29
very often linked to and fueled by the civil rights struggle, challenged broadcasters to air content
pertinent to minority audiences and to hire minorities at the stations, and pressed the FCC to
enforce the public interest standard of the Communications Act.
56
The FCC accommodated some
of these demands under the conceptual rubric of diversity. The negligible presence of minority
and ethnic groups in broadcasting – whether in ownership, programming, or station employment
– was a major element behind the Commission’s behavioral regulations such as the requirement
for licensees to “ascertain” the communities to which they broadcast and to air programming
relevant to these ascertained local community concerns.
57
The FCC’s promulgation of equal
opportunity regulations in station employment was another example of the influence of the civil
rights movement on the Commission’s agenda.
58
By the 1970s this movement began to affect
policy on ownership, as well, largely via pressure from the courts.
III.
While the diversification of ownership was one factor of several in the mix of elements
considered by the FCC in comparative hearings for broadcast license applications before 1973,
minority ownership was not. The FCC, arguing that the Communications Act was “colorblind,”
would take an applicant’s race into account only to the extent that the applicant could show that
56
See Marilyn Fife, FCC Policy on Minority Ownership in Broadcasting: A Political Systems Analysis of
Regulatory Policymaking, Doctoral Dissertation, Stanford University, 1984.
57
Chapman Radio and Television Co., 24 FCC 2d 282 (1970); Primer on Ascertainment of Community
Problems by Broadcast Applicants, 27 FCC 2d 650 (1971).
58
FCC, Petition for Rulemaking to Require Broadcast Licensees to Show Nondiscrimination in their
Employment Practices, 13 FCC 2d 766 (1968); Nondiscrimination in the Employment Policies and Practices
of Broadcast Licensees, 54 FCC 2d 354 (1975). The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights published a highly
critical assessment of the television industry’s treatment of minorities and women in 1977. Examining the
portrayal of women and minorities on television and their employment in the industry, the study found
that they were underrepresented on the work forces of television stations and were almost totally
excluded from decision-making positions in the industry. Window Dressing on the Set: Women and
Minorities in Television, (Washington, D.C., The Commission on Civil Rights, 1977). This pressure led the
FCC to tighten its equal employment guidelines.
Convention