Former FCC Chairman Charles Ferris, who went by “Charlie,” died on February 16, according to the Mintz law firm. He was 90 years old.
Ferris is remembered for starting the deregulation of the telecom, broadcast, cable and satellite television industries during his FCC years. He said at the time that the public interest was often better served by a competitive marketplace rather than government regulators trying to be a referee, reports The Washington Post.
His tenure “transformed how the FCC does business,” according to broadcast and media scholar Reed Smith, with deregulation only escalating during the Reagan administration. Ferris “changed the FCC’s status from being a behind-the-times and sluggish agency to being one that was activist and innovative,” Smith wrote in a 2014 article for the Journal of Radio & Audio Media.
President Jimmy Carter nominated Ferris to the FCC post and the Senate confirmed him in 1977. He held the post until 1981.
At the FCC, he found himself in charge of an agency that was widely seen as sluggish and beholden to special interests, according to the Journal of Radio & Audio Media. He took a firm hand in reshaping the organization. He hired economists to an agency that had long been staffed primarily by lawyers, and argued that unless regulations were “improving the market,” they “were nothing but a nuisance.”
Under his direction, the Commission removed rate regulations on telephone equipment and paved the way for consolidation between the telephone and computer industries, notably by allowing AT&T to enter the computer field through a subsidiary.
The agency was also credited with helping encourage a cable television boom by eliminating key restrictions on programming and satellite use; eliminating paperwork requirements for local radio broadcasters; simplifying the licensing procedure for new radio stations; and helping women and minorities qualify for broadcast station ownership, noted The Washington Post.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said Chairman Ferris’ career in public service “is an inspiration and his leadership of the Commission during the Carter administration laid the groundwork for so many of the technological advances of the past 40 years. It is also fitting that we remember Chairman Ferris in February, Black History Month. Chairman Ferris will be missed, but the positive impact he has had on the country and so many will not be forgotten.”
Ferris also spent nearly 14 years on Capitol Hill. He also briefly served as general counsel to House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neil Jr. He’s credited with helping to write the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to The New York Times.
After leaving the FCC, Ferris joined the Boston-based law firm of what is now Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo. He became the head of Mintz’s Washington office and helped launch its communications practice, remaining with the firm until he retired in 2013, according to the law firm.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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