Broadcasting Faith: Regulating Radio from the New Era to the American Century
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Broadcasting Faith: Regulating Radio from the New Era to the American Century David A. Noell Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2020 © 2020 David A. Noell All Rights Reserved Abstract Broadcasting Faith: Regulating Radio from the New Era to the American Century David A. Noell Between 1927 and 1987, American broadcast regulators undertook a project for radio. The project pursued multiple goals: to allocate wavelengths, to hold stations accountable to the public interest, to restrict prejudicial content, to protect domestic wavelengths from international signal interference, to sustain these policies over time with the advent of new media, and to evangelize the American way of life abroad. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the State Department, as the primary institutions responsible for developing this American system of radio, addressed several challenges. Domestically, the FCC resolved the free speech questions of the time by resisting government ownership of radio stations, but regulating the airwaves in the “public interest, convenience, and necessity.” Internationally, the State Department set up radio stations to broadcast around the world. Religion played a primary role in the aims of this project - domestically, that every listener would receive uplifting faith content and internationally, that the world would know of American religiosity. Public utility law precedent was influential on the 1927 Federal Radio Act and its implementation. The Commission treated radio as if it were a public utility. In this way, it ruled that the listener took precedence over the broadcaster - specifically that all listeners had a right to a well-rounded programming lineup, including religious content. As a result, the Commission favored variety stations over single-interest outlets in a series of rulings that hurt religious stations. The Commission preferred that listeners receive religious content from outlets offering a variety of programming. The Commission also worked to protect listeners’ religious sensibilities from attack, most notably during the surge of anti-Semitic populism in the 1930s. The FCC and the State Department worked together to protect American wavelength sovereignty in the 1930s and 1940s. The primary source of interference came from Mexican border stations. These signals created reception problems for American listeners of domestic stations; these particular stations were ones that the Commission had favored for laudable content, including religious programming. The border outlets also featured content the Commission deemed illicit, such as astrology and quack medicine. In the early Cold War, American international broadcasters fought the Soviet Union in a war of ideas. These broadcasters included the State Department-run Voice of America and the semi-public Radio Free Europe. In this ideological battle against Communism, America used religion to defend a liberal conception of a just society. Freedom of worship and God-given human rights were key components. Domestically, the FCC continued to regulate licensees in the public interest in the early Cold War period. For example, the Commission implemented the 1949 Fairness Doctrine, which mandated that stations not only cover critical issues, but present these issues with balance. By the late 1980s, the American system was collapsing. In 1987, as a sign of this breakdown, the Fairness Doctrine was repealed. This system had given broadcasting a liberal role in a century of totalitarian regimes - to defend free speech and uplift American society. Religion was a primary component of the system and served to encourage Americans to become more civil and ethically grounded citizens. Table of Contents Introduction: The American System of Religious Radio and the Authoritarian Threat…………..1 Chapter 1: Reallocating the Religious Airwaves………………………………………………...12 1.1 The Great Reallocation of 1928…………………………………………………………..15 1.2 The Commission vs. the Remaining Religious Stations………………………………….24 1.3 Developing a Nationwide Church – Religious Policy at NBC and CBS ………………...37 Chapter 2: Well-Balanced Religious Programming……………………………………………..44 2.1 The 1930s – Diversified Schedules Take Shape………………………………………….46 2.2 The 1940s – Response to a Rise in Commercialism……………………………………...51 2.3 The Commission Takes Direct Action……………………………………………………53 2.4 The Commission’s Influence Through Indirect Influence………………………………..56 2.5 Professionalization………………………………………………………………………..60 2.6 Evidence for Public Interest Religious Programming…………………………………….66 Chapter 3: Going After the Deviants (and Suppressing an International Populist Impulse) ……69 3.1 Populist Religious Aggression……………………………………………………………71 3.2 McNinch, The Commission, and the White House Confront Religious Attacks…………76 3.3 The NAB Code……………………………………………………………………………83 3.4 Domestic Surveillance During World War II……………………………………………..89 Chapter 4: Defending the Project………………………………………………………………...95 4.1 Property Rights……………………………………………………………………………96 4.2 Jehovah’s Witnesses and the McFadden Bill……………………………………………100 4.3 The Wagner-Hatfield Amendment………………………………………………………107 4.4 Congressional Investigation of Broadcasting……………………………………………115 i 4.5 Fundamentalists and the White-Wolverton Bill…………………………………………120 Chapter 5: The Mexico Problem – American Wavelength Sovereignty……………………….125 5.1 The Problem of Mexican Border Stations……………………………………………….127 5.2 Problems Created by Border Radio: Religious Content…………………………………129 5.3 Problems Created by Border Radio: Interference with Meritorious American Stations...132 5.4 Limited or Failed Solutions……………………………………………………………...134 5.5 Successful Solutions……………………………………………………………………..137 5.6 Problems in the Late 1940s……………………………………………………………...138 5.7 Solutions to the New Problem? …………………………………………………………143 Chapter 6: FM, TV, and Anti-Communism…………………………………………………….151 6.1 Religion’s Place on the Air: The FCC and Atheism…………………………………….154 6.2 The Rise of New Possibilities: TV, FM, and More AM Stations……………………….162 6.3 Radio at the Mid-Century Mark: Controlling Station Owners…………………………..165 6.4 FM Radio………………………………………………………………………………...171 6.5 Television………………………………………………………………………………..174 6.6 Paid Time vs. Sustaining Time…………………………………………………………..176 6.7 Regulating Religion in the 1960s and Beyond…………………………………………..179 Chapter 7: The American System of International Religious Radio…………………………...185 7.1 Private International Broadcasters……………………………………………………….187 7.2 The Voice of America…………………………………………………………………...192 7.3 VOA’s Religious Apparatus Established………………………………………………..193 7.4 VOA’s Religious Policy: Anti-Dogmatic………………………………………………..195 7.5 VOA’s Religious Policy: First Amendment Concerns…………………………………..197 ii 7.6 VOA’s Religious Policy: Evangelicals Left Behind? …………………………………..200 7.7 Communist Persecution of Religion……………………………………………………..204 7.8 Radio Free Europe……………………………………………………………………….206 7.9 Crusade For Freedom and RFE Launch…………………………………………………208 7.10 RFE Policy: Promotion of Religious Freedom…………………………………………211 7.11 RFE Deals with Political Disputes……………………………………………………..213 7.12 The Lasting Impact of America’s Religious International Broadcasting………………216 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...218 References………………………………………………………………………………………225 iii Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been possible without the tireless help of many. Thank you to my wife, Hannah, for your unconditional emotional and spiritual support, especially during moments of frustration and anxiety. I am also thankful for the time you spent reading drafts of my writing and giving me feedback. Thank you, as well, to my family. To my parents, Edd and Nancy, and my sister, Mary Beth, thank you for your continual prayers and encouragement. Thank you, Dad, for reading rough drafts and offering your comments. Your insights have always been greatly beneficial. Thank you to Hannah’s family. To my father in law, Seung-An Im, thank you for your support and prayers. Thank you to my adviser, Richard R. John. Your guidance has been indispensable. I have learned so much from you. I will never forget our conversations about history, religion, and theology. Thank you for pushing me and being such a strong advocate of my work. Thank you to my dissertation committee. Michael Schudson and Courtney Bender, thank you for reading so much of my writing. Your comments and observations have been – and will continue to be – very helpful. Cynthia B. Meyers and Ira Katznelson, thank you for setting aside time to read my dissertation, especially during the chaotic conditions of COVID-19. Your insights will guide me as I continue to work on this topic. iv Introduction: The American System of Religious Radio and the Authoritarian Threat “Often I think that the radio has become so thoroughly a part of us that we fail to realize how much we owe to its mysterious power,” Connecticut high school student Neal Axtell Blake wrote in 1940. “It enters our homes at will - past locked doors and barred windows - but it is always welcome, for it has been wisely made, in America, the instrument of freedom.” In June of 1940, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) sponsored a student essay contest, “The American System of Broadcasting - Why It Is Best For Americans.” Out of 20,000 submissions, Blake was the winner.1 His essay made a simple argument - because radio in the United States