Radio and television broadcasting is a firmly established element of American life. The A. C. Nielsen Company, which measures audience size, reported in 1985 that 98.1 % of U.S. homes contained at least one television and that the average set is turned on for seven hours per day. More than 60% of television viewers receive their news from their sets rather than from newspapers, and over half that number trust television more than the newspapers. According to the Radio Advertising Bureau, in 1985 only 1% of U.S. homes had no radio, and the average household owned at least five radios. Since its inception in the 1920s, broadcasting has provoked a variety of responses from institutions affected by it. Business sees it as the most important contemporary advertising medium. Many educators, however, regard television as a foe of literacy and serious thought. Whatever its failings, television is capable of exerting an influence that no other medium of communication can match. In 1960, for example, the 70 million people watching the debates between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy formed new impressions of the candidates that led to Kennedy's election. During the Depression President Franklin D. Roosevelt used radio to broadcast his fireside chats to the anxious nation. In its coverage of the U.S. space program, of the Watergate scandals, and of unfolding crises, such as terrorist hijackings, television has been responsible for shaping public opinion. Numerous critics have pointed out broadcasting's tendency toward escapism. In 1927, H. G. Wells condemned radio as useful only to "very sedentary persons living in badly lighted houses or otherwise unable to read...and who have no capacity for thought or conversation." Edward R. Murrow said in 1958: "Television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read, 'Look now, pay later'." THE ORIGINS OF BROADCASTING--RADIO Early Years: 1920-26 Broadcasting spread rapidly across the country during the early 1920s on a primarily amateur basis. Before World War I the inventors Guglielmo \TMarconi\t, Lee DEFOREST, Reginald Aubrey \TFessenden\t, and Edwin \TArmstrong\t had laid the technological foundations of \Tradio\t, but a wartime ban on nonmilitary broadcasting delayed radio's acceptance until the ban was lifted in 1919. Thereafter, hundreds of amateur stations sprang up. In 1922 more than 500 stations were licensed by the government. Most listeners employed homemade sets built around a galena or silicon crystal to receive signals from the "ether." Lack of government regulations abetted radio's growth and rapid commercialization. The U.S. Department of Commerce was in charge of regulating stations on the basis of the Radio Act of 1912 and assigned three- and then four-letter codes to stations. The act also confined most domestic broadcasting to the same wavelength, 360 m, thus creating an aerial traffic jam of overlapping signals. In 1922 the Commerce Department permitted more-powerful stations to use the 400-m wavelength on condition that they play only live music. This two-tier structure encouraged large and small broadcasting systems to form associations to share costs and bring popular entertainment from cities to rural areas. Both Westinghouse Corporation and American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) made early efforts to capitalize on the broadcasting boom by establishing stations. In 1920 the Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad received a license for what is regarded as the nation's true radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pa. KDKA broadcast scheduled music programs, sports, and the 1920 presidential election. During the following year Westinghouse began to sell radio sets. The least expensive model was $25. By 1924 the radio-listening audience numbered 20 million. AT&T inaugurated its radio station, WEAF, in New York City in 1922. Soon after, WEAF broadcast the first paid commercial announcement, a 10-minute speech on behalf of the Queensborough Corporation, a real-estate concern. The advertisement cost $50. AT&T then licensed out-of-town stations to carry its programs, which included the Browning King Orchestra, the Ipana Troubadours, commentary by H. V. Kaltenborn, and congressional debates. On the strength of its "toll," or sponsored approach to broadcasting, WEAF made a $150,000 profit in 1923, to the dismay of amateur enthusiasts who decried the commercialization of the airwaves. Herbert Hoover, then Commerce Department secretary, said: "It is inconceivable that we should allow so great a possibility for service to be drowned in advertising chatter." American Marconi, the U.S. subsidiary of Marconi's highly successful British company, was brought by a newly formed Radio Corporation of America (\TRCA\t) in 1919, in large part to keep some of the new technology of radio in American hands. In 1920, Westinghouse, General Electric, and AT&T agreed to share the important broadcasting patents each had developed. \TRCA\t entered the patent pool in 1921. In return, the three original patent holders each acquired an interest in the new company. David Sarnoff and the Founding of \TNBC\t American Marconi's primary commitment had been to transoceanic telegraphy, and the establishment of \TRCA\t was also intended to advance U.S. interests in that field. The notion that radio itself might become a "household utility" was advanced by David \TSarnoff\t, a one-time telegraphy operator and American Marconi employee. As early as 1916, Sarnoff had suggested that music could be brought into American households via "a simple Radio Music Box," or wireless receiver. As commercial manager of \TRCA\t, Sarnoff began to manufacture radios, and their sale became the chief source of \TRCA\t profits. With those profits, Sarnoff hoped to establish a national broadcasting network, whose principal elements were to be "entertainment, information, and education, with emphasis on the first feature--entertainment." In 1926, \TRCA\t purchased WEAF from AT&T for $1 million as the nucleus of a broadcasting network. AT&T retained a financial interest in broadcasting by supplying land lines to link the network's stations. During the same year, \TRCA\t established its wholly owned broadcasting subsidiary, the National Broadcasting Company. In 1927, Congress passed the Radio Act, which created a Federal Radio Commission empowered to license and regulate stations. Networks, whose influence was largely unforeseen, were free from FRC regulation. William Paley and the Founding of CBS The Columbia Broadcasting System, organized as a rival network to \TNBC\t, was founded in 1927, and rapidly passed through a number of owners--including the Columbia Phonograph Company, which gave the network its name. In 1928, William S. \TPaley\t, scion of a wealthy cigar manufacturing family, bought the network, and bolstered the financially weak firm by selling shares, borrowing money, and moving the network headquarters to Madison Avenue, New York City, not far from \TNBC\t's on Fifth Avenue. Paley also negotiated new affiliate contracts. Whereas \TNBC\t charged affiliates to carry sustaining (nonsponsored) programs, CBS supplied them free in return for 5 hours of affiliates' time. The favorable terms helped CBS attract 47 stations to its roster by the end of 1929. Paley's entrepreneurial acumen now offered a significant challenge to \TNBC\t's dominance of domestic broadcasting. The Depression also affected \TRCA\t, which no longer earned profits on the sale of radios. Thus \TNBC\t was forced to adopt a fully commercial policy much like that of CBS. In 1931, \TNBC\t made its first profit, which amounted to more than $2 million. The following year, during a complex reorganization inspired by a threatened monopoly suit, \TRCA\t head Owen D. Young resigned, and Sarnoff took his place. In 1933 he moved \TRCA\t-\TNBC\t to its current headquarters in Rockefeller Plaza, New York City. Programming and Advertising Although live music served as the staple of most early radio programming, networks soon realized that vaudeville-trained comedians lured larger audiences and served as effective on-the-air speakers for sponsors' products. Two white men, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, created a daily 15-minute-long comedy sketch based on the hard times of two black characters. \TAmos 'n' Andy\t, which made its \TNBC\t debut in 1929, and eventually attracted an audience estimated at 40 million. By today's standards, "Amos 'n' Andy" portrayed racial stereotypes, but during the Depression the problems of the black man were equated with those of all citizens. Other popular comedians of the Depression era included Fred \TAllen\t, Jack \TBenny\t, \TBurns and Allen\t, Ed WYNN, and Jane Ace and Goodman Ace. The comedians adopted a light tone, offering respite from economic problems at home and mounting political tension in Europe. Networks did not produce these popular, sponsored programs themselves. They leased facilities to advertising agencies who in turn hired the performers. Because advertising time was sold according to the estimated popularity of a given program, networks and sponsors relied on ratings as the arbiter of a performer's success. In 1930, Crossley, Inc., tabulated the first formal ratings, showing that \TNBC\t's "Amos 'n' Andy" was four times more popular than any CBS show. To fill hours dominated by popular \TNBC\t programming, CBS turned to the broadcast of prestigious but inexpensive dramas on a sustaining basis. Under the direction of William B. Lewis, the "Columbia Workshop" introduced the writers Archibald MacLeish and Norman Corwin, the actor-director Orson \TWelles\t, and the composer Bernard Hermann to radio audiences. Their work often had a political undertone. Welles's adaptation of H. G. Wells's science-fiction story The \TWar of the Worlds\t, broadcast on Oct. 30, 1938, and intended as a Halloween joke, created panic in many areas with its convincing account of an alien landing at Grover's Mills, N.J. In response to the CBS sustaining programming, \TNBC\t broadcast adaptations of Shakespeare starring John Barrymore and scored a significant coup by inducing Arturo Toscanini to leave Italy and take up the direction of the newly formed \TNBC\t Symphony Orchestra, beginning in late 1937. Radio and World War II: 1938-45 The threat of world war spurred the development of network news departments. During the early 1930s a press-radio feud held broadcast news to a minimum. The coverage offered by a young CBS correspondent, Edward R. \TMurrow\t, of Hitler's march to Vienna in 1938 brought a new sophistication and immediacy to radio reporting. CBS that year inaugurated the world news roundup, now a standard feature of U.S. coverage of foreign-country news. While in Europe, Murrow helped recruit for CBS such outstanding correspondents as Walter \TCronkite\t, Winston Burdett, Richard C. Hottelet, Larry Le Sueur, Eric Severeid, William L. Shirer, and Howard K. Smith. Murrow's live reports of the Battle of Britain brought the far-off war into American living rooms in 1940. From within the United States the radio commentators Elmer Davis, Quincy Howe, H. V. Kaltenborn, and Raymond Swing offered analyses of world events. The "Columbia Workshop" also joined the war effort as it became part of the Office of War Information, and CBS dramatists turned to propaganda. Corwin's verse oratorio On a Note of Triumph, broadcast May 8, 1945, celebrated the Allied victory. THE COMING OF TELEVISION Early Years: 1935-44 In 1929, David Sarnoff had learned of the television experiments of Vladimir Kosma \TZworykin\t, a Soviet immigrant then working at Westinghouse. Whereas many other television inventors relied on mechanical devices to reproduce visual images, Zworykin emphasized the importance of an all-electronic system. Marconi himself had advised Sarnoff to develop just such an approach, and Sarnoff eventually invested $50 million in the Zworykin system. He also discouraged such other inventors as Philo Taylor \TFarnsworth\t and Allen B. Du Mont from entering the field. Sarnoff announced the \TRCA\t commitment to television in 1935 and in 1939 demonstrated a television system at the New York World's Fair. Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke before the camera, becoming the first president to appear on television. Despite Sarnoff's bold moves, several factors converged to delay the coming of television. The war forced \TRCA\t to suspend television development in favor of military production. A struggle over wavelength allocations, combined with a running battle over government regulation, further slowed television's progress. In 1933 the inventor Edwin Armstrong demonstrated a new static-free method of transmission, \Tfrequency modulation\t (FM), far superior to the \Tamplitude modulation\t (AM) then in use. Armstrong's advocacy of FM, which caught the ear of the government, threatened to block the introduction of Sarnoff's television, which required some of the same hotly contested frequencies. In order to make peace, Sarnoff offered Armstrong $1 million for the FM patent rights, but Armstrong, by then operating his own FM radio station, W2XMN, refused. In 1940 the \TFederal Communications Commission\t, successor to the FRC, approved FM for radio broadcasting, but, by allowing FM stations to duplicate AM programming, it dampened much of the promise of an alternative system. The FCC, however, ensured FM's survival by requiring that it also be used for television transmission. In 1944 the FCC determined frequencies for both FM and television: 12 very high frequency (VHF) and 70 ultra-high frequency (UHF) television channels, with FM broadcasting located just above channel 6 on the VHF spectrum. The Birth of ABC: 1941-55 The FCC, created by the Communications Act of 1934, was meant to regulate broadcasting largely through its power to license stations. Drawing on Section 303 of the act, which specified that the FCC exercise its authority as "public convenience, interest, or necessity requires," The commission decided to dismantle the \TRCA\t-\TNBC\t monopoly. In 1941 the FCC issued its Report on Chain Broadcasting, which in effect ordered \TNBC\t to sell one of the two networks it operated. The report noted that \TRCA\t exercised a "practical monopoly of network broadcasting" since 25% of all radio stations were affiliated with \TNBC\t. A Supreme Court decision of 1943 confirmed the FCC's right to force \TNBC\t to divest itself of one of its networks. That year, \TNBC\t sold the Blue network to Edward J. Noble, a businessman who had made his fortune as a candy manufacturer. Noble paid $8 million for the network, and Mark Woods became its first president. Renamed the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the new network, after experimenting with inexpensive public-affairs programming, discovered that it would have to emphasize commercial programming if it were to survive in the marketplace. An FCC moratorium on construction of new television stations between 1948 and 1953 further hampered ABC's ability to enter new markets. Most existing television stations were affiliates of the better established CBS and \TNBC\t. In 1951, Noble agreed to sell his interest in ABC to Leonard Goldenson, head of United Paramount Theatres, and the FCC approved the ABC-UPT merger in 1953. With a background in movie promotion, Goldenson led ABC into thoroughly commercial programming designed to appeal to a youthful audience. Two early ABC successes, "Disneyland" (1954) and "The Mickey Mouse Club" (1955), gave the network its first profit, $6 million. ABC was also the first to buy the products of Hollywood film studios, which had initially competed with television as their greatest rival for audiences. Soon television became the studios' biggest customer. McCarthyism and the Golden Age of Television: 1953-60 In 1947 the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began an investigation of the film industry, and Joseph \TMcCarthy\t soon began to inveigh against what he believed to be Communist infiltration of the government. Broadcasting, too, felt the impact of this right-wing shift of the national mood. Kenneth Bierly, John Keenan, and Theodore Kirkpatrick, former members of the FBI, published "Counterattack: The Newsletter of Facts on Communism," and in 1950 a Counterattack pamphlet, "Red Channels: The Report of Communists in Radio and Television," listed the supposedly Communist associations of 151 performing artists, including Corwin and Welles. Artists thus blacklisted found it nearly impossible to get work. CBS instituted a loyalty oath for its employees. When anti-Communist vigilantes applied pressure to advertisers--the source of network profits--it became imperative that the industry defend itself. The task fell to the man considered by many the industry's moral leader, Edward R. Murrow. In partnership with the news producer Fred Friendly, he began "See It Now," a television documentary series, in 1950. "See It Now" occasionally explored examples of McCarthy-inspired intimidation, such as the Air Force discharge of Lt. Milo Radulovich on suspicion of the political sympathies of a family member. On Mar. 9, 1954, Murrow narrated a report on McCarthy himself, exposing the senator's shoddy tactics. Murrow observed: "His mistake has been to confuse dissent with disloyalty." Offered free time by CBS, McCarthy replied on April 6, calling Murrow "the leader and the cleverest of the jackal pack which is always found at the throat of anyone who dares to expose Communist traitors." In this TV appearance McCarthy proved to be his own worst enemy, and it became apparent that Murrow had helped to break McCarthy's reign of fear. In 1954 the U.S. Senate voted to censure McCarthy, and CBS's "security" office was closed down. That the McCarthy denouement occurred on television rather than on radio indicated the new medium's importance. The number of television sets in use had risen from 6,000 in 1946 to 3 million by 1949 and four times that number by 1951. As viewers shifted from radio to television, radio's popularity and profit declined. Jack Benny's New York-area rating fell from 26.5% in 1948 to less than 5% in 1951. "Amos 'n' Andy" fell from 13% to 6%. In 1952, CBS's radio network showed a deficit for the first time since 1928. Ambitious network programmers with a taste for the experimental scheduled unorthodox series, especially between 1953 and 1955. \TNBC\t television president Sylvester Weaver devised the "spectacular," a notable example of which was "Peter Pan" (1955), starring Mary Martin, which attracted 60 million viewers. Weaver also developed the magazine-format programs "Today," which made its debut in 1952 with Dave Garroway as host, and "Tonight," which began in 1953 with Steve \TAllen\t as host. \TNBC\t had been known since 1948 as the home of Milton \TBerle\t on "The Texaco Star Theater." Weaver scheduled other comedy revues, including "Your Show of Shows," starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Both \TNBC\t and CBS presented such noteworthy dramatic anthologies, as "Kraft Television Theater," "Studio One," "Playhouse 90," and "The U. S. Steel Hour." Memorable television dramas of the era--many of them transmitted as live shows--included Paddy Chayefsky's "Marty," starring Rod Steiger, and Reginald Rose's "12 Angry Men' and "Thunder on Sycamore Street." The Radio-Television Workshop of the Ford Foundation added cultural variety to early television programming with "Omnibus." "Omnibus," (1952-59), explored almost every form of artistic endeavor. The golden age of television programming came to an ignominious end with the sudden popularity of the game show. "The $64,000 Question" and "Twenty-One" shot to the top of the ratings in the mid-1950s, indirectly contributing to the demise of "See It Now" and the climate of serious television. In 1959, however, the creator of "The $64,000 Question," Louis G. Cowan, by that time president of CBS television, was forced to resign from the network amid revelations of widespread fixing of game shows. Filmed and Videotaped Television: 1960-80 Cowan's successor at CBS, James Aubrey, doubled that company's profits between 1960 and 1965 by canceling costly, unpredictable live anthologies and scheduling filmed situation comedies, such as "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Petticoat Junction." CBS's situation comedy "I Love Lucy" had been a favorite since the early 1950s, and the fact that it was on film allowed the network to rerun episodes at low cost. Thus Aubrey's "habit" theory of programming replaced Weaver's showmanship. These developments were assisted by the introduction of videotape in 1956, which made it possible to record television signals on magnetic tape for later replaying. By 1980 recorded programming had virtually replaced "live" television, except for sporting events. In 1964 broadcasting began in color on prime-time television. The FCC initially had approved a CBS color system developed by Peter Goldmark, then swung in \TRCA\t's favor after Sarnoff had swamped the marketplace with black-and-white sets compatible with \TRCA\t color. (The CBS color system was not compatible with black-and-white sets, and its introduction would have required the public to purchase new sets.) The development of color television cost \TRCA\t $130 million, further intensifying the commercial atmosphere. On Jan. 12, 1971, CBS introduced a new situation comedy, "All in the Family," that explored prejudice and family strife through its portrayal of a likable bigot, Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O'Connor. The series, the most influential of the 1970s, marked a trend toward programming that, while continuing to fit traditional genres, reflected widespread social mores rather than avoiding them. Other socially conscious series of the era included "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Maude," but daytime television continued to rely heavily on soap operas and quiz shows. In 1975, ABC, traditionally regarded as a poor third in terms of popularity and prestige, suddenly rose to the top of the ratings, largely because of shrewd scheduling by the chief of its entertainment division, Fred Silverman. Silverman served his apprenticeship at CBS, but at ABC he scheduled the miniseries "Roots," seen on successive winter nights in 1977 by an estimated 80 million viewers, as well as such popular nostalgic series as "Happy Days." CBS regained its high ratings 1980 with the hugely successful series, "Dallas," and \TNBC\t entered two top-quality shows in the ratings race: "Hill Street Blues" (1980) and "St. Elsewhere" (1982). By 1985, however, as the networks competed for more advertising money and against the attractions of \Tcable TV\t and VIDEOCASSETTE \Lrecorder\ls, \TNBC\t replaced ABC at the top by featuring such entertainment as "The Cosby Show," a program about a middle class black family. The Growth of \TPBS\t Prompted by the three commercial networks' abandoning of sustaining or public-service programming, a Carnegie Commission report (1967) recommended the creation of a fourth, noncommercial, public television network built around the educational nonprofit stations already in operation throughout the United States (see \Ttelevision, noncommercial\t). Congress created the Public Broadcasting System that year. Unlike commercial networks, which are centered in New York City, \TPBS\t's key stations--all of which produce programs that are shown throughout the network--are spread across the country: WETA in Washington, D.C.; KQED in San Francisco; WGBH in Boston, and WNET in New York City. \TPBS\t today comprises more than 300 stations, more than any commercial network. Early \TPBS\t anti-Vietnam War programming incurred the wrath of the Nixon administration, but nonpolitical imports from British television proved extremely popular. In 1969, \TPBS\t broadcast the 26-part British Broadcasting Corporation adaptation of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga and followed with such other British series as "Upstairs, Downstairs," "The Pallisers," "Elizabeth R," and "Brideshead Revisited." Well-received \TPBS\t programming produced in the United States includes \TSesame Street\t, "Bill Moyers' Journal," "The MacNeil-Lehrer Report," "Nova," and occasional briefer series such as the 1990 "Civil War," a 5-part documentary that won some of the largest audiences ever achieved by public TV. \TPBS\t funds come from three major sources: congressional appropriations (which suffered substantial cuts in 1982), viewer donations, and private corporate underwriters. Social Concerns and Effects of Television Newton Minow, then chairman of the FCC, in 1961 described "the vast wasteland" of TV as game shows, violence . . . sadism, murder, western badmen, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons." Most television criticism echoes themes that Minow sounded. In 1972 report of the surgeon general and the National Institute of Mental Health, claimed that exposure to television violence encouraged aggression in children. The industry responded in 1975 by instituting "family viewing time" between 7 and 9 PM, when the programs shown were to be suitable for all ages. At the same time, however, commercial television's offerings designed specifically for small children dwindled and almost disappeared, replaced by still more standard cartoon fare, with its supermuscled heroes and its violence. TV's "docudramas" are also frequently a subject of controversy. They are often heavily promoted "specials," in which historical personages (Robert Kennedy, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Mussolini, Gen. George S. Patton, among many others) are presented in dramatic situations that may add interest to the narrative but may be essentially fictitious. On the other hand, the networks have attempted to confront such major social issues as drug abuse, \TAIDS\t, battered wives, rape, and homosexuality by presenting dramas that honestly elucidate the problems involved. BROADCASTING--PRESENT AND FUTURE The changes that have occurred in broadcasting over the past decade result in large part from the growth of communications technology, which has caused a burgeoning of new techniques for sending, receiving, and preserving TV signals (see \Tvideo\t). Cable TV and satellite broadcasting, along with the increasing use of videocassette recorders, have transformed the operations of the industry, as have deregulation and a financial climate that has encouraged mergers and takeovers of some of the oldest and most powerful broadcasting entities. In 1985-86 alone, Capital Cities Communication took over ABC; General Electric bought \TRCA\t; Time, Inc., bought Group W Cable; press mogul Rupert \TMurdoch\t bought the six stations owned by Metromedia; and WOR-TV (New York) was purchased by MCA, Inc. Many smaller radio stations and cable companies also changed ownership. Radio Broadcasting When television became the major electronic entertainment in the 1950s, the demise of radio was predicted by most of the experts. Instead, the medium flourishes as strongly now as in its heyday. According to the FCC, in the mid-1980s there were over 3,800 FM stations and 4,800 AM stations--an increase of more than 1,500 in one decade. There are no more national commercial networks, however. Even the stations controlled by what were once the major networks now have only a local reach. Each station narrowly targets its potential listeners, hoping to attract a specific type of audience. FM stations, for the most part, each specialize in a particular type of music: hard rock, soft rock, jazz, classical, nostalgia pop, and so forth. AM carries more talk shows, news, and information programming. The advent of satellite broadcasting has produced a new type of network, however. Radio producers now sell shows, via satellite transmission, to any station with the equipment to receive them. Many of these network shows are among the most popular on radio and feature such well-known personalities as late-night conversationalist Larry King, news commentator Paul Harvey, and sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Radio's most unexpected success story is the rise in popularity of the two public radio networks, National Public Radio and American Public Radio. Both supply programming to public radio stations across the country. NPR specializes in news and information shows, and its two lengthy news program, "Morning Edition" and All Things Considered," attract an audience that grows larger every year. APR produces primarily cultural and music programming. Its most notable success was the two-hour combination of nostalgia, old-time music, and parody, "The Prairie Home Companion," with its now famous creator, Garrison Keillor. The Changing Structure of the Television Industry From the early days of TV until the coming of cable and satellite broadcasting, the structure of the industry mirrored that of its predecessor, radio. There were the three big national networks, ABC, CBS, and \TNBC\t, with headquarters in New York City, and affiliated stations across the country who were fed programming by their networks. Smaller networks existed, but they were shut out of the nationally broadcast programs that the big networks either produced themselves or bought from a small group of independent producers. Advertising rates were based on the size of the national audience for each show, as estimated by a rating system devised by the A. C. Nielsen C. Long-running shows would eventually go into syndication--that is, they were sold as a package to both network and independent stations, so that a rerun episode of "Leave It to Beaver" or "I Love Lucy" was shown somewhere in the United States almost around the clock. The three networks still exercise power in the world of television, but their influence is challenged by a growing system of smaller networks. By 1990, Murdoch's Fox group--7 stations plus 126 independent affiliates--presented a serious challenge to the old network hegemony. Fox could now reach over 90 percent of American television viewers, with offbeat programming designed to attract the younger audiences that had begun to desert the more staid Big three network presentations. Programming now originates from the smaller network groups, as well as from the traditional sources, independent producers and the three networks. Most of Fox's prime-time programming--including the popular cartoon family "The Simpsons" and the hit comedy "Married...with Children"--was created in Fox's own studios. Producers eventually sell their successful material--game shows and cartoons as well as "sitcoms" and specials--on a syndicated basis to any station willing to buy. The rating system is fundamental to the operation of television because its results determine audience size and, therefore, the fees stations can charge advertisers. Nielson long monopolized the system, using 1,700 households as his sample audience, with "Audimeters" attached to their TV sets as well as diaries listing who watched what. As television channels grew in number, as the number of television sets per household multiplied, and as specialized programming such as the Music Television Cable channel (MTV) attracted audiences that were outside Nielsen's sample, his statistics began to be questioned. New systems, such as the "people meter," claim to measure TV watching more accurately. But, as advertising rates escalate, advertising agencies and advertisers have grown suspicious of the accuracy of any ratings systems as the basis for measuring audience size. Cable and Satellite Transmission In 1990 some 50 million American TV households were wired for \Tcable TV\t and subscribed to one of the 8,700 cable systems that span the country. In 1975, \TRCA\t orbited the first \TCommunication\t \Tsatellite\t designed for the relaying of TV signals, allowing producers and sellers of TV programs to market their products to any cable company with a satellite receiving dish. Today, 65 satellite transmitted cable networks offer an enormous range of program types, from all-sports systems to religious programs (see \Treligious broadcasting\t) to programs designed for special audiences and various language groups. Most cable networks are supported primarily by advertisers; but the "pay" networks earn their revenues from those home viewers who are willing to pay additional fees to their cable system for the privilege of watching special sports events, first-run movies, or programs produced by the pay networks themselves. Both types of networks also receive fees for each subscriber from the cable systems. Because of the initial heavy expense of wiring a community with cable--an expense the cable company itself undertakes--most cable systems operate under exclusive franchises made with each municipality. Congress's Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 allowed cable companies for the first time to raise their fees after two years of a franchise agreement, whether or not a municipal council agreed. Beginning in 1987, cable systems were almost completely rate-deregulated, resulting in substantial rate increases throughout the cable kingdom. Local city councils no longer have any power over the company to which they have granted their franchise, and in effect, the cable company acts as an unregulated monopoly within the areas where it broadcasts. In addition, the largest cable-system operators own all of, or substantial interests in, most of the smaller cable systems. Two of the largest cable corporations control almost one-third of all subscribers. The "must carry" rule that required cable systems to carry all local broadcast channels within a certain radius of their transmitter was struck down in 1985, although the ramifications of that case are still being argued. If cable operators have their way, local stations might vanish from cable offerings, or pay heavily for being carried on cable. One possible solution is the use of an "A/B" switch, which allows subscribers to switch between cable and broadcast signals. The switch is available now on some new television sets, but it would have to be installed on older sets. To avoid paying the monthly subscription fee (or, to gain signal reception in remote areas where cable had not penetrated), many people chose to buy backyard dish antennas, smaller versions of the "earth stations" used by cable operators to capture satellite signals. The home dishes are relatively inexpensive, and a good dish can pull in all the cable channels, plus a good deal of TV fare not available to pay-TV subscribers. Television programmers considered the use of backyard satellites a theft of their product. In 1986 several satellite programmers began to scramble their signals so that only cable earth stations could receive them. Others needed decoders, which were expensive and often unavailable. Many home-dish owners have joined in suits against the channels that have scrambled their programs, and Congress has been petitioned to forbid the practice. On the other hand, some programmers see the backyard dishes as a positive omen, a sign of the time when every house will own a small receiving dish and, for a fee, receive programs directly off a satellite. Direct Broadcast Satellite systems (DBS) have the advantage--to the programmer--of cutting out the need for cable. All the fees involved would go directly to the broadcaster, increasing profits by at least 50%. DBS has been tried in the United states, but at a time when the most appropriate technology did not exist. Japan will soon have a four-channel DBS service, however, and media tycoon Rupert \TMurdoch\t offers DBS throughout Europe, via two French communications satellites. Broadcasting Deregulation The FCC was created in 1934 not only to assign frequencies to radio, and later, television stations, but to carry out the decision of Congress that--in return for giving broadcasters a license to profit from the use of the radio spectrum ("the public domain")--stations were required to provide some programs that served the public. In essence, they were to act as trustees of the public interest, and every three years television stations appeared before the FCC to receive their license renewals, with logbooks of their daily programming to prove that they were carrying out their trusteeship. The number of stations any one firm or individual could own was limited to 5 on VHF (the stations with the strongest signals, channels 2 through 13), along with 7 AM and 7 FM radio stations. Within the past decade, however, the FCC has weakened or eliminated rules that cut into stations' profitability. Broadcasters are no longer required to devote a small portion of their broadcasting day to public affairs and children's shows. In addition, the number of commercials a station may show per hour has been raised. A television station may now keep its license for five years (seven for a radio station) before it need apply for renewal, and it is no longer required to keep a logbook to prove that it has served the public in the ways outlined by Congress. One person or firm may now own up to 12 FM stations, 12 AM stations, and 12 TV stations. In 1987 the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine, a rule that required radio and television stations to offer opposing views on issues of public interest. The FCC agreed with broadcasters, who claimed that, rather than adding to public knowledge, the doctrine discouraged issue-oriented programming. Partisans of the doctrine in Congress, however, hope to restore it through legislation. Congressional debate will inquire into how the public interest can best be served, and whether--as the FCC holds--the large number of stations now competing for audiences offer a "free market" in ideas. Internationalization via Satellite Until recently, television in Europe was a government monopoly, and although there were a few spectacularly successful stations--notably Britain's two \TBBC\t channels--by and large, European TV was a fairly dull affair, enlivened now and then by made-for-TV movies by such directors as Federico \TFellini\t and Ingmar \TBergman\t or by American imports. Advertising in most countries was either banned or strictly limited. Funds for maintaining the stations came from licensing fees charged to television-set owners. Direct satellite broadcasting and the coming of cable to Europe have both caused immense changes in European television. Rupert Murdoch's Sky Channel broadcasts 18 hours a day by satellite to some 5 million European homes. Murdoch joined forces with media baron Robert Maxwell to distribute Sky Channel in Britain via Murdoch-owned cable. British Satellite Broadcasting, a consortium of British, French, and Australian firms, plans to launch its own satellite. The French government has already launched one, and plans to build another. In addition to a concentrated home cabling program, West Germany will loft its satellite in the 1990s. Eutelstat, a satellite operator that is owned by 26 European telephone organizations, will launch 4 new satellites in the coming years. The European Community has agreed to open all its borders to television broadcasts from any of its member nations, and it hopes that a majority of programs shown on EC channels will originate within EC countries. Moral standards have been specified, and the proportion of advertising to be carried has also been agreed upon. Home dishes for receiving DBS are relatively rare in Europe, but as satellite programming improves and as the dishes themselves become less expensive, they will undoubtedly appear on rooftops throughout the EC. In Japan a state-owned TV network began direct satellite broadcasting in 1987, and within a year half a million home dishes had been bought for $750 each. Laurence Bergreen Bibliography: Barnouw, E., A History of Broadcasting in the U.S., 3 vols. (1966-70), and Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television (1975); Bergreen, Laurence, Look Now, Pay Later: The Rise of Network Broadcasting (1980); Boyer, Peter J., Who Killed CBS? 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H., American TV Genres (1985); Newcomb, H., and Alley, R., The Producer's Medium: Conversations with Creators of American TV (1983); A Public Trust: The Report of the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting (1979); Sarnoff, David, Looking Ahead: The Papers of David Sarnoff (1968); Terrace, V., Encyclopedia of Television, vol. 3 (1986); Williams, M., TV: The Casual Art (1982).