The Day

Ex-FCC chief, public TV advocate Minow sought quality for airwaves

- By TAMMY WEBBER

Chicago — Newton N. Minow, who as Federal Communicat­ions Commission chief in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a “vast wasteland,” died Saturday. He was 97.

Minow, who received a Presidenti­al Medal of Freedom in 2016, died Saturday at home, surrounded by loved ones, said his daughter, Nell Minow.

“He wanted to be at home,” she told The Associated Press. “He had a good life.”

Though Minow remained in the FCC post just two years, he left a permanent stamp on the broadcasti­ng industry through government steps to foster satellite communicat­ions, the passage of a law mandating UHF reception on TV sets and his outspoken advocacy for quality in television.

“My faith is in the belief that this country needs and can support many voices of television — and that the more voices we hear, the better, the richer, the freer we shall be,” Minow once said. “After all, the airways belong to the people.”

Minow was appointed as FCC chief by President John F. Kennedy in early 1961. He had initially come to know the Kennedys in the 1950s as an aide to Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson, the Democrats’ presidenti­al nominee in 1952 and 1956.

Minow laid down his famous challenge to TV executives on May 9, 1961, in a speech to the National Associatio­n of Broadcaste­rs, urging them to sit down and watch their station for a full day, “without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you.”

“I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland,” he told them. “You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievab­le families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, Western bad men, Western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercial­s — many screaming, cajoling and offending.”

As he spoke, the three networks were just about all most viewers had to choose from. Pay television was barely in the planning stage, PBS and “Sesame Street” were several years away, and HBO and niche channels such as Animal Planet were far in the future.

The speech caused a sensation. “Vast wasteland” became a catch phrase. Jimmy Durante opened an NBC special by saying, “Da next hour will be dedicated to upliftin’ da quality of television. ... At least, Newt, we’re tryin’.”

Minow became the first government official to get a George Foster Peabody award for excellence in broadcasti­ng. The New York Times critic Jack Gould (himself a Peabody winner) wrote, “At long last there is a man in Washington who proposes to champion the interests of the public in TV matters and is not timid about ruffling the industry’s most august feathers. Tonight some broadcaste­rs were trying to find dark explanatio­ns for Mr. Minow’s attitude. In this matter the viewer possibly can be a little helpful; Mr. Minow has been watching television.”

CBS President Frank Stanton strongly disagreed, calling Minow’s comments a “sensationa­lized and oversimpli­fied approach” that could lead to ill-advised reforms “on the ground that any change is a change for the better.”

For the criticism over his speech, Minow said he didn’t support censorship, preferring exhortatio­n and measures to broaden public choices. But he also said a broadcasti­ng license was “an enormous gift” from the government that brought with it a responsibi­lity to the public.

His daughter, Nell Minow, told The Associated Press in 2011 that her father loved television and wished he would have been remembered for championin­g the public interest in television programmin­g, rather than just a few words in his much broader speech.

“His No. 1 goal was to give people choice,” she said.

Among the new laws during his tenure were the All-Channel Receiver Act of 1962, that required that TV sets pick up UHF as well as VHF broadcasts, which opened up TV channels numbered above 13 for widespread viewing. Congress also passed a bill that provided funds for educationa­l television, and measures to foster communicat­ions satellites.

In a September 2006 interview on National Public Radio, Minow recalled telling Kennedy that such satellites were “more important than sending a man into space. ... Communicat­ions satellites will send ideas into space, and ideas live longer than people.”

 ?? AP FILE PHOTO ?? Newton Minow, chairman of the Federal Communicat­ions Commission, appears before the House Antitrust Subcommitt­ee that is probing newspaper competitio­n on March 13, 1963, in Washington. Minow, who as Federal Communicat­ions Commission chief in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a “vast wasteland,” died Saturday. He was 97.
AP FILE PHOTO Newton Minow, chairman of the Federal Communicat­ions Commission, appears before the House Antitrust Subcommitt­ee that is probing newspaper competitio­n on March 13, 1963, in Washington. Minow, who as Federal Communicat­ions Commission chief in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a “vast wasteland,” died Saturday. He was 97.

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