1963 FCC Film
with FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow
Posted By: Robert Nickels (W9RAN)
Posted on 04/116/2022
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A rare FCC film showing vintage RADIO and TELECOMMUNICATIONS topics including Ham radio, CB, shortwave, and emergency commmunications involving a Coast Guard rescue of a small boat. Narrated by Chairman Newton N. Minow who is remembered for a few words from a speech he gave to the National Association of Broadcasters in 1961, when he referred to television as "a vast wasteland". How true those words turned out to be, and this was five decades before reality television shows! Here's the quote, in context: When television is good, nothing -- not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers -- nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland. 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. |
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