This whole Imus/Shock Radio thing.

[Richard Chonak]

Donna Halper wrote:

>After years of assorted people complaining, the FCC 
> finally acted-- in 1941 (!) they took the radio priest off the air.

I wouldn't be too sure about that date.   The materials I'm finding on 
the net about the Canadian-born priest vary in details; one version, 
citing Coughlin's magazine, says he was already off the air in 1939, 
after actions by the FCC and the NAB.   The former required permits for 
frequent broadcasters (!), and the latter imposed broadcast code changes 
regarding controversial material.   Later, the Post Office revoked his 
second-class mailing permit, which stopped his magazine distribution.

Coughlin's anti-semitic conspiracy-mongering was clearly repugnant, but 
I can't look on his silencing as a bright moment in American history.

--RC