This paper contends that the failure of the St. Louis "Globe-Democrat" raises questions not only about whether the United States Justice Department's Antitrust Division should have worked harder to keep the St. Louis joint operating agreement (JOA) alive, but also about the efficacy of the Newspaper Preservation Act in preserving…

To examine the success of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 1982 decision not to select a standard transmission system for AM stereophonic broadcasting (instead leaving it to the marketplace), this paper documents and analyzes the first 7 years of the AM stereo marketplace. Following an explanatory introduction, the paper's first…

A study was conducted to assess the indications in print of news borrowing (reporting news distributed by second hand or government controlled sources) in the 1970s, and to examine the relationship between borrowed news and the restrictions and reductions in newspapers' overseas news staff. The "New York Times" and the "Chicago…

From 1969 to 1993 the definition of program length commercials has not been consistent. The FCC's first involvement with program length commercials was in 1969 when "Hot Wheels," a cartoon based on Mattel Corporation's Hot Wheels cars, was alleged to be nothing more than a 30 minute commercial. The FCC made no formal ruling but did…

This paper reports on a study designed to analyze the impact that advertising by the federal government might have on the nation.s media, specifically the nation's magazines. The U.S. government was the tenth leading national advertiser in the United States in 1973 and spent an estimated $99 million, $80 million of which represented military…

In 1970, the Legislative Reorganization Act authorized the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to open their committee meetings to both radio and television. Three factors increased interest in implementing media coverage of such meetings: feasibility of televised coverage, public cynicism and hostility generated by misinformation and…

The emergence of frequency modulation or FM radio signals, which arose from the desire to free broadcasting of static noise common to amplitude modulation or AM, has produced the controversial development of stereo broadcasting. The resulting enhancement of sound quality helped FM pass AM in audience shares in less than two decades. The basic…

Historically, radio broadcasting has been affected by innovational, social, technological, and economic change. For instance, FM (frequency modulation) radio emerged out of a desire to free broadcasting of static noise common to AM (amplitude modulation) signals. The eventual response by AM was to improve the technology of the signal. The inquiry…

Standard legal methods, statutory developments, case law, and attorney generals' opinions were analyzed in a study of the nine states that received the lowest rankings in J. B. Adams's 1974 investigation of open meeting laws across the United States. In addition, statutory and judicial open meeting activity in the remaining 41 states was surveyed…

Although advertisers and marketers can expect stronger controls in all West European countries, especially by governments, they must be alert to country-by-country differences. Political moves to the left in any country will hasten controls. Consumerism is militant in some countries, practically dormat in others. Although self regulation is strong…

In the mid-1980s, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) reformed the National Radio Systems Committee (NRSC) as a liaison between receiver manufacturers and amplitude modulation (AM) broadcasters to promote unity in upgrading AM transmission and reception, and to aid AM in narrowing the sound quality gap with frequency modulation (FM). In…

An examination of the ways in which United States postal policies affected the development of the magazine industry before Congress passed the second-class mail category in 1863 reveals how a medium is shaped at least in part by the technology, policy, and politics of its delivery systems. In the nineteenth century, magazines depended on the mails…

This study examined one specific problem connected with the ownership and content of the Indian press: Is there any significant difference between independent newspapers and conglomerate-controlled newspapers in the quantities of developmental, governmental, and political news they present? The period of study was 1973, during which four daily…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the late 1980s appeared to pursue its own agenda of broadcast deregulation, notwithstanding congressional pressures. The apparent power shift is evident in a case study of the interactions between Congress and the FCC on the subject of children's television. In the early 1970s, the FCC tended to…

A study of the extent of the diplomatic and commercial assistance provided by the United States government to the Associated Press (AP) from 1912 to 1948 shows AP's manager, Kent Cooper, to be less a champion of the free press than an efficient captain of industry in expanding AP influence across the globe. Early in the twentieth century, British,…