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- History of Broadcasting
- History of Broadcasting: Television, 1955-1965
- Quiz Shows
- quiz shows were popular programming
- 1956: 15 quiz shows in prime time
- genres
- high culture, factual, academic
- specialized knowledge/puzzles
- comedic/human interest
- low-production costs
- widespread appeal
- big prizes
- Quiz Show Scandals
- information started emerging in 1958
- suspense maintained
- prearranged outcomes
- Twenty-One
- sponsored by Geritol
- December 5, 1956
- Charles van Doren, academic blue-blood
- Herb Stempel, Forest Hills, Queens
- Stempel was told to intentionally miss questions
- subject of Quiz Show (1994) film
- Quiz Show Outrage
- October 1958, New York grand jury hearing
- public intellectuals and media reformers
- watched hopes for new medium fade
- blamed Hollywood and the sponsors
- TV failed to live up to promise that radio had itself not fulfilled
- emergence of ITV in Great Britain
- ITV was first private broadcaster in Britain
- separated sponsors from content
- no input from advertisers
- Effects of Quiz Show Scandals
- ended 30 years of sponsors domination
- networks: “We didn’t cheat…the sponsors did. Shame on them!”
- Pat Weaver
- head of NBC
- introduced “magazine” concept
- multiple sponsors
- spot advertising
- allowed for longer, more expensive programs
- Today show
- Peter Pan live spectacular
- Classic Network System
- 1960–1980
- networks centralized control
- vertical integration
- production: owned or had interest in TV programs
- distribution: affiliate stations took more and more of network feeds
- exhibition: advertising bonanza for network owned-and-operated stations
- Effects of Network System
- independent productions declined
- only three buyers
- sold programs at a loss
- scheduling strategies
- counter programmed against other networks
- choices narrowed
- network formula were streamlined
- Color TV emerges… slowly
- FCC adopted standard in 1956
- NBC/RCA three-color system
- CBS and ABC trailed
- prime time would not be in color until the mid–1960s
- many viewers still owned black-and-white TV until 1970s
- Regulation: 1950s FCC, “Whorehouse Era”
- easy going relationship between government and broadcast industry
- Commissioners regularly overturned FCC judgements to favor industry
- presided by John Doerfer
- received gifts from industry
- travel paid by TV companies
- cozy relationship with industry officials
- forced to resign, March 1960
- Regulation: 1960s FCC, “Redeeming the Wasteland”
- new commission appointed by John Kennedy
- Newton Minow, chairman
- 1961 speech to NAB
- referred to TV as a “vast wasteland”
- advocated for increasing news and documentary programming
- noted TV’s propensity for mediocrity and violence
- mandated all channel (VHF and UHF) receivers to expand available broadcast television channels
- Educational TV
- new UHF stations emerged
- importing British television programs for broadcast
- had a hit with Age of Kings (1961) mini-series
- received grants to expand
- National Education Television (NET)
- Ford Foundation endowment
- moved to New York City
- gained 95 stations by 1965
- Carnegie Commission on Educational TV
- released a report in 1965
- the US must expand and finance educational TV system
- Johnson-era Government Financing
- founded in 1965
- National Endowment for the Arts
- National Endowment for the Humanities
- Cable TV
- community access television (CATV) continued during 1950s and 1960s
- extended reach of broadcast television stations
- in 1960s began offering alternatives to broadcast stations
- broadcasters began seeing a cable television as a threat
- Measuring Audience
- broadcast networks aimed for the “lowest common denominator"
- Congress began investigating TV ratings business
- Nielsen: dominated national ratings
- Arbitron: dominated local ratings
- Congress alleged that companies were most interested in pleasing their clients
- did not accurately measure the actual tastes of TV viewers
- instituted self-regulatory measures
- Broadcast Rating Council
- Committee on Nationwide Television Audience Measurement
- Biased Audience Measurements
- television industry presumed the audience was primarily…
- white
- middle-class
- aged 12–49
- mostly women
- New Audience Measurements
- Frank Stanton, CBS
- introduced new measurement devices
- dial—Program Analyzer
- diary—recording TV viewing
- effects on TV programming
- advent of “sweeps” weeks
- segment audience into demographic categories
This outline is based on material from Michele Hilmes, Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States. 4th ed. Boston: Cengage, 2014.