Former FCC Chair Newton Minow died Saturday at the age of 97. Minow was appointed as FCC chief by President John F. Kennedy in early 1961. 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, and his outspoken advocacy for quality in television, noted The Associated Press.
In a 1961 speech to the National Association of Broadcasters convention, Minow urged television broadcasters to spend a day watching their station. “I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland,” he told them. “You will see a procession of game shows,” and formula comedies, westerns and cop shows, he said at his inaugural speech as Chair, according to Broadcasting & Cable.
“Vast wasteland” became a catchphrase for decades. Driven in part by that belief that TV could be more, Minow worked to create public broadcasting and promoted televised presidential debates. He chaired the Public Broadcasting Service and was instrumental in early testing of the pay-TV business.
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 viewing. Congress also passed a bill that provided funds for educational television, and measures to foster communications satellites.
Current FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel recalled Minow as she previewed the creation of the agency’s new Space Bureau this year, Inside Towers reported. He told Kennedy that communications satellites were “more important than sending a man into space. … Communications satellites will send ideas into space, and ideas live longer than people.” On July 10, 1962, Minow was one of the officials making statements on the first live trans-Atlantic television program, a demonstration of AT&T’s Telstar satellite, noted TVNewsCheck.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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