STRUCTURALLY UNSOUND: THE CHANGING STATE OF LOCAL TELEVISION by THOMAS W. BAGGERMAN B.A., Kent State University, 1991 M.S., Robert Morris University, 2001 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2006 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Thomas W. Baggerman It was defended on April 4, 2006 and approved by Robert Bellamy, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Journalism and Multimedia Arts Peter Simonson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Jonathan Sterne, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Communication Studies Dissertation Advisor: Carol A. Stabile, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Journalism & Mass Communication ii Copyright © by Thomas W. Baggerman 2006 iii STRUCTURALLY UNSOUND: THE CHANGING STATE OF LOCAL TELEVISION Thomas W. Baggerman, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2006 The centralized structure of ownership of the local television industry in the United States today has resulted from a combination of regulatory and market pressures. This dissertation analyzes the ways in which centralizing tendencies in ownership structure have been accompanied by the centralization of operations. As station groups add more stations and seek to operate the stations they already own in an ever more profitable manner, changed industrial practices are vitally important because they have direct effects upon the product of those stations, especially local television news. In analyzing such centralizing tendencies, the project focuses not only on centralization of ownership and operation, but on two further factors as well: changing interpretations of the “public interest” and the development of technologies for local television stations. Changing interpretations of the “public interest” provision of regulatory law permitted and encouraged station groups to grow larger, redefining the structure of the local television industry, even in the times of heaviest restriction. In terms of technological development, after a brief period of equipment designed simply to get product on the air, television equipment developers followed a consistent guiding principle of staff reduction and job simplification which aided this momentum iv towards centralization. The combination of changing ownership structures, shifts in understandings of “public interest,” and new technologies has resulted in new business models built around invoking economies of scale, including centralcasting and multi-channel operation. These new business models have dramatically altered the program product of local television stations, especially local news. News programming, which initially entered broadcasting in response to the regulatory mandate that broadcasters serve the public in return for free access to the public airwaves, has been transformed into a primary source of local station revenue. This commodified version of news programming is the logical result of practices begun in newspapers and continued in radio broadcasting. The news product of local stations is an area of vital concern in the present day media environment, as the quantity of news on the air increases without a corresponding increase in newsroom resources, jeopardizing the quality and veracity of those news programs. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................................................................ix PREFACE.. ..................................................................................................................................................................x INTRODUCTION: ECONOMICS, STRUCTURE, PRACTICE, AND PRODUCT............................................1 1.0 A BRIEF HISTORY OF OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE AND JOURNALISTIC PRACTICE IN THE UNITED STATES ..........................................................................................................................15 1.1 THE PREHISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF PRINT NEWS, 1690-1936 .............................17 1.2 NEWS ON THE AIR: RADIO BROADCASTING, 1920-1952....................................................30 1.3 NEWS IN THE TELEVISION AGE, 1945-1980...........................................................................43 1.4 EXAMINING THE EXEMPLARS ................................................................................................51 1.4.1 Hearst-Argyle Television ......................................................................................................52 1.4.2 Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. ..............................................................................................54 1.4.3 Cox Television ......................................................................................................................55 2.0 BROADCAST OWNERSHIP, GOVERNMENTAL REGULATION, THE PURSUIT OF PROFIT, AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST ............................................................................................................58 2.1 WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY AND THE BATTLE FOR THE AIRWAVES: 1899-1909.............61 2.2 REGULATING WIRELESS, THE EMERGENCE OF BROADCASTING, AND CHAOS ON THE AIR: 1910-1926......................................................................................................................66 2.3 REGULATING BROADCASTING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: 1927-1978...........................75 2.3.1 Decisive Regulation and Emerging Technology: 1927-1939................................................76 2.3.2 Localism, Ownership, Service, and the Public Interest: 1940-1959......................................86 2.3.3 The Last Bastion of Restrictive Regulation: 1960-1978........................................................99 2.4 1979-PRESENT: DEREGULATION, TELECOMMUNICATION, AND CONSOLIDATION.107 vi 3.0 THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE CENTRALIZATION AND CONSOLIDATION OF LOCAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING........................................................................................117 3.1 TECHNOLOGY, THE BROADCAST FACTORY, AND ECONOMIC GUIDING PRINCIPLES ................................................................................................................................119 3.1.1 Social Constructivism and Economic Determinism ............................................................122 3.1.2 Discovering the Guiding Principles.....................................................................................126 3.2 TELEVISION BROADCASTING: RADIO WITH PICTURES .................................................130 3.2.1 Fitting In: From Radio to Television...................................................................................133 3.3 TELEVISION BROADCASTING, 1941-1988: CENTRALIZING TECHNOLOGIES AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF TELEVISION NEWS .......................................................................136 3.3.1 Centralizing Technology #1: Electronic editing..................................................................141 3.3.2 Centralizing Technology #2: Smaller and simpler field cameras and recorders..................145 3.3.3 Centralizing Technology #3: Station Automation ...............................................................151 3.4 TELEVISION EQUIPMENT 1989-1996: STREAMLINING PROCESSES ..............................155 3.4.1 Digital & High Definition Television..................................................................................161 3.4.2 Transforming the news: computers + video = profit ...........................................................164 3.4.3 Automating the on-air operation..........................................................................................168 3.4.4 System Solutions with a smile.............................................................................................169 3.5 TELEVISION EQUIPMENT 1996-2006: CONVERGENCE, CENTRALIZATION, CONCENTRATION, AND CONSOLIDATION.........................................................................172 3.5.1 Multi-channel operations.....................................................................................................174 3.5.2 ParkerVision and Newsroom Automation...........................................................................179 3.5.3 Files instead of Footage.......................................................................................................182 3.6 TRACKING THE THREE ...........................................................................................................184 3.6.1 Cox Broadcasting ................................................................................................................184 3.6.2 Hearst-Argyle Television ....................................................................................................186 3.6.3 Sinclair Broadcasting, Inc....................................................................................................187 vii 4.0 THE ECONOMICS OF CENTRALIZATION AND THE CHANGED STRUCTURE OF LOCAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING.......................................................................................................190 4.1 THE ECONOMIC AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT OF LOCAL TELEVISION OWNERSHIP ...............................................................................................................................191 4.2 SPIRALING INWARD: THE CENTRALIZING TREND ..........................................................194 4.2.1 Buying,