RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

matter, and llcense renevval became almost рго forma . Starting In 1960, the FCC insisted upon a more specific statement of community service : broadcasters woulđ have to indicate how they 'sized up' the community in terms of its problems and needs , and what sorts of programming they had done to address those problems and neeđs . That may have served to get broadcasters to thinK a bit more about just what 'serving the community' meant , but it didn't change the fact that the FCC still permltted widespread duplication of service and almost never punished a station for faillng to serve its community . And with the advent of 'deregulation' in the late 19705, even less was reguired by way of demonstration of a station's community service . Nor was the community itself encouraged to participate in the licensing process , either at the time of initial licensing of for relicensing . Stations had to announce that license renewal time was approaching and that the public was welcome to see the publid files , but there was no reguirement that stations solicit public comments on their perf ormance . Furthermore , the FCC held licensing and rellcensing hearings in Washington , D.C. , and not on location . Australia anđ Canada , both of them with many local stations , đeveloped independent regulatory agencies in 1948 and in 1958, respectiveiy , but those agencies functioned much as did the FCC ; little demanded of broađcasters by way of community service, little encouragement of community participation In the licenslng process . However , in 1968 Canada replaced its rather ineffectual Boarđ of Broadcast Governors with a somewhat tougher адепсу - the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (since renamed Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission ) . The CRTC picKed up the old BBG reguirements for Canadian content m both radio and television and began to apply them with greater rigor . The Commission also held hearings m the communities themselves , so that Interested citizens at least could have a voice m the licensing and relicensing processes . The old Australian Broadcasting Control Board was replaced in 1977 bv the Australlan Broadcastmg Tribunal , which also tightened the old reguirements on Australian content and began to holđ heanngs in the commumties . There were some guite profound changes m the nature of Australian broadcasting startmg in the mid- to late-19705, some of them possibiy due to the greater mterest of the ABT m getting stations to taKe their commumty responsibilities eerlously. In the case of Canada, however , little of the CRTC's action appeared to result in revolutionary changes where local broadcastmg was concerned, perhaps because most of the citizenry long since had ceased thmKing of the possibility

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