Broadcasting in America; the Performance of Network Afficiates in the Top 50 Markets. INSTITUTION Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 082 483 EM 011 445 AUTHOR Johnson, Nicholas TITLE Broadcasting in America; The Performance of Network Afficiates in the Top 50 Markets. INSTITUTION Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C. PUB DATE 10 Aug 73 NOTE 173p. JOURNAL CIT Federal Communications Conmission Reports; v42 (2d Series)N1 August 10,1973 EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC-$6.58 DESCRIPTORS *Broadcast Industry; Certification; Citizen Partic4.pation; Commercial Television; *Equal Opportunities (Jobs); Evaluation; National Surveys; *Networks; Performance; Performance Criteria; *Programing (Broadcast); Television; *Television Surveys IDENTT_FIERS FCC; *Federal Communications Commission; Johnson (Nicholas); United States of America ABSTRACT This report represents the final attempt by outgoing Commissioner Nicholas Johnson to draw attention to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) automatic renewal of licensees guilty of substandard performance. The report analyzes the performance of network affiliates in the top 50 television markets with respect to programing, female and minority employment, and ownership. It seeks to demonstrate the kind of analysis which can be made, to develop minimum standards, and to design an alternative to government regulation by using public disclosure of :;nformation to spur the industry to improve its performance and to motivate the public to challenge substandard licensees. The analyses of performance are based upon public data supplied by licensees to the FCC; in three separate chapters criteria on programing, employment, and ownership are developed from inspections of the data and the stations are rank-ordered according to their performance.it fourth chapter discusses what citizens can do to improve television in their community. Six appendixes and 17 tables provide detailed data on approximately 150 stations. (PB) VOL. 42 (2d Series) AUGUST 10, 1973 No. 1 IsrN FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION REPORTS CO (42 F.C.C. 2d) co Decisions, Repo/1's, Public Notices, and Other Documents of CD- the Federal Communications Commission of the United States VOLUME 42 (2d Series) Pages 1 to 172 Reported by the Commission U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION 8 WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO DUCE° EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN ATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS S-Al ED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE S:: NT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION DEAN BURCH, Chairman ROBERT E. LEE CHARLOTTE T. REID NICHOLAS JOHNSON RICHARD E. WILEY H. REX LEE BENJAMIN L. HOOKS UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D.C. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - on a subscription basis August 1973 Because Broadcasting in America was issued as a dissenting opinion to the 1973 Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi License Renewals while I was serving on the Federal Communications Commission, it is printed in the official F. C. C. Reports. You may order additional copies of Broadcasting in America for the cost of having them printed ($1.75 each). Just write: Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington DC 20402. Ask for "F. C. C. Reports, Volume 42 (Second Series), Number 1, August 10, 1973." (Needless to say, I have no financial interest in the publication.) I hope you find Broadcasting in America useful, and that you will send me your comments, sug- gestions for improving future volumes, and the results of any comparable studies you may do on broadcasting in your community. Nicholas Johnson P. O. Box 19101 Washington DC 20036 FILMED FROM BEST AVAILABLECOPY BROADCASTING IN AMERICA The Performance of NetworkAffiliates in the Top 50 Markets .//y tone st +(fly. pierteed byFCC Commissioner Nicholas Joh ',sokand his ,q01-1 and 6na?;nar stadeat8 Arkansas, Louisiana and JI;ssissippi 1.97Rene-wigs 3 BEFORE THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WAsm xurox, D.C.20.)54 In Re Renewals of BROADCAST LICENSES FOR ARKANSAS, LOIISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI, 1973 MAY 31, 1973. Ti IE Co3rmissiox ai Co3r3rissroNms Bum] (ClimamAN), Ronmrp E. LEE, H. REX LEE, REID, WILEY, AND HOOKS, WITH COMMISSIONER JOHNSON DISSENTING AND ISSUING A STATEMENT, APPROVED STAFF ACTION REVIEWING BROADCAST LICENSES FOR ARKANSAS, LOUISIANA AND Mississippi FOR 1973. DISSENTING OPINION OF COMMISSIONER NICHOLAS JOHNSON For my entire term I have dissented to the automatic renewal of licensees guilty of substandard performances in programming and (more recently) employment. The 1913 Arkansas-Louisiana-Missis- sippi renewals represent the last group that will cross my desk during my official tenure as Federal Communications Commissioner. There- fore, I and my staff and seminar students have prepared a major report on broadcasting in America, incorporating many of the complaints and suggestions of my seven years, for this one final renewal dissent. 42 F.C.Q. 2(1 4 Federal Cominunieatio 718 C 077117218SiOn Reports TABLE OF CONTENTS page Table of Contents 4 Table of Tables 4 Credits 5 I NT RO D ETT ION (Mid Overall programming ranking') 6 Chapter 1. PROGRAMMING I.E,CFORMANcp: I. Introduction 14 II. News Public Affairs 16 III. Com inercial i zation 25 IV. Local Programming 30 V. Confidential Financial Informatnm 38 Chapter 2. EMPLOYMENT I. Introduction_ 49 II. Analysis of Minority Employment__ III. Analysis of Female Employment 59 IV. Remedies fm. Claims of Employment Discrimination 61 V. National Employment Analysis 64 Chapter 3. PATTERNS OF OWNERSHIP 68 Chapter 4. How You CAN IMPROVE TELEVISION IN YOUR COMMUNITY I. What Can You Do? (an Introduction) 100 II. How Do You Prepare? 103 III. What Action Can You Take? 118 Appendix A. Systems Methodology Appendix B. Citizens' Organizations & Resource Materials_ Appendix C. Additional Tables of Information_ Appendix D. The Ten Best and Ten Worst Stations 122E238133i Appendix E. Setting Minimum Levels of Performance 170 Appendix F. The Top 50 Markets 171 TABLE OF TABLES Table 1. Ranking the network affiliates in the top 50 markets on their overall programming performance 7 Table 2. Overall programming ranking including rank in each of the program ming criteria.. 14 Table 3. Ranking of performance in news, public affairs . and "other" programming 19 Table 4. Ranking of performance in category of Public Service announce- ments 23 Table 5. Ranking of perform: nee in commercialization category 28 Table C. Ranking of performance in local programming 34 Table 7. Ranking based on the percentage of gross revenues allocated to program expenditures 44 Table 8. Ranking of the total percentage of minority employees relative to the percentage of minorities in the SMSA 53 Table 9. Ranking of the percentage of minorities employed in high pay positions 57 Table 10. Ranking of the ;)ereentage. of women employed in high pay positions 59 Table 11. National total of full time, minority and women employees of affiliates in the study in 1972 64 Table 12. Stations reporting fewer than 5 minority employees in 1972 64 Table 13. Total full time, minority and women employees in high pay positions in 1972 65 Table 14a. Stations employing 0 or 1 minorities in high pay positions in 1972 65 Table 14b. Stations employing 0 or 1 women in high pay positions in 1972__ 65 Table 15. Stations showing a decrease in employment of minorities or women in 1972 66 Table 16. Cross reference of owners to call letters 74 Table 17. Ownership Information 77 42 F.C.C. 2d Akanis, Louis;ana aird .siNN;ppi. 5 CREDITS This report, is very much the product of a multi-group effort. The groups involved included my own stall, a 0roup of Georgetown Uni- versity law students in a seminar I WUS teaching, FCC employees out- side of triV office, and guests appearing before the ..emuar. After .the markets and stations were selected, decisions had to be made as to which categories of data to include and exclude, and the analyses to which they should he subjected. The data had to be ex- tracted from FCC files. Computer programs w ere written. Additional research, writing and editing produced the text. The text and charts were laid out and typed many times. Each of these tasks involved uncounted hours of labor. The prineipal participants in any ow n office were Larry Gage and Elaine Weiss. It was they who did the 1 i.m's share of the administration of the group effort, following up on the thousands of details necessary to the project's timely completion, editing the seminar students' con- tribution, and adding their own substantial segments of text. Karen Possner. a. doctoral candidate in Communications at, the University of Iowa. made valuable contributions to the seminar sessions and this report. Chuck Shepherd helped out with some of the charts. Bonnie Herbert and Karen Marrrrave bore the considerable burdens of typing and preparing this surtsantiat manuscript at a time 11-110.11 their normal tasks were especially heavy. The Georgetown law students were : Phil A trent°, Thomas J. Collin, Raymond C. Fay, Ronald G. Gabler, Larry Harbin, Karen B. Possner, Lucilla A. Streeter, James R. Tantield, Wvid Wagner. James B. Wil- cox, Jr. and Brady Williamson. They participated in my seminar with the advance knowledge that, the burdens would be, substantial and executed the assignment with great ability and good spirits. Derrick A. Humphries participated in the first two months of the seminar. The contribution of Larry Harbin in preparing and executing our computer programs warrants special mention. Those FCC employees outside of my office who gave us invaluable assistance include: Pearl Cook, Larry Ends, John Foret, Alex Korn, Quentin Proctor, Allan Stillwell, Wally Johnson, David Westin and fIarold Kassens. We very much appreciate their cooperationocca- sionally requiring their staying well beyond the FCC's normal 4:30 p.m. closing time. Seminar guests who gave us an evening of their time ineluded: Sam Buffone, a former seminar student and currently an associate in Stern Concern; former FCC Commissioner Kenneth A.