaking and rivet- A great deal of effort was made to cap -

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ture period details in clothing and sets. against Hitler. And in the course of his The initial hearings, the first of their kind research Lowenthal went even further, to be carried on the new-fangled medium getting two jurors, one from each of the of television, were recreated in incredibly Hiss trials, to look at new material-in- faithful detail. But, rather perversely, the The documentary cluding Chambers's statement to the FBI success in this area brings into question about his homosexual activities, a sup- the docudrama's very nature. showed actual pressed document released in the 1970s Docudrama has long been a pesky under the new Freedom of Information form, sometimes mixing fact and fiction events, and also Act. Both jurors conceded the verdict to the point of utter confusion or even might have been different if they had calculated distortion. Concealed Ene- caught the 1940s known all the facts. One declared can- mies, as has been widely noted, attempts didly, "We were hoodwinked." to go right down the middle on the ques- political scene. If Lowenthal's pro -Hiss bias is appar- tion of Hiss's guilt or innocence. Neither ent, it might be argued that it is impos- Hiss supporters nor Chambers sup- sible to make any sort of a film devoid of porters are likely to come away from the bias, however subtle. But it also can be film with their minds changed. The argued that Lowenthal makes a sincere Chambers contingent does observe, how- Lowenthal's documentary. The Trials of effort to be fair. Why, then, did the al- ever, that Hiss was convicted and that his Alger Hiss makes pointed efforts to be ways financially strapped public televi- subsequent legal appeals have been re- fair to Chambers. Ralph de Toledano, an sion system refuse his documentary for jected. So, it argues, in still pursuing a editor and one of Chambers's more artic- national broadcast and decide to invest middle-of-the-road, "objective" course, ulate supporters, is interviewed at length. considerable sums in a British docu- Concealed Enemies is taking a position Yet public television proved surprisingly drama? The BBC had no qualms about automatically favorable to Hiss. reluctant to touch the documentary, even broadcasting The Trials of Alger Hiss in But the larger question is why a docu- when iii the end it was being offered to the prime time on a Saturday in April 1982. drama is even considered necessary system at just about no cost. Perhaps the Hiss -Chambers case re- when "real" material covering the same Lowenthal has a file of correspon- mains too sensitive and, as Lowenthal subject already exists, in Lowenthal's dence with public television representa- charges, public television is "just too The Trials of Alger Hiss. Why does the tives that dates back to 1979. (He is star- scared." Or perhaps it is simply a matter television viewer have to watch actors, tled by how "outspoken, or perhaps of a fine dramatic production providing a 3 however skilled, playing the roles of Hiss foolish" they were in committing their necessary degree of distance from the is- 2 and Chambers giving public testimony opinions to paper.) As recently as Febru- sue for liberals and conservatives bent on 2 when the men themselves can be seen in ary 1983, a letter from the news and pub- proving their respective sides virtuous. archival footage? No matter how objec- lic -affairs office of PBS insisted not only Whatever the explanation, it would be re- tive, no matter how conscientious, docu- that the two -hour -45 -minute documen- assuring one day to be able to see both drama may distort the truth with overt tary was too long for the national PBS Concealed Enemies and The Trials of Al- theatrics. The material has to be con- schedule, but also that there was no con- gerHis.c on public television. They would toured into emotional peaks and valleys. temporary interest in the Hiss case. This make a whale of a "package." Consider one key scene in Concealed was at the very time American Playhou re Enemies. Appearing before a congres- was starting work on its four-hour Hiss sional committee, Chambers denies that docudrama. "I'm a little surprised that he personally hates Hiss: "We were close they thought I didn't know what was go- friends but we are caught in a tragedy of ing on," Lowenthal says. history. Mr. Hiss represents the con- Part of the problem, of course, is that cealed enemy against which we are all the decision -making processes in public fighting and I am fighting. I testified television are so fragmented. The sys- against him with remorse and pity but in tem's proponents can argue that this fac- the moment of historic jeopardy in which tor enables the different entities to keep this nation now stands, so help me God. I out of each others' way. Outsiders, on the could not do otherwise." This was indeed other hand, can charge that such a struc- an affecting moment in the original hear- ture provides a convenient excuse for ing, but its reproduction in the docu- giving assorted supplicants the run- drama reaches for heightened drama by around. In any event, the system's tradi- having Chambers crying considerably tionally cautious stations are more likely more than he actually did. In addition. to feel comfortable with a carefully bal- background music gives the entire scene anced docudrama than with a pointed a more momentous thrust. documentary. To what end? it must be asked. If Con- In certain respects, Lowenthal's docu- cealed Enemies had indeed taken a strong mentary is more thorough than the docu- point of view on the case, the docudrama drama, capturing the atmosphere not could be defended on the ground that it only of the 1940s but, through interviews, "transcended" mere facts. But the pro- the turbulent rise of Nazi Germany in the duction stuck carefully to its middle 1930s, and the manipulations of the Com- ground-as, to a certain extent, did John munist Party as the supposed bulwark

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To Err Is Human, If Not Necessarily Funny

by James Traub

MAYBE you can remember butts of these extremely complicated and the Smothers Brothers, expensive inventions are figures of he- or Red Skelton, or even roic, People magazine -type proportions. Sid Caesar. They were When Jane Q. Public gets embarrassed sketch comedians; they, by a cow in a butcher shop it's no big deal. or someone who worked for them, wrote But when Connie Sellecca (of Hotel) funny scenes, and they then acted funny. comes home to find that 5,622 pounds of You can imagine Sid Caesar impersonat- living pig has been delivered to her door, ing a butcher: A customer asks for some and storms around and even curses (the nice, fresh steaks; Sid disappears and ostentatious bleep clues in the non -lip- emerges from a back room leading a cow. readers), the 15 -year -old in each of us While the customer stares in shock, Sid NBC's blooper show: Why are these men feels a terrific vindictive thrill. We get the marks off the "porterhouse" section on laughing? same feeling whenever a big-time news- the cow's flank. Sid leads the cow back man or soap star forgets what he's talking off-stage, and then we hear the whine of a The bloopers -type show normally in- about. Here are the ultimate figures of power saw. Out comes Sid with a couple cludes outtakes from soap operas and authority and cool acting just as dumb of steaks. And all the while he has been news reports (the twin towers of the and clumsy as we do; they're probably cackling like some demon butcher of botched line and the pratfall), old clips of just as uncool off-camera, except we Fleet Street. His craziness makes the goofball weddings or dumb animal stunts, never see it. No doubt there is a doctoral sketch witty rather than appalling. practical jokes, and interviews with citi- thesis here on the problems of fame in a Sid Caesar never did this sketch. I saw zens given to strange habits or burdened democratic society. it on TV Bloopers and Practical Jokes, with unlikely names. The humor of virtu- It must be said, in all fairness, that NBC's attempt to revitalize the prime - ally all these segments has to do not with some blooper shows are worse than oth- time comedy variety format that Sid Cae- cleverness but embarrassment; they are ers. There is no more lugubrious experi- sar practically created. But it wasn't re- funny only because they really happened, ence available from television than ally a sketch, it was a practical joke. NBC or at least were really manufactured. The watching Don Rickles and Steve Law- built the butcher shop-in Hollywood, of bloopers show thus represents a cross of rence, co -hosts of ABC's Foul-Ups, course-and lured in the customer. This the comedy variety show with Real Peo- Bleeps and Blunders, grope around in a was really happening. Since the actor/ ple (by way of Candid Camera), just as murk of witless jests, smiles pinned to butcher had to play the scene straight, the practically every new show seems to in- their trooper faces. ("Enough of this idle gag had no particular wit. This joke-it volve a cross of Real People with some- chit-chat," says Steve, all too aptly.) was funny-was that we knew something thing-say, courtroom drama. "There's a ABC's hour-long May special, America's the customer didn't know, and the payoff reality -based programming appetite out Funniest Foul -Ups, offered a genuine was not a funny line but her monumental there," as Marvin Mord of ABC puts it. apotheosis of the form: three separate embarrassment when she found out she Thus we come face to face with that segments on people with dopey names, had been had. question so vexing to philosophers of who were then brought together from all Blooper programming, to use the ge- every era: What is reality? It is worth not- over the country for a finale that con- neric term, is television's wave of the ing that on blooper shows, interviews and sumed about five seconds. "Hi, I'm next 10 minutes. TV Bloopers and Practi- practical jokes almost never take place Santa M. Claus," said one. "I'm Sandy cal Jokes turned out to be NBC's second outside of Hollywood, that fabled land Beach," said another. NBC, on the other most popular show of 1983-'84. Seven of from which TV shows and movies hand, makes use of such witty folk as the 15 top -rated network specials last sea- emerge. And as any 12- to 17 -year-old Johnny Carson and David Letterman, son involved bloopers; among 12- to 17 - knows, reality is what happens on TV. In and even offered an esoteric segment on year-olds, six of the top eight were one notable if inadvertent proof of this "Europe's funniest commercials." A blooper shows. ABC, probably the net- concept, Dick Clark-the host, with Ed class act in a low class. work least averse to embarrassing pro- McMahon, of TV Bloopers and Practical It would take a wiser head than this one gramming, put on no less than four bloop- Jokes-visited an elementary school ap- to explain what the rise of blooper shows ers shows during the May ratings sweeps. parently within walking distance of the tells us about How We Live Today. Nobody's proud of all this bloopifying, it studio to ask five -year -olds if they'd Maybe we've just run out of good jokes. just works. In the course of a 15 -minute heard of Johnny Carson, or Ed, or Dick Anyway, I look forward to the imminent conversation, an ABC vice president himself. And they hadn't! It's hilarious. blooperization of TV, including Battle of managed to say three times, "I don't Get real, kids. the Network Practical Jokers, Search for know how long-lived these shows will The dramatic heart of most blooper America's Biggest Fools, Walter Cron - be." The thought of their evanescence shows is the practical joke. Here reality is kite's Wacky Home Movies, and Dumb seemed not to distress him much. at its most contrived. In most cases the Mistakes Tonight.

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The Political Spot: A Necessary Evil by Edwin Diamond and Stephen Bates

Banning `demagogic' effects from polispots would only lessen the public's interest in campaigns.

E SOME LEGISLATION now pending "Tombstone Bill." In essence, the bill other "people -oriented" activities; they in Congress becomes law, the would ban production values from politi- support a new breed of political consul- era of political commercials will cal advertising on television. It would tants who answer to no one, and they end in 1984. "Polispots" of the mandate that polispots contain only "the constitute demagoguery. future will show the candidate voice and image of the candidate or alter- "I didn't need demagogic television," (or party chairman or political action native speaker speaking into the camera Gans says, referring to his experience committee chief) addressing the camera for the duration of the advertisement" running Eugene McCarthy's Presidential full -face, and nothing else-the classic and certain written material. The back- campaign in 1968. "All I needed was the talking -head ad. And since everybody drop behind the speaker must be filmed at Vietnam war to be going on, and Lyndon knows that talking heads are boring, cam- the same time (no post -production trick- Johnson to appear on the tube. All paigns will shift their resources away ery); it must be "an actual scene or an Ronald Reagan needed was Jimmy Cart- from television. actual event," and it cannot include "any er's performance, and the public percep- That, at any rate, is the goal of Curtis staged reproduction of any event or tion of it. Where there is real dissatisfac- Gans, director of the Committee for the scene." Had the bill been in effect this tion with the incumbent, the incumbent Study of the American Electorate, and year, we would have been denied the ads can get ousted without these devices. one of the forces behind the "Fairness in that featured a sizzling fuse (Gary Hart) And where the dissatisfaction is created, Political Advertising Act"-or, as the ad- and a nuclear alert (Alan Cranston), as he probably shouldn't be ousted." vertising industry has termed it, the well as those that showed the candidate Gans feels that the proposed law has a walking through a factory (John Glenn) good chance before Congress. It has been Edwin Diamond is adjunct professor in or fishing in a stream (Walter Mondale). introduced into both houses, but has not political science at the Massachusetts In- Testifying before a Senate committee yet been scheduled for debate. Gans has stitute of Technology, and head of the last fall, Gans noted that voting has de- swayed the opinions of sitting legislators MIT News Study Group. Stephen Bates clined fairly steadily as political commer- by arguing, not implausibly, that slickly is a media researcher at Harvard's Insti- cials have increased in number, a correla- produced polispots are more likely to be tute of Politics. They adapted this article tion he reads as cause -and -effect. the weapons of challengers than incum- from their hook, The Spot: The Rise of Besides that, he contended, TV commer- bents. Of the other parties, neither ad Political Advertising on Television, pub- cials cast too much; they divert campaign agencies nor the broadcast industry have lished by MIT Press. resources from field organizations and any reason to be unduly alarmed by the

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bill, while political consultants, whose each of the Lincoln -Douglas debates); to- system. TV has not only amplified the livelihood the legislation would threaten, day spots can bring the candidate's mes- candidate's voice; it has changed, funda- are scarcely an organized bunch. Yet for sage to millions of voters, repeatedly. By mentally, the nature of political dis- all that, the bill is scarcely likely to be one estimate, it costs a campaign 25 cents course. That raises a more difficult prob- given strong priority in either house. to reach a voter by direct mail, 1.5 cents lem: The prevalence of high -gloss, The biggest hurdle for the anti-polispot high-tech media campaigns may be trivi- forces is likely to be the First Amend- alizing politics. They may be not dema- ment. To clear that hurdle, Gans claims goguery but fluff. To the extent that poli - that production values are more akin to spots are made to look, for example, like the "time, place, and manner" of The danger isn't lifestyle cola ads, they may be taken no speech-whose regulation is often per- more seriously than the rest of television mitted under the First Amendment- demagoguery advertising. When polispots become just than to the actual content of speech. Cur- one more entertainment to watch, it will rent proposals, he points out, would not so much as become harder and harder for the audi- censor a word or an idea, merely the way ence to regard them as important-espe- ads convey words and ideas. "The dema- fluff-ads cially if there is no other campaign visible gogic trappings, the props," he argues, to the viewer. The result may be a grow- "are not intrinsic to free speech, and may that trivialize ing distance between candidate and indeed crowd out free speech." In gen- voter. Voting may become just one more eral, though, restrictions on political elections. activity commended to us by television speech (as opposed to commercial com- purveyors of goods and services. We munication or entertainment, for in- watch the free show, but we don't neces- stance) have run up against an unsympa- sarily get involved; we are passively en- thetic judiciary. Aware of that danger, by newspaper advertisement, and less tertained. The problem, in short, may be Congress may hesitate. than half a cent by TV ad. more basic than any spot or series of t_. Constitutional questions notwithstand- Of course this means the attack that spots; something fundamental may have ing, the idea holds considerable intellec- once might have been carried out through been lost when campaigns switched to tual appeal for both left and right. Lib- street -corner whispering can now be tape. erals as well as conservatives have strong broadcast in a 30 -second flash to mil- However, the obvious solution-to di- reservations about the political process lions. But there is a self-correcting mech- vorce politics from television once and and television, though for different rea- anism. Because of television's large, un- for all and thereby to restore voter inter- sons. Gans's proposal might appeal to differentiated audience, candidates' est and participation-doesn't hold up. both as a way of restoring some sort of messages are transmitted to everyone- Since the 1940s Americans have increas- old-fashioned purity to politics. supporters, leaners, and opponents alike. ingly stayed at home to be entertained, a But we believe the Gans law would be a The cheap shot that attracts ill-informed trend fueled by demographics (the subur- mistake. During the past year we have fence -sitters, for example, may repel pre- ban migration), improved at-home op- viewed and analyzed some 650 polispots, viously solid supporters. tions (radio and television, and now and we have talked at length with the ma- One might respond that television itself video -cassette recorders) and, at least jor political ad makers, as we put together is unique-that, as an intimate and visual partly, fear (the rising crime rate). True, our study of political advertising on tele- medium, it somehow clouds viewers' taking politics away from television vision from 1952 to the current campaign. minds through production values. Cer- would take campaigns outdoors again. We agree that all is not well with the sys- tainly there have been gripping, dema- But, in the absence of broader social tem. The "Tombstone Bill" solution, gogic political commercials; in our study changes, most voters wouldn't follow. however, would create more problems we saw quite a few. But voters are more than it would solve. likely to base their decisions on images The current situation, as one political First, it must be seen for what it is: an gained from TV news or debate-more media consultant put it, stinks. But the effort to remove politics from TV, as objective sources-than from polispots. solution lies more with politics than with much as possible. (Gans initially sug- Moreover, Americans have now had 30 television. When the political process gested that political commercials be years of experience with TV. They are, produces a candidate with strong posi- wholly prohibited. The no -production we believe, largely inured to the razzle- tions and clear identity, voters respond. idea is more feasible, he thinks, and it dazzle of production values. A jump cut Jesse Jackson, for example, gained rec- would have the effect of reducing politi- may sustain some viewers' interest, but it ognition and votes with hardly any televi- cal advertising considerably.) Yet Gans won't suspend their disbelief. If voters sion ads. But for candidates without ignores the fact that television is the most are incapable of recognizing and rejecting Jackson's clear identity, political ads re- efficient way for candidates to reach vot- demagoguery, the blame cannot be main a necessity. Restricting or abolish- ers. A century ago a few thousand people placed on production values, or even on ing polispots would deprive them of a might have learned a candidate's argu- television. sometimes abused, generally worrisome, ments directly, through speeches or leaf- However, it is clear that television has but currently irreplaceable means of lets (fewer than 20,000 people witnessed created serious problems for the electoral communicating with the electorate.

72 Channels SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER '84

www.americanradiohistory.com Some Of the best North American shows a reni American.

They're the high -quality, nine shows which won Inter- audience -winning productions national Emmys are Fraggle of the Canadian Broadcasting Roch Jim Henson's fanciful hit Corporation - CBC Television. show; L'Oiseau de feu, featuring Drama, comedy, variety, breath -taking dance perfor- documentary, sports and fam- mances; and Fighting Back, a ily programming. poignant documentary. Programs that are established And Much More. hits in Canada, and around the on commercial U.S. television, Our tradition of quality con- world. has won rave reviews world- tinues with many exciting Award -winning wide. new programs, includ- International Successes. Our provocative science ing: A Planet For The The mystery/comedy series series The Nature of Things Taking, an astonishing Seeing Things is scoring high is one of the highest rated eight-part numbers in its American mar- shows on U.S. Public Televi- kets, and has sold to all major sion and is attracting territories. large audiences in over Empire, Inc., a lavish six -part 80 countries. mini-series soon to premiere And our programs are critical successes too. CBC Television documentary on our world and has been its future; Charlie Grant's War, honoured with a gripping feature set in three Academy wartime Europe; and Awards in as The Paul Taylor many years -for Dance Company, one Boys and Girls, of the dominant forces produced by in modem dance. Atlantis Films, For programs that Just Another deliver, for pro- Missing Kid, and grams that are among the CRAC. best in North America, Among our look to CBC Television.

lç;;; CBC Enterprises Les Entreprises Radio -Canada

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www.americanradiohistory.com "4. WHERE GREAT ENTERTA N ENT. IS A TRADITION.

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