More on the FD

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:01:38 -0500, "Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net> said:

> Is it not a fact that when the doctrine was in effect that a broadcaster 
> could face sanctions if they did not comply with it?

I'm not aware of any situation in which that took place (which is not
to say that it didn't happen; any broadcaster may face sanctions if
they fail to comply with the law).  But we are talking about an era in
which it was possible for a new applicant to file against the renewal
of an existing station and get a comparative hearing.  (And licenses
only lasted for three years at a time, so renewals were quite frequent
and could be held up for many years in hearings -- that's ultimately
how WNAC-TV lost its license.  There are also reports of FCC staffers
demanding, /ultra vires/, programming changes from existing licensees
as a condition of license renewal; I don't know how that ultimately
turned out.)

-GAWollman